Part 20: Leftovers

Leftovers

Bad ending

Let me start this by saying that getting the bad ending is the dumbest thing. Really, I mean that.

So, instead of taking Serb and Vitek along you have to leave them to their fate. Which you have to assume is death, without knowledge of how the game ends.


He tells both of them that he is going to take his wife and one of the Mg's, and will look for a new house. Meanwhile, they should hide all the supplies and gear that Akhmet can't fit on the cart. When he has found a new house, he will come back to get both of them and the stuff. This is a big fat lie, as Akhmet knows that the Americans will wipe the city.


And the diary entry sounds like he has no choice about the matter. Bullshit!

I really don't like this, as it totally goes against Akhmet's character in the end of the story. In the earlier parts, when his only concern was the safety of him and his wife, this would have made sense. It still would be a giant dick-move, but I could see it work. But by now, he went through a lot with his lads and calls them brothers and family. It just doesn't make any sense to leave them, and reeks of a quick solution to cram another ending in and call it a "moral" choice. Bad Apeiron, bad!

But there is another reason why the second ending is bad. You have to fight the last battle with only Akhmet. Yeah, good luck with that.
I'm not insane enough to do it, but you pretty much have to create Akhmet's initial char with this in mind and then level him for the ending throughout the game. And even then you probably have to abuse the quicksave hard. No, thank you.

Anyway, here is the video. The first half is the same as the other ending, so skip that if you want.




Fun with the Yankees

I mentioned that the clock during the final battle is a timer for a squad of reinforcements that will ruin you if you're still fighting the initial enemies. But this Lp wouldn't be complete if I wouldn't show you how that looks. And I can have some fun with them while I'm at it.


Jfyi, I kept the Striker alive and restocked my unit after dispatching the initial group. And then I placed everyone with a good view of the spawn point, and a primed RPG in hand.








Two rockets hit their mark, and only Vitek missed.

Of course, the Americans get some shots off and even throw some grenades at Serb.

This caused a Humvee to explode and killed one of their own.

But I want to point out that the Americans have English voice clips for the battle chatter. Nice touch.

Serb gets fucked up by bullets and grenades, while firing the Rg-6.

I confess that I deliberately placed him in the open to soak up damage. But that also gives me a chance to say something about critical wounds, which didn't really came up in the Lp.

I have no idea what causes a critical wound, but each body part has a different effect. A crit on the legs will greatly reduce your speed and movement options, while a hit in the arm will fuck with your CTH and swap/inventory speed. Getting a crit on the torso will totally ruin you stamina and breath regen. It will also put this white filter over the screen when you have the person selected. And finally, a crit in the face will make the screen go totally white, so that this person is effectively blind when selected. These effects can only be healed at the Bazaar, or when you have a medical kit(not first aid) and three points in the medic tree.

Despite his injuries, Serb still hits the mark.

By this point, a lot of dead bodies will fly around with each new explosion. One or two even flew to the edge of the map.

Despite bleeding and being close to unconscious, Serb finishes off the last stragglers.




That was fun.


Destroying the Bazaar

Yeah you read that right.

I mentioned that the guards will get hostile if you keep a weapon in your hand or try to enter without paying. In the later stages of the game, you can deal with them quite handily. Seeing how you have heavy armor and ordnance. But it's kind of a sad battle, as the traders will join in. I felt pretty bad when shooting Oleg.

Anyway, while you can win the fight, the game wouldn't work without the Bazaar and the Npc's. So you'll get a game over and a cutscene for doing this.




Miscellaneous

Near the beginning of the thread, Croccers asked for a video of killing a dude with stones. Sorry! I really tried but I never got to set it up. I even scrounged the maps to collect some stones, since I had already pre-recorded a good portion of the game. It just didn't happened.

To kind of make up for it, I chucked stones at Wifey.

But she took it like a champ and wasn't even phased. Which is weird considering how the stun system works.

Speaking off, I somewhere mentioned that you can knock out people, even in heavy armor, by throwing an empty backpack at them.

That is something which I can set up.

Serb will be the victim. He's wearing is endgame gear which protects him from large caliber rifle rounds and explosions.

Who would have guessed that his only weakness would be an empty bag of cloth?

He even got a critical wound on the torso! He also would have passed out if I had planned the arc of the throw a bit better.

Here is how this works, and why some throwing objects are so dangerous. When an object hits a person it will cause some stun damage. And then it will continue to do so for every frame it has contact with the model. Since some objects don't bounce, but travel through the model, this quickly racks up the stun damage. But I have no idea how it caused the crit.

Lastly, here a two shots that my cool readers could translate for me.






Closing thoughts

Man of Prey is a good game.

The story and especially the narration are well done and keep you interested. A lot of things have been fleshed out aside from the main road, and the attention to detail is sweet. I've already stated how much I like the combat system but this game really lives through it's atmosphere and the plentiful voice acting. Of course it also has it's bad sides. The last quarter of the game feels less polished and we have seen some things that were clearly cut out. In the same lane, we saw some features that could have been fleshed out more, or could have been designed more thoughtful. I'm especially talking about the limited upgrade system, ammo and dealing with looting/trading. Really, cleaning up after some of the bigger fights is the most tedious thing. The game could have been much more, and I'm sure that Apeiron wanted it to be. For whatever reason they couldn't, but we still end up with a cool game.

Still, this game would have been a good leap for Apeiron, from the viewpoint of development. 7,62 was great only due to the combat and gun-porn. Everything around it sucked, and it's probably the most unstable game I know. MOP is much more refined and stable. I can't stress that fact enough, you'll understand that if you have played 7,62. The few bugs that MOP has can be easily fixed/avoided or don't hinder your game. It's a shame that Apeiron closed down, as I'm sure that they would have released even better games after this one. Capitulum was made before this one, but the creative potential and direction paved the way for MOP. And I'm sure they would have continued on this road.

There is one last thought I'd like to share with you. I don't mind that the game is linear, I even think that is a good idea.

See, tactical games have never been popular with the mainstream. That means that people are less interested in making/funding those type of games. So the people who do enjoy them are usually left with a period of nothing or some shitty games, till that one gem comes around that keeps you hooked for years. I think that the design route of MOP is the way to make tactic games more appealing to the main crowd, and thereby more profitable/attractive for the industry. I think the new X-com supports this thought of mine. It's much more linear and narrow than the original, but kept what made it successful in the first place - The combat. Turn based isn't appealing to the majority of people, due to the lack of action, but Firaxis still shaped it to be accessible and fun for people outside of the genre. I think the SPM system would also function for a lot of people, if it is refined further. Though I have to admit that there have been attempts that were not that satisfying. #COUGH#JaggedAllianceBIA#COUGH#

As said, just a little thought of mine.

I'll post my closing words in a day or two, but rest assured that you guys have been a good thread!