You could argue that NnT is an objectively better game, and while I do not agree with that position, I will attempt to argue it per request of Vlam.
NnT had almost 20 years to learn that AO could've done better and refine its puzzles, and it did that quite well. The game was paced slightly better, Paranomia is now almost as long as Scrabania among other things.
I'll also add the fact that the original puzzles such as Alf's Escape were great. They used the engine built for the game to make puzzles that worked much better than AO's did (in this engine). For example, there isn't such a huge focus on timing, and in NnT that is definitely a good thing.
That's another thing it did right, the controls. Thing is it's kind of a double edged sword. The he more fluid controls feel great, but become an issue when faced with a precision puzzle made for AO, the most obvious example for this being extremely wide jumps and almost impossibly fast meat grinders on hard mode (and let's be honest, everyone here played it on hard the first time through. 'cept probably OP because he's bullpuss who can't afford a PS1 game).
But yeah in general, the controls were much more fluid and responsive, which in turn makes it a more accessible game. Going from NnT controls to AO keyboard controls is pretty fucking hard, and let's not forget that the Steam port of AO was a fucking disaster riddled with all kinds of audio and gameplay glitches.
One of the reasons I still love playing AO so much to this day is that, you never really know what you're going to get. I've played through the game countless times and I'm not exaggerating when I say that each time I've probably seen a new glitch that's never come up before. It happend last time I played, in fact. The final Stockyard Slog just stopped animating completely. It was still there, you could bounce rocks off it and stuff, but it just wasn't doing anything. It was great.
Anyway, I digress.
I'll also argue that the visuals were much better, not just because of the technological improvements made in 17 years, but artistically.
Look at the final secret area you visit in Rupture Farms 1, it's mental, but in the original the background doesn't really reflect that. In the remake, the setting is a lot more appropriate, it looks like something out of a Saw film, there's tiles and shit, hanging carcasses, it looks great.
There were loads of times when NnT took a lot of creative liberties where it didn't need to, and it worked out for the better.
Remember the huge elevator in Zulag 1? In the original that was just a door, and they didn't have to change it, but by doing so they taught us a lot more about this place and how it's structured.
Or how about the Mudokon sleeping pens which were finally added to that secret area in Scrabania?
That path they added in between the wells to Paramonia and Scrabania was fucking awesome, too.
Unfortunately it doesn't do this a lot, as in between loading screens, what used to be a seamless and beautiful looking transition has been replaced by a boring black screen and awful,
awful expository poems almost definitely written by Lorne.
The game may look nice, and the environments feel more alive than ever, and that's great, but the foreshadowing seems to just be gone. I could be wrong about this, but in NnT Scrabania I'm pretty sure you only see the Temple in the background once before you reach it. In AO it was there a lot, sitting there ominously. I guess we don't need the foreshadowing to show you where you're going CUZ WE GOT LORDES POEMS TELLIN YA!
Oh, I'm arguing
for it, right, right.
All that aside, the game
still looks nice despite it's copious amounts of bloom (sometimes it feels like Abe's Oddysee: Neon 80s Edition, although if it actually was that I definitely wouldn't be complaining about it).
Yeah maybe Rupture Farms looks too futuristic inside and out, but to me only the outside is really a problem. It makes sense for Glukkons to waste shitloads of money on pointless shit inside the facility, and it gives the place a gloss finish, as if trying to hide it's true, gross appearance. The contrast is great sometimes, though it would've been better if the outside of the facility was more faithful to the original.
I can safely say that one area they did absolutely perfectly was Monsaic Lines, and it wasn't always that way.
Once, a teaser image was released of that area, and it looked terrible, but one man stood up and said
"No. That's the wrong green"
Do you know what? They fixed it, and now Monsaic Lines is the most faithfully recreated area in the game.
You're welcome.
Abe's Odysee or New n Tasty?
