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Raven Shield Demo Impressions:
After a good week of staying into the wee hours of the morning playing
the Raven Shield Demo, I figured it was time someone wrote a review.
Let me start by saying for three days in a row I did not quit playing
before 3 a.m.--it was that much fun. This is something too keep in
mind as I have a lot to say that is negative, and what this game really
needs is a chance.
Gameplay:
Firing up the demo, two things will come to your attention immediately:
the game looks prettier and plays stickier. Character movement plays
out like a cross between Rogue Spear and Ghost Recon, but doesn't
manage to capture the best of either style. It takes too dog-assed
long to move in and out of prone positions and the run/walk speed
balance is even worse. The reticule is too huge on a run, forcing
players to engage everything from a walk if they want to keep on
the move, but the walk is so slow that everyone runs from place
to place. It leaves the impressions that the game was designed around
making everyone run from place to place and then stopping dead in
their tracks to shoot-gone are the days of going dynamic, overcoming
an enemy through surprise, speed and ferocity. It seems as though
Ubi has gone overboard on the anti-run-and-gun policy and turned
a thinking man's shooter into a stealth-and-wait shooter.
Perhaps most frustrating though, is the poor interface with the
environment. Ladders are already notoriously impossible to use,
forcing players to not look directly at and not look away from ladders
in order to grab hold-and once on, they're almost as impossible
to let go of. Likewise, doors cannot be opened until the player
is so close he is blocking the door's swing path. On particularly
laggy servers, bugs cause players to be unable to reload, switch
items, or shoot, and sometimes they lose their weapons completely.
Shoulders catch on corners or other models causing players stop
vulnerably dead in their tracks, and there's no reliable indication
that one is getting shot. Your own grunts of pain are no louder
than those on the radio from distant teammates; there are no flashes
of red, and no ret-knock. How did Ubi decide that firing bullets
would knock you back, but getting hit by a dozen bullets does nothing
to move you?
This lack of polish is a real shame because in other areas it appears
Ubi did put a lot of thought into environmental interaction. Sliding
down ladders is incredibly cool, and very useful for long drops.
Your body even does a little shake from side to side as you climb
back up. Incremental motion when opening doors and windows also
shows lots of thought, even if the implementation is still rough,
and fluid body movement, while not as useful for peeking around
corners, is really cool for peeking up over half-walls. The good,
unfortunately, is not enough to outweigh the bad, and gameplay can
be incredibly frustrating for players hoping to jump right into
it. Still, the blessing is that a little tweaking should fix most
of these issues and there are still months before final release.
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(4.5 out of 5)
