I received the full version of Payback on Friday and thought i'd post a little on my findings.
Firstly the packaging. A single card with the payback logo on the front, against a black background and the instructions squashed on to the back contained in a transparent case with a hook space at the top incase you want to hang your gp2x collection on a shop type rail? A large raised space in the front of the case contains the sd card in it's own case and a replacement gp2x stick cap. If I were to choose one word to describe the packaging i'd go for 'functional'.
After booting I decided to watch the intro movie, once it finished the game dropped back out to the main gp2x menu - good start! I think this bug was present in the demo too, so I guess if i'd bothered to report it it might have been fixed. I started a game in Story mode (there is also a 'challenge' mode (reach a set score as fast as possible) and 'Rampage' mode (no traget score, I've not played but believe you just have to score as much as you can before running out of lives)). The first level is the one present in the demo - so I went straight for the tank mission and completed the level in a 'gold' time (4 minutes, 8 minutes or less is 'gold').
Next I had several short games, since I didn't have enough time to play for more than a few minutes at a time. Each time I played the 2nd level (set in the same city as the first one, although with some modifications and obviously different missions). I was disappointed to find MANY missions that had timers to complete tasks. It had been commented in the demo that the timed tasks tend to be hard, and often the location your looking for isn't easy to spot - they can become VERY frustrating, so seeing so much reliance on them was disappointing for me.
I took to exploring, successfully jumped my car into a football field, fully explored it and the surrounding walls with very little reward. Drove my car out on a ramp and managed to land in a small fenced garden from which I couldn't escape by car or on foot. I had to commit suicide to escape (what would I have done without an explosive weapon?). I did a few more missions, actually quite enjoyed a few of them (the ones without timers). Had a 'collect a briefcase, drop it off and follow the person collecting it' mission, unfortunately the person I had to follow got stuck on the corner of a fence and just kept moonwalking on the spot. After a few minutes I had to shoot him, I hoped the first shot might knock him off the fence, but it didn't - so I shot him a few more times, thus failing another mission. I went down a ramp somewhere which took me into a building, but when I tried to get out, two buses and some cars were wedging themselves into and around the entrance. I couldn't get my car out and couldn't escape on foot, neither could I seem to steel one of the problem vehicles, so it seemed I was stuck. After a few minutes (and a lack of weaponry with which to commit suicide) I gave up and switched off.
Last night I spent about an hour playing, managed to get a pretty decent score (but still hadn't reached the necessary 2 million, I had spent a long time exploring and generally messing around - beating people up, driving crimes, etc). Next I noticed the red battery warning light came on, but guess what? There is no option to save mid-level. Therefore all the progreess I made last night is lost and I need to go through all the same missions again. The gold and silver times are 10-15 minutes, but obviously the nature of this game is that it is open and you should be able to reach the objective score by whichever method you choose, even if that takes two hours. The lack of a mid-level save feature is a HUGE oversight given the well documented power hungry nature of the gp2x, it is very likely this will not be the only time my progress will be lost due to dead batteries. A mid-level save isn't out the question either - i'm sure it only needs to save the current score/player stats and which levels have been attempted (i'm confident that every single car and pedestrian isn't tracked in real time).
The only other additional feature I've noticed is a camera height option, moving the camera out a bit did seem to help a little.
I loved the demo, but the bugs I encountered on the next level and the lack of a save feature make this more frustrating than enjoyable. I hope they intend to release a patch to fix more bugs (i'm certain people will find many more, i've barely scratched the surface really). Most of all I really hope they add a mid-level save feature as a matter of urgency, It's impractical to not have the ability to save at any time when the batteries only last 4-5 hours.
Firstly the packaging. A single card with the payback logo on the front, against a black background and the instructions squashed on to the back contained in a transparent case with a hook space at the top incase you want to hang your gp2x collection on a shop type rail? A large raised space in the front of the case contains the sd card in it's own case and a replacement gp2x stick cap. If I were to choose one word to describe the packaging i'd go for 'functional'.
After booting I decided to watch the intro movie, once it finished the game dropped back out to the main gp2x menu - good start! I think this bug was present in the demo too, so I guess if i'd bothered to report it it might have been fixed. I started a game in Story mode (there is also a 'challenge' mode (reach a set score as fast as possible) and 'Rampage' mode (no traget score, I've not played but believe you just have to score as much as you can before running out of lives)). The first level is the one present in the demo - so I went straight for the tank mission and completed the level in a 'gold' time (4 minutes, 8 minutes or less is 'gold').
Next I had several short games, since I didn't have enough time to play for more than a few minutes at a time. Each time I played the 2nd level (set in the same city as the first one, although with some modifications and obviously different missions). I was disappointed to find MANY missions that had timers to complete tasks. It had been commented in the demo that the timed tasks tend to be hard, and often the location your looking for isn't easy to spot - they can become VERY frustrating, so seeing so much reliance on them was disappointing for me.
I took to exploring, successfully jumped my car into a football field, fully explored it and the surrounding walls with very little reward. Drove my car out on a ramp and managed to land in a small fenced garden from which I couldn't escape by car or on foot. I had to commit suicide to escape (what would I have done without an explosive weapon?). I did a few more missions, actually quite enjoyed a few of them (the ones without timers). Had a 'collect a briefcase, drop it off and follow the person collecting it' mission, unfortunately the person I had to follow got stuck on the corner of a fence and just kept moonwalking on the spot. After a few minutes I had to shoot him, I hoped the first shot might knock him off the fence, but it didn't - so I shot him a few more times, thus failing another mission. I went down a ramp somewhere which took me into a building, but when I tried to get out, two buses and some cars were wedging themselves into and around the entrance. I couldn't get my car out and couldn't escape on foot, neither could I seem to steel one of the problem vehicles, so it seemed I was stuck. After a few minutes (and a lack of weaponry with which to commit suicide) I gave up and switched off.
Last night I spent about an hour playing, managed to get a pretty decent score (but still hadn't reached the necessary 2 million, I had spent a long time exploring and generally messing around - beating people up, driving crimes, etc). Next I noticed the red battery warning light came on, but guess what? There is no option to save mid-level. Therefore all the progreess I made last night is lost and I need to go through all the same missions again. The gold and silver times are 10-15 minutes, but obviously the nature of this game is that it is open and you should be able to reach the objective score by whichever method you choose, even if that takes two hours. The lack of a mid-level save feature is a HUGE oversight given the well documented power hungry nature of the gp2x, it is very likely this will not be the only time my progress will be lost due to dead batteries. A mid-level save isn't out the question either - i'm sure it only needs to save the current score/player stats and which levels have been attempted (i'm confident that every single car and pedestrian isn't tracked in real time).
The only other additional feature I've noticed is a camera height option, moving the camera out a bit did seem to help a little.
I loved the demo, but the bugs I encountered on the next level and the lack of a save feature make this more frustrating than enjoyable. I hope they intend to release a patch to fix more bugs (i'm certain people will find many more, i've barely scratched the surface really). Most of all I really hope they add a mid-level save feature as a matter of urgency, It's impractical to not have the ability to save at any time when the batteries only last 4-5 hours.
