tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4625171860671748699.post4822630331244094943..comments2024-01-30T18:06:40.312-08:00Comments on Up late talking games & writing? You're...: Brutal Wrapup, PixelJunk Shooter, and a SMT SoundtrackBrad Gallawayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09452185302281177580noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4625171860671748699.post-84261999149150708182009-12-17T23:26:35.914-08:002009-12-17T23:26:35.914-08:00Hey Matt.
>>I can't really disagree tha...Hey Matt.<br /><br />>>I can't really disagree that it isn't the sum of its parts, but the overall experience for me was hardly dismal. It was pedestrian, but elevated somewhat by the writing and design, similar to Psychonauts. Oddly, the most disappointing thing to me was the story towards the end, which I felt was unnecessarily overdone.<br /><br />Well, the fact that I bothered to complete the game says a lot (to me, anyway) about how much slack I was giving to the experience. If it wasn't for the great concept and visual style, I doubt I would've stuck around. I kept waiting for things to start coming together, but they never did… that was pretty disappointing.<br /><br />Even more disappointing was an interview that I read from Schafer himself stating that Brutal Legend actually began as an RTS that their team enjoyed playing against each other. The thing about this statement that disappoints me is that the RTS stages are so non-fun and disjointed. At GC someone left a comment that was pretty telling--in it, they said that the best battle in the game was the Dry Ice Mine, and that was because each side had a stage and the field was basically evenly matched. In every other battle in the game, there is some kind of quirk that messes up the RTSing. Monsters appearing without a stage, some levels not even having a stage, etc.<br /><br />the statement is very observant and kind of disturbing in that it's basically correct. For game that began life as a RTS, it's bizarre that there is only one battle in the entire story mode that uses all the elements and lets it play out like it should. <br /><br />>>Brad, have you played Schafer's other work, the stuff he did before he worked on console games? I know you're mostly a console guy, but if you get the chance I highly recommend Day of the Tentacle, Full Throttle, and Grim Fandango. <br /><br />I played part of DotT at a friends house, and I actually did complete GF… one of the very few PC games I actually went out of my way to play. They were both great and I enjoyed them very much. It's too bad that Schafer hasn't been able to recapture that same quality in his last efforts. <br /><br />Oddly enough, I didn't even think that BL was especially humorous or that the writing was even very good… for a developer who has strengths in this area, I was more than a little disappointed at the writing overall.Brad Gallawayhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09452185302281177580noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4625171860671748699.post-88439210102583645862009-12-16T08:39:08.303-08:002009-12-16T08:39:08.303-08:00Maybe it's because I grew up on Tim Schafer...Maybe it's because I grew up on Tim Schafer's adventure games, but I still managed to have a reasonable amount of goodwill towards Brutal Legend in spite of its problems. I can't really disagree that it isn't the sum of its parts, but the overall experience for me was hardly dismal. It was pedestrian, but elevated somewhat by the writing and design, similar to Psychonauts. Oddly, the most disappointing thing to me was the story towards the end, which I felt was unnecessarily overdone.<br /><br />Brad, have you played Schafer's other work, the stuff he did before he worked on console games? I know you're mostly a console guy, but if you get the chance I highly recommend Day of the Tentacle, Full Throttle, and Grim Fandango. Schafer really is an adventure game designer, which is why his dabbling in other genres tends to dilute his strengths. I think if you played his older stuff you'd see how he really shines when his games are *nothing but* witty dialogue and puzzles.Matthew "Sajon" Weisehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08379770938858222511noreply@blogger.com