After playing RTCW: ET today, I was reminded of what an elegant affair PS was with the time I had with it in beta... in some ways. Except for BF1942 i've got the gaming duldroms and really wish PS would be the other title to fill them... BUT there's just some gripes I have...
1) Design - technically good, imaginatively not bad but hasn't really bloomed yet. It's like basically they have defined one form of play so far and got the engine running well, but the game needs about 50 more variations in major gameplay style. I have no idea how to guage how ambitious SOE is about adding to what's there... and that's something I need to know before I commit to PS.
I need to know there will be a major thrust towards continually adding more GAMEPLAY-wise. That's my defintion of content.
So far in terms of gameplay, the mechanics of shooting, zooming, and basic combat, movement, function are well done. But what's lacking is more design to the game - will depth be added or not? Only a couple more notches of objective and function could add so much more to the fun factor... but it is a balancing act.
I mean as it is the levels/worlds/conts of PS are admittedly not really designed yet. They are just vast space. I need to see some stuff that's hand made for cool gameplay opportunities. I think the first major updates I would want to see before anything like a vehicle or weapon, is a major INTERESTING change made to the land, a base, whatever... so that I know they care about that part that very fundamentally can define gameplay.
Also, the rewards as we all know from beta need major work. XP is a devil and should probably just be nerfed altogether. But when I see the devs making decisions like splitting squad xp... it doesn't show me they are committed to what's best for the player, but best for keeping people on a treadmill... i.e... money. Plus I notice their censorship and sort of behavior I don't look at lightly at their official messageboards. I'm still conflicted I guess, this game always seems to have potential, but on the other hand in reality it's never been more then dangling a carrot and I always end up the one duped in the end.
Which brings me to the other issue:
2) Price. Basically with costs of living constantly attacking my wallet as a young man, and being put in a situation where I am already weary that this game will deliver on what I'm looking for... $13 a month is way over the top. Half of that would be a lot more appealing. Although logistically that might get way too many players on servers that don't have room around this launch period, (and I can imagine how upset they must be to have to charge more for logistical reasons and keep some of their fans out right now - lol, yeah right) there's nothing unfeasibile about charging $6 or so in a couple months. This is the time to make the game what it will be though. People are admittedly paying to continue beta right now - brave choice on their part, but over the next 2-3 months... that's it... that's when we will have the PS that would have been if it wasn't pushed out right now. And it's future all lies in whether that PS has depth, strong stable servers, and the whole 9 yards or if this game wouldn't have made it no matter how much more time they spent.
So I'll keep an eye out. PS is still poised to become the next big thing in online gaming but it all rests in whether they can ramp up the core game to acceptable levels right now. To have done so much right it will be a calamity if they don't just get in there, design their butts off, and put out and absolutely stunning, content filled, squad based FPS in a few months.
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2003-05-29, 04:18 PM
Linear Mode
