theres genuinely a lot good about this game, but its very jank
not necessarily the bad jank (beyond dealing with a shoddy pc port bc i dont wanna deal with the fucking n64 version)
but its not that good jank either
it almost hits that sweet spot of good jank
but it doesnt
leaving this with a managable jank that still adds a level of tension, and immersion that really makes you feel like dash rendar
like for all its awkward clumsiness and clunk
its making me play cautiously, the autoaim is gracious enough that while i still need to line up the shot, i dont need to land the pixel on it, its kind of like goldeneye or timesplitters shooting, at least on foot
and the very VERY jank controls do add a certain tension to things, making the set pieces FEEL cinematic, and not in the modern sense of the word, but in the genuinely immersive way like im in my characters shoes
so like theres one moment where ice starts breaking apart in the second level, and the clumsy awkward jank and weird controls had cost me 2 or 3 of my 4 lives earlier in the level due to platforming, so when the ice started to break, my immediate reaction was OH GOD OH GOD OH GOD" as i was running and jumping down the rapidly separating hall, only to be greeted by 2 troopers as i was on 5 health, which just made me mash my mouse button before they could land one shot on me
its such a feeling that i genuinely havent felt in games in a long time, the genuine rush of a tense setpiece. not just a hard moment in a game, but a moment that catches you off guard, keeps you on your toes and doesnt hold your hand to show the character do all the cool shit, it lets ME have the cool action movie escape
its something i think games have kinda lost
but im making the game sound better than it is. it's genuinely a mixed bag, leaning on absolute mess
let's start from the beginning;
the opening level is a flying level, and its pretty fun, albeit slow. you remember those levels in star fox where you're not on rails but youre in an aerial dogfight arena? think that, but you shoot star wars shots. you do a section where you take out a couple droids and theyre piss weak, but hey its to get you used to the controls and feel so whatever. then you need to take down walkers, and theyre spongy, but not hard, though you might die crashing into them when you just want it to die already. then... you get to the camels and this becomes a problem. do beat the camels, you can either go back and forth around the arena shooting it for 5 minutes as each shot does a third of a percent of damage... or you can hook its legs. now, the game obviously wants you to hook its legs, but there are limited hooks. more than enough for the amount of camels, but, the camera, annoyingly, switches views when you hook the line to the leg, and you just need to deal with the clumsy controls and rapid camera change. ive lost so many lines from just being disoriented from the switch, you have no idea. after that, you get a stage with 2 camels, 4 walkers and several droids... its not hard but my god it takes forever, and god help you if you lose all your cables before you take down all the camels. so yeah the level loses some of its luster after you take down that first camel.
the next level is an on foot level, and these are the best parts of the game, this is the level i played when i described the feel of the game at the start of this. theres some simple fun in running around, blasting storm troppers, and having an on foot boss with one of those walkers from the first level but in an enclosed area... and then you can just cheese it by strafing around it from behind and shooting. it did not land a single shot on me. still kinda cool though
the next level is a short on-rails shooter where you can look in any direction and you need to shoot down like 60 ships or so and the controls are so terrible on pc, i dont even know how to describe it. its only 4 and a half minutes thankfully and i didnt die, so thankfully its not much of an issue
the next level is another on foot level but youre on a train and need to jump over obstacles and jump to other tracks... i dont want to talk to this level
the next level is another on-foot level but with an emphasis on platforming as well as shooting, and you get a jetpack. its fun, but i game over'd at the end, which kind of killed my enthusiasm, so i cheated my way to the next level
and im pretty sure this is further than i ever got as a kid, so i was curious to see what this biker level would be like
i played this level for 3 minutes, and decided to drop this game entirely
i really dont want to talk about it, its one of the worst levels ive ever touched in a game
i could just skip past it, sure, i used a code to unlock all levels, but the level was so bad it just killed any enthusiasm i had for the game
not necessarily the bad jank (beyond dealing with a shoddy pc port bc i dont wanna deal with the fucking n64 version)
but its not that good jank either
it almost hits that sweet spot of good jank
but it doesnt
leaving this with a managable jank that still adds a level of tension, and immersion that really makes you feel like dash rendar
like for all its awkward clumsiness and clunk
its making me play cautiously, the autoaim is gracious enough that while i still need to line up the shot, i dont need to land the pixel on it, its kind of like goldeneye or timesplitters shooting, at least on foot
and the very VERY jank controls do add a certain tension to things, making the set pieces FEEL cinematic, and not in the modern sense of the word, but in the genuinely immersive way like im in my characters shoes
so like theres one moment where ice starts breaking apart in the second level, and the clumsy awkward jank and weird controls had cost me 2 or 3 of my 4 lives earlier in the level due to platforming, so when the ice started to break, my immediate reaction was OH GOD OH GOD OH GOD" as i was running and jumping down the rapidly separating hall, only to be greeted by 2 troopers as i was on 5 health, which just made me mash my mouse button before they could land one shot on me
its such a feeling that i genuinely havent felt in games in a long time, the genuine rush of a tense setpiece. not just a hard moment in a game, but a moment that catches you off guard, keeps you on your toes and doesnt hold your hand to show the character do all the cool shit, it lets ME have the cool action movie escape
its something i think games have kinda lost
but im making the game sound better than it is. it's genuinely a mixed bag, leaning on absolute mess
let's start from the beginning;
the opening level is a flying level, and its pretty fun, albeit slow. you remember those levels in star fox where you're not on rails but youre in an aerial dogfight arena? think that, but you shoot star wars shots. you do a section where you take out a couple droids and theyre piss weak, but hey its to get you used to the controls and feel so whatever. then you need to take down walkers, and theyre spongy, but not hard, though you might die crashing into them when you just want it to die already. then... you get to the camels and this becomes a problem. do beat the camels, you can either go back and forth around the arena shooting it for 5 minutes as each shot does a third of a percent of damage... or you can hook its legs. now, the game obviously wants you to hook its legs, but there are limited hooks. more than enough for the amount of camels, but, the camera, annoyingly, switches views when you hook the line to the leg, and you just need to deal with the clumsy controls and rapid camera change. ive lost so many lines from just being disoriented from the switch, you have no idea. after that, you get a stage with 2 camels, 4 walkers and several droids... its not hard but my god it takes forever, and god help you if you lose all your cables before you take down all the camels. so yeah the level loses some of its luster after you take down that first camel.
the next level is an on foot level, and these are the best parts of the game, this is the level i played when i described the feel of the game at the start of this. theres some simple fun in running around, blasting storm troppers, and having an on foot boss with one of those walkers from the first level but in an enclosed area... and then you can just cheese it by strafing around it from behind and shooting. it did not land a single shot on me. still kinda cool though
the next level is a short on-rails shooter where you can look in any direction and you need to shoot down like 60 ships or so and the controls are so terrible on pc, i dont even know how to describe it. its only 4 and a half minutes thankfully and i didnt die, so thankfully its not much of an issue
the next level is another on foot level but youre on a train and need to jump over obstacles and jump to other tracks... i dont want to talk to this level
the next level is another on-foot level but with an emphasis on platforming as well as shooting, and you get a jetpack. its fun, but i game over'd at the end, which kind of killed my enthusiasm, so i cheated my way to the next level
and im pretty sure this is further than i ever got as a kid, so i was curious to see what this biker level would be like
i played this level for 3 minutes, and decided to drop this game entirely
i really dont want to talk about it, its one of the worst levels ive ever touched in a game
i could just skip past it, sure, i used a code to unlock all levels, but the level was so bad it just killed any enthusiasm i had for the game