"Wreckage offers an action-oriented presentation, professional execution, complete dubbing
and Crysis-level graphics. Developed by the four-man-team around Christopher Held, who
also already developed "The Harbour" and "Rainy Days".
It's the final chapter of the story, that began with the map "The Harbour" and was continued in the
modification "Rainy Days". It tells the story of three soldiers who try to survive a devastating war
between two worlds. The play time is somewhat longer than one hour."
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| Source: moddb |
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| The game is visually impressive. Even compared to recent AAA releases |
Its one of the rare times where a game description keeps its promises. The Mod is executed professional, despite its flaws which I will adress later on. It is completely dubbed and the visual effects and graphics are top-notch. However, the graphics aren't "exactly" on crysis-level as the developers of wreckage know how to map good looking indoor levels. ;)
So lets jump right in:
T H E G O O D
The game drops you right into the action without a story narrative, a horribly paced cutscene, a text-intro or any of the other abominations mods like these often throw at you. This game puts you behind a minigun in a chopper after a short, wellmade character intro. You might notice that you will play the first part as "Nomad" (the protagonist from the original crysis). Thats actually an awesome design choice as you first experience the benefits of the nanosuit before the designers take it from you in part 2 and 3. Another noteworsy detail is that they really found a dubactor with a similar voice as the german "Nomad" (Which is an extremely similar or the same dubbing voice from the actor Nicolas Cage, one of my favorite actors.) This really shows how dedicated they where to deliver a great mod. You do however notice that this guy wasn't a professional voiceactor, but the campiness of the acting actually adds to the fun. Jacksoooon!!
The first part is pretty good. It starts off with a wellmade "defend this position" task which has a nice warfare feel to it and then moves to "advance and shoot everyone in the face" gameplay. This is story driven, but its not my job to spoil everything :). I didn't like the first few levels that much. To this point it all feels like a solid crysis mod and not the blockbuster I was promised but after a while, in the shoes of Lambert, the game really starts to shine. Not only in terms of leveldesign, but also in terms of creativity, fun and presentation. There is a certain sence of dread in this game reflected from the ruined harbor, the lighting and the wreckage (pun intended) scattered around everywhere. The presentation feels a lot like a recent warmovie and everything appears perfectly grimy and in lowsaturated colors. You don't get realistic military behaviour but certainly a lot of combat-flair.
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| The game has a much stronger "army and crisis and stuff" feel to it than the actual crysis |
The modders added a few custom weapons to the regular bunch which are actually well done. I adress a few problems with those later on but for now: The SMG comes with its own modkit. AWESOME! :)
Through the campaign, you see a bunch of cutscenes which are actually fantastic. I don't even want to know how many hours of scripting, remaking, practicing, testing and redoing everything went into these.
There is also a fun level where you, as Lambert, walk solo through a rainy level reciting semi-poetic lines. This level has a great campy feel to it. Especially since you show up with a sniper rifle behind that huge neonsign like in a stylish contract-killer flick. Lamberts voiceactor did a great job btw.
I noticed that the german gamesmag "Pc Games" concidered it necessary to point it out that you can use the nanosuit in this mod...I found it to be a superb design choice to drop it. :)
I can't say a lot more than already has been said everywhere else on the interwebs. Its a great mod with a damn nice presentation. So lets get into some criticism before I'm tired of this review:
T H E B A D
While the voiceacting is cool and a lot of fun. Its occasionally horribly off. A noteworsy example would be the cutscene with Dr. Hendrikson where the sound and dubbing towards the end of the scene is totally out of touch. (Which is sad as it started pretty cool). there are also some other complaints I have with that scene which reflect problems in the entire mod. For instance, there is one moment where I think you are pulling Dr. Hendrikson by the hair (her hair is up in the air) but I don't see my arm (which I later on see when my protagonist stands up way more to the left)....so I guess that was some kind of Paranormal Activity 3 Moment? ;) This however is followed by a scene where I beat up somebody I don't really know. Seriously....who where those guys? Once again, I don't see my hands and I'm just guessing whats happening. My hands however are also disappearing from the gun a few times but thats no big deal. This is followed by another chopper sequence where I'm behind a machinegun. And boy! Am I tired of these goddamn chopper sequences in first person shooters. They are tiresome, too much effort for the development team for a mediocre result (seriously? all this time to design a level, add enemies and events for a sequence most players I know just want to get over with?) and terribly overused. The game would have done much more for me if you would have just landed somewhere with the helicopter and left me walk and shoot in some good old fashioned shooter gameplay. Thats something that lags in this game. There could have been 2 or 3 more levels where its just a shooter. This awesome last level before I get into the jeep in this wonderfully dystopic building. More of that please!
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| Chopper-railshooters are annoying. Even if they look as cool as here |
In that building I was using my UMP which appears out of nowhere. Lambert suddenly has it in that Dr. Hendrikson cutscene mentioned above. I was actually searching throughout the entire military base level which comes prior to the cutscene to find it without result. While the UMP is cool...I do have to say that its overpowered and handles a lot more like an assault rifle than a submachinegun. Its sound has a lot more punch as the SCAR or the korean rifle aswell. The SPR is pretty cool but its sad that you can't have ironsights.
The AI and pathfinding is alright, even though I had to redo the first level twice since cafferty always got stuck somewhere.
While the game has a ton more athmosphere than crysis (which feels really dry and lifeless in my opinion) its also as linear as a game from the call of duty franchise. If you do however take the time to explore a level, you will notice a lot of flaws and that the levels suddenly are either really empty or fall apart like you reached the end of reality in the movie "the 13th floor".
Which leads to:
T H E U G L Y
The leveldesign in this mod is great and has a lot of concepts superior to crysis however, if you insist on examining them, you realise a lot of shading errors (I guess its the parallax mapping) where the terrain seems to melt in front of your eyes and a bunch of buildings and wooden structures (especially in level 1) sticking out or floating around in the map. Thats unfortunate for players like me that like to take an alternate approach to everything. These design flaws really take you out of the game and are a string contrast to the great visuals and artdirection.
Alright! I'm out of complaints that matter...lets get to the..
C O N C L U S I O N
Wreckage is a great mod every shooter enthusiast should have seen. I can savely recommend this game to most players as its content is not only great but also average-joe compatible. This mod certainly shows what a talented team of hobbyists can achieve with some effort and vision and despite my nitpicking. Its damn good!
Also: Sorry for the spelling mistakes you might find. -> Native german speaker ;)
Get WRECKAGE here
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