Assorted musings and spoilers :
Characterisation felt anemic when compared with
2. While I realise it's partially due to the length of the game, the antagonists just don't do very much at all. Most striking example would be the entirety of Killbane. A pathologically narcissistic luchador, whose most egregious action against the player (funeral procession crashing), can, due to jarring cutscene fuckery, lack appropriate establishment/context, leaving events and players potentially confused. Early on, you are dissuaded from the why-not-just-kill-him mentality with an explanation that due to his overwhelming investment in the culture of lucha libre, the loss of his mask, and, by extension, his persona and reputation, would leave him as an irreparably broken non person. Later, shockingly, you have the opportunity to un-mask him. Still later, you are effectively begged by the man who first asked you
not to kill him, to kill him, before he flees the city to be an impotent, shattered peacock somewhere else. For no compelling reason. Couldn't it wait a few weeks ? There's a fucking huge statue to save from exploding, at the time, after all. And not-Shaundi (I am disappointed with how they handled her double). Who could forget her. Contrast this with Maero, of
2. The player engages in a gleefully sociopathic tit-for-tat escalation of unabashed arseholishness, highlights including mutilating and later killing his best friend, a nuclear waste spiked tattoo, and culminating with tricking him into killing his girlfriend at a monster truck rally. Ultimately, the character of the Boss has mellowed from a joyously violent, complete chunt to that of an occasionally bloodthirsty and (sadly) mostly unremarkable thug. While I found the untimely death of 'Waffles' to be hilarious, both in execution, and in how it so adroitly neutralised expectations of all things nemesis - I cannot help but feel that the characters of
2 were superior. And that Killbane pretty much sucked.
Also found the narrative, in both pacing and framing, underwhelming, and at times schizophrenic - whereas
2 handled affairs with finesse and panache uncharacteristic of a GTA pretender. Also, some excellent
cutscenes, the character of which I hope shines through the shiteness of youboob. Stand outs in this area include 'missions' where you drive to a cutscene, and the inclusion of 'introductions' to the activities in the main arc. I am aware that this last detail is probably not too grating for those of you for whom
TT is the first of the series you have played. For me, though, even Insurance Fraud is starting to wear thin, at this point. Still reeks of overt padding, nonetheless. At least we mostly dodged the usual here-is-how-you-shoot-a-gun and here-is-how-you-avoid-the-police and here-is-how-you-go-bowling and such. Almost everything after the debut of S.T.A.G is golden, though too bloody short. Also, deckers.die was sublime. A pity they dropped FUZZ. I think it would have been, for instance, fun to masquerade as, and thereby besmirch S.T.A.G with the judicious application of ridiculous violence. Though it could, perhaps, be argued that with their unique approach to crisis management, no one would notice (or care, if they did) the difference.
While I am aware that many of the following points are mostly (?) due to engine migration (and possibly publisher induced pressures), the city of Steelport, when compared with
2's Stilwater, lacks character. Essentially, you have downtown, and you have everywhere else. Reduced pedestrian variety and banter, a lack of explorable non-setpiece interiors, layered clothing, incidental NPC and environmental fluff such as streakers, tai chi groups, streetside dice games, steel drummers, civilian boats/aircraft to list but a few . . . It's just not a very interesting world.
Am mildly disturbed by the fact that
4 is already in development, and the proposed 40 weeks of DLC. The current DLC is, frankly, poor. Except for the shark gun. The shark gun is a thing of beauty.
The occasional end mission choices felt bland and tacked on. Do you want +5% X, or +5% Y ? Some money
now, or more
later ? Do you want zombies, or Burt 'Fucking' Reynolds ? Celebrity cameos are worthless, no exceptions here. Writing of zombies, the zombie voice option is notable, if only for being the first time I have failed to immediately recognise Steve Blum.
Regardless, due to certain gameplay refinements, including superior gunplay, the 'awesome button' running takedowns/melee/vehicle theft system (which, bafflingly, you cannot use during Murderbrawl XXXI - and no fight club(s) ? Doubly baffling) and a vastly more satisfying vehicular handling model, I will find it difficult to go back to
2.
Both
2 and
TT are intuitive to mod. Ergo, if you chose console over PC, you are a bit of a twit. Yes, even taking into account the practically unassailable contender for Worst Port of All Time that is the PC version of
2. Fortunately, the issues are (mostly) easily bypassed with the use of
this. Also, consider throwing
this on. Unless you loathe fun. (FYI - you may be doing something wrong - please consider a more suitable hobby, like Morris dancing, lawn bowls, or curling.)
And they removed mission/cutscene replays. Why the fuck would they do that ? DLC ? Bastards.
At least it's fairly simple to enable radio for the tank(s). Writing of music and tanks - they actually pulverise cars ! Fucking finally. Yet, still no custom playlists ? What the shit ? Bastards.
I concede that it's minor, but I miss being able to send my character on rampages while they're utterly blitzed. BASTARDS.
Pant Spelunker wrote:multiplayer
2 has
superb co-op. While great,
SRTT co-op will only improve with time and mods. Your enjoyment correlates to how imaginative you are at the time.
Danny wrote:Genki
Have you run into the Professor on the street ? Nightmarish seeing that visage as it runs toward you with an Annihilator. Lucrative though.
Danny wrote:tiger
Currently looking at enabling weapon use during both instances of Escort. Fuck those vans.
I agree that it would have benefited immensely from a longer development cycle, but from what I have read, THQ isn't doing too well at the moment. Make of that what you will.
