collection of gamer thoughts. i feel uninterested in the idea of writing straighforward comprehensive reviews for things, but at the same time i always want to compile at least some of my thoughts if i feel like they're worth jotting down in some way or might lead somewhere interesting. so let's try this. i'll update this page over time, if i don't drop it.
- actually passably fun combat-gameplay-wise, at least as someone who enjoys various flavors of RPG style gameplay. people say the sewers is where it really starts sucking, but i think it's actually later where that's the case, like in the sabbat hotel and the final dungeons. it's just too much and not enjoyable enough. but maybe if you prepare even more it wouldn't be so bad. i just found myself frustrated at the golden temple dungeon especially, and the damn boss there... i literally did not have enough equipment to complete it, so i had to go back and prepare before doing the dungeon over again. i needed more blood bags and a flamethrower since i wasn't doing enough damage before i died, even though i tried to spec as much as possible into melee and defense stats beforehand especially knowing i was nearing the end. but anyway, the sewer level again wasn't that bad in comparison as long as you have the slighest idea that there are necessary combat sections in this game, which i was aware of. if you don't know that and try a pure charisma build or something, i can see how it's a major filter.
- the atmosphere makes it the kind of game you really could find enjoyment in just sort of existing and walking around in. i think that's why it's such a "if you mention it, someone will reinstall" kind of game, since just seeing a screenshot can put you in that sort of place. it's intoxicating, almost, a very intense sort of thing... there's an exact time and place and feeling captured by this game. really, this goes without saying, but i feel like mentioning it anyway. i think even factors like the classic RPG design sensibilities contribute to this. it just can't be replicated. perhaps this alone is one major reason why it's hard to expect much at all from the upcoming sequel, even ignoring how sequels and reboots have been going in general lately. but that's yet to be seen as i write this.
- the game being made with an early version of the source engine was endlessly interesting to me, cause i'm a big freakin' valve nerd. but i think apparently the build branched off of is from as early as 2001, which is crazy. well, maybe that's too crazy even. it might just be from around the time of the 2003 beta too or something, it's hard to find exact information. but either way, interesting. i liked trying to notice everything that felt very obviously source-y, and in what ways they made things different, or rather left in an early state. the movement for example is very different in the feel, very floaty for some reason, although some aspects are the same like being able to crouch jump. a lot of environments feel more like goldsrc than source, which is maybe one of the more striking things to me, like how it was exploring through early half life 2 maps from somewhat adjacent periods in source's development. i don't know. i just like thinking about it. i wonder if there are more minor details you can comb through and glean something from by comparing the two games like this, that maybe hasn't been done as much since VTMB is a bit more obscure.
- the way the story and the game in general unfolds reminds me a lot of new vegas, and deus ex. it seems very obvious to say that but it feels worth mentioning in some more abstract way that's hard to explain. like a combination of certain sensibilities and aspects from both of these games, arranged in a specific way. there's also a thought i had though, specifically about the combat, in a "hands-on" way as well as aesthetically, with weapon choices and visual design and such things.. it reminds me of fallout, but more of the original fallouts than of fallout new vegas. and that's very interesting to me. a lot of the earlier combat encounters especially, like one of the first missions where you encounter a band of drug dealers or whatever holed up in an abandoned house. it's very fallout-esque, that one in particular sort of like the mission you get from shady sands to save tandi from the bandits, you know. and the sequence of events, the setup, as well as the character encounter, the combat, and the visual/aesthetic elements thereof feel again, like fallout, but more original fallout than new vegas, despite being 3D. my point being that there's something more pure about it than new vegas, in my experience of that feeling, i think because new vegas was already sort of "tainted" by having to have been a branch of bethesda's warped idea of the franchise, even if it could be "altered back" to a great degree. but there's still clearly a more pure view here, i think, and it fulfills my desire for a 3D RPG in this kind of contemporary-ish setting well. once again, there's something very exact captured by this game. i'm not sure if that makes sense or is over-explained, but i tried.