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Post by Discoalucard on Mar 20, 2010 17:14:06 GMT -5
www.hardcoregaming101.net/noctropolis/noctropolis.htmI was big into PC gaming when I was about 13 or so, which also meant that I didn't have much money. So, I bought most of my games either at computer shows or the bargain bin in the back of my local mall's Kay Bee. Around that time they had a lot of Electronic Arts Classics games, which I bought most of, like System Shock and Ultima Underworld. Noctropolis was one of those games I always wanted to try but didn't, which is why I gave it a shot to review here. It's not that great, in all honesty. The most interesting part is how it's basically a spiritual successor to Martian Memorandum, being designed by one of the same guys. It's cheesy but not quite as overtly funny, so it feels pretty weird. Some of the background artwork is fantastic though. I also remember this touted as having some nudity, which would've been awesome when I was 13 but ended up kinda disappointing. The girl that played Stiletto, the female sidekick, was played by a Playboy Playmate from about ten years prior. I did some "research", and she was much better looking back then.
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Post by Ganelon on Mar 20, 2010 17:53:58 GMT -5
Nice, this was one of the games I tried in the mid-90s too and for the exact same cheap reason. I had heard it was a great comic-book adventure game but the digitized people totally disillusioned me. I never got the sense that it was satire though; I think a lot of B-games that used digitized actors seem more comical than they were actually meant to be.
Here's the list of grammar stuff I noticed: "how can the world of fantasy fiction heal of the soul by invoking one's inner manchild?" -heal the soul? "Assuming you navigate these trees correcting" - correctly? "there are very few other spots where you can do." - die? " One involves Darksheer and Stiletto explore a labyrinth beneath the city" - exploring?
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Post by jorpho on Mar 21, 2010 22:21:50 GMT -5
Also "taste of lingerie" .
I'm pretty sure I have a CD-only copy of this buried somewhere, though naturally I never got around to playing it.
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Post by kyouki on Mar 23, 2010 9:13:33 GMT -5
I have fond memories of this one, though I remember it being extremely linear and pretty easy. I also remember thinking the main character to be pretty lame, since he just walks around getting beat up the whole game (as the article mentions).
I'm sure it hasn't aged well, but for 14 year old me this was a pretty awesome game, and I remember liking the soundtrack enough to play it pretty often on my CD player (it was redbook audio if I remember correctly).
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Post by Discoalucard on Mar 23, 2010 16:57:26 GMT -5
The CD is supposed to have redbook audio but my PC never seemed to pick it up. It's never actually used in the game though, which is all MIDI.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 6, 2010 13:52:54 GMT -5
www.hardcoregaming101.net/noctropolis/noctropolis.htmI was big into PC gaming when I was about 13 or so, which also meant that I didn't have much money. So, I bought most of my games either at computer shows or the bargain bin in the back of my local mall's Kay Bee. Around that time they had a lot of Electronic Arts Classics games, which I bought most of, like System Shock and Ultima Underworld. Noctropolis was one of those games I always wanted to try but didn't, which is why I gave it a shot to review here. It's not that great, in all honesty. The most interesting part is how it's basically a spiritual successor to Martian Memorandum, being designed by one of the same guys. It's cheesy but not quite as overtly funny, so it feels pretty weird. Some of the background artwork is fantastic though. I also remember this touted as having some nudity, which would've been awesome when I was 13 but ended up kinda disappointing. The girl that played Stiletto, the female sidekick, was played by a Playboy Playmate from about ten years prior. I did some "research", and she was much better looking back then. Oh man, I just watched a Longplay of this last week, hah! I never got around to finishing it back in the day and was wondering how it ended (pretty much as I called it, turns out). It was interesting but pretty poorly executed as a credible "comic book game". I know "comically pathetic hero" is a long-standing adventure game theme but it's almost inappropriate in this game. Lame powers stemming from goth purple prose and use of hooker sidekick as bodyguard aside, people don't even recognize your character's costume--despite the hero whose shoes you're filling has been gone for two weeks and wore the same costume, cops, butchers, etc. react to you with indifference or genuine "who the hell is this guy?" uh, -ness. Another gripe of mine is that almost every problem is dealt with in generic "do something for somebody" terms instead of the time-honored superhero tradition of "beating the tar out of somebody"--to be fair though, though, that's a function of the game genre that just doesn't mesh with the subject matter. To put it in perspective, it would be like if the Marvel character Nighthawk (sorry, Darksheer doesn't rate a Batman comparison) tried to break into a villain's condo by having a conversation with his mailman, and had to bribe the mailman for his services by cutting his toenails. To do that he had to get some toenail clippers by delivering newspapers. That's how half of the puzzles in Noctropolis seem to go. The other half involve the hero running home to go soak in Goth Juice; I remember wishing they'd handled the "got your ass kicked by a villain" more like the deathtraps in Nightshade for the NES...at least those involved mostly unique solutions and stayed in spirit with the 60's Batman show. I guess the other thing that bothered me was how most of the villains just took a crap on you and disappeared. But yeah, the art for the backgrounds are pretty awesome, and it's not a TERRIBLE game, just kind of "meh"...that's more than anyone can say about other comic book-based adventure games (Questprobe...MOAR LIKE ANAL PROBE /mike).
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