Ok. some quick comments here, sorry for the long post:
The positives I would have to say about the game is that it was one of the earlier games to use a cinematic approach to it's story telling.
Ehm, not really. I would however say that OoT does this exceptionally well, but is no way first with it. As I've read up there are some misconception about what things OoT actually was first to present to gamers.
Also because 3D games were still pretty new, there was a lot of ground to be laid out.
Depends of course on what you mean by 'new', but I grant you that it wasn't as widespread over different genres as it is today.
As far as I know, OOT was one of the earliest games to implement a lock-on target.
Another misconception, or should I say overexaggeration. Granted it provided more control than other games but take the first Tomb raider as an example. Pre-dating OoT's lock-on by a couple of years, although I grant that OoT's version is a bit more complex.
Also the game set the tone for how controlling mechanics should work for action-adventure games.
That I agree with! Especially the context-sensitive buttons.
Now as far as gameplay comes, I think what really set it out was the open-ended gameplay. There wasn't a strict order in which a level had to be completed.
Really? I find that's bending the truth a little bit. As far as I've come I've been able to travel to alot of places but the game is pretty strict in allowing me to do things. Also, it's hinting me on quite strongly. And this also isn't very new. The first Zelda was said to have this "take-it-in-any-order-you-want" but in reality you had to clear the dungeons mostly in the numbered order. This might change later in the game but there hasn't been a hint of it yet.
Now I talked about cinematic earlier, and I wanted to add that the music itself was cinematic and atmospheric as well.
Agreed. The music was very good, very much so considered it's on the limited cartridge format.
Its not everyone's cup of tea though. It has the sickly sweet undertones that infect all Miyamoto's games, and the storyline and dialogue is squarely aimed at the younger end of the market.
This is my main issue with almost any game coming from Japan. This childish thing is part of their culture but it's also what stops me from getting on this Manga/Animé-craze. However, I like many japanese RPG's and I love Miyamoto's games for other reasons so more often than not I'm able too look beyond this "theme".
Plus after playing Morrowind most other and older RPG's will leave you feeling a bit hard done by.
Agreed!
The goofy and likeable characters and warming graphics are friendly and attractive, while the sounds that come out of Link are amusing, such as rolling into walls or falling off edges.
That are things I don't really like and examples of what i said above.
though sometimes wanted to "strangle" that annoying owl - hoping he would turn his neck too sharp one way and drop dead after explaining over and over because I was jamming buttons - LOL).
Been there, felt the same!
If you didn't like it, your just not into others of its type, rather of sports, fighting, and racing. As a writer, you got to "grab" a sense of what others "see" and "feel" upon it (though I know it's hard, especially of a title you can't get into).
Oh, but if you read my previous posts you see that i have no problem with that. And that's basically what this thread is for! And I like almost every genre of games so that's not it.
When the sun came up for the first time on Hyrule field it gave such a great feeling.
Yeah, that was nice!
[/QUOTE]One of the other great points IMHO is that it actually worked in 3D. We were in a time that more franchises were trying to make the transfer to 3D, but many failed. OOT didn't.[/QUOTE]
But on the other hand, Super Mario 64 already proved that it could work!
So all in all I'm leaning towards calling it not inventive in all the little things but a succes in being able to combine all these elements and thus setting some kind of standard for action games. I'll write my review tomorrow, but I have begun to see the light so I think the review will be positive and fair!
