The Precusors is Deep Shadow's
third game, released just a year after White
Gold. White Gold I played first and enjoyed
it, though it had some small things that spoiled
it. The mouse movement was off, the requirement
to get so much money through side missions,
the vehicle handling. But the open world looked
fantastic and it's a very under-rated game.
The Precursors is an even bigger
cult hit. Definitely not mainstream because
most of the bigger critics missed both these
games, but the sci-fi universe of The Precursors
is what won a lot of players over. Unfortunately,
while very similar to White Gold (in gameplay
not location), it's an unfinished game.
White Gold clearly had a feeling
of progression through the story, culminating
in a massive battle (or sprint in my case) on
a surreal island past dozens of violent Indians.
The Precursors, on the other hand, just suddenly
ends. For me I was expecting to be only halfway
through the game.
Deep Shadows actually set up
an interesting story. It is set in a futuristic
sci-fi environment where many political factions
are engaged in an intergalactic war. The Precursors
themselves were an ancient and mythical race
that disappeared a long time ago leaving strange
high-tech pyramid artifacts behind on many astral
bodies. One of these artifacts was turned on,
blowing up an entire world. So you get to a
point where you've found the scientist that
turned the artifact on and... the end. I guess
this is a game that was supposed to have sequel,
though it probably never will.
While it's shorter than White
Gold, it's still well over 10 hours long with
many many more hours on top of that if you want
to do all the side missions. So in terms of
play time, it's three times longer than a lot
of shooters these days. But RPG's are expected
to be a bit longer, and not just end unexpectedly.
I really didn't do many side missions, simply
because, unlike White Gold, they weren't necessary.
I had plenty of items in my inventory and stored
on my ship, I had way more money than I could
ever have used up, so I just didn't feel the
need to dick around with side missions.
There's probably, at a guess,
20 planets in the Precursors universe, half
of which are uninhabitable, while I visited
probably 5 planets. Which means by not doing
side missions I missed at least 2-3 planets,
perhaps more that I didn't spot. If you're going
to go to the effort of creating these fantastic
looking lands, put them into the main plot so
I can see them! Having an entire universe was
impressive, much more so than White Gold which
was just a cluster of islands in the Carribbean.
This game felt BIG.
But with the areas White Gold
stumbled on, Precursors wasn't so noticeable.
Instead it just has it's own set of problems.
Let's go through them:
• The mouse movement
is even worse than White Gold. It's constantly
making me miss enemies in precise movements.
• The vehicle stearing
is wobbly, but I didn't notice is so much. Perhaps
I'm just getting used to it? Landing a helicopter
was still frustrating. But actual vehicles did
feel better than White Gold.
• Combat is a big issue,
or lackthereof. I probably only killed a few
dozen enemies in the entire game. Where's the
action and combat? The main action missions
all involved you being massively outnumbered
and always in a helicopter or vehicle, so you
spent all your time sneaking/sprinting around
enemies. Perhaps I was just supposed to kill
them, but I didn't feel the need. I'd only be
using up my resources and decreasing my faction
points. And I want to get on with my mission,
not spend an hour slaughtering an army camp
one soldier at a time.
• Human enemies are much
tougher as they have shields and require a lot
of ammunition to kill, which was annoying compared
to White Gold's enemies that drop fairly quickly.
• Some things aren't
too intuitive. I'm still clueless as to how
i'm supposed to upgrade my ship. Where's a proper
tutorial or help section?
• The space sim sections
I didn't enjoy. Enemy ships were hard to hit
and find. Perhaps others won't mind this part
of the game, which does keep you busy for at
least an hour, but I did not and was glad when
it was over.
• There was one situation
where I had no fuel left in my ship for hyperdrive
and I was stuck on a planet. I couldn't refuel
anywhere on the planet, and I need fuel to reach
the space station just in orbit. I ended up
having to slowly fly around the planet for ages,
without hyperdrive, until I found the space
station.
Where The Precusors excels
is in it's design. The different worlds, the
size and scope and open world navigation are
all fantastic. The planets all look quite different
and can be impressive. Especially considering
there's no load times. White Gold is pretty,
but we've seen tropical islands before in Far
Cry. The Precursors looks very unique and has
a very solid engine supporting it's graphics.
It's little wonder it's a cult hit when we have
such a fantastically developed universe of races
and cities.
I just wish there was a bit
more combat and the game was actually finished.
Another few hours to wrap up the main story
would have done it, and it's not like they didn't
have other planets that could have been used.
As such, White Gold is the superior game.
Final note: there's an English
version available, but make sure you apply the
patches and sound fixes here.
