Computer RPG History #116: Robot Squad – Xenomorphs, Dark Souls_shooter_player_atmosphere

On the one hand, you complete typical secret agent missions: infiltrate locations, carry out false-flag operations, and more. But on the other hand, everything seems to be shrouded in an unspeakable atmosphere-unexplainable accidents will happen from time to time, and your characters often experience amnesia, hallucinations and crazy torture. As the game progresses, you discover that you can’t trust anyone, not even yourself. Every time you feel like you understand everything, the game will laugh at you hard again.

All these elements make another feature of “Hackers” shine-the non-linear narrative system. There are times when you choose your side, and your choices change the course of the game. This greatly increases the replayability of the game, but it also makes players more entangled. I feel like this guy I’m talking to right now has betrayed me right now, so should I betray him too and work for another organization that’s just as suspicious as hell? Or should I choose to trust the third person, but this person has been sneaky from the beginning!

The game’s scene will be a cyberpunk dystopia, a mysterious dreamland, and a wind-eroded wasteland.

Character creation options are plentiful, with skills, implants, psychic abilities, and even a whole research system to choose from.

We believe that a developer’s job is neither to please players nor to simplify games. If everyone does this, the entire game industry will become more and more templated, which is becoming more and more common now. The essence of “Hackers” is to create a dramatic atmosphere and let players make their own choices.

——Streum-on-Studio

In Warriors, nothing is certain. Weird dialogue and unusual narrative will make you doubt the authenticity of the entire game, and there are more than one endings waiting for players to discover.

Mechanics-wise, Robots really deserves credit for being both a solid shooter and an RPG. The game gives you a ton of decent guns, each with their own pros, cons, features, recoil, bullet spread, and more, including even a four-bullet “hand cannon” and a mini-nuke launcher .

You can also use melee weapons and grenades, set up turrets, or have a machine gun drone follow you around. Enemies react differently, some will charge at you in unison, some will snipe you from a distance, and some will attack you with super-heavy weapons, such as plasma cannons or gunships.

One thoughtful point of the game: you can adjust the difficulty as you like, and adjust the accuracy, reaction speed, etc. of the enemy AI at will. From an RPG perspective, this gives the player a lot of freedom for personalization. In addition to guns, there are a host of psionic abilities, cyber-enhanced prosthetics, and attribute bonuses at your disposal, all of which can be unlocked through research and experience points. You can also hack into anything (or anyone) you come across in different ways – and destroy them, drain their health or take full control over them, just be careful not to be treated the same way The body is fine.

The game experience of the three genres of melee beasts, sharpshooters and psykers is very different, and you can also discover many other different ways of playing on this basis.

The technical level of The Robot also contributes significantly to the overall sense of atmosphere. Although the game’s running platform is the outdated Source Engine, thanks to the art director, the developers still use this engine to deliver a satisfactory answer. The scenes of the game are quite diverse, including a near-future cyberpunk city, red sand dunes on Mars, mysterious ruins and even Asian-style temples.

Finally, it’s interesting that Matrix got a bad reception from the very beginning because of how poorly it was localized. Indeed, the characters’ dialogue and the game’s text grammar are fragmented, the vocabulary is difficult and small, and the sentences are vague and difficult to understand. Although it will not make the game unplayable, it is still difficult to read. However, such a poor translation adds a lot to the alienated atmosphere of the game. If every character talks like a mystical oriental Zen master or a babbling lunatic, it really makes the player feel like they’re in a dream.

Robots is a really cool game, and I wholeheartedly recommend everyone to play it. It might take a while to get used to it, and it can be a pain in the ass to keep figuring out what the hell is going on right now, but overall it’s a very worthwhile experience. You can also play multiplayer online if you want to hang out with friends, just patch it.

The hacking mini-game lets you choose an action to hack the AI, but the AI ​​has the potential to hack you in turn.

But some of the ideas in the game are indeed almost meaningless, such as the “cyber demon” in the picture.

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1Translator’s Note: The general interpretation is that this name is the Chinese pinyin of “See God” or “Sword God”, and the production team may want to express the meaning of “Sword of God”.

2Translator’s Note: This name is of Latin origin and can be roughly translated as “God’s Blade”.

dark soul

From Software, 2011

Windows, PS3 and Xbox 360

Original author:DU, Translator:Thunderplus

Speaking of “Dark Souls”, the first thing I have to mention is “Demon’s Souls”. “Devil’s Soul” is an action RPG released on the PS3 platform. Although the response was mediocre and the sales volume was bleak at the beginning of its launch, it has become more and more loyal and sought after by players as time goes by (Sony did not The ontology of the languages ​​​​of various countries was not provided for this purpose, and it was later discovered that this decision was a big mistake). The charm of “Devil’s Soul” is reflected in many aspects, but the advantages widely recognized among players are its challenging but fair difficulty setting, perfect and balanced combat system, ingenious level design, excellent Gothic Atmosphere shaping, and a groundbreaking multiplayer online mode. [1]

“Dark Souls” builds on this foundation to create a world where the maps are seamlessly connected and closely connected. The production team added more game content and multiplayer forms. In comparison, “Devil’s Soul” is like a beta test for the “Dark Soul” that was born later.

“Dark Soul” uses a minimalist narrative technique, and the clues of its worldview are scattered in every item description and reflected in every game environment. Players need to connect these background information in order to understand the setting and story. In the world of “Dark Soul”, human beings are cursed, and a mark called “Dark Ring” appears on their bodies. They are often expelled, displaced, and will continue to be resurrected after death, and will slowly lose their humanity until they become irrational corpses. And the player plays the role of “Heaven’s Chosen Undead”, with the mission of lifting the curse.

The NPCs in the game are often eccentric and distinctive, and their respective side tasks will advance with your game progress, and will be affected by your behavior choices, closely related to the main line.

“Dark Soul” was originally released as a PS3 exclusive work, and there was no PC version. But fans launched an online petition, which received more than 93,000 signatures; the development company was shocked by the enthusiasm for the PC version.

“Dark Soul” was originally released as a PS3 exclusive work, and there was no PC version. But fans launched an online petition, which received more than 93,000 signatures; the development company was shocked by the enthusiasm for the PC version.

During this difficult journey, players will meet many NPCs. They have different personalities, pursue their own goals and missions, and sometimes their words and deeds are incomprehensible. The development of these NPC branches is not visible at a glance like the main plot, and players need to dig carefully. When playing for the first time, if you haven’t checked the strategy, the player may not notice that some NPC’s personal sidelines are advancing, and they will not realize that their choices have an impact. [2]

In contrast, “Dark Soul” is an action RPG with an open ending and map structure among many RPGs, and does not strictly follow the professional settings. Players will choose the initial class on the character creation page, but this only affects the distribution of bonus points, initial equipment and spells at birth. After that, players can assign points to any attribute when upgrading, and as long as the lower limit of attributes is reached, they can use any weapons and spells.

The saving and resurrection mechanism in the game is very unique and fits the story. Like in Planescape: Torment, you play as an immortal, but the difference in Dark Souls is the harsh death penalty. With limited save locations and no way to save manually, you are responsible for every decision you make. After death, you will automatically return to the last bonfire you rested on (equivalent to a save point), but you will lose all your soul volume (equivalent to in-game currency, used to purchase items and upgrades).

You can retrieve lost souls at the place where you died last time, but if you die again along the way, the souls are permanently lost. The reason why “Dark Soul” has a high degree of difficulty is because of this mechanism. In addition, players need to be careful when exploring and concentrate on fighting. Next, I will explain these two points.

I hope that players can rise to the challenge and enjoy the process of outwitting powerful enemies and getting dizzy in dungeons. We want players to overcome difficulties during the game and enjoy the sense of accomplishment after overcoming each difficulty.

——Hidetaka Miyazaki

Producer of Dark Souls

Many enemies in “Dark Souls” may seem impossible to win at first sight, but in fact, the difficulty setting of the boss battle is very reasonable, as long as the player pays attention, they can pass.

Compared with most action RPGs, the combat difficulty of “Dark Soul” can not be underestimated. Unlike the “Diablo”-like games that are full of monsters, the number of enemies in “Dark Soul” is slightly smaller, but more dangerous; The complex combo system has a relatively slow rhythm, but it still requires players to think carefully. In every encounter, whether it is prudently grasping the positions of the enemy and ourselves, carefully selecting weapons for preparation, and flexibly choosing the combat location, it is equally important to improve one’s own reaction speed.

The core mechanism in the combat system is the energy bar (Stamina). Energy is consumed when attacking, blocking, rolling, and casting spells, and energy is automatically restored. If you want to push the map smoothly, the player must pay attention to the consumption of the green bar and do a good job in energy management.

In order to reflect the different experiences of fighting in different environments, the game system has been carefully built around this. For example, if you use a long-handled weapon in a narrow aisle, the weapon will collide with the wall and cause the knife to bounce, so it is not recommended to choose this option. In addition to combat, players will also deeply feel that it is the best policy to be cautious when exploring, and careful pushing of maps often yields greater benefits.

The design of the game map is really excellent, the integration of the background and each level is seamless, there are countless secrets buried, and deadly traps hidden. The shortcuts between maps also make running maps in the later stage more and more worry-free. At this point, I have to mention the characteristic non-real-time online mode of “Dark Soul”.

In 2018, From Software launched the reset version of “Dark Soul” on PC, PS4, Xbox One and NS platforms, which improved the picture and frame rate, and enhanced the online experience.

In 2018, From Software launched the reset version of “Dark Soul” on PC, PS4, Xbox One and NS platforms, which improved the picture and frame rate, and enhanced the online experience.

In the game, players can leave messages on the ground, which appear as glowing characters. Comments can point out hidden paths, treasure chests, traps and enemies, and of course you can write misleading content to lure new players to die. [3]After the player dies, blood will be left in the world of other players. Touching the blood, you can see the afterimage of the player’s spirit body struggling hard at the moment of death.

Dark Souls is an excellent single-player RPG, but the multiplayer mode is also very popular among players. When online, players can choose to cooperate or invade as spirits, successfully bypassing the continuity problems and design loopholes that may occur when adding multiplayer mode to single-player games.

The battles are extremely harsh, the levels are exquisite and detailed, the boss moves are fatal, and the death price is heavy. The innovation of “Dark Soul” in these mechanisms has had a huge impact on later generations, giving birth to the company’s follow-up works, including “Dark Soul 2” (Dark Souls II, 2014), “Bloodborne” (Bloodborne, 2015), “Dark Souls 3” (Dark Souls III, 2016), also promoted the birth of a game genre, such as “Lords of the Fallen” (Lords of the Fallen, 2014), “Salt and Sanctuary” (Salt and Sanctuary, 2016), “Nioh” (Nioh, 2017), etc. Players are tortured in “Dark Souls”, but they also have fun. This is because all difficulties are fair. As long as you understand the various mechanisms of the game, be familiar with the environment of each map, and make careful and prudent decisions when pushing maps, these difficulties and obstacles will eventually become stepping stones on the road to spreading fire.

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1Translator’s Note: The online function of “Devil’s Soul” allows players to not only participate in real-time online cooperation and PvP, but also see the game traces of players from all over the world in different time periods, which are presented in the form of messages, and can leave own message. The PS3 original “Devil’s Soul” server was closed in February 2018. Fortunately, the player community spontaneously created a private server, retaining most of the online functions. “Devil’s Soul”, currently remastered by Bluepoint Games, will be released on the PS5 platform in November 2020.

2Translator’s Note: Since “Dark Soul” does not have any form of small radar map and task list, players cannot know the progress of the main line and branch lines from the UI interface, nor can they see where the NPC is (and due to the huge map, a week It’s hard to find everyone without the help of a guide). It is worth mentioning that, based on the worldview philosophy of “Dark Soul”, almost all NPC branch endings revolve around “passing fire” and “living corpse”, which are equivalent to “saving the world” and “end of the world”. The tragedy of the concept also reflects the importance of the mission of the player’s chosen undead from the narrative level.

3Translator’s Note: The message system of the “Dark Soul” series is to allow players to select a number of combinations from a fixed list of phrases, rather than directly inputting any content, but the phrase list itself is quite rich, including most of the concepts and concepts in the game. Terminology, as well as general function words, can also optionally display a certain body movement. The comments that have become well-known memes in the player community include “there is a hidden road ahead” left in front of a solid wall, “you need to jump here” left on a cliff, and “praise” left in front of a grand scene or building. The sun”, “There is a superb view in front” and so on.

4Translator’s Note: The mod community of “Dark Souls” is very famous. Since the game was released, it has brought together many mod makers full of enthusiasm, creativity and ability. From the image quality and frame number optimization mod aimed at improving the game experience in the early years to the story mod that restores the useless case and deleted the plot, from the challenge mod that creates your own boss battle and increases the difficulty to the spoof mod that combines different gameplays, there are all kinds of mods. , so that this old work still maintains a strong vitality today. Currently well-known mods in the community include but are not limited to: Daughter of Ashes mod, weapon/enemy/props random mod, fps mod, etc.

Many enemies in “Dark Souls” may seem impossible to win at first sight, but in fact, the difficulty setting of the boss battle is very reasonable, as long as the player pays attention, they can pass.

Mods:[4]

DS Fix:This mod unlocks the game’s resolution and framerate caps, among other improvements. Launched on the same day as Dark Souls’ poor PC port. It is highly recommended to install.

Prepare to Die AGAIN:This mod changes the positions of bonfires, enemies, and props, and veteran players can experience the twists and turns and heartbeats of playing “Dark Souls” for the first time. It is very suitable for playing a new week.

Hyper-Aggressive Enemies:The enemies in this mod have a wider range of aggro and will chase you to the ends of the earth. If you want to challenge the extreme difficulty, you can play with the self gravelording module.

The original book information of “The History of Computer RPG Games (The CRPG Book Project)”:

The book took four years and was completed by 119 volunteers.

Editor-in-chief of the original English version: Felipe Pepe

Original project URL: https://crpgbook.wordpress.com/

License: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC 4.0)

Copyright notice of the Chinese version of “The CRPG Book Project”

What you are seeing is part of the version of “CRPG General Book”. This Chinese version is created and distributed online under the constraints of the original book authorization agreement.

Chinese version editor:“CRPG General Book” Compilation Committee

Chinese version project URL:https://crpgbook.cn

This book (“CRPG Tongjian” version) is preparing to publish a Chinese physical version. Heroes from all walks of life are welcome to join our compilation committee. For details, please visit https://crpgbook.cn/contact/.

This Chinese translation is provided by CRPG general guideAuthorized by @indienova, in addition to publishing relevant game introduction articles on a regular basis, indienova will also maintain a dedicated CRPG channel simultaneously.In this channel, you can not only Similar to the graphic layout of the original bookto read, and anytime Freely switch between Chinese and English versionsRead in contrast.

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