[Nepsotic]

I just finished the game, and I enjoyed it a lot. Obviously I don't like it as much as the original, but that's mainly nostalgia talking. It's also because of the ATMOSPHERE! This was the one word I kept repeating when I was nitpicking everything pre-release, because it was the one thing I was worried about the most.

It's safe to say that this game has a completely different atmosphere from the original, and this is mainly due to two things:

A. The world being more alive.
B. The use of comedy.

Now the more realistic world is fantastic, characters are more believable, as well as the universe in general. The bad side of this is that as a result, you feel less isolated, and less alone. This feeling practically made the original what it was, but in the remake it's completely absent.
My second point is how comedy is used. It's more akin to AE or even MO at some points. However, the majority of the time, the game does succeed in getting a giggle out of me, because it is very funny. The difference between this and the original is the fact that the original was more subtle about it (if only very slightly) and used it much more sparingly. Because NnT has something funny every 5 minutes, it kills any chance the game has of creating dramatic tension (another big part of the original).

Case in point: The section where Abe gains the power of Shrykull. It's a suspenseful moment, and dramatic as hell by the time he says "Rupture Farms should be warned". Then what happens? He trips up.
I'm not going to lie, it made me laugh. It's unexpected, it ruins his dramatic exit and makes him look like a fool, which is pretty damn funny. The problem is that all the tension that was just built up is now gone.

However, I think I'm looking at it the wrong way. It's not necessarily trying to replicate the originals dark tones and atmosphere down to a tee, it creates it's own unique ones. Maybe I should look at how it stands on it's own as opposed to how it compares to the game it was based on. I mean, we don't want a remake JUST for the graphic overhaul, we want something fresh, and NnT definitely delivers. This is the reason I had so much fun playing through it.

As for the graphics, they are just stunning. I take back what I said about the game having a tone completely unlike AO's, because if one thing does, it's the environments. The level of detail is incredible and the way some simple objects have been altered to fit better with the world is great, and there are some excellent little touches in there. My personal favourites are the big industrial lifts that replace a couple of otherwise bog standard RF doors. There's only two of them, but that's fine. Also they sound awesome, which brings me onto the sound design.

It's great for the most part, the only sounds I'm not so fond of are Scrabs really, but that's only because I miss their "howl". That sounded sick.
The soundtrack is great. It mainly consists of extremely subtle remixes of the original tracks, which could not have been done better. I'm excited for an OST release as finally I got to hear the awesome Scrabanian Nests music in it's full glory, as opposed to being chopped up due to the triggers, like it was in the original (I know the music in NnT is dynamic, too, but it's done a lot better).

Without a doubt, though, my favourite track has GOT to be the credits music. Lol jk. It's The Boardroom.
It always disappointed me how AO never had any finale music. I loved AE's Approaching the Boiler but it was nowhere near as epic as the addition of the music for The Boardroom in NnT is. It's so simple yet it makes everything feel so much grander, I'm talking the RE1 and 2 finales levels of epicness. So yeah guys, gonna need an OST release soon if you would be so kind.

When I beat the game I had to skip the credits because the music was so unbearable. Yeah, that bad.
I'm not saying the song is bad, I quite like it, but whoever made the decision to use it in the game at all, never mind right after the climax, is a right bell end.

Anyway, apart from a few minor annoyances (like the game being disappointingly easy for the most part, even on hard, unless there's bats or meat grinders, at those points it becomes nigh impossible), I very much enjoyed the game. 10/Train


Addendum: I forgot to talk about the controls.
The controls suck. Yeah. I don't know if it's just me but even by the end of the game I still didn't quite have my head round them. You're pretty much playing with just one hand and it's not very pleasant. I was playing on a keyboard, by the way. I couldn't bare the issues with the analogue stick with my 360 controller.

I know you can remap the keys but that's besides the point, defaults should not be this difficult to grasp. Unless everyone else was completely fine with them, in which case, disregard this section, I'm just a retard who can't use a keyboard.

My results were...
Mode: Hard
Total play time: 6:03 (I DON'T LIKE TO RUSH FIRST PLAYTHROUGHS OKAY)
Mudokons rescued: 291 (I have no fucking idea where those other 9 are)