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The Fall: Last Days of Gaia (sort of review)[message #187701]

Fri, 06 June 2008 16:13

Shanga

Messages:3479
Registered:January 2000
Location: Danubia

In the series of "potential JA3 replacements", here comes... THE FALL.

http://www.the-fall.com/images1/regelwerk/humvee.gif

I finally got my hands on this game released 3-4 years ago by what now seems a defunct company (Silver Style i think was their name). Apparently they bid for the license of Fallout 3 and are quite JA-inspired (Manny Santos, the bartender, is a NPC in Fall).

I admit I was prejudiced when I first started the game. I was expecting mediocre, 3d attempt at strategy gaming. The animation of the characters IS a bit rough and may cause that impression (with the help of the sucky default clothes), but I soon moved on to discover one of the most impressive games I've played in years.

First off - it's rock solid, after 1.10 patch. Only noticeable problem is the delay of exiting the game, but I have that with many many games. I simply kill the process and to hell with it. The rest of the game moves perfectly, no choppy animations, nothing, even after ALT+TAB. Although they never released the much improved and awaited English version, playing the the NMA English Mod gives you full text translation. Turn off German voices and you're set.

I wont even mention the atmosphere, which is a lot more immersive that I expected, although I would've like maps to be a bit more densely populated (I haven't discovered all places, must admit). But their LWA (Living World Architecture) makes the enviroment quite vivid. The villagers go hunting, working in the fields, chopping wood or entertaining... very nice touch.

The game is quest driven - basically these open new ares. Which is both a plus (adds to the surprise) and a minus (takes away some replayability).

http://www.the-fall.com/images1/kampfsystem/armors.gif

The team you control is just as colorfull as JA bunch is. Only sad part - it's limited to a handfull of ready-available mercs, with about as many recruitable ones scattered around the world. You can dismiss and rehire your mercs without any penalty. I even used this to cheat a bit, I hired a sniper, took his precious rifle, worth a lot on the trade market, then fired his arse and re-hired my regular. The mercs have quite a personality and from time to time you'll hear their comments, some quite funny (usually the ugly machos will hit on the girls in group, Amanda especially). Don't know yet if this influences or not their performance. If it does its not noticeable in the short time I've played.

Their advancement is excellent RPG system, way more advanced and specialised than JA2, somewhere near Fallout system, only more clear. You basically move your character in 3 directions: attributes (like STR/DEX/INT) which give bonuses to skills (like Heavy Weapons or Medical) and these in turn, when they reach a high level, allow you to select specialist Talents, two for each skill (like Alternative Medicine/Resuscitation or Bullet/Armour Modification). You basically have your Medic, Mechanic, Driver, Lock Opener, Charismatic Leader (the one who talks to NPCs), Heavy Weapons crew and Sniper. There are also aditional careers like "light weapons" and "close combat" to explore if you wish.
Here's a detailed list of all skills and perks:
http://www.the-fall.com/e/index.php?menu=rules

Now, the most important. How do skills translate into game enjoyment? Well, damn well, excelent, etc... First because you can only gain so many points to invest so you're force to specialise your team. Second because once specialised, the fun starts. Lockpick expert starts to crack locks, the mechanic starts producing Dum-Dum bullets or handmade armour pieces and the assault team - once their get their hands on some Steyr's or LMGs, they kick ass.

Even stealth is fun. Yeah, these guys did what I hoped to see in JA2... A knife attack is almost everytime deadly if properly executed. You can even carry the dead bodies to the side so the roaming guards aren't alarmed. Silencers also work great, reducing the noise to 10m, which is pretty close range at the game's scale. But they are less deadly.

Here's a big minus of the game: you cannot aim. You have all these wonderfull weapons, you can even see the tiny modifications you do to your guns (laser pen attached with tape looks LIKE a laser pen sticked with tape) but you only attack, never aim. Well, the game eventually compensates this because you DO have a 3D terrain, so you can crawl into a trench, setup an ambush, etc... but still...

Gun fights are pretty lame in the begining of the game, mostly pew-pew, but I must admit it's realistic (you suck, your Colt .38 sucks). Once your team gets specialised and equipped with ARs, it's a different story. I even noticed an improvement in the AI. I was overconfident a couple of times and attacked in plain sight, only to have two of my mercs put down quite fast. My luck was the "Resuscitation" skill Dr. Amanda had learnt, which allowed her to bring back to life any merc unconscious for less than five minutes. But on "Normal" dificulty, I've pretty much cleaned up. Actually with ARs and LMGs is so easy I am thinking of switching to stealth on my next game. Knifing down guards in the night is a better rush.

Another minus would be sniper weapons. Lacking aim, it's pretty much a wild shot. They're a far from deadly too. Maybe later in the game they would prove usefull but so far I preffer an burst from an AK-47 than a single shot from a Dragunov.

Back to the game itself though. As I said, map is made out of "locations" or towns you discover from questing (basically a NPC tells you about it). Maps themselves are just right size - you don't get bored running from one end to the other but you don't feel cramped either. The houses and the scenery in general are top quality. I even read on their forums that on each game you play their content changes randomly so they are never the same inside (and neither is the loot you can find). Awesome. The quests themselves are quite entertaining. Mostly due to the colorfull nature of the dialogues, but quite funny nevertheless. This comes from someone bored of questing from years of EQ2 and EVE Online.

The combat is based on Smart Pause. What it's nice is the fact that you can select the Autopause conditions (Enemy Sighted, Out of Ammo) up to deselecting all and manually pausing the game by pressing Space. You can also select Autobehaviours (like Autoattack, Go prone), which makes the whole thing quite manageable. Plus all that, the combat speed is fully toggable, from extremely slow motion to fast forward action. The learning curve is decent so after a few experiments you'll get the hang of it. If there are no autobehavious, the mercs are driven by AI. Also, another nice feature, each of your mercs can have individual encounter behaviours/orders. You can see all conditions here:
http://www.the-fall.com/e/index.php?menu=battlesystem

Well, I'll get back to playing now, report more later. By the way, the game comes with a full map editor and it's fully moddable - with manual and extensive documentation provided by the developers themselves. That earns a top rating in my book.

[Updated on: Fri, 06 June 2008 17:31] by Moderator