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NNTP-Posting-Date: Mon, 03 Feb 2025 16:08:05 +0000
From: Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com>
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action
Subject: Re: What Have You Been Playing... IN JANUARY 2025?
Date: Mon, 03 Feb 2025 11:08:05 -0500
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On Mon, 3 Feb 2025 10:04:56 +0000, JAB <noway@nochance.com> wrote:

>On 03/02/2025 05:00, rms wrote:
>>>> * Fort Solis
>>> Oof, I always like the idea of games set on Mars... but man, I've 
>>> never read you lambast something this hard.
>> 
>>   Then you haven't been paying attention as 3/4ths of Spalls' reviews 
>> are negative!  Here is my -- positive -- review from some months back:
>> 
>> To my mind Fort Solis and Still Wakes the Deep share very positive 
>> qualities.  Both have excellent graphics, sound, and voice-acting, along 
>> with unique and detailed locations -- a Mars base in FT, and a drilling 
>> platform in SWTD) that provide an atmosphere and sense of immersion that 
>> really pull you in, all in service of a story-based, horror thriller. 
>> But how the two games achieve this couldn't be more different.
>> 
>> SWTD is more active and energetic, both in the pacing, the freewheeling 
>> english isle language usage, and the physical puzzle solving, well- 
>> integrated with the first-person perspective, in an exhilarating, more- 
>> or-less never seen before setting -- most players would probably pick it 
>> first. But that is not a knock on Fort Solis, where the devs were going 
>> for a completely different vibe: A moody, oppressive, human drama, in a 
>> highly controlled environment with a closely-knit cast of characters. I 
>> very much wanted to see everything these characters -- and actors -- 
>> did, and explored everywhere to get 100% with all achievements (missed 
>> quite a few with SWTD). In any case, both great games, and both fairly 
>> short, ~5 hours for SWTD and ~11 hours for Fort Solis, and both highly 
>> recommended!
>
>I was going to add Still Wakes the Deep until I read the minimum specs 
>and my little old 1050 OC isn't really up to the job!


I wasn't impressed by "Still Wakes" either. ;-) 

"Still Wakes" was just too generic in its actual story and mechanics.
Judged by itself, I guess it was fine but given its pedigree (the devs
also made "Amnesia: Machine for Pigs", "Dear Esther" and "Everybody
Goes to the Rapture") and compared to its competition (e.g. the dozens
of other games that tell almost exactly the same story and have the
same mechanics), I expected a lot more. "Still Wakes" felt like
yet-another-Amenesia clone, and I've played more than enough of those.

It was very pretty though. 


"Fort Solis", though. I /get/ what the developers were going for. As
mentioned, they wanted to create a moody, atmospheric game. But it was
so poorly done and with such shoddy mechanics that it became
impossible to appreciate its attempts. Its characters were awful. Its
story was generic. The level design was unsurprising. And its
mechanics --too-slow movement, quicktime events, hunt-the-keycard
questing-- was aggravating. Worse, its problems were so obvious that
its hard to be forgiving towards its flaws.

Like I said, "Fort Solis" was a game I _should_ have liked. I started
it fully expected to enjoy myself. I'm a fan of sci-fi, a fan of
atmospheric titles, and generally enjoy 'walking sims'. "Solis" should
have been a slam-dunk; a game I couldn't help but enjoy. But this game
put every roadblock it could into that happening. There are so many
other better games available. "Solis" is a poorly designed game and
not worth playing when there are so many alternatives available.