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SPEAK YOUR MIND
"Does the distance one travels from center make one more free
to move?"
"No. Freedom has two parts: potential and resolution; as
metaphor has two parts: form and interpretation. Of course,
the two are intertwined. Metaphor lines the road to freedom,
as symbols and words are the bricks and mortar of meaning.
Freedom is being the bricoleur, the mason."
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Marathon: Resurrection Forum
Critique: weapons
Posted By: Captain Bob
Date: 2007.9.26.03.21
Now that I've played through M:R singleplayer, there's a lot I'd like to say about it. For the last game I contributed to, Excalibur: Morgana's Revenge, I thoroughly documented every bug and design issue I could find on every level. I'm still considering if I can take the time to do that for M:R. Then again, I haven't been asked to do so, either. So here I offer a sampling by reviewing all the weapons:
Fists: I love how the fists turned out. I feel like I'm really connecting when I punch something. I actually take a moment to decide whether I want to do a left jab or right jab. I know they do the same damage, but it looks cool to mix it up.
I'm not sure if running punches do the same amount of extra damage they do in Marathon. In the original game, running made a big difference in the power of a punch.
Pistols: The Marathon 1 handguns didn't make any sense: they look like revolvers but load clips like pistols. So re-designing them was the right thing to do. As has been reported before, sometimes the player's second pistol won't work. I haven't been able to pin down the cause of this, but it does reset itself by switching momentarily to another weapon.
One thing that bugs me is the positioning of the pistol(s) on the screen. Instead of being aimed straight ahead, they're aimed inward. It makes me feel like I'm running around cross-eyed, so I hope this can be tweaked.
One thing which changes gameplay balance is that pistol (and other) bullets are now actually fast. In Marathon the bullets were so slow you could dodge them, due to engine limitations. But I think realistic bullet speeds are for the best.
Fusion Pistol: the weapon model looks cool. The projectiles look more like lightning balls than the original diamonds-of-white-plasma. But it's the second trigger which I love so much. The way the plasma snakes out to fry anyone nearby, even multiple enemies, and awash them in waves of electricity all over their bodies, is my favorite weapon effect in M:R.
It makes charged plasma in original Marathon just feel like grenades that aren't affected by gravity. It makes the fusion pistol into a very powerful weapon, almost like a seeking missile in that you can fire in the general area of an enemy and it will hit even when they're zigzagging around. In fact I basically never use the first trigger anymore, except to save ammunition.
M:R retains the flyby effects, and they've even added doppler: a bolt flying towards you sounds higher in pitch than a bolt flying away from you. I think it goes well with the fusion pistol, although sometimes the pitch is wrong, or you hear two flyby sounds in a row.
Another minor sound glitch is that when you charge up, the beep the fusion pistol makes doesn't increase in pitch as it does in all Marathon games. In spite of these glitches, the fusion pistol should win an award for most-improved weapon.
AR-75: M:R uses the Marathon 2/inf version of the assault rifle. You can't blame them for that, since Bungie themselves said the M1 version had a "ridiculous" design. The spread on the primary trigger is true to the original. The grenades look fine, and UT does proper falloff damage for explosives, unlike original Marathon.
However, the grenades fall faster than they did in Marathon. Grenades are a key method for hitting switches that can't be switched manually, and it's harder to do that when the drop is higher. It may be the case that projectiles in UT are just given a horizontal velocity, and the gravity of the map does the rest. This is physically correct, but Marathon wasn't: individual projectiles could be "doubly affected by gravity" for instance.
This really does affect gameplay. Specifically, I don't think it's possible to get through Ingue Ferroque by using grenades on the switches; you have to use something else. To restore the behavior we're all used to, I'd like the grenades to have the same drop they did in Marathon, even if that's unrealistic.
That's all for now. Expect a follow-up post or two for the other weapons.
Messages In This Thread
- Critique: weapons -- Captain Bob -- 2007.9.26.03.21
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