The Factor Remastered was offered by Nightdive Studios for evaluate. Thanks!
I really feel like I say this in virtually each evaluate I write for Nightdive Studios, however I actually love Nightdive Studios. They’re the kings in relation to remastering retro video games with trendy options and visible enhancements with out altering them an excessive amount of to be unrecognizable from their authentic releases. Now, we’ve The Factor Remastered, an improve over a launch over 2 many years outdated that desperately wants the Nightdive remedy.
The Factor was initially launched in 2002 on PC, PlayStation 2, and Xbox, and it obtained some usually constructive opinions. On this remaster, we’ve upscale and improved textures, larger framerate assist, overhauled lighting and anti-aliasing, achievements, and new quality-of-life enhancements to make taking part in a lot simpler than it was once. There have been some nice enhancements and touchups in loads of areas that wanted to be executed, and when you can nonetheless really feel the failings, it is the easiest way to expertise this traditional.
The Factor Remastered follows the film’s occasions, appearing as a sequel. You play as Captain Blake, who is shipped in to analyze the Outpost 31 analysis facility in Antarctica. The mission takes a drastic flip as they arrive throughout horrifically mutilated our bodies and find yourself dealing with aliens that may morph into the looks of the folks they kill. Even when Blake is a bit one-dimensional, I did not discover myself straying from the story, and I needed to know what would occur subsequent.
If there’s one factor The Factor Remastered does properly, it creates the identical environment you’d discover within the film. It performs into the worry, paranoia, and belief points that permeate all through. This sport was very forward of the curve when it was initially launched in 2002 and tried loads of new concepts that I feel are nonetheless closely used immediately. Nonetheless, these concepts have been improved, and their elementary implementations right here could cause some issues.
With regard to story and development, the most important downside is the randomness. You might be dealing with off in opposition to a shape-shifting alien, and due to it, you might be always on edge and attempting to maintain belief between you and your teammates. However by the top of the sport, and even on the finish of every stage, your teammates will both disappear or change into contaminated, making it exhausting to attach with them. It felt prefer it was solely a matter of time earlier than everybody on my group would both activate me or simply disappear, so I used to be much less involved with my very own survival fairly than us all making it out.
With the concept that anybody might be an alien, this randomness can impede the story, too. To get via the buildings, you will have to make use of an engineer in your group to switch junction containers. Whereas this will not be an enormous situation by itself, the randomness that might trigger your engineer to change into an alien or die at any time might halt your progress since these junction containers are too superior so that you can use.
The Factor Remastered is a third-person shooter, and whereas it may play very properly, it additionally has some management points. Transferring round and giving orders to your squad is not essentially the most intuitive, and there are loads of small enemies that might be exhausting to shoot normally. There’s a good auto-aim that’s enabled, which is sort of beneficiant and makes combating the small fry a lot simpler. There are some nice modifications from the unique as properly, like extra beneficiant ammo drops, stopping the unique’s situation of getting to reload a save since you could not discover sufficient ammunition to your weapons.
I used to be genuinely stunned by how helpful my squad mates had been in a combat, too. I by chance gave my weapon to a teammate within the first stage, not figuring out they’d then disappear, and I needed to give my solely different weapon to an engineer to get via an electrified doorway. So, I gave them the gun, they usually had been in a position to adequately defend each of us from aliens. I’m so used to your AI group being ineffective, so this was a welcome shock. That engineer sadly was an alien not too lengthy after this, however it was good whereas it lasted.
Then we’ve the belief system, which I can see was revolutionary. You’ll develop or lose belief together with your teammates based mostly in your actions. Shedding belief can cease them from listening to you, abandoning the mission, killing themselves, and even going loopy and taking pictures at everybody. This belief bar might be affected in constructive methods, like giving them a weapon or ammo, or unfavourable ones, like them seeing a corpse otherwise you not serving to in a combat. Whereas I’ve seen higher methods of innovating on this mechanic, I do just like the implementation right here. It makes the squad really feel extra alive, and what you do and see impacts them.
Nightdive did a improbable job updating the visuals, which additionally look fantastic. The Factor Remastered’s environment is nice, and the number of ranges retains it going splendidly. The character and setting fashions all had a touch-up, and the lighting and shadows convey out the chilly fantastic thing about this darkish story. I might see this being a sport made immediately influenced by the PS2 period, and I favored it.
Whereas it has its ups and downs, The Factor Remastered can be a pleasure to play on the Steam Deck.
The Factor Remastered – Steam Deck Efficiency
Nightdive Studios is usually improbable when optimizing their video games for the Steam Deck, however The Factor Remastered is a bit tough at instances. All through the sport, it looks as if it ought to hit 60 FPS certainly. It sticks to round 9W battery drain and does not leap round a lot. Nonetheless, I did discover that the sport can typically decelerate and even reduce the framerate in half. Because the battery drain sticks to 9W your complete time, I consider it is a direct downside with the engine.
This does not occur typically, however it occurs sufficient to be noticeable. There are small pockets of areas that drop the framerate in half, which occurs extra typically when attempting to play at 90 FPS, so I like to recommend setting the gadget to 60 FPS/Hz. To attenuate these pockets, I do advocate turning off Anti-Aliasing and setting Ambient Occlusion to Low. It does not change the sport’s general look an excessive amount of, however it does remove loads of the slowdowns.
Examine
Default Settings
Really useful Settings
Outdoors of this, I did not discover any points when taking part in. It sticks to 60 FPS far more typically than it drops, feels nice to play with a controller, and appears beautiful on the display. I recognize the low battery drain as properly, and though I’d have favored to see a extra steady expertise, it is nonetheless very playable:
Accessibility
Like most Nightdive Studio video games, we’ve a stable quantity of choices to alter. We are able to change the issue and auto aiming, toggle strolling and aiming (with an choice for old fashioned aiming), glowing pickups, zoom pace for snipers and CCTV, activate/off completely different elements of the HUD, change keybindings, and select a unique language with subtitles.
There are 16:10 resolutions, so there aren’t any black bars, and there’s each controller and cloud save assist.
Conclusion
The Factor Remastered is a superb, competent remaster that retains the unique sport’s nice qualities and flaws. The environment and visuals are on level, and it is a competent shooter with an excellent belief system that makes the squad really feel extra alive. The story is stable, and whereas there are some points with the randomness and the way it can have an effect on development, however it appears like the easiest way to get pleasure from this traditional title.
Even with the minor points, it runs properly on the Steam Deck. It does not drain a lot battery, can persist with 60 FPS virtually your complete time, and feels nice with the controller. I’d say this can be a nice sport to get pleasure from on the go and the easiest way to play this 2002 traditional.
Our evaluate is predicated on the PC model of this sport.
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