Last week, a personally anticipated game had a demo appear on Xbox Live. The game was Turning Point: Fall of Liberty, and the demo, unfortunately, was a disappointment, going some way toward dampening my interest in the title.
Among the issues were awful sensitivity problems, a complete lack of AI and a look and feel that just screamed “PlayStation 2 launch title.” Spark Unlimited is well aware that most people felt let down by the demo experience and has written a blog post assuring that the critical reaction was taken on board and that the issues have since been addressed:
Optimized targeting and movement: Optional control settings have been refined to alleviate sluggishness in the slowest setting and the ‘on ice’ feeling at the faster settings. Also, a user-defined soft lock has been added which means that controls can be set so once an enemy is hit with a bullet the crosshair will ‘stick’ to the target.
Refined AI behavior: The dynamic intelligence and pathfinding for enemies has also been enhanced. The ‘hot point’ based system should add to Turning Point’s replay experience.
Ammo levels and grappling optimized: Up until final submissions, the team has been listening to playtest feedback and doing everything possible to create a ‘civilian at war’ feeling. The end result is an experience more visceral than the demo, relying less on repeated ammo refills, and more on the grappling and the hand-to-hand combat.
Final Mip-mapping and texture levels: The art team has also been able to further optimize lighting, textures, and effects throughout the title.
I really hope that Turning Point will eventually be a good game, because the actual premise is rock solid and the potential is there for an amazing experience. Sadly, if there wasn’t any great amount of user interest before, the shoddy demo is going to have killed any amount of hype this may have received. It’s going to take a lot to get gamers to invest faith in this one, but I really hope Spark pulls it off.
