Caltrops - System Shlock 2





	[quote name="Arbit"][quote name="Mischief Maker"]gives Thief a great big blowjob[/quote] Stealth is clearly not SS2s strong suit. It's not meant to be, no matter what UPB says. [quote]First, let me congratulate you on resisting the impulse to say that I should go back to quake because the game is too hard/brainy for me. Now hold on to your monocle, because the main reason I don't like SS2 is because it's <U>too easy</U>! The thief engine is based around carefully avoiding conflict, it fails miserably at actual combat. Once you get your repair skill high enough to keep your equipment from melting and once you get your weapons skill high enough so you can actually shoot your guns, the game is a cakewalk. Big brown monster at 12 o'clock? Load your anti personnel rounds and click it as it rushes straight towards you until it dies. Same for big grey monsters except use armor-piercing. All fear for your own safety boils away and about the only thing left maintaining your interest is picking up the message logs and piecing together the plot. The main thing that kept me going was the question of what evil thing Shodan was going to <B>do</B> to you once the many were eradicated?[/quote] Has it ever occured to either of you idiots to turn up the difficulty? I can tell from your complaints that it hasn't. Playing it on impossible makes FABIO's favorite tactic of wrench rushing suicide and every combat dangerous because you have so few hitpoints. It also reduces the glut of cybermodules so you can't become a superman, at least until late game. See, if it's too easy, change the difficulty! You can even do it mid-game! Amazing! [quote]And the final answer after hours of plodding combat and keycard-searching was so mind-bogglingly stupid it was like a deliberate "fuck you, thanks for all those hours of your life!" from the game designers.[/quote] Not that bad, but I'm sorry you didn't like it. [quote][quote]That's what SS2 did more than any other FPS before or since, and the thing that has been copied the least. Everything from the obvious decision of what RPG stat to increase to the subtle decision of weapon choices. That's one of the reasons that it was a deep game, besides the stuff like story and level design.[/quote] That's not depth, that's a cheap trick to increase replayability. [/quote] Holy fucking idiocy. What is it with those RPGs that don't allow you to use every weapon? They don't let you use all the spells either! And classes? That's just limiting my options! ...Holy shit, are you for real? [quote]My recent experience with Deus Ex was a blast because every time I encountered a problem, I had <B>options</B> I could pick from to surmount it. Would I use an air vent to sneak past? Would I hack the security system to make the turrets perforate my foes? Would I use a valuable GEP round and risk alerting the whole base?[/quote] I like how in your varied list of options you include "climb into an air vent" and "fire a rocket launcher", two of the biggest and lamest FPS design crutches since forever. Hmm, how will I sneak into this high security facility? How about a GIANT MOTHERFUCKING AIR VENT Why don't you throw "fire a shotgun" in there, too. [quote]I can't imagine how much the game would suck if every time you encountered an obstacle, the air vent was your one and only option. As for "choices," there's nothing more fun than playing through the whole fucking game only to discover at the very end that you made the WRONG choices. I played a haxor, but upon seeing just about all the turrets I hacked get wrenched to death by a steady stream of respawning zombies I switched my emphasis to becoming a sniper. I was cutting through the game like a hot knife through butter with that skill set. Then I got to the many brain. Specifically the many brain protected by an unlimited number of instantly respawning bullrushing monsters. How could my "pick 'em off from a distance" tactics for which my character's stats were tailored succeed in this situation? Answer: they couldn't. I had to use the god cheat. Apparently if I was psychic I could have used the invisibility spell to avoid them, but then I would have been fucked when it came time to take on shodan in her wacky wonderland tron battle because I wouldn't have any hacking skills to use on the terminals controling her rainbow shield.[/quote] If you ask me, it sounds like this game is <u>too easy</u>. Here is your answer: you keep moving and shoot the little floaty things. You don't keep killing the respawning monsters. Are you stupid? Also, the Shodan terminials are ridiculously easy to hack. I think you can do it fairly quickly with level 1 or 2 Hacking and a low cyber affinity stat. PLUS, you clueless faggot, you can shoot through the shield (it takes a lot of damage, but can be done), use ICEpicks on the terminals, or use the psi power that allows you to hack (if you had the invisibility power you would have easy access to this). Gosh, no options! [quote]Now maybe it's just because I prefer the mindless blastfest of half-life over more cerebral plot-driven faire like DOOM, but that sounds like fundamentally broken design that contributes nothing to the game which was already fucked to begin with with its inappropriate engine and shitty plot.[/quote] It sound like you don't know what the hell you're talking about. Your supposed unsolvable problem above is not unsolvable at all. [quote]Then again I'm the kind of guy who thinks rosebud was a symbol of a lost and irretrievable childhood innocence that was more dear to Kane than all the wealth and power in the world instead of a stupid sled, so what do I know?[/quote] Maybe Zseni was right, you are a big fat girl.[/quote]