Well, I finished it this morning, not long after I wrote that last post. Meat Circus wasn't
that hard in itself (I played with a gamepad), but it was brutally hard when compared to the rest of the game. That's one of the biggest problems I had with it, nothing in the game prior to Meat Circus prepared you for some of its challenges.
Take that timed sequence at its very beginning. It wasn't that painful to pull off once I figured out what to do and where to go, but when I first encountered it, I was completely puzzled. Should I go explore a little before I help him catch the bunny? How to use those giant wheels? Why can't I kill the sword throwers? I should've been taught all that before, in safer surroundings, and the challenge should've been in completing the task as swiftly as possible. Instead, the game throws you in the middle of a timed sequence and forces you to experiment while the clock is ticking away. Bound to cause many restarts and a lot of aggravation.
Or those curved grids, another challenge you haven't really encountered before. That part was the hardest for me. This time I knew what to do, but I just couldn't pull it off! Everything leading to Meat Circus was almost a walk in the park, what were they thinking?
But I found some things mildly annoying even before that. The camera, for instance, it's awful. The controls in general are fine, but not the best I've seen. Raz annoyed me, that little "look at me, I'm so special, way better than these other kids" prick. The inconsistent save/load system that would sometimes bring me back to the exact location where I saved, and sometimes just drop me at the area entrance. Invisible walls, sometimes passable from only one side. And finally, a number of crashes, but that's probably my PC's fault. Next time someone dares to question the value of playing on consoles, I'll sit him down in front of my PC with a copy of Psychonauts.
But I loved the art direction, I loved the level variety, I loved the story (though, in my opinion, it's not among Schafer's best), I loved most characters and I very much appreciated all the cleverness and attention to detail.
Gameplay itself was good, but let's face it, we've seen almost everything this game has to offer before, although probably not in one place. This is not among the best platformers as far as pure mechanics are concerned, but it's competent enough.
In the end, now that I've given it some rest, I can honestly say that I loved the experience. The bad points don't overshadow the good ones, but it's such a shame that there are bad points at all. This game could've been almost perfect were it not for some design shortsightedness. I guess in that regard it very much reminds me of
The Incredibles.
