Neuro Hunter

[mkreku]

I recently downloaded a demo of an upcoming 3D RPG called Neuro Hunter, and I was pleasantly surprised. It plays as Deus Ex, in that you have skills that you upgrade and the combat is FPS style (but with more melee), but it also resembles Arx Fatalis, with its world interaction and item constructing skills. The name is almost as bad as Gothic (I almost didn't pick up that game because of the name), but it's actually a decent game and the demo is well worth trying.

 

Neuro Hunter Homepage

 

Gamer's Hell download page for Neuro Hunter

[alanschu]

I will consider it. A bit busy at the moment

 

Speaking of Gothic, Aspyr is going to publish Gothic III over here! :D

[Darque]

Interesting... shame... it looks like there's no NA release.

[Kaftan Barlast]

Does it have proper dialouge or are your roleplaying options limited?

[ShadowPaladin V1.0]

I actually downloaded it. But it didnt work. Missing file error.

[Morgoth]

This is a game made in Germany, hence it sucks. Even the German press trashed it to death... but if you don't believe me, try out the demo.... you'll see what I mean.

[kumquatq3]

This is a game made in Germany, hence it sucks.

 

Eh, iirc Far Cry came out of Germany

[Morgoth]

This is a game made in Germany, hence it sucks.

 

Eh, iirc Far Cry came out of Germany

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Sure, but 2/3 of the employees are from over the world, worked on various titles like Opposing Force, Sin etc. That's an imported experience bonus, so to speak, so it wasn't doomed from the beginning.

There're always a few glorious exceptions (like Piranha Bytes) among the crowd of untalentled wannabes, but that doesn't make me think positively about their "game industry" in general.

It's also a matter of acceptance from the government. While i.e. in France, England and Scandinavia games get partially funded from the government (here's a great quote from Swede's minister of culture Pagrotsky: "Video games often aid imagination and stimulate creativity and evolvement. Therefor this is a very entertaining and future directed resolution."), in Germany they get beaten from all political groups and described as "killergames", often there're discussions about why not just abandoning development at all.

But damn, I digress.

 

Neuro Hunter is obviously made for funky, rebellious kids in mind... not adults. Never ever expect a story for adults from a German developer. Even the Gothic series doesn't offer that.

Neuro Hunter is also plagued by unforgivable design weaknesses, i.e. you can steal stuff from characters and then sell it back to them. Do that over and over again, and you'll never have any money problems again. That's just one thing. Later on you'll realise that this is basically just a cheap rip-off of Deus Ex, Matrix, Ghost in the Shell etc. No originality, no maturity, no intellectual substance at all.

 

I congratulate, Herr Lead Designer!

 

 

Now that was a rant, even Hades would get pale. "

Edited December 1, 2005 by Morgoth

[ShadowPaladin V1.0]

Well I tried downloading Hammer&Sickle and ran into the same problem. Turns out the direct X and drivers needed to be updated. Having jumped through those particular hoops I'll try installing it again.

[ShadowPaladin V1.0]

Well it worked. It's actually not bad I can see mkreku likes it knowing his liking of the Gothic games.

 

I managed to make a crossbow and some other stuff. Found a chainsaw type thing too, but didnt have the skills to use it. It's kind of a slow starter and the combat system appears to just involve pointing and clicking for the most part.

[Kaftan Barlast]

It is true that German studios are notorious for producing substandard games. Most of these never reach the English-speaking world as the Publishers realise theyre not good enough to compete with american/brittish/scandinavian/japanese AAA titles.

[mkreku]

To be honest, I didn't have any high expectations when I downloaded the demo either. I, too, have a few prejudices against german games..

 

I thought the demo looked promising. Granted, I never tried stealing anything from anyone, I just trained my constitution, weapons, design and picklock skills. The voice overs were a little inconsistant, but I can live with that. The story didn't have time to develop in the demo so I can't say much about it, but it felt like it could be interesting (the demo ended just before you got a chance to go to the prison colony, something that at least sounded cool). I liked being able to build my own equipment, the combat suited my playing style (damage depending on my character, but I must hit the opponent myself) and I kind of liked the graphics, at least on the characters.

 

Still, Morgoth seems to have played the retail game so I'll trust his words.

[Janmanden]

Well, the intro is a pretty neat Cyber-punk thriller in itself...

 

But the demo does start the game at a rather basic medieval level: A knife?!

 

The 'beastmaster' talks about weapons...but a knife and a crossbow schematic(??)...I was hoping for a gun, something sci-fi, augmentated, to go with the Cyber-punk theme... After about an hour I've found all the parts needed for the crossbow and then I also need to upgrade my Design skill and Weapon skill and it's a rather sucky weapon...that needs ammo.

 

The few dialogues in the demo are of the oneliner 'click' to move on variety, where you have to click both on your own and theirs to move on, like Deus Ex...and this dude got his priorities all wrong: the first chick he meets...he dodges conversation and moves on. For chrissakes, grrr, wait!!

 

Game graphic and sounds are rather crude...a little better than the Arx Fatalis demo, but not that much. The models looks kinda nice, kinda.

 

It could be interesting, but I really doubt it. If you are totally hooked on Deus Ex and shun games with dialogue options then... But that's not me.

[Slowtrain]

Interesting... shame... it looks like there's no NA release.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

 

 

oh poo. Its just a sign o the times that most of the best computer games are getting developed outside NA these days.

 

*terminates demo download*

 

Not much point, is there?

 

 

bleah.

[Slowtrain]

I watched the trailer anyway. The bald guy has REALLY big hands!

 

I would buy it if it made it to the US. Instead, I'll get force-fed Deer Hunter Volume XXVII. <_<

[elkston]

Never ever expect a story for adults from a German developer. Even the Gothic series doesn't offer that.

 

And what is your criteria for an "adult" story? On the contrary I think Gothic is mature without being in your face about it. There is profanity here and there and few smatterings of sex and nudity. But these situations always happen in the proper context. They are never gratuitious.

 

The characters and story elements in the Gothic series are no less mature or adult than the stuff in BG2 or KOTOR.

[Musopticon?]

Well, it's an opinion, but I thought Gothic 2