I've talked about this in length elsewhere. But two points he gets wrong are the Slig visors. Single visor Sligs do appear in the game and Sligs lean to one side which cancels out the pedantic vision issues he raises. Plus there are people out there who like the pilot mask Sligs so having both in the game is a fair compromise.
The second thing is the ads. Although their execution is certainly up for debate it's odd that Matthew didn't research his biggest issue with the game when he dug up quotes from Matt Glanville and Paul O'Connor. The idea that those ads betray the message of Oddworld and demonstrate hypocrisy doesn't ring true. But we've obviously had a whole thread dedicated to this issue and the best criticism for the ads, I think, is that they clearly didn't work for everyone. And there might be a problem if some people, like Matthew, are misinterpreting them as shameless rather than the indies banding together - which was the message Lorne intended. And I don't see his point about using a more popular title to promote your own smaller title since that seems to be part of the point - Lorne using his more popular brand to help promote small indie titles. Also, I don't see anything wrong with Lorne & OWI letting JAW & Matt include their own indies in this list considering they were instrumental in bringing Oddworld back to life.
In regard to visuals perhaps the bloom is a little too much at times, from what I've seen, but the idea that NnT is a serious visual downgrade is silly I think. Certainly some areas look better in the original but NnT has areas that are far more impressive visually. The Monsaic Lines in particular. But this is all going to come down to personal taste. I miss the super dark shadows, the grimness in certain areas of RF but, at the same time, there are areas, even in RF, that were very impressive despite not falling in line with the visual bible. Also, Matthew did showcase perhaps the most visually interesting areas of RF when, I feel, there are some really generic screens (particularly in Zulags 2-4) that look better in NnT.
But, even with that, the visuals of NnT have been the most consistently lauded aspect of the game so the idea that JAW would abandon everything for the Exoddus remake based on this critical review seems ridiculous to me. However I do think there's a better balance that could be struck since there are many fans who would love to see more of those aesthetic elements brought forward more.
I agree with him on some of his more nitpicky points though. Fast animations in particular and the repetition of idle dialogue (which can get annoying in every game that has it). In that instance more unique dialogue would be better - like Hitman Absolution. I think that was one of the first criticisms most of us expressed when seeing the first real gameplay footage. Certainly controls have been the most criticised aspect across the board.
Although bugs and sound design seem very unfortunate, and shouldn't happen in the first place, when a video game company makes these mistakes what becomes important is how they respond. And, in my opinion, JAW & OWI have handled it very well and did a great job responding to dissatisfied members of the community (if Twitter & Oddworld.com are anything to go by). I imagine the experience was a great lesson moving forward.
But in his twitter replied Matthew seems to be of the opinion that too much retrofitting is going on - looking at NnT as a Star Wars rerelease rather than a remake.
But the idea that NnT isn't a faithful remake also seems ridiculous.
However, his criticism is still well researched and shouldn't be ignored. I even imagine, as STM said, some of the issues raised will strike a chord even if the vitriol isn't shared (even if it is - looking at *you* Varrok!)
But, in the end, I think analytic criticism, like this, can only help JAW moving forward - particularly in appealing to those fans who feel NnT has strayed a little too far from what they loved about the originals.
And even if OWI privately disagree with some of these criticisms they're at least acknowledging them.
Last edited by Holy Sock; 08-27-2014 at 05:49 PM..
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