by I shot a dinosaur in the face today. What did you do?
ORION: Prelude. Wasn’t this that game that was so bad that en mass game purchasers demanded refunds in droves when it was released? And then, apologetically, the developers went into overdrive and fixed up their game to be semi-decent? Apparently I missed all that because according to my Steam purchase history, I bought this game 3 years ago and haven’t played it until today. I also payed $0.81 for it. Mk.
This game is sort of like Killing Floor and the old James Bond N64 games put together but.. you know, only with dinosaurs. While there are a dozen or so game modes (mostly involving PvP) the “core” game mode seems to be where you and 4 of your buddies team up against waves of dinosaurs to protect your base. There’s even a couple off alternate missions (so that it’s not just wave after wave) where you do things like capture vehicles with guns.
Speaking of guns, there’s a gratuitous number of rifles, rockets, machine guns, hand guns, bows and heavy weapons to choose from. I got the feeling that weapon choice was less about strategy and more about the question “which one will I have the most fun with?” Basically, all you really need to know is that the sharp pointy end goes into the other man–err dinosaur–and by “sharp pointy bit” I am of course talking about bullets. I guess there are several grenades types too, but I mean, who actually uses grenades in FPSs? Oh. Everybody online? Ok.
There’s three classes to choose from and dozens of skills to add to them, although it appears that only 3 are unique to each class. The game even hosts several “official” dedicated servers, so that even if no one’s on, you can at least hop in and get into some action with some friendly NPCs. I do actually mean friendly–they’re not perfect, but overall were pretty smart and responded quickly to their surroundings. If I hopped into a vehicle they all piled in with me, ready to fight. If the objective was to gain access to a point on the map, they usually had already charged off ahead of me to get there. If I dropped down, they tried to save me. It was pretty surprising to see in a game primarily designed to be played with other humans.
The game seems to know what it is and doesn’t try to be much beyond that. This is easily a aperfect game for any group of unmarried people ready for a LAN party night full of bullets, stomping dinosaurs, vehicles and explosions, all set to the soundtrack of screaming players. As it is, that age of my life has past and while I acknowledge that this is a “great game,” I unfortunately cannot justify partaking in it on my own or with total strangers (of which there were actually around 20 people still playing the game in servers when I logged in to the game’s credit). The game was never meant to maintain a solid “purpose” but alas, I tend to require a bit of one in my older age. A definite Tier 1 for any LAN party, Tier 2 for me.
(PS: Apparently it’s $0.67 on sale as of today.)
