Post
by Derakon » Sat Oct 11, 2008 12:04 am
Here's my feedback, keeping in mind that I haven't yet finished it (I'm at the third Sky Palace level, so I should be pretty close to the end, though).
* Some of the levels are difficult in what I found to be a not-very-fun way. In particular, I'm thinking of:
** Dante's hideout, where you have to make a lot of very precise jumps, with the penalty of failure being having to run back to the beginning and do it all over again. Jumping puzzles can be fun, but it's far easier to make an irritating jumping puzzle than it is to make a fun one.
** The fight with three wolves. I don't know about the players here, but I know I can't take on three wolves in a brawl. Maybe if I had an unlimited supply of knives. But not in this situation. So I had to lose 'em, which is easily done by jumping on top of the structure that Ash starts in front of. After that you can lure them away one by one. But this feels very exploity, since the wolves realistically shouldn't be able to lose you so easily.
** The fortress level with four wolves (two guarding the entrance, one in the middle, one in a corner) and some rabbits. Generally I just feel like this level's too long -- you have to pick off the enemies very carefully. Even granted that you can ninja your way to the sword-carrying rabbit as your first victim, and stealth the other rabbits, by the time you get to the wolves you've been playing for a while already, and then you have to kill at least two flawlessly to have a reasonable chance of not dying. On the medium difficulty a single kick from one of these guys can kill you -- there's very little margin for error.
** The Sky Palace level that has very narrow corridors. Sadly, Lugaru doesn't deal well with this situation; the camera goes a bit wonky, the enemies get hung up on corners, and it's all too easy to get sent out of bounds. I like what you were trying to go for, but it's important to recognize the limitations of the engine. This level also suffers from major framerate issues until I kill one of the rabbits, which makes navigating the corridors even harder...you understand the problem, I hope.
All in all, though, the campaign's fun. I appreciate the chance to try out my stealth moves on new patrol groups and face new combinations of enemies. The difficulty could've used a little tuning, is all.
Edit: Okay, I finished the campaign. The General has an absurd amount of health -- he took three leg cannons and a whole bunch of regular beating before dying, and I'm not talking that puny sweep-kick x2 combo either. Anyway.
The level in the Sky Palace with three wolves, two on the edges and one on a raised dias (the same level you fight Brutus in) has a few minor issues. Specifically, the wolves get hung up on the edges of the dias. So if you're feeling clever, the easy way to do this level is lure the dias wolf onto the edge area and get him stuck, then stealth-kill the other two wolves before dealing with the dias wolf at your leisure. You can even get him stuck repeatedly; each time is worth a spinning kick to the back. Brutus is similarly vulnerable.
The Sky Palace level with the garden has a different issue - the wolves are all too willing to leap into the air without verifying that there's ground where they're going to land. Of the four wolves, two of them were killed from falling to their deaths. The other two I stealth-killed -- did you know you can jump from the "armory" area up onto the walls, and drop down behind the wolves on the right side? A crouch-jump just barely gets you enough height.
I mention these mainly because I was unable to clear these levels without abusing tricks like this. I'm decent enough in combat, but I'm not perfect, and there's so little room for error when fighting lots of wolves that it's simply not practical to keep restarting until I get a perfect run. And this was all on the medium difficulty; I shudder to think what it's like on Insane.
I've followed the instructions, redownloaded both and it keeps happening, soooooo *drumroll* I need help.
