amplificated
4th February 2012, 02:03 AM
As I've now finished the single player campaigns on elite and seen a good chunk of the experience (not everything, yet...), I figure some of you may appreciate a few thoughts on the single player side of the game.
Let's get this out of the way first:
is the game good?
Yes. It has a similar playstyle to HD with a few new quirks that will take players a while to adjust to, mainly due to the way sideshifting now works (it feels very different to HD, a lot harder/sharper) and the new tracks being very different.
What's good then?
The new tracks are mostly all good, and are good fun playing around in, the skillcuts feel like they offer more opportunities even if they become your "default" path through a track. The ships are fun to use and each is nicely varied.
Getting all Elite in the campaign was a basic task for me (apart from one event, but more on that later...), but I think for new players it will offer a decent challenge, without the frustration of offered by HD's Elite AI. As someone familiar with the franchise (to a degree, anyway), it was good enough to keep me interested.
The ghost functionality is excellent: you can not only face your own, but see the next highest ghost on the global ladder (I believe, please correct me if I'm wrong), which changes after each lap - you don't have to restart the race or anything, it will automatically load the next ghost you have to beat.
Or, you can hop on Near and see if there are any people in your area who have issued a challenge. It's pretty damn neat, someone here in Edinburgh put down a time which I handily beat, but unfortunately I haven't seen exactly what happens *now*. Nothing spectacular happened in the game other than a quick message telling me I beat the guy's time, so I don't know if the player was notified, or if I had to issue my own challenge and he would just load up his next best time if he beats it, or etc.. Still, I like the basic idea of it, and even if it's only implemented rudamentally, it's still good :P
So what's new?
Other than what I mentioned above, the biggest difference and new thing to the series is obviously the front end: menus, options, that kinda thing.
It is incredibly simple, straightforward, and easy to use. Using the touch screen means you have everything available to you with one touch. In concept, it could have been good. Unfortunately, I believe Studio Liverpool chose style over content for the release of the game, as the only way for a "Racebox" mode to fit into their plan as it is, is to have every individual event as a node on the menu.
It really would not have hurt to have had fewer usable nodes on the main screen and included menus that would have easily allowed all the options typically available in Racebox mode with just an extra couple of touches that would not have compromised usability, but actually increase it.
To clarify: accessing a track to play in WO2048 requires you touch a "node". Each node is its own event, with speed, track, etc. values attached to it. These are, nearly entirely, dedicated to the campaign-proper, with a few hidden tracks you have to unlock and complete to go for A+ events or receive the prototype ships. There are no tournaments or other ways of accessing multiple tracks with one touch of a node, and no submenus besides a quick review of the event.
The only non-campaign nodes are those which are dedicated to a single speed lap event - one each for c, b, a, and a+. There are no nodes for time trial, single race, zone, or any other mode than the campaign and speed lap. The dedication to the nodes is what I meant by Studio Liverpool dedicating the front end to a lost cause that hindered usability for the end user.
Is the game missing anything?
*) The ability to play any track in any mode (e.g. Racebox mode) at ease (or at all - Altima C class against bots? TT? Combat? No chance).
*) Controller customisation. In most previous WO games I've played, there were extensive options that allowed the user to change the function of each individual button. No such ability exists in 2048, there are 3 simple presets.
*) Reverse tracks. For the last 3 WO games I believe, there have been reverse versions of each track.
*) Stats. What the hell happened to the stats? The 7 listed stats are so limited and lacking in relevant detail as to be worthless in 2048.
*) Online leaderboards. This is one of my biggest complaints: only the top 8 times on each track are available. I think this is one of the biggest problems in 2048's front end - there is simply no depth to it at all. I like simplicity, but only to an extent - when you forego content as basic as this in favour of keeping a clutterless front end, you have problems. There's no way around it.
Any bugs?
Not sure how common this is, but I've heard of other people experienceing this: connection to the PSN drops out very frequently, even over a stable connection to the internet. This happens even when playing, pausing the event and can be incredibly frustrating, especially as signing into the network is something that apparently has to be done manually each time, i.e. going to options to allow connection to be prompted and it generally being in-your-face.
On my first (and only, so far) multiplayer game I blew up as soon as the word "go!" appeared and was booted from the game, only then to be told my connection for whatever reason was dropped.
What sucks
Primarily, just the fact that so much stuff that would typically be thought unmissable, is missing. And the PSN bug. And Empire Climb is very bland...
Secondarily, I would have to say Combat mode. To highlight, I spent a significant portion of my time with the game on one combat event just to get elite - the only event in the game i had difficulty with, and it was purely because it was based entirely on luck with which weapons you got and how much health enemy ships still had.
Combat plays a large part in the campaign, and there is no way to avoid it in multiplayer besides leaving the lobby and trying again. It's just random nonsense, and IMO, it isn't WipEout. It isn't racing. It's something for the masses, and this is something that reflects in the design of the game as a whole. While there is enough content here to appeal to the more pure WipEout enthusiast, I feel 2048 is a knife edge that just gets the gameplay balance right - this time - but with the problems in the front end design, it's pushed to the negative side when it comes to online multiplayer.
Tertiary? I'd have to say the way things are unlocked. It's not bad per se, but personally I'd have liked to have unlocked all the ships (I still don't have them all) by the time I finished the campaign on Elite, and the A+ events should be part of the campaign rather than just unlockable nodes.
In summary
The actual part of what makes WipEout good - the racing gameplay - is here, and is as good as ever and even takes a new spin on things that actually works out well. There are a lot of problems in 2048, but none of them actually affect this core attraction. (Well, apart from the PSN bug...)
If SL support this title with patches, it could end up being a good package. Right now, it's just a good game wrapped in a sub-par package.
Let's get this out of the way first:
is the game good?
Yes. It has a similar playstyle to HD with a few new quirks that will take players a while to adjust to, mainly due to the way sideshifting now works (it feels very different to HD, a lot harder/sharper) and the new tracks being very different.
What's good then?
The new tracks are mostly all good, and are good fun playing around in, the skillcuts feel like they offer more opportunities even if they become your "default" path through a track. The ships are fun to use and each is nicely varied.
Getting all Elite in the campaign was a basic task for me (apart from one event, but more on that later...), but I think for new players it will offer a decent challenge, without the frustration of offered by HD's Elite AI. As someone familiar with the franchise (to a degree, anyway), it was good enough to keep me interested.
The ghost functionality is excellent: you can not only face your own, but see the next highest ghost on the global ladder (I believe, please correct me if I'm wrong), which changes after each lap - you don't have to restart the race or anything, it will automatically load the next ghost you have to beat.
Or, you can hop on Near and see if there are any people in your area who have issued a challenge. It's pretty damn neat, someone here in Edinburgh put down a time which I handily beat, but unfortunately I haven't seen exactly what happens *now*. Nothing spectacular happened in the game other than a quick message telling me I beat the guy's time, so I don't know if the player was notified, or if I had to issue my own challenge and he would just load up his next best time if he beats it, or etc.. Still, I like the basic idea of it, and even if it's only implemented rudamentally, it's still good :P
So what's new?
Other than what I mentioned above, the biggest difference and new thing to the series is obviously the front end: menus, options, that kinda thing.
It is incredibly simple, straightforward, and easy to use. Using the touch screen means you have everything available to you with one touch. In concept, it could have been good. Unfortunately, I believe Studio Liverpool chose style over content for the release of the game, as the only way for a "Racebox" mode to fit into their plan as it is, is to have every individual event as a node on the menu.
It really would not have hurt to have had fewer usable nodes on the main screen and included menus that would have easily allowed all the options typically available in Racebox mode with just an extra couple of touches that would not have compromised usability, but actually increase it.
To clarify: accessing a track to play in WO2048 requires you touch a "node". Each node is its own event, with speed, track, etc. values attached to it. These are, nearly entirely, dedicated to the campaign-proper, with a few hidden tracks you have to unlock and complete to go for A+ events or receive the prototype ships. There are no tournaments or other ways of accessing multiple tracks with one touch of a node, and no submenus besides a quick review of the event.
The only non-campaign nodes are those which are dedicated to a single speed lap event - one each for c, b, a, and a+. There are no nodes for time trial, single race, zone, or any other mode than the campaign and speed lap. The dedication to the nodes is what I meant by Studio Liverpool dedicating the front end to a lost cause that hindered usability for the end user.
Is the game missing anything?
*) The ability to play any track in any mode (e.g. Racebox mode) at ease (or at all - Altima C class against bots? TT? Combat? No chance).
*) Controller customisation. In most previous WO games I've played, there were extensive options that allowed the user to change the function of each individual button. No such ability exists in 2048, there are 3 simple presets.
*) Reverse tracks. For the last 3 WO games I believe, there have been reverse versions of each track.
*) Stats. What the hell happened to the stats? The 7 listed stats are so limited and lacking in relevant detail as to be worthless in 2048.
*) Online leaderboards. This is one of my biggest complaints: only the top 8 times on each track are available. I think this is one of the biggest problems in 2048's front end - there is simply no depth to it at all. I like simplicity, but only to an extent - when you forego content as basic as this in favour of keeping a clutterless front end, you have problems. There's no way around it.
Any bugs?
Not sure how common this is, but I've heard of other people experienceing this: connection to the PSN drops out very frequently, even over a stable connection to the internet. This happens even when playing, pausing the event and can be incredibly frustrating, especially as signing into the network is something that apparently has to be done manually each time, i.e. going to options to allow connection to be prompted and it generally being in-your-face.
On my first (and only, so far) multiplayer game I blew up as soon as the word "go!" appeared and was booted from the game, only then to be told my connection for whatever reason was dropped.
What sucks
Primarily, just the fact that so much stuff that would typically be thought unmissable, is missing. And the PSN bug. And Empire Climb is very bland...
Secondarily, I would have to say Combat mode. To highlight, I spent a significant portion of my time with the game on one combat event just to get elite - the only event in the game i had difficulty with, and it was purely because it was based entirely on luck with which weapons you got and how much health enemy ships still had.
Combat plays a large part in the campaign, and there is no way to avoid it in multiplayer besides leaving the lobby and trying again. It's just random nonsense, and IMO, it isn't WipEout. It isn't racing. It's something for the masses, and this is something that reflects in the design of the game as a whole. While there is enough content here to appeal to the more pure WipEout enthusiast, I feel 2048 is a knife edge that just gets the gameplay balance right - this time - but with the problems in the front end design, it's pushed to the negative side when it comes to online multiplayer.
Tertiary? I'd have to say the way things are unlocked. It's not bad per se, but personally I'd have liked to have unlocked all the ships (I still don't have them all) by the time I finished the campaign on Elite, and the A+ events should be part of the campaign rather than just unlockable nodes.
In summary
The actual part of what makes WipEout good - the racing gameplay - is here, and is as good as ever and even takes a new spin on things that actually works out well. There are a lot of problems in 2048, but none of them actually affect this core attraction. (Well, apart from the PSN bug...)
If SL support this title with patches, it could end up being a good package. Right now, it's just a good game wrapped in a sub-par package.