Is there a preferred metric to measure this by? I didn’t play the first one, but Wikipedia says “polarizing but ultimately positive,” and there’s an 80/100 metacritic score, for whatever that’s worth.
Your word picture is just so funny that I want to root for the game’s success just to be the person that quotes this comment and @s you, even if I tend to agree with your assessment.
Is there a preferred metric to measure this by?
For the sake of my asscheeks’ preservation, I’d say “if in ~20 years (that’s how long it’s been, god I feel old) it’s regarded with the same high praise and fondness as Bloodlines.”
Preferred by me of course.
But honestly, I’m definitely going to at least pirate and play it, and I’m a man of principle, so I’ll own it if i think I was wrong.
Your word picture is just so funny that I want to root for the game’s success just to be the person that quotes this comment and @s you, even if I tend to agree with your assessment.
Nobody ever spares a thought for my asscheeks! Everyone just wants to see me fail! Assless and suffering! But I’ll show you!
Metacritic is not the good gauge for the original, given the circumstances of its release. The game was made on an alpha version of Source without any devkit as Valve were developing Source/HL2. Its development was also troubled, and ultimately pushed out the door before it was ready. It’s a miracle the game even runs at all. Not only is the final third of the game notoriously lacking compared to the early parts, but the game is literally unplayable without the fan made unofficial patch. You run into a bug that hard locks your progression like 80% of the time and cannot finish the playthrough.
Despite all that it has become a true cult classic for its writing, dialogue and characters, its humour, impeccable atmosphere and fantastic sound track. It’s been cited as one of the design inspirations for Cyberpunk 2077, among others.
These are the things the sequel will struggle living up to. The entire thing that got people excited about it was bringing back the original writer/lead designer and composer.
Sort of the thing that makes me think this one still has a ghost of a chance, but then I’ve liked the games The Chinese Room has made before mostly for their writing and music. I’ll probably be disappointed, but them at the helm doesn’t kill it for me like it probably does for people who wanted more of the original.
Oh I might have forgot to put it in my post, but the original writer/lead and composer got kicked off the project when they dumped Hard Suit labs and gave the project to The Chinese Room. That - combined with the latest trailers - is why people who like the original have very little hope of the sequel recapturing the magic.
