Saturday, March 06, 2004
Won't Get Fooled Again
Yesterday, while browsing Gamespot, a site a rarely venture to, I happened upon a preview of the multiplayer mode of Splinter Cell: Pandora's Tomorrow. And I got a little excited...
You should know that I hated the first Splinter Cell. I got the first one after reading every publication drool over it and Penny Arcade name it the 2nd best game of 2002. I couldn't resist buying it. But, when I finally started playing it I was bored out of my mind. I hate stealth games. I hate stealth games more than I hate story in video games.
I hate the lack of action. I hate having to crawl along a pipe or sneak up on someone from behind to get anywhere. I hate how, if I do get caught, there is no way I'll be able to escape. I hate the lack of action. I want to run and jump and kill people.
In certain games, like the all mighty Goldeneye, stealth can work. Mostly because you don't need to be stealthy to win. While it's very cool to be able to sneak up on a sleeping Russian soldier and shoot him point blank in the head, if you do get caught chances are you'll be able to kill the approaching troops faster than they'll be able to kill you. At its core, Goldeneye is still an action game, albeit with stealth elements.
Back in 1999 I played Metal Gear Solid for the first time and had a similar feeling to when I played Splinter Cell. The gameplay seemed solid enough, and it was cool knocking on walls and using boxes as cover, but the combat skills Solid Snake possessed were far too limited to make actual combat fun and useful, which meant a whole lot of sneaking around with no action.
Anyway, when I got Splinter Cell last year I was horrified to see that it was everything I hated in MGS, times a million. The game was so difficult and unforgiving when spotted it sucked the fun right out of the game. I pretty much gave up after a couple hours of frustrated game play.
But now, after reading about the online mode of Splinter Cell 2, I'm getting a little exciting again. But I know I should. It sounds amazing though. 2 on 2 gameplay. Spies versus mercenaries. Two basic objectives that stand between winning and losing. It just seems like it would have enough action to keep me happy while including a ton of cool stealthy touches, like dust falling from the ceiling tiles when a spy is crawling through the air vents.
But I know if I do end up buying this game it will lead to nothing but frustration. I hate the way Splinter Cell controls. It felt like a next generation version of Tomb Raider. A wide assortment of moves that were a pain in the ass to pull off because of choppy controls. And I know that it would be hard to get a game with 3 people at random who really know what they're doing and are good. Can you imagine how brutal a 2 on 2 game would be if you're partner sucked? If he refused to work as a team? If he continually gave away his position? Unless you're teamed up with a friend against two other people who are friends, I can't imagine this game actually working.
Anyway, I guess I'm just frustrated at this whole idea. It sounds like such a great game, but I know there are just too many potential flaws to make this game worth playing. Even if they cleaned up the controls and insured a competent teammate, two things I doubt will happen, there will probably be another fatal problem that keeps this game in line with the Metal Gear series and the first Splinter Cell.
You should know that I hated the first Splinter Cell. I got the first one after reading every publication drool over it and Penny Arcade name it the 2nd best game of 2002. I couldn't resist buying it. But, when I finally started playing it I was bored out of my mind. I hate stealth games. I hate stealth games more than I hate story in video games.
I hate the lack of action. I hate having to crawl along a pipe or sneak up on someone from behind to get anywhere. I hate how, if I do get caught, there is no way I'll be able to escape. I hate the lack of action. I want to run and jump and kill people.
In certain games, like the all mighty Goldeneye, stealth can work. Mostly because you don't need to be stealthy to win. While it's very cool to be able to sneak up on a sleeping Russian soldier and shoot him point blank in the head, if you do get caught chances are you'll be able to kill the approaching troops faster than they'll be able to kill you. At its core, Goldeneye is still an action game, albeit with stealth elements.
Back in 1999 I played Metal Gear Solid for the first time and had a similar feeling to when I played Splinter Cell. The gameplay seemed solid enough, and it was cool knocking on walls and using boxes as cover, but the combat skills Solid Snake possessed were far too limited to make actual combat fun and useful, which meant a whole lot of sneaking around with no action.
Anyway, when I got Splinter Cell last year I was horrified to see that it was everything I hated in MGS, times a million. The game was so difficult and unforgiving when spotted it sucked the fun right out of the game. I pretty much gave up after a couple hours of frustrated game play.
But now, after reading about the online mode of Splinter Cell 2, I'm getting a little exciting again. But I know I should. It sounds amazing though. 2 on 2 gameplay. Spies versus mercenaries. Two basic objectives that stand between winning and losing. It just seems like it would have enough action to keep me happy while including a ton of cool stealthy touches, like dust falling from the ceiling tiles when a spy is crawling through the air vents.
But I know if I do end up buying this game it will lead to nothing but frustration. I hate the way Splinter Cell controls. It felt like a next generation version of Tomb Raider. A wide assortment of moves that were a pain in the ass to pull off because of choppy controls. And I know that it would be hard to get a game with 3 people at random who really know what they're doing and are good. Can you imagine how brutal a 2 on 2 game would be if you're partner sucked? If he refused to work as a team? If he continually gave away his position? Unless you're teamed up with a friend against two other people who are friends, I can't imagine this game actually working.
Anyway, I guess I'm just frustrated at this whole idea. It sounds like such a great game, but I know there are just too many potential flaws to make this game worth playing. Even if they cleaned up the controls and insured a competent teammate, two things I doubt will happen, there will probably be another fatal problem that keeps this game in line with the Metal Gear series and the first Splinter Cell.
// posted by Tom @ 11:17 AM 
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