Deep Shadows' previous game Boiling Point ended up as the poster child for the 'buggy but beautiful' brigade. Its striking cocktail of Deus Ex, Far Cry and GTA was somewhat undermined by its many issues. To quote sparsely from the contents list of the first patch: "posters in bar vanish as you turn away from them", "dog does not cast shadows", "jaguar floats across screen at treetop level".
Our recent visit to Deep Shadows' Ukraine headquarters revealed one startling fact: Boiling Point was made by 13 people. Which is a little like everyone in the Gamer office, on a whim, deciding to have a crack at constructing their own Taj Mahal. White Gold is Deep Shadows' second shot at Boiling Point, except with the benefit of experience, a still-slim-but-more-reasonable 30-strong team and an express desire to not let it out into the world in a similar state. Co-founder Sergey Zabaryansky stresses that's a mistake they're going to avoid at all costs.
It's not the only misstep they want to avoid. "The distances between different military bases were too long," Sergey continues. "You could take quests and travel twenty minutes to another place, where you kill someone in two minutes before going back." They're aiming to create a tighter game, with a vehicle always on hand if you want it. "The game itself becomes more dynamic, more interesting." It also breaks up its areas a little - Boiling Point was set in a valley, while this is a series of islands. Hopping between them in helicopters provides a natural structure - in fact, getting off the initial island is your first goal.
There's more here than just a polished Boiling Point, though. A light RPG system, for a start. By gaining levels you're able to pick a perk from a list of about 30, each of which personalises your character. Some are straight combat boosts, others give what are almost trade skills, enabling you to skin animals and sell the hides. Thievery skills do things such as improve your lockpicking - which works on a resource system, picks having a chance to break each time you use one. Thievery skills will reduce that chance. One skill even makes you more resistant to booze.
But the real core of White Gold's appeal is its distinct take on a freeform world - a few notches more serious than most games of the type. While the visually similar Just Cause is happy to let you go on a rampage, White Gold creates a far more convincing world. You can talk to anyone you meet, as long as there's not a war going on. Even a GTA-clone perennial like stealing a car can have depth. Some cars are simply locked, requiring a key. They have petrol. They have tyres that can be shot out. There's a high level of destructibility in general. You share these islands with seven factions, all of whom can be charmed or alienated by your actions, and you're left to get on with it however you choose, and to live with the consequences.
Many games make that sort of claim. The difference here is that we know Deep Shadows can make a game that does it. They've done it before. The question is, in the time left, can they make it work as well as we all want it to? Here's hoping that White Gold doesn't turn out to be fool's gold.
White gold sound's interesting, the problem is i've got Fallout 3 and Stalker: CS coming out around the same time both of which are gonna require a hell of alot of attention. Leaving White gold as the underdog, unless either are pant's i don't think i will be able to experience this games charms.
By all means point out that Boiling Point had bugs on release, but why always mention the floating jaguars, etc, which even a lot of 1.0 players never saw, unless you just want to carry on turning the knife for some unknown reason (oh yea - their not a Bethesda or Valve or EA are they?!)!
Well that's journalism for you. You can pretty much see the game getting an inevitable high 70/low 80 percent rating just by the wording of the preview.
I must say though, that this game looks way too much like Far Cry, so it better have some innovation in the gameplay department, because it hasn't got it in the looks.
they actually released patches that fixed 99% of the problems and made the game great!
I played the updated version and it was still horrible, of the unintentionally funny variety - passers-by being killed by walking into stationary cars, trucks trying to drive under low arches, etc. Ambition is admirable, but you have to be able to chew _some_ of it off.
With White Gold, it's definitely a case of wait-and-see.
You could say there has been no such thing as 'neutral journalism' for years, such is the way things are. Mind you, I dont think thats particulary the writers fault. If im not mistaken im sure they're told to prioritise 'big game company x' over 'small game company y', especially with regards to time spent or pages used.
That said, imo PCG UK isn't too bad at this. They hate EA (no, its true!) and they tend to be a damn lot fairer to the minnows then most other publications out there.
As for white gold...looks interesting, might be worth a shot. We shall see.
White Gold must be better then BP even because it will be next progect after BP. Experience is important thing in game design. WG haves much more fetures and quality, if I can take into ccount information from Deep Shadows forum.
White gold sound's interesting, the problem is i've got Fallout 3 and Stalker: CS coming out around the same time both of which are gonna require a hell of alot of attention. Leaving White gold as the underdog, unless either are pant's i don't think i will be able to experience this games charms.
Thats a problem for me as well. Defiantly getting clear sky as Stalker is a great game. Then theres far cry two, then possibly fallout 3 then white gold.
They patched the game to REMOVE flying jaguars? Isn't that the kind of thing which would have reviewers gushing if it were found in a Tim Schafer game ?
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