The chanting as a whole feels like a let-down to me – Abe’s new voiceover lacks the same power the original did, the spirograph effect looks a little cheesy, and the chant orbs look a little lacklustre.
The animations that everyone has been complaining about don’t look so bad in context – to me they feel like they match the pacing of the original sprite animations, but a few of them don’t translate so well due to the new physics of the 3D world. And the Scrab killing animations definitely need more work.
Checkpoints look about as evenly-spaced as they were in the original Zulag 1, Havoc. Also, remember this is the intro level; I imagine the checkpoints will become more sporadic as you go deeper into the game.
As for cartoony-ness, I think we knew a while ago that this was coming. I don’t mind it too much since it’ll keep the game from feeling like a carbon copy, but I’m still a little let down that they didn’t go the other way with the tone.
Overall it’s looking like a really solid game, and I think the changes the team have been making will make it feel like its own game rather than just a 1:1 rehash, and that’s OK. Putting aside all the “this is different from the source” nitpicks, the gameplay looks solid, the artwork looks great, everything looks like it’s coming together nicely.
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