Log 2: Von Braun or not to Von Braun

To be perfectly honest, I knew that as soon as I put up a deadline at the end of my last post, I'd break it.

I feel bad about it, but it won't be the last time I get preoccupied....

...though I hope it's the last time my HDD dies.

So I revisited the Von Braun, I pumped myself up with a more educated build. It was very much a "round 2" type scenario. I thought it would be easy from here.


I was right, up to a point.

The parts I'd already failed at, they were easy. I knew what to expect, where the cameras were, where the keys were, the guns, the quests. I breezed through it.

The first 3 or 4 areas were simple. My past experience with similar games (Bioshock, Fallout 3), and more recent experience with derivative type games (Deus Ex: Human Revolution) meant that shooting, inventory management and stat management came natural. Here was a game that seemed to have given birth to so many of my favourite experiences in gaming that I was loving it.

Then things got hard. I grew lax in conserving my ammunition. Previous UI problems came back to haunt me. Changing between bullet types has never been easy in games (why has no one got this dowm?) so when I pumped 2 or 3 anti-personnel bullets into the cameras it stung. When I haphazardly fired three armor piercing shotgun shells into the hybrids that so often take me by surprise I knew I would regret it.

I wasn't wrong.

Supplies began to run low. My currency in the game (nanites) began to dwindle. With each dispatched enemy there was a small drain on my stores; bullets, nanites, health. They were all dropping in count and it was all adding up.

I died for the first time, about an hour into the game. Things did not get easier from there.

I died 4 or 5 more times in the succeeding rooms.

I'm ashamed to say I gave up there; I'd fight another day I knew but it wasn't going to be that night.

Yesterday, my harddrive blew up so I have to reinstall and restart anyway; at least that allows me to postpone further punishment.

What will I do next time? The one thing I hoped not to do; I'll play it on easy.

I will go back, this game is good. I don't know if I can call it great, to say I wanted my hand held and more things explained to me would be complaining about a lack of experience in game. Moreso I think the repercussions for mistakes made (wastefulness, suboptimal builds) combined with a lack of in-depth knowledge of your surroundings can add up into a game that is painfully hard to progress in.

Hopefully making the game generally easier will lighten these punishments and I can have something I can become immersed in and enjoy it. The potential is there; the first narrated cutscene had me. Shortly thereafter I died and had to endure it again. I think it was at this point I knew the game was too hard for me in its state. To anyone who played it, found it too hard and gave up (me the first time) and never came back I completely would understand.

I will choose when I've had enough though; I won't have the game beat me.

Log 3: Later this week, at some point!