Posted August 25, 2015
Hi all,
Besides the fact that T3 is a little on the short side (but to me, acceptable for being half-price from a normal AAA title), there's also the matter some people raised that they dropped the character upgrades. I never played T1 or T2 but I saw enough videos to know how it was there.
To me that was a wasted opportunity with the "side quests" - i.e. the character specific smaller levels. Whereas the "collect X Trineangles to unlock next chapter" feels a bit forced, there could have been a better way.
Let's say we give each character two upgrades:
Pontius: Hammer for tearing down obstacles, flaming sword (for setting things on fire)
Zoya: Ice Arrows and Fire Arrows
Amadeus: Ability to conjure planks, and to conjure two objects at once.
That's six upgrades which can be used/required to solve puzzles in a different way, 2x2 overlapping. Zoya could use Ice Arrows to create floats, or Amadeus could conjure a (floating) plank or two. Setting fire to some liquid, fuse or piece of cloth could be done both with fire arrows and flaming sword. So effectively it gives four new ways to solve puzzles.
That means they could have made four levels (after initial ones) each requiring you to get a least one character upgrade before progressing. Instead of locking the level, why not even send the player into it, allow them to save when they come up on a "new" puzzle and give them a hint to finish a side quest first?
Doing it this way, the side quests would have tied into the main story with more purpose, we would have more varied puzzle resolution (because as it is, by chapter three or four you already kind of know how to solve each situation), and it would have also allowed for more creative combat (freeze an opponent and shatter him and similar stuff). A "difficulty selector" could have generated more enemies/enemies in additional places to make combat more meaningful (and a little harder) because right now Pontius just works it by brainless button mashing and I've never yet died.
Afterl those changes then slap a 40EUR price sticker on it, add three or four "main levels" to properly finish the storyline and this would be a truly exceptional AAA title that would have redefined creative beautiful platforming games. As it stands it's a pretty nice experience, it's okay value for money, but could have been so much more...
Besides the fact that T3 is a little on the short side (but to me, acceptable for being half-price from a normal AAA title), there's also the matter some people raised that they dropped the character upgrades. I never played T1 or T2 but I saw enough videos to know how it was there.
To me that was a wasted opportunity with the "side quests" - i.e. the character specific smaller levels. Whereas the "collect X Trineangles to unlock next chapter" feels a bit forced, there could have been a better way.
Let's say we give each character two upgrades:
Pontius: Hammer for tearing down obstacles, flaming sword (for setting things on fire)
Zoya: Ice Arrows and Fire Arrows
Amadeus: Ability to conjure planks, and to conjure two objects at once.
That's six upgrades which can be used/required to solve puzzles in a different way, 2x2 overlapping. Zoya could use Ice Arrows to create floats, or Amadeus could conjure a (floating) plank or two. Setting fire to some liquid, fuse or piece of cloth could be done both with fire arrows and flaming sword. So effectively it gives four new ways to solve puzzles.
That means they could have made four levels (after initial ones) each requiring you to get a least one character upgrade before progressing. Instead of locking the level, why not even send the player into it, allow them to save when they come up on a "new" puzzle and give them a hint to finish a side quest first?
Doing it this way, the side quests would have tied into the main story with more purpose, we would have more varied puzzle resolution (because as it is, by chapter three or four you already kind of know how to solve each situation), and it would have also allowed for more creative combat (freeze an opponent and shatter him and similar stuff). A "difficulty selector" could have generated more enemies/enemies in additional places to make combat more meaningful (and a little harder) because right now Pontius just works it by brainless button mashing and I've never yet died.
Afterl those changes then slap a 40EUR price sticker on it, add three or four "main levels" to properly finish the storyline and this would be a truly exceptional AAA title that would have redefined creative beautiful platforming games. As it stands it's a pretty nice experience, it's okay value for money, but could have been so much more...