vert1 Sep 14, 2013 (edited Mar 30, 2014)
Conker's BFD
The guys at Rare have been very, very naughty.
The day after his 21st birthday bash, Conker's sporting the worst hangover ever, and he just can't seem to find his way home. Prepare to stagger through randy, raunchy, raucous scenarios crammed full of bad manners, twisted humor, and graphic bodily functions. Unless you're a fan of violence, foul language, and racy innuendo you'd best steer clear of this one.
• Warped characters . . . Meet slow-witted farm implements, a well-endowed sunflower, and a mysterious beast known only as the Great Mighty Poo.
• Bizarre behaviors . . . Transform into a vampire's guano-dropping lackey, battle a caveman whose bone is worse than his bite, and storm the beach in an amphibious assault on an army of the siniester stuffed bears.
• Frenetic multiplayer modes . . . Team up with friends or go it alone in seven different multiplayer games or five different free-for-all areas.
Got this game today. The character maneuvering unfortunately suffers from the problem of every other 3rd person platformer outside of Super Mario 64 and Super Mario Sunshine in that nothing you do is fast enough to devour the plentiful space in the game*. It's like The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time speed. If the game gave Conker his own fast move to devour space I would have very few complaints. The game doesn't make you fetch tons of doodads and trinkets. The levels open up pretty smoothly but the part I'm at right now is seriously confusing me with the cow's bodily function cutscene not unlocking some element in the level.
The camera makes platforming a bit more challenging than it deserves to be. Sometimes you need really good visual depth perception since the camera isn't close enough. It's okay if you are able to memorize parts of the location that are problematic to view in Conker's visual field. I haven't died from the camera so it's not terrible.
The difficulty is just about right so far. You can't afford to goof around on heights as fall damage at a modest height straight up kills you. (Sidenote: The most fall damage you can take in Super Mario 64 was half your health.) Tail hovering lasts a 2 or 3 seconds and then you plummet unlike Ubisoft's Rayman 2 where hovering is not limited allowing you to slowly descend from heights. The enemies are far more aggressive with attacking and tracking you than in Super Mario 64. There are timed events that require you to act fast or DIE! This made stocking up for lives which are cleverly hidden worth it. However, I've realized that all the lives respawn on the level when you die which mitigates difficulty caused by limited life availability.
The game's cutscenes are very very entertaining. I quite like them. Very raunchy. I knew the game would be pretty damn Mature, but I was still surprised by some of the content. I can understand why the game was toned down for the crappy xbox release. I mean this game is something truly bizarre that it makes you feel like you've snuck something that the government declared illegal for your N64 into your house.
* As in acrobatic maneuvers that boost speed; Not referring to fast running speed ala Spyro or Sonic Adventure titles.
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Check this out. It was added to youtube 3 months ago.
The game director's commentary:
http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbRUl7d … EaQ/videos
