The Warp Pipe - 16/11/08
By Matt K - Sun Nov 16, 2008 9:02am
This week’s column revisits another five great titles; The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Descent: FreeSpace – The Great War, Starsiege Tribes, Thief: The Dark Project and Xenogears.
Ah, to be young(er) again. Looking down the list of games in this feature takes me back to a time when people on gaming forums used to spend the majority of their free time actually playing games, rather than exclusively bitching about them. Perhaps it was due to the more primitive Internet of the day, the kinds of people online and the frustrating nature of dial-up connections. Or perhaps the haters are right, and games just aren’t as good these days.The Tin Anniversaries - Part III
) The Kokiri Village opening is still amazing |
It was in development for many years, and one of Nintendo’s most delayed titles, having been pushed back from the Nintendo 64’s original launch date to almost three years later, but boy, was Ocarina of Time ever worth the wait. Players take control of Link, a young lad who lives in the forest with the Kokiri people. Link is a bit different from the rest of the Kokiri in that he doesn’t have a fairy companion. The Great Deku Tree, the guardian of the Kokiri, has a special quest for Link. He sends the fairy Navi to aid the young boy in his quest – to stop the “wicked man of the desert” who put a fatal curse on him.
Ocarina of Time was an epic experience from the moment you left the safety of the Kokiri Forest. In front of you lay Hyrule Field, a massive overworld at the time. Branching off from the field was a huge number of equally atmospheric areas; the massive Lake Hylia, the volcanic Death Mountain, and a variety of small towns and villages, each teaming with all sorts of interesting characters and side quests. Dungeons are where the real action happens; Link gets all sorts of new abilities and weapons, and gets to fight many different creatures. The Z-Targeting camera system makes combat a breeze, especially when compared to many other third person action games of the day. The game has a number of music based puzzles, which Link can solve using his Ocarina. Every aspect of the game is polished to an almost insane degree.
It’s a little difficult to get into Ocarina of Time in the modern day. The visuals were amazing at the time of the release, seriously pushing what the Nintendo 64 was capable of. Today, however, the game looks a little muddy and blurry, and the lacking frame rate makes it a real slog. Still, after 10 years, no game has managed to knock Nintendo’s time travelling epic off the top of Metacritic and Gamerankings’ all time best lists. The fact that Nintendo’s 3D Zelda sequels have mostly retread the same ground is a testament to just how good Ocarina of Time is.
) Shockwaves can end your mission really quickly |
Parallax Software split in two after the release of Descent II, with one of the company’s founders establishing Outrage Entertainment in Michigan, and the other starting up Volition Inc, in Illinois. Volition’s first project was Descent: FreeSpace. Despite bearing the title of Descent, FreeSpace has nothing to do with the previously established series; the name was used to get around a trademark issue (hence the alternate title Conflict: FreeSpace in parts of Europe). FreeSpace is a space simulator which essentially took the best parts of other space shooters and made them its own.
Players assume the role of a rookie pilot flying for the Galactic Terran Alliance, which has been locked in war with the Parliamentary Vasudan Empire for some fourteen years. After flying a few sorties against the PVE, players encounter a new threat; the Shivans, an alien race with technology that’s far more advanced than any other known race. The GTA and PVE put their differences aside and form the Terran-Vasudan alliance in order to fight back against the Shivan army.
FreeSpace uses a fairly simple flight system like that of Wing Commander III or X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter, but adds a few touches of realism when it comes to things like collision. Players have a certain degree of control over their load out and wingman assignments before a mission, with more advanced equipment becoming available as the story plays out. Campaign missions have a variety of different objectives, but only mission critical objectives need to be completed in order to move on. This can sometimes affect later missions. The game looked particularly good at the time, employing some cool effects, like showing sparks and flames coming out of any area of a ship that had been hit by a laser or missile, and some big explosions (complete with shockwaves on the capital ships).
While being generally praised by the critics of the day, FreeSpace was not a major success at retail. It did sell enough to justify both an expansion pack Silent Threat and a (arguably superior) sequel FreeSpace II (which is now freeware). FreeSpace holds up remarkably well for its age, but one might suggest that this is largely due to the diminished number of space simulators hitting the market. The FreeSpace community is particularly active, though many of their efforts are developed with the second game in mind. With the state of Interplay and Volition now being owned by THQ, it’s unlikely that there will be a third game in the series.
) It’s all fun and games until someone crashes a scout into you |
Online gaming was in its infancy in the mid to late 90s, with most games played over high latency dial-up connections with small player numbers on small maps. Starsiege: Tribes was a bit different from the rest of the crowd; it was designed as a purely multiplayer shooter, with massive maps, vehicles and support for up to 128 players at a time.
Tribes has about eight different multiplayer modes, but most of the action online was focused on its team-based modes, particularly Capture the Flag (in my experience). Each player was responsible for selecting his or her armour class (light, medium or heavy) and equipment load-out, including different kinds of weapons and packs, which enhanced various player abilities. Desired equipment configurations could be saved for quick access. Everyone had a jetpack to assist in navigating the maps faster, though vehicles were also useful in the right hands. Each team would start out in their respective base, which was rigged out with various equipment, defensive turrets and such. Rival teams could get into your base and destroy these vital systems to cripple your offensive efforts.
While Tribes saw a positive response from the media, the game’s retail performance was less than favourable. A rather weak authentication system meant that a legitimate copy of the game was not required to play online, so while player numbers were high, sales were not. A community sprung up around the game, even though it was not heavily supported by Sierra or Dynamix, resulting in the development of many mods, new maps and HUD configurations.
The game’s popularity led to the development of a sequel, Tribes 2, which saw a much less favourable response due to heavy hardware demands, overemphasis on vehicles and oversized maps. Dynamix was shut down after the release of the second game, but a third game was produced by Irrational Games. The third title was overshadowed by other big 2004 shooters, and dropped by the publisher Vivendi rather abruptly. Presumably, the rights now sit dormant at Activision Blizzard, though the first two games are now available for free.
) It might not look like much, but the atmosphere is awesome |
For a time, many first person shooters were solely focused on blasting the seven-shade out of a never-ending series of enemies, be they Nazis or some other creature. Thief: The Dark Project was a tad different. Instead of running around, hacking up the local guards, Thief was focused on avoiding confrontation, using the darkness to your advantage to get in and out without being noticed.
You play as Garrett, a highly skilled thief-for-hire. Early parts of the game have you trawling through well guarded castles, searching for treasure while avoiding guards and the occupants. The key to success in the game was sticking to shadows and waiting until the coast was clear before moving. Many situations required creating your own darkness using improvised weapons like water arrows. Confrontation can be avoided by using a blackjack to knock guards out from behind, but one does have to be careful to hide the bodies of the unconscious. Garrett may be a talented thief, but he doesn’t last long in a fight, so it’s best not to get into that situation.
Admittedly, as great as the early part of Thief is, the game begins to lose a lot of its lustre when it deviates from its initial thievery premise into a battle against zombies and other fantastic creatures in the catacombs beneath the city. The game’s visuals, outside of its lighting, were rather dated at the time, and are particularly hard on the eyes now, but it was the game’s sound which helped to establish its awesome atmosphere and heightened sense of tension.
Thief proved to be pretty successful for Looking Glass and Eidos, with a small expansion, Thief Gold released in 1999, and a full sequel in Thief II: The Metal Age in 2000, which would prove to be Looking Glass’ final game. That didn’t stop Eidos from continuing the series with 2004’s Thief: Deadly Shadows, developed by Ion Storm. The third game was not as successful as hoped, and was the final game Ion Storm developed. Eidos still holds the rights to the series, with rumours suggesting that they’re looking to develop a fourth game.
) I’m sure they’re discussing how awesome it is to crush stuff in giant robots |
Square enjoyed major success on the PlayStation, thanks to the runaway success of Final Fantasy. The studio did release a number of quality RPGs that were outside their flagship franchise – that is, of course, assuming that you did not live in a PAL territory, which they promptly ignored. One of the company’s best non-Final Fantasy RPGs was the giant mecha epic Xenogears.
Xenogears follows a fairly typical J-RPG formula, but features highly philosophical story, heavily influenced by religion and the works of Nietzsche, Freud and their ilk. The story follows the exploits of one Fei Fong Wong, a young man with amnesia. During an attack on his village, Fei jumps into a Gear to fight off the attackers, but destroys much of the village while doing so. He decides to leave with the Gear and Citan, the village doctor. Course, with everything taking place in the midst of a war, which the crew gets caught up in.
On top of its more mature story, Xenogears has a pretty classy battle system. Battles are split into two types; the combo-focused man-to-man combat, and the Gear battles. Regular combat uses the Active Time Battle system, with random encounters providing most of your enemies. Each character has a number of different moves; regular attacks (weak, medium, strong), ether attacks (magic) and deathblow moves. Initially, each character has three action points per turn and every action uses a different number of points, but this can be upgraded. Points can also be saved and accumulated between rounds. Gear battles follow a similar formula, but AP is replaced with a fuel gauge that needs to be recharged, and the more complex Infinity Mode system.
Xenogears was loved by critics and sold 1.2 million units. Officially, Xenogears is a standalone release, but creator Tetsuya Takahashi (and about 20 other members of the original team) was also the force behind the Xenosaga trilogy at Monolith Soft, the (now Nintendo-owned) studio he started after leaving Square, leading some fans to believe that there is an implied connection between the two series.
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