Okay, I just finished the Wii version of SoK a couple days ago and spent most of yesterday reading this thread to gauge other people's reactions. I was desperate to A) see if everyone else was feeling the same disappointment as I was and B) try and find out if the other versions of the game are any better. I'd like to thank
indyjones2131,
IAdventurer01 and
DocWhiskey for their great insight & comments, I agree with almost everything you guys have said. I haven't posted on theRaven since I beat ET years ago and looked to the community for some constructive criticism with the hope that someone at LucasArts would be listening, take note and learn from their mistakes.
First off, it's really hard to critic the game when LucasArts/A2M can't even deliver a finished product! The Wii version is
CLEARLY MISSING most of the cinematics, and the ones that are there are pretty terrible. Where's the Story/Characters/Dialogue/Plot?!?!
I could have at least
ENJOYED the game if the cutscenes had been finished. Why didn't they get the company that did the game trailer to do a pre-rendered opening cinematic? That would have helped the game
IMMENSELY. They should have put those big bucks
INTO THE ACTUAL GAME instead of into the marketing! I know most gamers [and even game developers!] don't seem to appreciate narrative in games, but I personally think (as does GL!) that it is
ABSOLUTELY VITAL! I couldn't ever get into SoK because I had no idea what was going on, where I was going or why. If the game had started with a great opening cinematic, it would have immediately sucked me into the game, and I would be able to not only enjoy the game more, but be far more forgiving of its flaws. It's the single most important factor for me, not only for immersion but also just general enjoyment. So the Wii version of SoK feels like a big slap in the face in that regard. Especially since in the promos, they made a big deal about how hard they worked on the story:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufpNXfrXjf8
and then they didn't deliver. I would rather have waited another year and have the finished game than to have this mess. From what I've been hearing, it sounds like the PS2 version has the same few cut scenes as the Wii version. Can someone confirm this? But it looks like the PSP version actually has all the cut scenes:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p0GQFAsQUO0&videos=E5bU_IRAbr8&playnext_from=TL&playnext=1
I'm seriously considering buying a PSP to play this version (and the Metal Gear Solid PSP games I've always wanted to play). Can someone who's played both versions compare the story experience for us?
And even if the game
HAD been finished, it's clear that they still arn't even trying to have a balance of Action
and Adventure! Once again, they've focused ENTIRELY on the action and there isn't really any adventure game elements to be found.
THEY STILL JUST DON'T GET IT!!!
There was
NO exploring - the whole game was linear! At least
SOME of the levels should have been open world levels! There were
No Items/Inventory/Weapons! There were
No NPCs/Dialoge sequences! Unforgivable for a game that was in development for 6 years! They made
TWO Knights of the Old Republic games in less time and both of them had
STAGGERING amounts of both! And was anyone else bothered by the fact that the few "treasures" were just floating glowing fedoras? You had to go into the menu to see what it really is! The treasure hunting in this game is reduced to walking into a floating glowing thing at the end of a corridor. That is really perfunctory. The treasures should actually be
HIDDEN, and the game should have enough depth to give us some back story on the treasure, since without the back story, it's not interesting
AT ALL. That's what makes it a treasure in the first place. Otherwise, might as well just have Indy collecting gold coins Mario-style.
There were no alternate ways to progress - the game is exactly the same every time! In some of the shooting sequences, there was no way to kill all the enemies - you had to shoot something in the environment - and there was never any indication other than you continually dieing till you figure it out. This is just game design 101, there's no reason it should be so linear - there should be alternate ways of advancing, as well as alternate endings.
The puzzles were horribly cliched - they were all pushing switches and pulling levers! Why not clues, dialog, mystery, - actual thinking involved? The Istanbul level was the worst, I really wish the level had been an exploration level where you gather clues and find items and talk to NPCs. That would have been fun as hell, instead of a pulling-levers level that I feel like I've played a thousand times.
I don't want to be all negative, they did do some things right:
The music was great. But was there any original music? I didn't recognize every cue, so I was guessing that there was some original music in there, especially the repetitive tracks that looped over and over.
Running/Jumping/Swinging/Climbing were never a problem, Indy always did what I wanted, which is a huge change from the last two games where I spent hours just falling down cliffs because the controls sucked.
Most of the levels, sets and locations were pretty damn great. The Panama level was a welcome relief and really helped me get through the game. And there was the perfect amount of supernatural elements - just a little at the end - no Frankenstein or aliens and no end level inside an alternate dimension. It was wonderfully Indy-esque.
I
REALLY got my hopes up with SoK, and as a result I think it hurt all the more. It was a combination of waiting 6 years, KotCS being a disappointment, and just taking for granted that each game should naturally be better than the last. When I heard the game was canceled, I was
REALLY pissed off, more so than if they had never made KotCS. But then when the Wii version was announced with so many features, I let my guard down. So who do I direct my anger at? The economy? A2M? LucasArts Game Designers? LucasArts Managers?
It's pretty clear that LA really did make changes because of the economy, and did prioritize Force Unleashed and basically sold off SoK for parts, as has been speculated. But this is certainly
NO EXCUSE, since there are countless other game companies that haven't had to compromise, and I keep seeing extremely high-quality games come out every week.
And I don't blame the game designers at LucasArts, either. I can glimpse the great game that they were
TRYING to make (especially the epic finale, which was like a light at the end of the tunnel), and they obviously were not given the resources to finish the game that they had planned on making. My guess is these guys are always made to focus on some star wars game and have to work on games like these on the side.
So I blame the managers at LucasArts. Staff of Kings was a disaster, and there's simply no reason that it had to end up this way. And this is only the latest in a long stream of mediocre games. I expect better from Lucas products and there's no reason why everyone has to settle for less. And this really isn't at all about fan service, it's about
QUALITY. There's
MONEY to be made from a quality Indy game, but every time they release another shoddy product, it makes it vastly harder the next time to reach a wider audience.
I expect George Lucas to fire these people who are hurting his franchise, his brand and his company.
