"The Conduit is generic"

[Demotruk]

The_vagabond7 said:
The problem is that is seems generic for almost a decade ago. And not from a story point of view. From every gameplay video I've seen it looks like a very pretty quake 2, or a less violent quake 3. It looks to be extremely run of the mill run and gun. That doesn't make it bad, but it also doesn't earn it a ton of attention or hype.

The modern FPS is highly directed, cinematic, scripted, immersive, and more often than not relies on cover, and stop and pop gameplay using regenerative health to keep the pacing up and encourage big action moments while still keeping a reward/punishment system in a high tension environment.

The old style of FPS is run through corridors, circle strafe in openings, run and gun, cannon fodder AI, one man army style. It uses health meters and armor, and health packs hidden in levels. It relies on resource management and exploration. Your Turok's your Quakes, your perfect darks, your golden eyes. Less scripted events, less stop and pop, more run and gun, more explore.

The boss from the conduit videos could've come straight out of Turok Dinosaur hunter. A big open space, you circle strafe and shoot until he falls. Compare that to resistance 2 where a boss fight is a cinematic fight through crumbling buildings against a twenty story tall monster that relies heavily on scripted events, trigger points, and crazy things happening.

The conduit isn't accused of being generic because it's aliens and saving the world. It's accused of being generic because it seems to be based on a gameplay model that went out of style more than five years ago. I may still buy it, but I also still love Quake 2. It won't be a bad game, but you can't expect the same level of hype that other FPSs that have evolved get.

 

Well, I'm not really a fan of the modern evolution of FPS's. So I'm glad this game hasn't simply adopted the formula of the time. I much prefer the Half-Life style of doing things, and even more so the STALKER approach with indepentantly acting AI and an open environment, though I don't expect that to happen properly on consoles any time soon.