Mods like Action Quake 2 went even further, back in the day. Not only was there no respawning in a round, you were even not aware of who (allies & enemies) died during the round. So all you had to rely on was that which you heard or saw.
Of course back then, nobody used Ventrilo so that system wouldn't work very well today.
I played AQ2 a lot (Still have that 'Lights, camera, action!' sound somewhere). I'm pretty sure that you _could_ see who of your team was dead. And in my experience, most of the AQ2 sessions happened on a lan party w/ a bunch of people in a BNC connected room full of machines anyway. Ventrilo... ;-p
AQ2 was nice, because
- no respawn while a round was active
- hit zones (head = bad, legs could break)
- bleeding (you need to bandage yourself, sometimes _fast_)
- instant kills were possible with ~all~ weapons. Standard pistol to head, one shot. Throwing knives (My favorite!) to head -> Dead. Knife to stomach? Chuckle, run - he's going to bleed to death w/ a 80% chance.
- equipment/weapon selection at the start of the round a la 'classes', but more free. Giving you stealth (no footstep noises), protection (armored vest), better/more weapons/ammo etc.
I loved AQ2. It was such a great blend of unforgiving gameplay and over the top action. The bleeding and kicking were awesome elements. I also liked the low amounts of ammo. Reloading meant throwing away whatever was left in your current clip, so you were always balancing risks.
These things came together to create some wonderful cinematic moments. I remember one, during a clan match: I was the last member of my team alive, almost completely out of ammo, with three remaining on the enemy team. They rushed into a room to get me. I managed to take down one with the last bullet in my gun, then kicked another out of the room, causing him to drop his hand cannon. I whirled and threw my knife into the face of the third, then grabbed the dropped shotgun and took out the second as he ran back in. I think I had to take a break to recover after that, haha.
I also remember AQ2 not showing which players were alive on either team. I distinctly remember games where I'd use the radio command to report in, only to be met with complete silence... and suddenly realize I was all alone.
Even as a long time CS player, I still prefer AQ2. I'd love to find a modern game like it.
I'm pretty sure you couldn't see which of your enemies were dead. Not sure about your own team.
Did you ever play the AQ2 Single Player mod? We basically put a bunch of standard Q2 monsters at interesting locations on the AQ2 maps so you could practice against them. Was quite popular after a while: a team of half a dozen people modding for pretty much every AQ2 map out there.
No, never even heard about that one.
I remember that we tried several bot implementations with AQ2 at that time, but quite frankly - they sucked. Either it was boring (since these guys were just too stupid) or impossible (if you add enough bots that 2-4 _have_ to notice you if you take down one).
Maybe I need to search for my installation of Q2 again and give it a try on a slow weekend day ;)
Comments
Mods like Action Quake 2 went even further, back in the day. Not only was there no respawning in a round, you were even not aware of who (allies & enemies) died during the round. So all you had to rely on was that which you heard or saw.
Of course back then, nobody used Ventrilo so that system wouldn't work very well today.
I played AQ2 a lot (Still have that 'Lights, camera, action!' sound somewhere). I'm pretty sure that you _could_ see who of your team was dead. And in my experience, most of the AQ2 sessions happened on a lan party w/ a bunch of people in a BNC connected room full of machines anyway. Ventrilo... ;-p
AQ2 was nice, because
- no respawn while a round was active
- hit zones (head = bad, legs could break)
- bleeding (you need to bandage yourself, sometimes _fast_)
- instant kills were possible with ~all~ weapons. Standard pistol to head, one shot. Throwing knives (My favorite!) to head -> Dead. Knife to stomach? Chuckle, run - he's going to bleed to death w/ a 80% chance.
- equipment/weapon selection at the start of the round a la 'classes', but more free. Giving you stealth (no footstep noises), protection (armored vest), better/more weapons/ammo etc.
- nice variety of missions and settings
I loved AQ2. It was such a great blend of unforgiving gameplay and over the top action. The bleeding and kicking were awesome elements. I also liked the low amounts of ammo. Reloading meant throwing away whatever was left in your current clip, so you were always balancing risks.
These things came together to create some wonderful cinematic moments. I remember one, during a clan match: I was the last member of my team alive, almost completely out of ammo, with three remaining on the enemy team. They rushed into a room to get me. I managed to take down one with the last bullet in my gun, then kicked another out of the room, causing him to drop his hand cannon. I whirled and threw my knife into the face of the third, then grabbed the dropped shotgun and took out the second as he ran back in. I think I had to take a break to recover after that, haha.
I also remember AQ2 not showing which players were alive on either team. I distinctly remember games where I'd use the radio command to report in, only to be met with complete silence... and suddenly realize I was all alone.
Even as a long time CS player, I still prefer AQ2. I'd love to find a modern game like it.
I'm pretty sure you couldn't see which of your enemies were dead. Not sure about your own team.
Did you ever play the AQ2 Single Player mod? We basically put a bunch of standard Q2 monsters at interesting locations on the AQ2 maps so you could practice against them. Was quite popular after a while: a team of half a dozen people modding for pretty much every AQ2 map out there.
No, never even heard about that one. I remember that we tried several bot implementations with AQ2 at that time, but quite frankly - they sucked. Either it was boring (since these guys were just too stupid) or impossible (if you add enough bots that 2-4 _have_ to notice you if you take down one).
Maybe I need to search for my installation of Q2 again and give it a try on a slow weekend day ;)