Utter Awesomeness
Jeff Wilcox
Gentlemen,
Whilst cruising youtube looking for old SC2 music remixes I stumbled into your trailer for P6014... how has this demo been out since January and I hadn't heard of it is ridiculous?! While playing I found myself grinning ear to ear while I engaging the old friends of SC2, and read through the various (brilliant) conversations you guys have written. The VUX was especially awesome. I actually laughed aloud when the fat Syreen showed up at Talana's old station. (I get the impression that in Syreen culture, the hot chicks are the big ones since what we consider hot is common place.) I seriously enjoyed lighting up a Marauder with an Avatar once again... ahh, the glory.
So, here's an unsolicited review from a hardcore SC2 fan:
The re-mastering of the old low res 142x106 and 320x200 images to modern standards while NOT screwing up the style is an incredible feat! The new scenes (such as in the intro when the slave shield over Earth falls, and the scene with you and Talana looked to me to be straight out of the original content... The re-mastered sprites for the melee combat look good, though I think smoother rotation would greatly serve the game. I liked the Lurg! They look the part. But, unlike the Ur Quan, who looked nothing like the human, the Lurg seem to have too much in common with our physiology to be scary (mouth, nose, two eyes, identical placement) If you're going for scary (Ur Quan,) creepy (Umgah,) bad ass (Ilwrath, Yehat,) over-the-top (Thraddash, Druuge,) or Goofy (Pkunk, Zoq-Fot-Pik, Ortz) you might consider what category the Lurg would fit into, (Right now I'd say they're in the creepy column.)
The re-mastered planetary systems look spectacular!
The use of remixed SC2 music for the game is done very, very well. The nostalgia was not only off the hook, but the scores themselves are quite good. I also greatly enjoyed the new Lurg theme... fit the style of the game perfectly.
The new sounds are good. Not amazing, but good. The old 8-bit (probably sampled at 11050KHz) sounds could benefit from re-mastering... but then again, they are already canon. I humbly recommend that you leave the old sounds as they are... don't mess with perfection.
Amazing speech talent! I loved the Vux! The Orz was good too. The Lurg was outstanding!
Star Control II was awesome because of its open space-sandbox which P6014 retains... however, since it is only a demo I can't expect it to present the incredible volume of things to do that players had to put up with in SC2 (and what made SC2 so much fun) On the other hand, the ability to use different mother ships as you progress, perhaps even recycling modules from previous defeated ships and customizing on a level similar to SC2 but with different hardware (Ilwrath cloaking device, coupled with a Chmmr laser incurring a huge battery penalty for instance) In any case, I am looking forward to seeing what you come up with in this department! One thing that is lacking is fine rotation. I know this isn't as easy as it sounds, and there are multiple ways to go about implementing it, but I think it'd make the melee combat truly epic (especially Druuge Mauler which at range relies on fine angle changes to snipe)
I'm sold. When I was playing this, I loved the continuity between the end of SC2 and the beginning. The style is excellent, and your backstories for all of the races I read about were awesome. (They gave us Frungy, we gave them vuvazelas!) You guys have certain captured the spirit of the original SC2. Your dialog is engrossing and I was left wanting so much more. The only thing that didn't work is why you... Hero of Sa Matra, were recalled from retirement with your blue babe to go find some errant Shofixti patrol. I realize this was only a demo though, and expect that to just be a simple plot device to show off the game.
Bravo!
-Jeff
Waterfall
среда, 17 октября 2012 г., 11:07:23 UTC+3 пользователь Jeff Wilcox написал: