Zero Punctuation: MindJack
- Thread starter Yahtzee Croshaw
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Just be thankful that the license to GITS didn't fall into the developers hands when they made this. Then again I've never played any GITS game(s?).
I just have to mention that possessing an enemy and starting a fight/jumping off a cliff was my favorite way to kill in Second Sight.
I just have to mention that possessing an enemy and starting a fight/jumping off a cliff was my favorite way to kill in Second Sight.
I am curious (and don't mind if someone knows and wants to tell me) if Yahtzees' theory of Jim being controlled by a puppet master entity is true. That sounds like a unique idea. Prop points to the devs IF that is the case. Also being able to jack into someone elses game sounds neat. Two (or just one) prop points for THAT idea!
No more prop points past this line. :\
I remember seeing a trailer for this game. I raised a brow and thought, "this looks awful." I promptly forgot about it until this review.
No more prop points past this line. :\
I remember seeing a trailer for this game. I raised a brow and thought, "this looks awful." I promptly forgot about it until this review.
Yes, usually it's done one actor at a time in a sound-proof booth. One of the few times I remember where they had several actors recording at once was the Batman animated series. At best an actor might have video playing to sync something up, but that's it. A lot of bad voice-acting is due to bad voice directors and suchAndroid2137 said:
Anyway, good review, though I find Yahtzee's reviews for the moment haven't been as hilarious.
It's not that I think that combining single and multi-player is inheriently unworkable but having other people burst into your single player game seems like the worst way to go about it. Did no one pick that it would be silly in the design phase?
I would like to play "devil's advocate" for a minute here, and raise a few good points about Mindjack (hear me out on this). I also need to clarify that I have never played the game, I'm going solely on the demo videos and brief summaries.
1) At least it's not brown. It's true, gray is not brown. It's still monotonous and boring though.
2) It has a unique premise. I agree that some ideas are inherently shit, but sometimes as an artist you have to do something original simply to be original... just don't expect people to pay money for originality alone.
3) The concept is beautifully sci-fi. Its like that awful movie "Gamer", a game about characters being controlled by an unseen force. And it's literally true: the player, the one with the controller, yes you! (Did I just spoil the big reveal? YOU are the "villain" the in-game characters have been fighting against all along?) Clever doesn't make it good though. Maybe the AI was intentionally bad to give the villainous "player" a sense of superiority over the "mindless drones" you are controlling. As Yahtzee said in a previous review [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation/33-No-More-Heroes],
1) At least it's not brown. It's true, gray is not brown. It's still monotonous and boring though.
2) It has a unique premise. I agree that some ideas are inherently shit, but sometimes as an artist you have to do something original simply to be original... just don't expect people to pay money for originality alone.
3) The concept is beautifully sci-fi. Its like that awful movie "Gamer", a game about characters being controlled by an unseen force. And it's literally true: the player, the one with the controller, yes you! (Did I just spoil the big reveal? YOU are the "villain" the in-game characters have been fighting against all along?) Clever doesn't make it good though. Maybe the AI was intentionally bad to give the villainous "player" a sense of superiority over the "mindless drones" you are controlling. As Yahtzee said in a previous review [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation/33-No-More-Heroes],
That being said: screw Mindjack. It is bad. Bad AI in a game that needed realistic character behavior, bad visuals in a game that needed to look lifelike but just a little off to make the player wonder wtf was going on, bad controls which undermine both the sci-fi novelty of all-powerful control and any entertainment value the shooting aspects might have had, crazy plot that could only have worked in a sci-fi novel (though that wouldn't have worked either because you're no longer literally controlling the characters) and was presented poorly anyway so what might have been clever and introspective no longer matters, etc., etc., we all watched the review...Yahtzee said:
So, just to be clear... Are you saying that you like the game or not? I'm having a hard time telling 
Again and again.. SQUARE ENIX DID NOT MAKE MINDJACK. feelplus did. Square Enix PUBLISHED it.Brandon Cecil said:
Final Fantasy, however, Square Enix MADE.
I find it hilarious that everyone who ADORES games like Mass Effect, Fallout, Grand Theft Auto and Red Dead Redemption make jokes about Final Fantasy and other JRPGs for being all bright and rainbows, with characters who a far too zany and over-the-top.. But when the same company has anything to do with a third/first-person shooter, it STILL isn't good enough for them.
Not directed at you here, Brandon, but seriously.. YOU PEOPLE KEEP COMPLAINING TO JRPG COMPANIES THAT THEIR JRPGS SUCK. THIS IS WHAT YOU GET FOR IT. Just.. Back off. Stick to the WRPGs you DO love and adore so fucking much and let JRPG gamers have THEIR games too. Final Fantasy is NOT a bad series. Just like Mass Effect is NOT a bad series. However, I will play a Final Fantasy game before ever touching Mass Effect. The dull, burly, blank-slate everyman that seems all too common in WRPGs is just as annoying as any JRPG stereotype..
