Gather round the flaming barrel of garbage children, and let me tell you a story about two young boys who went on a wonderful quest. Well, actually they were young men, and they quit GSC Gameworld just before Stalker was released. Then got funding and formed 4A Games (no relation). These two were the ones that apparently were responsible for all the wonderful atmosphere in Stalker, as the following two games in that series were devoid of it (though mods have corrected that). Unfortunately, with the release of Metro: LL, they have demonstrated that while they may have their own company, they are mostly fixated on atmosphere.
2033 was linear, short, mediocre economy (claims ammo is rare, but fails to make it rare), and the stealth at times was broken (walk through a crowd and you are invisible as long as you do not make eye contact). So just like M$ they promoted those to features, and included them with LL (2034). There are times when stealth does work, but between the lack of opportunity to use it, and the lack of need for it, you almost have to do a play-through with that as a goal. The addition of weapon customization is nice, but more of a gimmick given the brevity of the game. While it is an improvement is some regards, it is stagnant in many others (especially graphical), which makes it average at best.
Two things of special note is that if you load the Russian voices, be warned that the subtitles were not finished at the time of release (and will probably never be). So hearing Russian is very cool, but if you never know WTF they are saying, it is pretty pointless. Now it appears that they did prioritize them so all the major dialogue has subs, but much of the background chatter does not. The second is that if you wanted the Ranger mode, they classified it as DLC and want another $5 for it. Yep, screwing you for $60 US was not enough for such a short game with virtually no replay given that 90% is linear, but they call a difficulty setting DLC. They claim it makes the game harder by limiting ammo, but if you have played it once then you know what is around the corner, and the ammo is still falling out of your pockets. I guess the next thing will be Saving at checkpoints or bug fixes as DLC.
The good news is that this will probably be the last as better games are coming. The first is the MMO Survarium, by the members of GSC but without the dick (owner) that embezzled the profits and then did not even pay his taxes, which cost him is Ferrari's and his company. The second is Nuclear Union which admittedly looks a little underdeveloped right now, but if the game has a decent length and does not lock assets/code away like 2033/LL(2034) then the modding community will embrace it and fix that. So the genre is still alive and kicking, which is more than I can say for Defiance.
2033 was linear, short, mediocre economy (claims ammo is rare, but fails to make it rare), and the stealth at times was broken (walk through a crowd and you are invisible as long as you do not make eye contact). So just like M$ they promoted those to features, and included them with LL (2034). There are times when stealth does work, but between the lack of opportunity to use it, and the lack of need for it, you almost have to do a play-through with that as a goal. The addition of weapon customization is nice, but more of a gimmick given the brevity of the game. While it is an improvement is some regards, it is stagnant in many others (especially graphical), which makes it average at best.
Two things of special note is that if you load the Russian voices, be warned that the subtitles were not finished at the time of release (and will probably never be). So hearing Russian is very cool, but if you never know WTF they are saying, it is pretty pointless. Now it appears that they did prioritize them so all the major dialogue has subs, but much of the background chatter does not. The second is that if you wanted the Ranger mode, they classified it as DLC and want another $5 for it. Yep, screwing you for $60 US was not enough for such a short game with virtually no replay given that 90% is linear, but they call a difficulty setting DLC. They claim it makes the game harder by limiting ammo, but if you have played it once then you know what is around the corner, and the ammo is still falling out of your pockets. I guess the next thing will be Saving at checkpoints or bug fixes as DLC.
The good news is that this will probably be the last as better games are coming. The first is the MMO Survarium, by the members of GSC but without the dick (owner) that embezzled the profits and then did not even pay his taxes, which cost him is Ferrari's and his company. The second is Nuclear Union which admittedly looks a little underdeveloped right now, but if the game has a decent length and does not lock assets/code away like 2033/LL(2034) then the modding community will embrace it and fix that. So the genre is still alive and kicking, which is more than I can say for Defiance.