Scraper: First Strike - VR Gameplay HTC Vive
9Too many design ideas resulting in clutter and confusion.
We had 2d UI menus, physical interactions with our cockpit and button interactions all while our trackpads tried to function like dual analog sticks instead of tried and true trackpad locomotion.
Throw in the fact that the UI didn't really explain anything and wasn't very user friendly and you get a chaotic mishmash of half formed ideas that could have been good, but instead feel like they were designed by someone with ADHD constantly screaming "squirrel!" at each new design pattern. Which makes this even more frustrating as a good number of these ideas could have been really good if they'd had some consistency with the rest of the game and been polished out more.
Melee was a mess. The short stubby arms just felt bad to swing around. It felt more like flailing than fighting.
The shotgun didn't really feel much more powerful than the blaster and required ammo to use and I didn't feel like there was enough present to keep in stock the way enemies respawned. This coupled with the fact that once you ran out of ammo you were stuck with an entirely useless weapon that took several seconds of concentrated effort, potentially with both hands, to swap back to your infiniblaster... It just didn't feel like the marginal damage increase was worth the hassle.
The grenade launcher definitely had some kick to it but the ammo shortage and aforementioned lack of a quick swap weapon feature kept me from really utilizing it.
Being locked in one place and unable to move in VR is always a bad design decision. I want to move. I want to dodge. I want to pop out from cover and really quickly back into it as I get lit up.
This isn't a PSVR game. The Vive can definitely handle turning around. WMRs inside out tracking can handle it. A 3 camera Oculus or well placed 2 camera setups can handle it.
Why are we locked forward?
Unclear objectives. The main idea was presented well. Go shut down the poison soldier! However the steps that make up that task had a lot of little unclear objectives that you just happen upon like
finding the security card and not being told to go back to the elevator, using the unexplained dash mechanic to jump a gap or closing the bay door to name a few.
As I was afraid of, the story starts midway through. You're not introduced to any characters you're just thrust into the world assuming you've read the book and know who these people are.
It would have been nice to see some sort of backstory play out. A summary of the events from the book to get new players up to speed. It would have been redundant for those that read the book
but if they read the book and are now playing the game, they probably liked it and wouldn't mind.
The UI was atrocious. Ok, maybe not that bad but it could have used a lot more work. I touched on this already but it bears repeating. The UI just felt chaotic. There wasn't one constant style
used across features for a player to get familiar with. Everything looks like it was designed, coded and implemented without ever seeing any of the other features.
I did like the look and feel of the world and characters. The music was great at getting you into that tense moment The voice acting was also pretty good. A few good strong points for the game.
None of that directly impacts gameplay and at the end of the day I have to ask, was the game fun? Do I want to play again? Scraper just gets in the way of itself when it comes to gameplay and my personal answer is no. It wasn't all that fun. It was frustrating and I'm not really interested in going back. When you factor in the #30 price tag, there's much better out there for you to spend your $$ on.
Just like The Way of The Kings, I'm sure that I've offended some of the book fans. Please remember that I'm judging this based as a stand alone game and ignoring the fact that the book exists altogether. I'm sure that some of you will pick this up based solely off the IP regardless of how many issues it has. I hope you enjoy it. I did not.
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