I played, here's my review:
After having experienced the tragedy that was the "beta," I was naturally a bit hesitant to dive right into the "demo" that looks strangely the same. Save a very few much needed improvements, the Operation Defuse demo was a very bland game that suffered a few bugs, and a multitude of level design flaws. That being said, I shall begin, and promise my review will be punctuated with pictures.
Now, I'll preface this all by saying that FPSC has never been known for it's fluid performance and smooth gameplay. Operation Defuse's demo is no exception. the first half, with no action, runs perfectly as expected, the second half is another story.
A whole. Nother. Story.
My game experience began with a lackluster abandoned training level littered with far too many white lights, modelpack media, and stock EAI guns. The experience begins a bit to ordinary, which sets the expectations low off the start. after walking past a series of targets I was unaware needed to be gunned down, I noticed this peculiar thing.
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This was especially peculiar since I noticed the same hole in the beta, mentioned it, and it was not fixed at all. Whether that's laziness or an accidental oversight, I'm not sure, but it was quite disagreeable.
I pressed on past into a two story building made of wood, bricks, and granite slabs. It was illuminated only by ethreal heavenly white glow emitting from nothing. The building was obviously somehow haunted, and had fallen into a state of severe disrepair, which only makes me wonder why the
<insert military organization that you are a member of> would choose to build their training grounds here, when there are clearly more optimal locations available literally anywhere.
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After escaping the haunted house of targets and monkey-vines, I dropped out the back window, in a short bout of parkour that could best be described as
the most exciting part of the game, into an even more destroyed courtyardish city area type thing with a lot of cover piled about.
I was so enthralled by the concept of making some epic rooftop sprints and leaps that I easily ascended to the roof of the haunted house in a symbolic triumph over it's uninspired inside. the rooftops were equally pallid. After falling out of the map a couple times, I finally got my act back together and headed for the end hummer. I noticed that here, the game had been altered since the beta- the hummer now has a way to exit the scene that is not blocked. I had suggested this after the beta, and it had been corrected. I appreciated it the requisite second and a half before the game faded to black and introduced me to it's second vomit-inducing loading screen.
I could tell I was in for a treat when I finally made out the tip on the top right corner. I could deduce that there would be combat. Indeed their was, if it could be called that. My game-eyes quickly opened to a haze of gunfire, but through all of the drama I saw hope, in the form of a strapping companion. An ally, strangely absent from training, that was here to help me on my conquest into the whoops never mind he died already.
I couldn't tell if he was meant to die, which is okay, but if so perhaps the game could have had him become my friend for his death to serve as a plot device making the game "deep" as promised. If he wasn't meant to die, than it's nothing more than a simple bug or oversight. The lightmapping in the city was obviously trying hard to mimic the more realistic lighting of commercial bargain-bin titles, which it did not do very well. most night cities aren't mostly orange and yellow on the ground, with pitch black towers cresting the electric blue horizon.
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The entirety of the map ran at an agonizing 60% of maximum frame rate, even on my ungodly, crysis-worthy computer possessing hardware nearing the power that NASA has attained on their recent MARS-5 rocket prototype. the FPSC engine did a good job of hiding this, however, and smoothing it to the best of it's ability.
One thing not seen often in FPSC games is physics. A smile did find its way to my lips upon viewing the enemy guns flipping and flying out of their hands when I ended their miserable lives prematurely. I'm not sure how developer Slayer267 achieved this, but It was quite well done. A diamond in the rough if you will.
The soundtrack was a valiant attempt at a techno-influenced rock opera, and while the songs themselves were actually excellent, they sounded more geared towards a platinum album than a video game; coming off as overbearing and annoying in the heat of framey, buggy, stodgy combat.
Overall, the game was a very small improvement since the last demo. It was enough of a sparkle of hope among an otherwise hopeless development cycle to give me pleasant hopes towards slayer267's future. Operation Defuse may be rough around the edges, and a bit too ambitious to accomplish first try, but with some TLC and optimization, Operation Defuse could be The Bomb (Pun strictly intended.)
And for developer Slayer267, there may be a light at the end of the tunnel.
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or in this case, a light oddly placed in the middle of the tunnel which may or may not be an oncoming train.
tl;dr- blah.
apologies for all grammar mistakes, I'm tired and sick.