BC: Rearmed 2 this week!

[munchy]

Feb 2, 2011 0:11:20 GMT -5 Feynman said:

Feb 1, 2011 22:07:17 GMT -5 Discoalucard said:

I can't find people actually talking about this game because they're too busy bitching about the DRM, which, like Final Fight, requires you to be online to play. It's...stupid, but it's not a WHAT NO BUY thing.

I dunno, it comes pretty damn close to being a no buy thing for me. I *hate* mandatory internet connections for single-player games. It may not be a problem right now, but ten years down the line, who knows if the authentication servers will still be running?

Mandatory online activation sucks, and needing a constant internet connection during a game sucks too. Instead of being something I own, it makes the purchase feel more like a long-term rental.

Of course, I'll still buy it, but that doesn't mean I have to be happy about their draconian security measures.

Seriously. Can't we just input some authentication code online once and be done with it? This is another reason I want these games ported to the 3DS. I'd like to be able to play them anywhere.

Goddamnit, sometimes I just hate modern gaming.

[Weasel]

Feb 2, 2011 2:33:08 GMT -5 munchy said:

Seriously. Can't we just input some authentication code online once and be done with it? This is another reason I want these games ported to the 3DS. I'd like to be able to play them anywhere.

Goddamnit, sometimes I just hate modern gaming.

It'd suck if there was an NGP game that required a constant 3G connection for this sort of thing. I've already been burned once by that (with Doom RPG on a cell phone with no data plan)...never again.

[Discoalucard]

Feb 2, 2011 2:24:13 GMT -5 kitten said:

Wait, it has DRM on the PS3 and Xbox?

Not sure...did Final Fight have it? I was under the impression that PS3 had it to prevent game sharing, a functionality I don't even understand.

[hidetoshidecide]

Feb 2, 2011 0:11:20 GMT -5 Feynman said:

I dunno, it comes pretty damn close to being a no buy thing for me. I *hate* mandatory internet connections for single-player games. It may not be a problem right now, but ten years down the line, who knows if the authentication servers will still be running?

Yeah. There are all sorts of problems with mandatory internet connections, from not being able to play because your internet is down, to not being able to play because the authentication servers are down, overwhelmed, etc. The longevity issues you mention are big, too.

[justjustin]

Yep, you have to be online to play the PS3 version but not 360. To share games on PS3 you would give your friends your PSN login info, they'd login as you and have access to all your purchases. I think one purchase can be installed on 5 systems.

... But couldn't the same be done for 360 marketplace games? Never tried it, but it seems like it could work. And if it does that would make the PS3 exclusive DRM truly nonsensical.

Stupidly, PSN doesn't have a demo so I had to boot up my (dying) 360 to try it. So far I'd say it's better than the first, although I really don't like how they handled jumping in the game. It could have been incorporated into the level design, but instead it's training wheels. At one point in the first level I missed a grapple and fell down to the lower path. If you don't use the jump you have no choice but to continue on, but if you do use jump you can hop back over the truck and try that section again. That's really its main purpose, to give you extra chances at doing trickier sections and making certain parts shorter (since less grappling is required). The rest of the game, though, I have no problems with. The controls have changed for the better. I know people like the stiff swinging controls of the first game, but I'm glad to be able to just swing freely and build up momentum at any time. I haven't played enough to say if it actually makes the platforming better or worse, though, since I just tried the demo.

[Deleted]

Xbox downloads all have to be authorized for the gamertag and HDD together, I think. To use your name on another HDD, you have to switch the authorizations for everything you own to that HDD.

At least, I think that's how it works.

[justjustin]

Oh ok, that makes sense.

Well I bought the game and my positive impressions have completely changed. The demo was just one well-designed level with the default equipment, so I didn't get a chance to see all the modern design tropes that kill the game.

With each new level a couple more annoyances crop up. By the seventh level my enjoyment has plummeted. I was glad to see it have a more linear structure, as I never cared for flying between stages and backtracking in the original. But little did I know this game would turn out to be an absolute backtracking bonanza compared to the first. Every level I see two or three gadgets that I can't interact with yet, and I dread the chore of having to remember where all these little thingamajigs are once I finally get the "right" weapon. Ass loads of backtracking isn't what I was looking forward to. I am not against backtracking in principle, only when its so simplistic and time-wasting... and it's everywhere.

The difficulty is a joke. I played the first few levels on normal, no challenge. Crank it up to hard, what's the difference? There hardly is one beyond taking slightly more damage and having to deal slightly more damage to enemies. Also, the checkpoints start you about 10 seconds back... this ain't Super Meat Boy. The balancing of the difficulties is nonexistent. You can choose the difficulty for each individual level, so you can go back and whip through "hard" mode with all the extra equipment you gained after playing those other levels on casual if you want. Whatever floats your boat. I can't stress how little effort it takes on the developer's part to resort to this method. Unloading the responsibility of balancing the game on my shoulders just makes playing the game unpleasant. I don't want to spend time tinkering with difficulties or ruining the challenge of earlier levels on harder difficulties with my better equipment.

A new addition to the game are vehicles you can operate. I hopped into a snipers perch and did some target practice on the enemies ahead in the level. Sort of fun. Next vehicle is a helicopter... which fies across the entire level, bypassing everything including the upgrades I want to pick up. It drops me off at the exit! lol. Why did I do any of that except to scoot a cursor around the screen and shoot a few enemies and projectiles?

Simply put the game has no guts. It tries not to offend you by letting you choose difficulties whenever you want and starting you back 10 seconds after dying. Hard is actually easy. It tries to make the game more interesting with oodles of weapons and unlockables and lengthens the game with backtracking. Those weapons and unlockables are practically useless, and the backtracking is an artificial, boring way of making the game longer. Jumping is not incorporated into level design as well as it could have been, it's just there to make sections go by faster and the platforming easier in general.

For those who have any appreciation for the earlier titles I cannot recommend this game. I saw great potential in the first level alone, so it is not the core design that is the problem (the levels have a better layout than the NES original), it's all the muck surrounding it. In the end, it's borderline patronizing for people with any 2D platforming experience.

[kitten]

So far, I've got to agree with most of what justin is saying, rather disappointingly :/

The swinging mechanics have also changed to be more methodical and less skill intensive - the biggest change about this that bothers me is that can no longer immediately drop down and reattach by pressing the "down" button and no longer detach while making a swing forward by holding forward.

[munchy]

I completely don't understand why they felt the need to change the way the swinging works. It's really strange considering "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" seems to be one of Capcom's favorite axioms.

[Discoalucard]

Feb 2, 2011 20:11:03 GMT -5 munchy said:

I completely don't understand why they felt the need to change the way the swinging works. It's really strange considering "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" seems to be one of Capcom's favorite axioms.

That's sort of a thing though. I felt perfectly acclimated to Rearmed because the NES game had been burned into my brain. Quite a lot of newcomers found it too cumbersome, though, hence the changes. Again, after a bit of time, it totally clicks and is just as natural as the first game.

I'm not sure if this is easier overall than the first game, because I was able to blow through that pretty quickly, except for the final stage. I guess the complaints here are bemoaning the lack of a hard mode? I hated the hard mode in Rearmed, the bad guys were just a little too aggressive. Consequently, the patch they put on it annoyed me too, because it gave you infinite lives in Normal mode, which was unnecessary. But the only way to play with finite lives with the aggravating Hard mode. THAT was unnecessary.

[munchy]

Feb 2, 2011 21:27:41 GMT -5 Discoalucard said:

Feb 2, 2011 20:11:03 GMT -5 munchy said:

I completely don't understand why they felt the need to change the way the swinging works. It's really strange considering "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" seems to be one of Capcom's favorite axioms.

That's sort of a thing though. I felt perfectly acclimated to Rearmed because the NES game had been burned into my brain. Quite a lot of newcomers found it too cumbersome, though, hence the changes. Again, after a bit of time, it totally clicks and is just as natural as the first game.

I'm not sure if this is easier overall than the first game, because I was able to blow through that pretty quickly, except for the final stage. I guess the complaints here are bemoaning the lack of a hard mode? I hated the hard mode in Rearmed, the bad guys were just a little too aggressive. Consequently, the patch they put on it annoyed me too, because it gave you infinite lives in Normal mode, which was unnecessary. But the only way to play with finite lives with the aggravating Hard mode. THAT was unnecessary.

Oh yeah... That explains my confusion playing Normal on my 360 recently. I kept thinking I had accidentally picked Easy Mode. Wish they had an on/off switch for these kinds of changes, though. The main thing I'll miss in BCR2 is deflecting bullets with the arm.

[Discoalucard]

It's weird! You can technically still deflect bullets but you can't through your arm out straight any more, only when you're ducking or jumping.

Also, if you're a frame rate whore like me, set your system to run in 480p and the game will run much smoother.

[Feynman]

Played the first several levels and it's okay, I guess. The difficulty complaints are right on the money, and I feel as though the developers tried too hard to make the game more accessible. Every decision regarding difficulty smacks of a team that was deathly afraid of scaring potential players away by making a tough game.

In regards to the new swing mechanics, the were really awkward at first, but after a couple levels I'm swinging around without any problems whatsoever. I think the original controls are a bit smoother and more flexible, but the new stuff is alright.

[munchy]

So to anyone who's beaten the game, what's this "Retro Mode" I hear about?

[kitten]

Feb 2, 2011 21:27:41 GMT -5 Discoalucard said:

That's sort of a thing though. I felt perfectly acclimated to Rearmed because the NES game had been burned into my brain. Quite a lot of newcomers found it too cumbersome, though, hence the changes. Again, after a bit of time, it totally clicks and is just as natural as the first game.

I had only played the NES game a small bit (i.e. I never even beat the first level) before playing Rearmed, and I got used to the controls and nuances pretty quickly. I've been goofing around with Rearmed 2 for a while now, and I'm pretty sure that I can confidently say they're worse... And I'm saying that from the point of view of someone who had the original Rearmed being something almost entirely new to them (I've finished the original on Super Hard, from scratch, twice, and I've also finished all the challenge rooms twice).

1. You can no longer press "down" to detach from a swing. Instead, down reels you out. This is basically a safety measure for newer players who weren't skilled enough to drop and reattach.

2. Holding "forward" while swinging no longer detaches you from a swing. Another safety measure for less-skilled players that seriously messes with the flow of swinging.

3. You now have to hold forward to keep swinging back and forth, otherwise you stop swinging where you are. Yet another safety measure for unskilled players who made a stupid mistake.

4. The "B" button now detaches a swing and makes you use your arm - this drives me nuts, because I have to push more buttons to detach. In the original, tapping down or just holding forward at the end of a swing effected how you would come off the swing and was much more convenient. Swinging is now much less fluid.

In the original, if I wanted to drop directly down while in the middle of a swing, I could reel in and then just press down. Now, I have to reel in, WAIT to stop swinging because of the new retracting rule, and then press down, which severely slows me down. I now also have to do excessive button presses to chain swings together. The whole game is considerably less fluid than it used to be because of these new mechanics, and they're all very obviously put in there just to make the game more accessible to people who complained about the original being too difficult.

If I want to move like a snail, these changes are all just fine. I can still get from Point A to Point B. However, the fluidity of the original and the speed at which you could go through is now gone. They've changed the level design to have tons of backtracking, too (not just for bonus items, but also with annoying switch pulling, etc.), and you've lost any sense of real fun there was to zooming through the levels. The challenge rooms are less fun now, too, feeling much clunky because of the new control scheme - they feel less like they require skill and more like you're solving a boring puzzle game.

I feel like I've acclimated to the controls about as much as I'm going to, and I don't see the game getting considerably better. Right now, it's really disappointing (and an insult that it's $5 more than the original). Maybe after I've beaten it and know all the ins and outs, it'll be a little better... but I'm just extremely dissatisfied. They did the worst thing they could possibly do to the series, which is make it utterly boring. I have to convince myself to keep playing it.

Edit:

UGHHHH. I completely forgot, and this is important -

5. The bionic arm button no longer reeling you in also makes vertically climbing up more of a pain, as waiting for the d-pad to reel you in again makes things more cumbersome.

Edit Again:

Up button reeling me and down button reeling me out are screwing me up so much that I can't even begin to freaking explain it. It's absurd how many times I accidentally press them while trying to swing left or right. Good thing it's mandatory I HAVE TO PRESS LEFT OR RIGHT WHILE SWINGING just to keep the swing moving, too!

I hate these new controls. I hate them so much.