Better late than never?

[Al_B]

I've just moved house and found a boxed copy of Terra Nova that I picked up a few years ago from a second hand shop but never played. I decided it was time to finally give this game a shot and after checking a few (old) threads here it's up and running fine through dosbox with full graphical options.

The only real glitch was that some of the pre-mission video briefings didn't play correctly from the original CD - either they'd not start at all or only play a few frames before skipping. The CD appears to be undamaged and after making a CD image of it and mounting that instead they are now playing correctly.

So far, impressions are good. The cutscenes are obviously of their time but still fun in a cheesy sort of way. I haven't really played with giving my squad tactical instructions but they seem to handle themselves well on standard difficulty. The character graphics are possibly the only thing that looks out of place. Not a big problem, however, and it isn't spoiling the game. On the other hand the landscape draw distance is impressive given its age.

It'll be interesting to see how many of the advanced controls and orders I need to use as the game progresses. I haven't quite mastered the jump jets but they're a lot of fun and I've not used the drones yet in a real mission. All in all, the game feels more like a simulator than anything else which is probably unsurprising considering it is a LGS game.

[Shadowcat]

Excellent!

Also, it's funny how easy it is to get inspired :) I have a World War difficulty save game that's been languishing on my hard drive for more than a year, and I've also been wondering what to play next. Decision made!

[Al_B]

I don't think I'm quite ready to play at that level yet - but still enjoying it greatly at normal difficulty. It seems that I'm hurt by my own squad at times but that might just be my imagination (or perhaps I should stay back more).

It's quite strange at times hearing game sounds used that are shared with system shock but only because I have played SS1 many times and strongly associate them with that game. There has also been at least one cutscene which had music very similar to SS1 in the background and a snatch of music used in SS2. Of course, a large part of this is due to the people involved and it's no bad thing.

[Shadowcat]

Yeah, World War difficulty is hard. I decided to do it for a challenge, but once past the first few missions it kicks my arse most of the time :)

And indeed, there are a few content cross-overs! As well as the sounds and music you've heard, a couple of TN drop-ships and also the interplanetary carrier (probably*) can be found in the System Shock intro, and TetraCorp has ties to both TN and both System Shocks. There may well be more besides.

* The details are sufficiently hard to make out that I've never been certain. It wouldn't surprise me if other vehicle assets were re-used as well, but none of the others are quite so recognisable as the drop-ship.