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I think, actually, I have written all that I have to write about E3 which remains relevant enough, or deep enough conceptually, to put into an article-as-such. Or which I feel like discussing. So I might as well clear the air, by dumping the rest of my thoughts here.
What do I have circled on this notepage? Let's see.
I really wanted Nanobreaker to be a step toward something excellent -- or at least something compelling and odd. Or for it to show that Igarashi knows what he's doing with 3D games. I don't think it accomplishes any of this, in the state in which I saw it. I mean. It's... sort of interesting in the sense that it's just so damned bloody. Or. I guess Igarashi insists that this isn't really blood, but oil or something. Whatever it is, it's red and it's goopy and it's everywhere. Everything that you kill seems to respawn from every drop of blood you spill, meaning more monsters to split into pieces, meaning more and more and more and more, until the entire level is painted with a slick crimson. Then an arrow appears and you can move on.
To be fair, the bit I played was some kind of a survival or time attack mode. Supposedly, the top ten scorers of E3 would make it into the credits of the full version. So who knows how well the game reflects the flow (hur hur) or overall feeling of the full version. What I played, though, basically feels like a vaguely more-polished version of Lament of Innocence, in an EXTREME sci-fi setting. It didn't do a lot for me. I wonder what this means, given how much the demo of LoI impressed me last year (especially in comparison to the full game). Maybe nothing. I guess I'm still kind of curious to see where Igarashi's going here, especially if he can work out some more interesting concepts to apply in his next attempt at Castlevania. I just don't see much progression. Maybe I expected too much experimentation.
I'm not sure what to say about Silent Hill 4: The Room. It's hard to play a game like this in a show setting. I had the same problem with Silent Hill 3 last year. (Hey, why are the games coming out so quickly now?) I can say that the normal game mechanics are as clumsy as ever. The exploration of Henry's room is kind of neat, in its way. One does begin to feel a bit of ownership over it, after poking around a bit in the first-person view and reading Henry's explanation for every knickknack in the apartment. As I have said elsewhere, though, one wonders about the bright, sunny world outside Henry's windows. People walk by, only a story or two below, or sail past on bikes. Cars roar by. Birds tweet. Grass is green. All is well. If Henry wants to escape, yet can't get his door open, why not just break the window, tie his bedsheets together, and lower himself to the ground? Because there would be no game, of course. I don't know. Something just feels... a little unnecessary, on the surface. Especially given the reference to Silent Hill 2, where Henry explains that Superintendent Sutherland's son and daughter-in-law disappeared in Silent Hill a few years back. I know it's meant to be cute, but -- hmm.
Resident Evil 4, however -- I have said a good deal about this before, in other contexts. I figure it bears saying again, though. It was probably the most impressive game at the show. Mikami and company seem to have cleaned up just about every obvious problem with the series, have found and built upon its strengths, and have taken it in a few new directions that the genre should have found years ago. The new over-the-shoulder perspective is perfect for the somewhat more action-oriented styling of Biohazard in comparison to other games in the genre. It also helps the immersiveness of the game, as you see everything that Leon sees. As you stalk through the woods, you are doing so as Leon's companion. When you tell Leon to look up, you look up. There is a great sense of control over pacing.
Then there is the intelligence of the enemies. These are not just zombies, that lumber or charge at you. They communicate with each other. They try to trap you; to use strategy against you. And before you come along, they're just doing their own thing. They have lives and tasks of their own, such as they are -- kind of like the beings in Siren. It is also worth noting that, rather than growl ineloquently, the enemies scream at you in unsubtitled Spanish. They're saying something. It's... a little unnerving. They're really angry with you, for some reason. That's a bit creepier than mindless brain-hunger.
And not everything in the game is against you. You can choose to rescue people and animals -- and presumably this will come back to you in a positive way, later. The NPCs also aren't completely stupid. If there's an enemy behind a girl you're protecting, and you have your gun out, she will duck to let you shoot it instead of her.
Likewise, the levels are rather intelligent. You can "speak" with them in some kind of a coherent, rational way. Early on, I fired a bullet through the window of a small house that I had entered. It left a hole. Intrigued, I fired another bullet. Another hole. I kept shooting until the glass shattered altogether. When, later, the villagers tried to block my escape from the building, I attempted to slide through the window that I had shot out. To my surprise -- especially after the likes of Silent Hill 2 -- Leon was able to do this. Later, when Tim played, I suggested he try to jump out of a second-story window to escape. He obliged, and so did Leon. Leon went sailing right through the previously-unbroken window, sending shards of glass everywhere. He rolled on the ground, and was ready to shoot or punch a bad guy or two.
That's another thing. The combat is kind of more interesting, now. In close combat, you can shoot an enemy twice in the shoulder then give him a great big kick in the chest, to knock him away or into other enemies or against a wall, to stun him. You're not left just standing there, shooting, as in previous games. You have more tools available, as a player.
There is a bit of a strategic element to traversing the levels; Leon has some binoculars with him, and can plan his way before he goes racing into a situation. The terrain can hide all manner of traps, so the player does well to be observant of the game world as he skulks around.
Then there are the QTE events, right out of Shenmue. In a traditional "BOO!" genre like Survival Horror, I am surprised it has taken so long to include these fast-reflex tests. It seems perfect to me.
The world is not as interactive as it might ideally be. The enemies do not react to injury in as specific a way as I might like. Yet the progress here, both for the series itself, as its own self-aware entity, and for the genre, is palpable. While this ain't the answer, it's a really good step -- and it's the first real evolution that the series has made. I guess third time's the charm. I mean. In reference to how many times Mikami has restarted the project. This is actually the... what, sixth game in the main series, not counting the remake of the first game?
Since that seems like a perfect segue to speak about Final Fantasy XII, I guess I'll talk about SNK, instead.
I was impressed with the size of SNK's booth this year; just as big as Sammy's, and actually larger than the territories of a few semi-weighty companies, such as Tecmo. The King of Fighters: NeoWave constitutes the only unexplained absence; it was present at neither the SNK nor the Sammy booth. Given how close it was to release, that struck me as a little odd.
Only thirty percent complete, developer Noise Factory's other project, Metal Slug Advance, looks pretty much as it did last year: slow as hell, yet otherwise visually similar to the original NeoGeo games (in particular, Metal Slug 5). As in Metal Slug: 1st and 2nd Mission, for the NeoGeo Pocket Color, the characters can take more than one hit; there seems to be a collection element with the hostages; and the levels are purported to be more nonlinear than usual. The game seems to be coming together well enough; again, the only real problem at the moment is that it is so slow as to be unplayable. You jump, and a second or two later your character might begin his or her torturous arc through the air.
Of course, the game is not even one-third finished. So. I think Noise has some space to work with. There had been a lot of speculation over why the game was not yet released; it was originally scheduled for last fall. A look at Maximum Impact, however, seems to solve the mystery. Noise's attention has clearly been elsewhere. Nevertheless, when Noise gets back to active work on it, I think this will wind up a decent little game for its part.
The PS2 version of The King of Fighters 2003 was on display. It was... prettier. None of the original arcade levels seemed to be present anymore (although they might well be in there somewhere, in some form). In their place were a handful of really well-done new high-res 3D backdrops. These are far better than the backgrounds in the Dreamcast ports of KOF'98 and '99; the rendering blends in so naturally that at first I failed to recognize that they were polygonal. Even Brandon came away impressed, and normally this kind of alteration bothers him. Offhand, the level which made the deepest impression on me depicts a field of pillars, not unlike totem poles; these structures slowly rise from, and sink into, the ground as the fighting goes on before them.
The palette is vibrant, in the levels I saw. The lighting is appropriate. There is far more activity than in the original bitmap backdrops. In general, the alterations succeed in making the game feel more alive; less washed-out, both visually and psychologically. The energy level feels higher now, and the game generally feels more finished. As much as I enjoy 2003 as a game, to me it has always felt a little drab on the surface -- which seems counter to what the game wants to accomplish, with its faster combat, its breezy graphic design, its revitalized plot, and its unconventional roster (including a bunch of new, pretty characters). With this makeover, the game's statement feels somewhat more complete and successful. The game seems more like the game that it wants to be.
I don't know if Konami's new Ninja Turtles game knows what it wants to be. Unlike its predecessor from last year, at least it is smart enough to allow four players at once -- even in the PS2 version. The levels are a bit more interactive than in the previous game (not that this is difficult), and therefore hypothetically more interesting. The game itself is kind of a mess, though. Somehow the controls have become even less precise than they were last year. I kept flying over ledges when I did not intend to. Attacks simply wouldn't come out at times. And although the characters all have a wall-jump now, just try pulling it off in context. Tim and I played through a section of an ice level; the only way to get to the next part of the level was to kick off a wall to the right, and to land on a platform above and to the left. Just doing this once was hard enough, as the characters would simply jump-kick nineteen out of twenty attempts. On the off chance that the wall-jump worked, the character would tend to hit his head on the overhang above, breaking momentum and forcing Tim or me to start all over. After about ten minutes, I think we both got past that section. We then stopped playing. It just wasn't any fun at all.
The game does have Triceratons, though. That's something.
Eric-Jon Rössel Waugh
is eager to write about something else.
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