Re: shades off doon or technoshock?
Hmm, I believe I would go for Technoshokck here, but there are good things about both. Shades seems a little more realistic, more spacious, and less difficult. Technoshock has things right in your face most of the time. In fact you can't even hear most objects until they are about 15 to 20 steps away, where as with Shades, you can hear things 60 feet away or more. However there are things I don't like about both games. I'll go through my likes and dislikes of each one.
Shades:
I like that it's more open and is less chalenging most of the time. It generally plays and sounds smoother. However I don't like the low quality sounds, but I won't hold that against it since everything is clearly distinguishable from everything else. I do hope that the update provides 3d sound back in, because in Raul's Shades walkthroughs, which sadly are not up as far as i can tell, had some nice 3d effects on some of the sounds. I also don't like how conf
using some of the areas in Shades are. I'm not good at passages which twist and turn and end up going in circles.
Technoshock:
Technoshock doesn't have much in the way of passages that get you turning in circles, in fact most of its pathways are relatively linear. However it starts out hard and gets harder, almost like someone is standing at your side and smacking you upside the head with a heavy object. Once he sees that it's not bothering you, he just goes and gets something heavier and hits you more. I do like that the environments are more closed in, you can always hear something familiar, and when you get lost, it's pretty easy to find your way back. Something is always happening, and each level is invigorating and exciting. New challenges are introduced during each level, and by the end, you're almost glad that it's over, even though there are only 6 levels and each one is pretty short. However, the sound is pretty jerky and feels like y
ou're playing on a corse grid. This makes certain obstacles harder to hear and judge distance. I do not like the lagginess of the game, and have experienced issues playing the game with certain versions of Windows and certain sound cards. I had one sound card which actually put the sounds in a virtual 3d experience through headphones, almost like the Somethin Else games for IOS. However the enemy sounds didn't pan properly, so I couldn't tell where they were. Now I am having similar issues, the sound is plain stereo which is what i would expect, but the sound panning isn't as wided as it once was, so even if something is directly off to the right, it sounds closer to the center. It drives me mad because I was working on a mod for the game, and was working on a walkthrough at the same time. Now the game sound isn't right, so now it's even harder than it was. Maybe I could re-learn things, but I'm not sure if I'd want to now. And as I said there
is an awful lag between when you press keys and when you hear sounds, you can get used to it but it feels sluggish. Combat is a little unfair. Enemies will just appear and shoot at you, with about 5 seconds between shots. They never miss, and so long as they are audible, they will always hit you. It's only when they are no longer audible that they stop shooting, and consequently can't hurt you. I think I know why they behave that way, to force you to take them out quickly. The scope batteries only last for about 30 seconds if I remember right. Come on, there's no set of decent batteries in the place? LOL! Obstacles can be tricky as well. You can get hit in the face with a huge amount of damage and never see or hear it coming. For instance, you might be in a passage of fireballs, then go into another room. Then you go up to the door to leave, and you don't hear any fireballs, so you assume it's safe to leave. But no, a fireball was coming right when you open
ed the door, so you get hit with a cheap obstacle and now have lost about 15 percent of health. But the slightly unfair nature is what makes the game challenging, sometimes to an extremely frustrating level. I don't know why but I adapted pretty well to that, even though I hate it so much. After a while I grew used to it. The key is to adapt with your reflexes and strategies, which as I said have to be quick and accurate.
Hmm, someone should remake the thing in BGT! If the developer actually came back and worked on it, I'd hope he'd at least consider it. I really like the game and wish the core issues like lagginess, and sound panning instability, were fixed. i'm willing to accept the unfair nature of the game as just a chalenge that you have to adapt to, because a lot of hard attles in real life aren't fair.
URL: http://forum.audiogames.net/viewtopic.php?pid=176403#p176403
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