Trepang2 - Demo impressions (Read description for mini-review)

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Published on August 27, 2021 6:33:59 PM ● Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SI4qw_IGxio

Game:

Trepang2 (2023)

Category:

Review

Duration: 32:44

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1

This demo is not worth a full review so just putting a small review here on YouTube.

While the trailer looks balls to the wall awesome the actual… well everything needs work. I'm going to use 2005's F.E.A.R for comparison since there is a ton of overlap in graphics, sound and gameplay.

𝐆𝐫𝐚𝐩𝐡𝐢𝐜𝐬: The graphics don't belong in 2021, they belong in 2005. In comparison to F.E.A.R, they are minutely improved but not much. Textures are lacklustre, torchlight and lighting as a whole are weak. The torchlight from enemies is especially bad since the original Half-Life probably did it better. They are just little light points with only an angle and no tracing of the light source.

The special effects try to bring the graphic effects back to the modern-day but fail miserably. I know that As I've seen the light breaking effects several times till date and this is probably the worst implementation I've yet.

𝐒𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝: The music isn't bad, it does well while you are hiding by building a sense of tension as you move around in the shadows. In combat it is alright, it should have been a lot heavier, a lot more rock but I guess the current value is acceptable...

Weapon sounds okay but I suspect they are reused assets from other games since they feel weak and lacklustre. If the game was purely stealth they would be acceptable but with the amount of combat you get into they are way too light!

The enemy voice acting is shit. I would dive deeper into that but it isn't worth our time.

𝐆𝐚𝐦𝐞𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐲: The game starts off trying to be a stealth action game. Hiding in the darkness, creating shadows by shooting out lights and the cloak ability all make it feel like it would be a stealth shooter. All these features make a great stealth game but it means little without well-designed levels and enemy A.I.

The levels are just corridors, really badly designed corridors. I would take a jab at Call of Duty here and say that the corridors were designed for a dumb FPS but that would be insulting to COD... I never thought I would say that. The level design is not bad, it is pathetic. You go from one square section to the next hoping to find a way out.

The guns are flat out bland forcing me to skip them. If you've played an FPS before you know the guns.

There is a cloaking and a slow-mo ability which are poorly executed. The cloak has such a tiny duration that you might as well go and kiss the enemy you are trying to walk past. The slow-mo on the other hand is better but doesn't feel like an advantage since you and the enemy are equally slowed down... didn't Max Payne teach developers how to do this properly in 2001?

Oh yeah, there is also hand to hand combat and a grapple to take enemies hostage that fails to work most of the time. The hand to hand combat should be an instant kill but prefers to be an inconvenience to your targets. Grabbing enemies is contextual and fails more often than not.

I'm bored now, let's just do a list of all the other problems:
A) A.I is so bad that they will hump each other at doors.
B) The A.I is also telepathic so they will see you in a dark room and open fire.
C) The enemies are bullet sponges
D) Grenades do next to no damage.
E) Doors are powerful enough to block A.I from navigating further
F) In the darkness, character models are not rendered and only their flashlights appear preventing headshots. After taking a few potshots I'm starting to think that enemies aren't there at all.
G) There is some kind of a cloaked enemy so close to the floor that you don't even notice them.

I would finally like to point out how bad the level design is by talking about the end: Being a convict trying to escape there should be a squad waiting for you at the level end. You kill them, you escape, that is how it should be. Instead, the game doesn't throw one squad at you, it throws at least 4 (that is how long I survived) one after the other. That is shit design at its finest.

Conclusion: This game is going to release one day, it is going to kill the legendary Team17. The death of Team17 will be sad, not because of games like this but because we might never see Worms again :(

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