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Author Topic: I must escape  (Read 5110 times)
Hunter
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Re: I must escape
« Reply #15 on: April 16, 2010, 03:22:34 am »

Under the revised Zarf's Cruelty Scale of Interactive Fiction, UQM is firmly in the "Tough" camp; there are lots of ways to end up in a situation you can't get out of, but most of them involve entering deep into enemy territory without being prepared. SC3 descends into "Nasty"; saying the wrong thing to an alien can get you fired, ending the game! This is probably one of the reasons why SC3 is considered evil.

All those save slots are there for a reason, people.

That's a pretty cool site.

As far as UQM is concerned, it's...Evil. Think - you have to visit various far flung worlds in a certain order, some of which aren't actually necessary and waste your time (it could add to the game, but that's useless if you have to start all over again to do it), and there's no indication that you've passed a point of no return. It's Evil and I struggle to think such a great game can be so evil. Can you tell I hate the time limit?  Tongue Cruel at best, but really, since you have to invest in the game so many hours just to find out you're screwed, Evil.
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Re: I must escape
« Reply #16 on: April 16, 2010, 10:34:46 am »

Under the revised Zarf's Cruelty Scale of Interactive Fiction, UQM is firmly in the "Tough" camp; there are lots of ways to end up in a situation you can't get out of, but most of them involve entering deep into enemy territory without being prepared. SC3 descends into "Nasty"; saying the wrong thing to an alien can get you fired, ending the game! This is probably one of the reasons why SC3 is considered evil.

All those save slots are there for a reason, people.

That's a pretty cool site.
That's an understatement. TV Tropes will ruin your life, and it'll all just have started with a wiki walk.

Quote
As far as UQM is concerned, it's...Evil. Think - you have to visit various far flung worlds in a certain order, some of which aren't actually necessary and waste your time (it could add to the game, but that's useless if you have to start all over again to do it), and there's no indication that you've passed a point of no return. It's Evil and I struggle to think such a great game can be so evil. Can you tell I hate the time limit?  Tongue Cruel at best, but really, since you have to invest in the game so many hours just to find out you're screwed, Evil.
Even without the MetaChron, I'd say there are plenty of warning signs: practically everyone anywhere near the Kohr-Ah will warn you that they're winning (the Zoq-Fot-Pik will even tell you when, just like the MetaChron dialogue) and the death march is far from instant. Even if there were no warning, UQM would still not be worse than "Cruel", since it's pretty obvious that you've taken too much time if you run out of it.

I've never run into the time limit myself, possibly because I tend to assume I am working against a time limit, rather than assume I have all the time in the world. This got a bit silly on my first play-through of Mass Effect, which turned out to be very brief (and unnecessarily hard) since I was saving pretty much all the side quests for when the immediate threat to the galaxy was taken care of. I was quite surprised when the game ended.
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Re: I must escape
« Reply #17 on: April 16, 2010, 07:33:29 pm »

So true. The thread is named perfectly - there is no escape from TV Tropes... I've lost days in there Undecided
« Last Edit: April 16, 2010, 08:02:42 pm by SuddenDeath » Logged
Draxas
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Re: I must escape
« Reply #18 on: April 17, 2010, 04:34:34 am »

Same here. At least they were fun days, though! Grin
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Re: I must escape
« Reply #19 on: April 20, 2010, 08:24:06 pm »

My God... Tvtropes.... The time wasted there... it's horrible....  Cry
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Alvarin
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Re: I must escape
« Reply #20 on: April 20, 2010, 09:31:34 pm »

Good place to visit on an empty work shift, just for that quality.
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Hunter
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Re: I must escape
« Reply #21 on: April 21, 2010, 04:20:00 am »


I've never run into the time limit myself, possibly because I tend to assume I am working against a time limit, rather than assume I have all the time in the world. This got a bit silly on my first play-through of Mass Effect, which turned out to be very brief (and unnecessarily hard) since I was saving pretty much all the side quests for when the immediate threat to the galaxy was taken care of. I was quite surprised when the game ended.

This is why you're defending it. I spent days trying to figure it out, investigating every scrap of information I could find, buying every tip from the Melnorme, landing on random worlds in vain hope...how is that not Evil?
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Re: I must escape
« Reply #22 on: April 21, 2010, 06:02:52 am »

That's a pretty cool site.

As far as UQM is concerned, it's...Evil. Think - you have to visit various far flung worlds in a certain order, some of which aren't actually necessary and waste your time (it could add to the game, but that's useless if you have to start all over again to do it), and there's no indication that you've passed a point of no return. It's Evil and I struggle to think such a great game can be so evil. Can you tell I hate the time limit?  Tongue Cruel at best, but really, since you have to invest in the game so many hours just to find out you're screwed, Evil.

Well if you're looking for a time limit "killer" *cough*
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Re: I must escape
« Reply #23 on: April 23, 2010, 10:33:39 am »

This is why you're defending it. I spent days trying to figure it out, investigating every scrap of information I could find, buying every tip from the Melnorme, landing on random worlds in vain hope...how is that not Evil?
Let's not exaggerate; even Sierra On-Line's infamous Space Quest series is only "Cruel", and that one often puts you in the position of having no idea where in the entire game you went wrong and having to replay most of the game several times to find out.

Are you talking about trying to stop the Kohr-Ah Death March or trying to prevent them from starting it? Either way, as I mentioned, there are plenty of clues that there is a time limit (even without the MetaChron speech), and it's hardly a surprise that one exists. This, in itself, is enough to push it up from "Evil" to just plain "Nasty". "Cruel" would be the Kohr-Ah Death March invariably being just a bit too quick for you to win (but not obviously unwinnable), unless you start the Yehat revolution sufficiently early for the Pkunk to fuse with the Yehat and cause respawning Yehat Terminators to appear and stop the Kohr-Ah. "Evil" would be to further require that you inspire a new Pkunk philosophy by making the "Fruit Loops" comment the first time you meet a Pkunk (and only have the Pkunk tell you about this at the end of the game).
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RTFM = Read the fine manual.
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