Re: Bye Bye, Monolith

On Thu, 27 Feb 2025 10:38:04 +0200, Anssi Saari
<anssi.saari@usenet.mail.kapsi.fi> wrote:

Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> writes:
>

Just for the heck of it, here's Monolith's roster of games. How many
did you play?
>
      * Aliens vs Predator 2 * Blood * Blood II: The Chosen *
      Claw * Condemned: Criminal Origins * Condemned 2 * Contrack
      JACK * FEAR * FEAR 2 * Get Medieval * * Gotham City Imposters *
      Gruntz * Guardians of Middle Earth * Matrix Online * Middle
      Earth: Shadow of Mordor * Middle Earth: Shadow of War * No
      One Lives Forever * No One Lives Forever 2 * Sanity: Aiken's
      Artifact * Shogo: Mobile Armor Division * Tex Atomic's Big
      Bot Battles * TNN Outdoors Pro Hunter 2 * Tron 2.0 *

>
Just three, NOLF, NOLF2 and Shadow of Mordor. I thought NOLF was
brilliant, enough variation that it didn't get boring. One of the first
games where you got stats for hitting different body parts on
enemies. And of course, the crazy tongue-in-cheek Bond-like plot and
locations, including the space station.
>
Maybe all what was in NOLF done before or better in other games but I
hadn't played that many shooters after Doom and Wolf 3D. And no, the
funny discussions between the guards didn't enter into it. Admittedly,
stealth was just badd and you never had enough of the body disappearing
powder to make a difference.
>
I remember I became so eager for headshots from playing NOLF it affected
my play in System Shock 2 which absolutely didn't give a damn where you
hit your enemies.
>
NOLF2 was disappointing and the mediocrity and tedious repetitiveness of
Shadow of Mordor made it a "once and done" game. Still, Gollum's cameo
made for a fun interlude.
>
However, Shdow of Mordor was a decent Tolkien-related game and I think
it's the only one I've played.... no, wait, there was that graphical
text adventure game "Hobbit" in the early 80s. The kind that slowly drew
the graphics on screen when you changed rooms, I guess there was
insufficient storage for bitmaps back then. Don't remember much, other
than my English at 12 years wasn't really up to playing it.

Not that I'm recommending anything illegal but...
       http://nolfrevival.tk/
for those who want to see what NOLF was like (use at your own risk).

Me, I have the original CD-ROMs and period-accurate hardware so I
needn't bother. But it's hard to chastise anyone who goes the above
route when the companies that own the IP are so hostile to the idea of
selling the game.

Then again, as I've indicated numerous times before, I don't think
NOLF is really worth the bother. As a historical relic, it's an
interesting diversion; it added a number of twists to the FPS genre
that were quite uncommon for the day (stealth, gizmos, female
protagonist, not being set in space or in WW2, stuff like that). But
most of what made the game so novel and interesting is pretty common
now. And while some of its humor is fun, its presentation works
against it, and a lot of the game just feels OLD. I think a lot of
people who play the game for the first time TODAY won't understand why
it's so beloved, just because its originality is old hat now, leaving
its only its flaws evident.

But judge for yourself. There are always options.


(as for NOLF2, it always felt a bit try-hard in its attempt to top the
first game... but it had its moments. That battle in the cyclone, or
the chase sequence riding a tricycle; they weren't really FUN but they
certainly were memorable!)