Posted December 12, 2009
The title pretty much sums up my experience with Hostile Waters. I played all the way through, experienced all that the team brought to the table and the constant between all 20 some levels is bad pathfinding.
However bad pathfinding leads the game to be played directly which is one of the the designs intentions. The noticeable difference the player has on battles when controlling units directly can be staggering. While the ai is good at combat, the player can make much better tactical use of the terrain in comparison. Ive seen the ai make great jukes and fakes in order to dodge shots in battle but the ai has an awful time just getting to the battle. Often I would manually drive the AI to the battle and then let the AI take over to fight. I found this to be the quickest way accomplish my tactical goals.
Learning what movement was possible over the terrain to a bit however. Much of the geo/height map is very uneven/noisy and while the steep cliffs may look inaccessible (especially compared to other games) most can be driven over, at least by the player any way. The AI is utterly daunted by the jagged landscape often making a Z pattern instead of just moving in a straight line. The pathfinding bugs cant be blamed on the terrain entirely tho as Ive seen friendly AI turn around in circles like a dog going to sleep before finally heading off in the specified direction I had given them.
The terrain + bad pathing = lots of micro management of units on the player's part which takes away from the design of having the player command from the heat of battle. Instead I found myself constantly viewing the tactical map, which pauses the game, in order to check on my AI allies to make sure they hadn't wandered into the enemy base or gotten stuck or were taking the scenic rout. This constant pausing/ai mothering really drug the game down for me. Instead of crisp, exciting combat its rather stiff and plodding.
Overall the lvl design is average for current times with lots of the standard rts gather-resources-build-army-destroy-enemy-base missions (damn near every1). There's one boss fight which is average but definitely a welcome break in the campaign. I wish they had more of these during the missions instead of just a bigger enemy bases. For me the base gameplay isnt good enough to justify doing the same thing over and over again.
I cant recommend this game as it is difficult not by design but by bugs. More frustrating than fun.
Ill play Sacrifice next and post a comparison review there.
However bad pathfinding leads the game to be played directly which is one of the the designs intentions. The noticeable difference the player has on battles when controlling units directly can be staggering. While the ai is good at combat, the player can make much better tactical use of the terrain in comparison. Ive seen the ai make great jukes and fakes in order to dodge shots in battle but the ai has an awful time just getting to the battle. Often I would manually drive the AI to the battle and then let the AI take over to fight. I found this to be the quickest way accomplish my tactical goals.
Learning what movement was possible over the terrain to a bit however. Much of the geo/height map is very uneven/noisy and while the steep cliffs may look inaccessible (especially compared to other games) most can be driven over, at least by the player any way. The AI is utterly daunted by the jagged landscape often making a Z pattern instead of just moving in a straight line. The pathfinding bugs cant be blamed on the terrain entirely tho as Ive seen friendly AI turn around in circles like a dog going to sleep before finally heading off in the specified direction I had given them.
The terrain + bad pathing = lots of micro management of units on the player's part which takes away from the design of having the player command from the heat of battle. Instead I found myself constantly viewing the tactical map, which pauses the game, in order to check on my AI allies to make sure they hadn't wandered into the enemy base or gotten stuck or were taking the scenic rout. This constant pausing/ai mothering really drug the game down for me. Instead of crisp, exciting combat its rather stiff and plodding.
Overall the lvl design is average for current times with lots of the standard rts gather-resources-build-army-destroy-enemy-base missions (damn near every1). There's one boss fight which is average but definitely a welcome break in the campaign. I wish they had more of these during the missions instead of just a bigger enemy bases. For me the base gameplay isnt good enough to justify doing the same thing over and over again.
I cant recommend this game as it is difficult not by design but by bugs. More frustrating than fun.
Ill play Sacrifice next and post a comparison review there.