Mars: War Logs Out Now On Steam

4 responses to “Mars: War Logs Out Now On Steam”

1. 

   lyndonl

   April 27, 2013 at 12:04 pm

   Eugh. Listen up all Game Developers / Publishers: All game “trailers” should consist of at least 50% gameplay footage.

   Reply
   1. 

      aliasalpha

      April 27, 2013 at 12:58 pm

      And some examples of each major game type, no hint of the way the conversation system works and for an RPG I think that’s kind of important.

      Managed to get it for $16 on greenmangaming and so I decided to take a chance on it despite it looking a bit rough. I’m halfway through the download so I’ll be able to post a bit of a review in a few hours

      Reply
   2. 

      tigerion

      April 27, 2013 at 1:18 pm

      Or you could just watch the other trailers and see the combat and gameplay
      I quite like cinematic trailers for games

      Reply
   3. 

      aliasalpha

      April 27, 2013 at 8:42 pm

      Ok, wrote up my live first impressions:

      Dialogue feels a little stilted and the voice acting leaves a bit to be desired. Its not bad, just nothing special bit at least its not the same stable of actors you get in every second game.

      Graphics about on par with mass effect 1, generally okay by today’s standards but nothing spectacular. No sign of ME style texture pop in though which is a relief.

      Interesting switch at the start where you’re not following your character, in fact the progress diary the game uses as a story-so-far kind of reminder isn’t written from your character’s perspective either, makes me wonder if your character will end up dead at the end.

      None too thrilled at the predictable prison rape at the start, surely this trope is so overused & loose its not enjoyable anymore.

      Also not the biggest fan of the prison rapist having no name or description except fatso, I’m getting flashbacks to primary school (err for the fatso insults rather than the rape part).

      Movement is a bit digital, you walk then you run, not really any speeding up in between, you generally lack inertia and it makes it feel a bit arcadey.

      Combat feels a little bit like a cross between Assassins Creed, darksiders & mass effect. Similar group approach to AC, movement a bit like DS and pausing power wheel similar to ME. Its a bit clunky but not too much.

      Its surprisingly easy to die, not dark souls level easy but a bit more than other games if you lose concentration, no messing about if you don’t want your arse kicked.

      Checkpoints seem regular so a death isn’t a disaster where you lose half an hours work, post combat health regen is slow rather than instant. NPCs pop back up after the fight if they’re downed in the modern way without needing medkits or anything.

      By the end of the first act, any thoughts I had of the combat being button bashy is gone, if you don’t learn when to evade & when to counter you’ll do badly, enemies have to be managed to succeed, if you let shock baton guys hit you’ll take heaps of damage, you have to attack shield guys and the armoured dog things from behind, you have to take down gun wielders and technomancers as soon as possible or they’ll devastate you.

      All in all, 5 hours in and I’m still happy with the purchase. It feels like a game from a few years ago but its quite a good bit of fun and the asking price is just right.

      Reply