Chronicles Of Riddick

[Fingernail 59]

I got this for Christmas (PC Version "Developer's Cut"), but only just able to play it since my DVD/CD drive broke and has only just been replaced.

 

Anyhow, it's a pretty funky game (graphics almost identical to that of D3, almost to the point of looking like the same engine/game in places), with lots of sneaking quite like Thief and Deus Ex in many respects.

 

Anyone played it?

[oDDity 3]

Nope, I don't play any games at all these days. THe last new one was T3, and I didn't even finish that one. THe last game I completed was KotOR about a year and a half ago.

[Springheel 4670]

I just got it myself, though I haven't had time to play it yet.

[bnewsom 0]

I have it and I thought it was a good game. Worth plaything, I may say. Though it kinda is better than Doom 3.

[Fingernail 59]

Are you kidding? It's a much much much better game than D3 could ever hope to be!

 

D3 was lame; Riddick is good.

[BlackThief 0]

I also considered to buy it, however I read somewhere that it's rather short. I'm not willing to throw 50€ away to play the game 6 hours....

[sparhawk 17]

Personally I'm always a bit taken aback when a game is based on a movie. No matter what they say. Pitch Black was quite good, but Chronicles was not in the same league so I wonder what the game would be.

[Fingernail 59]

Better than the film by almost all accounts.

 

Additionally it's not the same storyline, it's a prequel to both films.

[bad marine ass 0]

I also considered to buy it, however I read somewhere that it's rather short. I'm not willing to throw 50€ away to play the game 6 hours....

I spent the same price on AVP2 and never got to play it online because there weren't local servers. Still, the game was all good and I felt like I got my money's worth

 

I'll be picking Riddick after the Lunar New Year when I start stocking up on cold hard cash. Looks really good

[Ishtvan 17]

I heard you guys saying that Riddick had an awesome hand-to-hand combat system. Can anyone elaborate on that?

[Springheel 4670]

I don't know if I'd say it's awesome, it's just a little more advanced than the basic 'fist weapon' or crowbar most FPS have.

 

Basically, there are various hand-to-hand weapons, like shivs or brass knuckles. There is a parry action as well. AI will parry and attack using different moves. It's the closest thing to T2 I've seen in a modern FPS.

[Hippo 0]

I heard you guys saying that Riddick had an awesome hand-to-hand combat system. Can anyone elaborate on that?

Yes. You can throw punches from different sides and do a counter-attack, which usually leads to death of your enemy

 

I just recently (not a week ago) played the game through. Here're some of my thoughts:

 

What I didn't like about it was the feeling of me running in a tube. The levels were too narrow and pretty straight forward. You never really got any choices to make, saying which road to go. And in a sneaking game that's pretty much the worst thing you can do IMO.

 

I did like the whole Riddick character. Anti-heros are always my thing. And yes, Vin Deasel do rock your socks, and so does the other voice actors. Also liked the 'preying mode'. Kinda succesfull. The HUD is pretty much perfect: when you're just running along without no combat or anything, there's nothing disturping you on the screen. Very well done. (Take a hint Dark Mod team. Oh, and when you were hanging on a rail and moving sides-to-sides the view throwed you in the 3rd person mode. Otherwise it's always 1st person. This system could allow you guys to make the Dark Mod game environment even more usefull, like I've stated in my previous topic -> http://forums.thedarkmod.com/index.php?showtopic=679 This way it wouldn't look bad to make the thief more acrobatic. The drawback is of course can the thief fans take it.

 

Overall it was worth the 36 euros I payed for it, but it could have been A LOT better.

[Ishtvan 17]

Personally, I think supporting 3rd person would require a LOT more coding work, and T1/T2 did just fine without it.

[Gleemonex 11]

Doom 3 supports 3rd person view out of the box. That doesn't make 3rd person a free ride, of course, but it's a large part of the solution.

 

Now, whether it fits into the gameplay of a thief-like game is another story entirely.

 

-Glee

[Ishtvan 17]

In addition to just running around with third person, body awareness means you have to link all the animations to the environment in ways that look right.. climbing ladders for example, you have to put a hand on each rung, etc. This is why (I think) TDS always "sucked you in" to those situations, because it always played the same third person animation starting with the same initial conditions. Also it would require animations for swimming, creeping, arrow shooting, etc etc. Would you guys rather have a T1/T2 style game done faster, or a 3rd person supported game that takes another 6 months to produce? The majority of Thief fans didn't seem to get all that much out of playing in 3rd person anyway. Sorry if that didn't make any sense. I'm very tired right now.

[Dram 123]

The best solution IMO? Stuff 3rd person and body awareness, just have the player shadow on (in the DoomConfig file: seta g_showPlayerShadow "1") so that you can see yourself where you are. When I test my maps, I always have Player shadow on. Though it could be a problem cos you probably still need animations for the 3rd person model. hmm. Also, what about mirrors in the game? they'd be dumb if the player had no animations (this wierd thief slides along ground) anyway.

[Ishtvan 17]

The player model that will be seen in mirrors is probably going to have basic animations like walking, running, crouching etc. We don't want to waste time doing more complicated third person stuff though.

 

If a player looks in a mirror while climbing a ladder.. they'll probably just see themselves sliding up a ladder. But that's the player's fault really, because why the hell are they climbing a ladder without watching where they're going?

Edited February 3, 2005 by Ishtvan

[Dram 123]

LOL, I see. Ok, that's cool. The shadow could be implemented then?

[Ishtvan 17]

Not sure what you mean exactly, but Doom3 does already have a player shadow option.

[Dram 123]

What I mean is: If I turn the player shadow on, will the model I see as the shadow have those basic anims? my guess is yes (cos i think you'd have to make animations for the 3rd person thief model for it to have good anims in the shadow).

 

--Dram

[sparhawk 17]

There is no 3rd person in Darkmod.

[Dram 123]

Sparhawk, we know, I was talking about the shadow (the one you see in 1st person) is the same as the one in 3rd. Therefore, if you wanted a good 1st person shadow, you need to have good animations for the 3rd person thief, which is (at least now) not being done. Just to sum it all up .

[Ishtvan 17]

IMO making good animations for the shadow is low priority compared to first person animations and AI anims that we'll need for basic gameplay.

[Dram 123]

Don't worry, I 100% agree. Just some basic anims would do I think. I like to walk around in doom3 and see my shadow (and be able to see if I really do look hidden), however, it is a rather large waste of time and IMO should be done as a patch after the toolset and campaign are released.

 

--Dram