Supplice Early Access Playthrough (2024 / v0.3.0.5), Episode 3
0So here we are, at the most recently-released Supplice episode, which just came out a bit over a month prior to my playing it. Did Zorah actually end up where we thought she was headed?
Turns out the question isn't where she cam out, but _when_. I suppose this should have been expected after the already-abnormal amount of time dilation that occurred between E1 and E2, but this is far more ridiculous, and clears plenty of room for both the backstory and scenery to take a new direction.
I was crossing my fingers to see fewer instances of E2's new enemies in E3, and the good news is that indeed turned out to be the case. The unfortunate news, however, is the introduction of another new enemy that is capable of carrying the vespur visibility problem to literally every other enemy type in the game, as a sort of Scooby-Doo-approved Arch-Vile. Not only are they semitransparent, they also move so fast you're unlikely to even see where they're going and what they're doing until it's too late. The good news is that the resurrected ghosts they produce have very clear indicators over their heads so you know where they are; the bad news is it can be extremely difficult to tell which type of enemy it is - I often figure out via audio cues rather than visual.
Not coincidentally, I started remembering to rely on the sentry alt-fire for the minigun as a hard counter to these new annoyances whenever I realize they're present. If the game makes shit absurdly difficult to see, and also gives me a weapon that aims for me, I guess I better use it, even if it does seem like an absurdly overpowered band-aid in lieu of competent design.
On the subject of design, we of course need to revisit my strongest criticism throughout the entire game thus far: map design. This continues to be an issue sometimes in E3, which feels the least-QA'd of any episode so far (probably rightfully so as it is presently the most recently released).
Credit where due: some of the maps are mostly fine, and I especially found E3M3 interesting in how it eventually opens wide up and makes it feel like enemies just keep pouring in with no end - although on the other hand it seemed jarring to see the level size double from E3M2 to E3M3. E3M4 has some really cool-looking environments, though the routing is sometimes a tad confusing.
E3M2 is probably the low point of the episode overall - just as it was in the demo 3 years ago. The good news is some of the most problematic bits of the level in terms of visibility seem to have been brightened or reworked since the demo. The bad news is it also has some new problems, the most egregious of which involves scripted back attacks after operating switches accompanied by cameras showing their effects. This is yet another case where it feels like QA was never performed with anyone outside of the development team. A new player would naturally scrutinize what's in front of them, trying to understand what the camera is telling them about the switch they just pressed, meanwhile out of nowhere they're being attacked from behind by enemies that just decided to warp into a room that was previously cleared. The absolute worst instance of this involves a bunch of vespurs, which can absolutely decimate you in a second because their lack of collision allows them to overlap and stack damage.
There are other misses in the map design as well. Some levels have issues with door conveyance: whereas most of E1-E2 and some of E3 are good about this, there are instances where the same exact door texture is used both for doors that can be opened directly, and others that require a switch found elsewhere. There's even one instance where both types appear within field of view of each other. This is unnecessarily confusing and feels like an instance where the "interact" prompts are required as a band-aid in the absence of proficient texture usage. (Meanwhile there have been other instances, even as far back as E1, where interact prompts show up for things that can't be interacted with initially.)
The most egregious miss in the level design overall almost threatened to tank my opinion of the entire episode, as it involves one of the final encounters in the last map. One of the last terminals attempts to explain a new mechanic that is about to be introduced, but despite the introduction, you can bet it's going to involve a learning curve. Well, that might be fine and good if it didn't also involve a horde of enemies in a low-light environment - thus obscuring a completely new hazard under one of the most frequently-noted fundamental flaws of the entire game. Add the new semitransparent elusive resurrecting enemies to the mix, and you've got a real frustrating time on your hands.
I was worried this was going to be the note the episode would end on. Fortunately, I was wrong... and I was not prepared for what came afterwards. What a wild ride. At this rate, it feels like nothing is off-limits for the remaining half of the game...
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