Well, it bothers me enough to post. As entertaining as ZP is all of the replies to his DS review have shown me that he is horribly miss-informing a lot of people. A long time ago the Lamb of God guitarist did an article in Guitar Player saying that three quarter notes was a triplet (bonus points if you're a music nerd like me) and that drove me totally insane. This makes me feel very much the same.
How would Shadow of the Colossus been recieved here if I had the first review and said "the bosses are towering skyscrapers with legs that can kill you in 1-2 hits, and you have to figure the puzzle to killing them out while on the fly, sometimes literally. If you die you have to go all the way back to the spawn point and platform for 15 minutes to make it back." Sounds similar. But it was an amazing game no? I could say it was a generic hack and slash as well cause you have a sword and a bow and stab things. But I digress.
The game is not punishing you in spirit form. When in spirit form, you have silent footsteps and are harder to detect. As well, you do improved damage.
As the "checkpoints" are concerned. ZP clearly didn't notice, or care to find, that most levels have a bridge, or a door, or something like that, that make any subsequent visits to the level faster. Usually twice as fast. In the first level, it is the lift gate. In another level, you turn off a big arrow-shooting machine and you can simply walk past it to the boss. Not checkpoints in a traditional sense, but same idea.
He didn't even explore the multiplayer options, which can also revive you, or can give you assistance with levels and bosses. His understanding of the message system was limited as well. "Slow down" the game urges. If I wrote a message about a fall fourty meters from the fall everyone that wasn't experienced would be paranoid as hell. Clicking on bloodstains will show the last 10 seconds or so of another player's death, possibly releasing hints. The Ghostly white images are other players currently in the level, but don't do anything to the NPCs in yours.
And as for him dying to the pack of dogs, or to the soldiers on the battlements I have no explaination. The dogs have never killed me even on my first play when I didn't know they were there. They come one or two at a time, if you spring in, then you get the whole pack. The soldiers are tricky if you're not using a sheild but he didn't disclose what his choice of class was. If this is where he stopped, that means he didn't give the game much of a chance at all and was rushing.
What I'm trying to say is, if you have an opportunity to rent this, or borrow it, or something, you owe it to yourself to try it out. Don't take his word alone on whether or not you're going to play it at all. Demon's Souls runs on another set of rules, and you can't just try to force your way through without accepting them. Maybe you will discover the deep challenging game that is there, or maybe you'll give up after two hours as well, but I would say you're better off trying it than not.
How would Shadow of the Colossus been recieved here if I had the first review and said "the bosses are towering skyscrapers with legs that can kill you in 1-2 hits, and you have to figure the puzzle to killing them out while on the fly, sometimes literally. If you die you have to go all the way back to the spawn point and platform for 15 minutes to make it back." Sounds similar. But it was an amazing game no? I could say it was a generic hack and slash as well cause you have a sword and a bow and stab things. But I digress.
The game is not punishing you in spirit form. When in spirit form, you have silent footsteps and are harder to detect. As well, you do improved damage.
As the "checkpoints" are concerned. ZP clearly didn't notice, or care to find, that most levels have a bridge, or a door, or something like that, that make any subsequent visits to the level faster. Usually twice as fast. In the first level, it is the lift gate. In another level, you turn off a big arrow-shooting machine and you can simply walk past it to the boss. Not checkpoints in a traditional sense, but same idea.
He didn't even explore the multiplayer options, which can also revive you, or can give you assistance with levels and bosses. His understanding of the message system was limited as well. "Slow down" the game urges. If I wrote a message about a fall fourty meters from the fall everyone that wasn't experienced would be paranoid as hell. Clicking on bloodstains will show the last 10 seconds or so of another player's death, possibly releasing hints. The Ghostly white images are other players currently in the level, but don't do anything to the NPCs in yours.
And as for him dying to the pack of dogs, or to the soldiers on the battlements I have no explaination. The dogs have never killed me even on my first play when I didn't know they were there. They come one or two at a time, if you spring in, then you get the whole pack. The soldiers are tricky if you're not using a sheild but he didn't disclose what his choice of class was. If this is where he stopped, that means he didn't give the game much of a chance at all and was rushing.
What I'm trying to say is, if you have an opportunity to rent this, or borrow it, or something, you owe it to yourself to try it out. Don't take his word alone on whether or not you're going to play it at all. Demon's Souls runs on another set of rules, and you can't just try to force your way through without accepting them. Maybe you will discover the deep challenging game that is there, or maybe you'll give up after two hours as well, but I would say you're better off trying it than not.
