NS2 First Impressions
Byeka
Name changed from Freak83Toronto Join Date: 2003-03-13 Member: 14484Members, Constellation
Name changed from Freak83Toronto Join Date: 2003-03-13 Member: 14484Members, Constellation
Okay so I just now had my first ever game of NS2. Technically it's not the first time I played it but it is the first time I <i>played</i> it. A friend and I got together on release day all excited to play only to be disappointed by the fact we couldn't even join a game as it would crash consistently. We ended up doing some LAN between the two of us which 1v1 was not all that great and the aliens seemed invincible. We felt a little let down and I didn't give it another go until just now.
First of all - I'm glad to see it's improved dramatically. It's totally playable and runs great now so that takes care of that little hold up.
<b><u>Graphics</b></u>
The graphics and the atmosphere definitely have that classic NS feel. Dark, gloomy and eerie. Even more so now when I think of brightly lit environments such as ns_eclipse and ns_hera. I remember one point in particular where I was playing as a Skulk and found myself on the ceiling with some kind of ventilation fan over my head casting some extremely realistic looking shadows down below onto the unsuspecting marines. I couldn't help but just sit there for a minute watching the shadow of the fan go by. For some reason it just really stuck out - cool.
I didn't get too great a look at the marine player models as I was playing Kharaa (go Kharaa or go home) other than biting their heads off but from what I could see of the alien player models, they were also top notch. Similar for the animations such as the fade swipe and blink (WHOA!). The Lerk gas I was not such a fan of. Maybe I'm just too used to that green smoke from NS1.
Graphics - 10/10
<b><u>User Interface</b></u>
The biggest point of confusion for me at the beginning was the UI. First of all I was going nuts trying to find my resource bar. Another little <b>glitch</b> I picked up on was when it said "press B to evolve". The last time I had played I must have rebound B to V but the in-game help text apparently doesn't update key rebindings.
Eventually I figured it out and checked out the menu. I didn't like just tapping V for the build/evolve menu. I always have preferred to hold the button for an action in games (aim, crouch, menu, etc.) The one upgrade that gives you health back I liked but the other one I didn't understand, something about (+25 damage if a near hit). I found and still find that extremely confusing and don't understand what it does. That could be explained a lot more clearly.
Apparently there was also supposed to be a third upgrade as players were saying in chat, but it wasn't showing up on the menu.
I did eventually catch on to the fact that you could select multiple upgrades and evolve them all at once, but other than just thinking to try to do this, I don't see any way you could figure that out.
I also liked how your screen goes red when you're close to dieing. Very helpful for getting out of near death situations, however a similar warning would be very useful for when you're running out of adrenaline. More than once I found myself unable to leap to safety because I was too low on adren and had not noticed.
Lastly, the flashlight key effect. I do like how it "fades" on but really don't like how it's different from NS1 to NS2. The yellow tint is extremely ugly to look at and severely detracts from the beauty of the graphics that the team has put so much work into. I felt the Kharaa flashlight is to help pinpoint enemies which it did quite well in NS1 but it still needs improvement for NS2. Perhaps more of a "heat vision" type effect would work better.
UI - 5/10
<b><u>Gameplay: Skulk</b></u>
I started off as a Skulk and it felt familiar enough. Right click to leap, left click to bite. Parasite in slot 2... yup yup. It's all there (minus Xenocide sadly). I ran around for a bit with no other goal in mind other than to bite the heads off of some marines. I found one and bested him in combat, barely losing any health. From there it was kill, be killed, kill be killed. Not great, but better than I could Skulk in NS1. Not sure if the marines were noobs or the combat was just more even.
I also noticed you couldn't leap quite as far or as high as you could in NS1, which now gave the Skulk a heavier feel. I'm not a fan of this change but I imagine that this was quite intentional. The wall walking with the tilting also made it feel much more realistic and very nice. Also, despite the very complicated textures it was easy to do wall walking.
The only downsides to the Skulk was the lack of Xenocide and the mouth-camera which is still present. The jaws going down the screen felt even HEAVIER than in NS1 making it a lot more easy to lose track of your target.
Skulk - 8/10
<b><u>Gameplay: Gorge</b></u>
I didn't actually play as a Gorge because I was greedy and wanted to horde my resources for myself (at least I'm honest about it). However, that being said I can give my thoughts from the standpoint of someone who watched the Gorges.
I had a Gorge following me around for a good portion of my time as a Lerk healing me. I remember in NS1 where the Gorges would do this but there would also be a good amount of building going on. We'd amass a small army of structures outside a marine base and bombard them. I'm not sure if the Gorge following me didn't know how to build or if this was impossible but we only had a couple of towers backing us up out there.
The towers themselves from the non-Gorge standpoint were confusing to look at. Okay, I understood the hive and and res tower. There also seemed to be another one that was parasiting all the marines because I doubted there was a Skulk being that good about it. The others were there, but what role they served I did not know.
As for the Gorge itself, spit/heal seemed to be all of its attacks. No Bile Bomb or Web... or (omg!) Babblers :(
Gorge - 7/10
<b><u>Gameplay: Lerk</b></u>
I had fun as a Lerk. I actually didn't mind the fact that bite seemed to be missing as in NS1 I always felt confused as to whether I should be a melee Lerk or ranged one. In NS2 that question was answered. It was clearly more of a support role with Spikes (the zoomed in version confused me only until I tried it out) and gas. The flight mechanism was alright but I always found myself jumping up too high to start out and unable to go forward as I would crash into the ceiling.
There were two main trouble points with the Lerk.
First of all, I had no idea whether the gas I was shooting was poison or umbra. I had to ask in game to find out. Second, the "heavy spike" did not seem efficient. It took way too much energy and requires far too much accuracy to be usable in NS fast paced combat and normal spikes were much better at taking out structures as well. I would almost think that the heavy spike being for use purely on structures with an increased damage boost would make it more useful.
Lerk - 8/10
<b><u>Gameplay: Fade</b></u>
I'm going to jump right to the Blink because that's what stands out. Graphic wise I think this change is amazing and really fixes the blink ability putting it back to those old v1.x standards but without the glitchyness. However from an NS1 Fade it is definitely going to require some readjustment. I'm so used to the "deacceleration" time from coming out of the NS1 Blink that it was very difficult to adjust to the NS2 Fade. I don't think this is a gameplay problem, this is just a "used to something" problem that I need to overcome.
I feel right now like the Lerk and Fade are interchangable with the Fade being the melee/tank and the Lerk being the DPS from the back. They do balance each other out but the Fade has the same problem as the Lerk. The heavier swipe is just too difficult to use in combat and seems like a siege ability. But again, the damage/adren cost do not balance out to make it feel efficient for that purpose.
Fade - 9/10
Anyway, those are my initial thoughts! I realize it's not a complete review as I didn't play the Gorge, marines or comm but this is where I stand after my first time. Also, (and I'm sure many will hate me for this) I really hope that Combat mode gets implemented. I have played from version 1.03 but don't feel that CO ruined the game at all. It made it better and added another gameplay mode that's a nice change when you just need something to kill without the thinking.
First of all - I'm glad to see it's improved dramatically. It's totally playable and runs great now so that takes care of that little hold up.
<b><u>Graphics</b></u>
The graphics and the atmosphere definitely have that classic NS feel. Dark, gloomy and eerie. Even more so now when I think of brightly lit environments such as ns_eclipse and ns_hera. I remember one point in particular where I was playing as a Skulk and found myself on the ceiling with some kind of ventilation fan over my head casting some extremely realistic looking shadows down below onto the unsuspecting marines. I couldn't help but just sit there for a minute watching the shadow of the fan go by. For some reason it just really stuck out - cool.
I didn't get too great a look at the marine player models as I was playing Kharaa (go Kharaa or go home) other than biting their heads off but from what I could see of the alien player models, they were also top notch. Similar for the animations such as the fade swipe and blink (WHOA!). The Lerk gas I was not such a fan of. Maybe I'm just too used to that green smoke from NS1.
Graphics - 10/10
<b><u>User Interface</b></u>
The biggest point of confusion for me at the beginning was the UI. First of all I was going nuts trying to find my resource bar. Another little <b>glitch</b> I picked up on was when it said "press B to evolve". The last time I had played I must have rebound B to V but the in-game help text apparently doesn't update key rebindings.
Eventually I figured it out and checked out the menu. I didn't like just tapping V for the build/evolve menu. I always have preferred to hold the button for an action in games (aim, crouch, menu, etc.) The one upgrade that gives you health back I liked but the other one I didn't understand, something about (+25 damage if a near hit). I found and still find that extremely confusing and don't understand what it does. That could be explained a lot more clearly.
Apparently there was also supposed to be a third upgrade as players were saying in chat, but it wasn't showing up on the menu.
I did eventually catch on to the fact that you could select multiple upgrades and evolve them all at once, but other than just thinking to try to do this, I don't see any way you could figure that out.
I also liked how your screen goes red when you're close to dieing. Very helpful for getting out of near death situations, however a similar warning would be very useful for when you're running out of adrenaline. More than once I found myself unable to leap to safety because I was too low on adren and had not noticed.
Lastly, the flashlight key effect. I do like how it "fades" on but really don't like how it's different from NS1 to NS2. The yellow tint is extremely ugly to look at and severely detracts from the beauty of the graphics that the team has put so much work into. I felt the Kharaa flashlight is to help pinpoint enemies which it did quite well in NS1 but it still needs improvement for NS2. Perhaps more of a "heat vision" type effect would work better.
UI - 5/10
<b><u>Gameplay: Skulk</b></u>
I started off as a Skulk and it felt familiar enough. Right click to leap, left click to bite. Parasite in slot 2... yup yup. It's all there (minus Xenocide sadly). I ran around for a bit with no other goal in mind other than to bite the heads off of some marines. I found one and bested him in combat, barely losing any health. From there it was kill, be killed, kill be killed. Not great, but better than I could Skulk in NS1. Not sure if the marines were noobs or the combat was just more even.
I also noticed you couldn't leap quite as far or as high as you could in NS1, which now gave the Skulk a heavier feel. I'm not a fan of this change but I imagine that this was quite intentional. The wall walking with the tilting also made it feel much more realistic and very nice. Also, despite the very complicated textures it was easy to do wall walking.
The only downsides to the Skulk was the lack of Xenocide and the mouth-camera which is still present. The jaws going down the screen felt even HEAVIER than in NS1 making it a lot more easy to lose track of your target.
Skulk - 8/10
<b><u>Gameplay: Gorge</b></u>
I didn't actually play as a Gorge because I was greedy and wanted to horde my resources for myself (at least I'm honest about it). However, that being said I can give my thoughts from the standpoint of someone who watched the Gorges.
I had a Gorge following me around for a good portion of my time as a Lerk healing me. I remember in NS1 where the Gorges would do this but there would also be a good amount of building going on. We'd amass a small army of structures outside a marine base and bombard them. I'm not sure if the Gorge following me didn't know how to build or if this was impossible but we only had a couple of towers backing us up out there.
The towers themselves from the non-Gorge standpoint were confusing to look at. Okay, I understood the hive and and res tower. There also seemed to be another one that was parasiting all the marines because I doubted there was a Skulk being that good about it. The others were there, but what role they served I did not know.
As for the Gorge itself, spit/heal seemed to be all of its attacks. No Bile Bomb or Web... or (omg!) Babblers :(
Gorge - 7/10
<b><u>Gameplay: Lerk</b></u>
I had fun as a Lerk. I actually didn't mind the fact that bite seemed to be missing as in NS1 I always felt confused as to whether I should be a melee Lerk or ranged one. In NS2 that question was answered. It was clearly more of a support role with Spikes (the zoomed in version confused me only until I tried it out) and gas. The flight mechanism was alright but I always found myself jumping up too high to start out and unable to go forward as I would crash into the ceiling.
There were two main trouble points with the Lerk.
First of all, I had no idea whether the gas I was shooting was poison or umbra. I had to ask in game to find out. Second, the "heavy spike" did not seem efficient. It took way too much energy and requires far too much accuracy to be usable in NS fast paced combat and normal spikes were much better at taking out structures as well. I would almost think that the heavy spike being for use purely on structures with an increased damage boost would make it more useful.
Lerk - 8/10
<b><u>Gameplay: Fade</b></u>
I'm going to jump right to the Blink because that's what stands out. Graphic wise I think this change is amazing and really fixes the blink ability putting it back to those old v1.x standards but without the glitchyness. However from an NS1 Fade it is definitely going to require some readjustment. I'm so used to the "deacceleration" time from coming out of the NS1 Blink that it was very difficult to adjust to the NS2 Fade. I don't think this is a gameplay problem, this is just a "used to something" problem that I need to overcome.
I feel right now like the Lerk and Fade are interchangable with the Fade being the melee/tank and the Lerk being the DPS from the back. They do balance each other out but the Fade has the same problem as the Lerk. The heavier swipe is just too difficult to use in combat and seems like a siege ability. But again, the damage/adren cost do not balance out to make it feel efficient for that purpose.
Fade - 9/10
Anyway, those are my initial thoughts! I realize it's not a complete review as I didn't play the Gorge, marines or comm but this is where I stand after my first time. Also, (and I'm sure many will hate me for this) I really hope that Combat mode gets implemented. I have played from version 1.03 but don't feel that CO ruined the game at all. It made it better and added another gameplay mode that's a nice change when you just need something to kill without the thinking.
Comments
I never played ns1 but I heard that the combat mode was like CoD, so I oppose that.
Why do they scare you?
Thanks for the links! I took a read through of the chamber abilities - very helpful. Although I'm still lost as to the one chamber upgrade about the +25 damage. As I said I'm certainly not new to NS; I've been playing since 1.03 (heck, my forum join date is 2003). This first impressions thread is as much for me to reflect on with my later impressions as I play it more, as it is for anyone reading. An NS1 old-timer's transition into NS2 perspective.
Only when you've evolved it in the menu, though.