lol I meant to do this a while back but never got around to it. It really does deserve something resembling a formal review, and I didn't want to do it too close to release. So here goes!The stand-alone engine sports a nice short intro cutscene, a new background image (no new menu sound though), and then a newgame cutscene plays while loading the level. This scene features a professional-looking global zoom and a mission briefing. Are we still in Trespasser??
Then the game starts right off with an ASA animation of a chopper flying off. This is the first time someone's actually animated a chopper via ASA (though mentions of wanting to do it have come and gone for years), and it worked pretty slick. Sadly the sound for the helicopter leaving cuts short if you do not skip the opening cutscene, but alas, Tres will never be perfect, or it wouldn't be Tres.
The player is met with a snowy-looking HUD completely new landscape before him/her. All the textures and models appear to be new (with the exception of the spas sitting there). Sadly, the trees have some wonky physics, but the physical presense of the trees is not even necessary so you won't notice. The sky is a beautiful pink color, and the light fog matches this color to give a bizarre and totally new-to-Tres effect of a colored arctic horizon. The first thing you'll notice that's missing is wind ambience of any kind, which enigma has said is due to a technical difficulty in them cutting off. Trespasser has its own wind sounds which would fit perfectly here, but ah well (those can sometimes cut off, but in fact all ambient sounds in Trespasser are known to randomly cut off at the start or end of playing the sound, for some reason, which I suspect is related to the scripted delay-time). There IS, however, a great wolf-howling ambience. The entire time I was expecting a rigged wolf to come tumbling out of the mountains to attack me! The "HUP" sound of Anne jumping, as I run-jumped through the vast snowy wilderness, got VERY annoying after a while, especially with no main or overpowering-wind sounds to help cover it up, making Anne's effort sounds the most audable thing for much of the time. Some even reportedly did not hear the wolves due to the hupping-sound.
Eventually you come to a radio station of some kind. New buildings - especially ones with new textures - seem to be rare in Trespasser mods, and this baby was 100%. Inside, there is an earie radio hiss. Occasionally I heard a low grrrrr sound, which had me constantly on the edge of my mouse, thinking it was the growl of a virus-mutated wolf inside the building that might come out of the walls at any moment (it wasn't until a later playthrough that I realized this was really a random ambience for the radio crackling). Before long, you spot splotches of blood coming from under a closed door. Moving cautiously through the corridors, I pushed open the door with my spas and held my breath. Inside was a bleeding dead man.
!!!! This is another first for Trespasser. The Embryonics Administration in JPDS1 was going to be the first to have it, but Christmas Crisis has officially taken the title. Congrats!! (JPDS1 no longer even features the interior of the EA, so it's all the better that someone else did it.) For some reason, this one room continued to creep me out. I walked around very slowly. I did manage to find what looked like the Trespasser Guidebook under a bed Turns out it's actually the game. Moving into the computer room, more new models please the eyes. The towers are simpler than Tres's but the rest of the models are a small notch up from retail Tres computer detail, perfect for the engine. The radio looks mighty fine as well. A fun synthetic voice instructs you on what to do next. After carefully checking the other rooms for creatures or dead guys, I headed out into the snowy wilderness.
Oh yeah. While exploring the back of the building, I noticed some text on a door that couldn't be read, and it suddenly occured to me to check on the max resolution setting, which at that moment I realized would by default still be at 128. After fixing this, I was able to see what it said (though not read it):
Just as I'm getting a little tired of the blank soundscape of the outdoors, and wondering where these wolves are, I spot a raptor meandering around at the bottom of a hill. Soon after, the level crashes, as it does several more times during my gameplay. Draw Distance seems to be an issue, along with my big screen size (being unable to run at only 800x600), ah well. Eventually you come to a chilly pond covered partially with big sheets of ice. I saved the game right here, started to cross, and then I forget why but I had to reload the savegame. In the savegame, the ice sheets were all UNDER the water, even though this was not so in the savegame. No idea what's goin on there, and they were below the water for the rest of my playthrough.
I eventually crossed this pond and, with a little searching, found the crashed helicopter site. I also watched the newgame scene a few times over to help in understanding the mission. A raptor was nearby, which I took out. After you pick up the DX phial, it's time to head back. The game kept crashing on me so I had to stow the phial and fly back, making periodic saves as I went because flying would also cause crashes even at a speed of 2. Back at the station, you're congratulated on a successful mission, and given a rewarding final rendered cutscene of a helicopter landing at the base to take you home.
Rating:
Sound Design: 3/5
New models: 5/5
New textures: 5/5
Creatures: 3/5
Level Design: 5/5
Gameplay: 4/5
Story: 5/5
Cutscenes: 6/5
Post-Gameplay:
There are apparently several easter eggs to be found in the level. I've only found the Tres box, the sign, and a certain CD lying in the snow, as far as ingame area goes; however, if you get into the basement with TresEd, you'll find not only a swell collection of unused terrain textures (most likely from enigma's other project), but a rather large object with some goodies attached.
Do check it out in TresEd, for sure..