Talk:Teardown (video game)

This review is transcluded from Talk:Teardown (video game)/GA1. The edit link for this section can be used to add comments to the review.

Reviewer: Shooterwalker (talk · contribs) 01:58, 16 November 2022 (UTC)[reply]

• I'll take this one on. Look for something within the week, if not sooner. Shooterwalker (talk) 01:58, 16 November 2022 (UTC)[reply]

I'm going to start with the body of the article and circle back to the lead after.

• Gameplay

• Good description in the opening.
• link open world

To avoid violating MOS:SEAOFBLUE, I removed the mention instead. I think "freely navigate" is telling enough. IceWelder [✉] 20:21, 16 November 2022 (UTC)[reply]

• "A top-down view gives an overview of the level..." -> this sentence is a little long and might need to be shortened or broken up, but I can see how it's important to keep it together.
• "Multiple missions take place in the same levels" -> "Some levels feature multiple missions."
• "all missions are accessible via a hub world. Missions can be restarted or previous progress loaded from a quick save." -> "All missions are accessible via a hub world, and can be restarted or reloaded from a quick save."
• "upgrades unlocked" -> can take out the word "unlocked"
• This is a well-written section and these minor edits shouldn't detract from that.

• Plot

• The "owner" starts to feel confusing at times, and perhaps the "player" would be clearer.

Using "the player" feels wrong to me because it suggests that the person playing is part of the story, as opposed to a fictional character. I tried to mitigate such confusion by using "the owner" as little as possible but could only cut it down to 10 uses. Is there any other compromise we could work out? IceWelder [✉] 20:21, 16 November 2022 (UTC)[reply]

• "While she persuaded the officer in charge, Löckelle Police Department criminal investigator Parisa Terdiman, not to pursue an investigation," -> "Löckelle Police Department criminal investigator Parisa Terdiman arrives, who agrees not to pursue an investigation if the player helps investigate Lawrence Lee Junior and his company, Lee Chemicals."
• "a new company vehicles" -> how many?
• "that Amanatides uses to assemble a destructive machine he dubs the Truxterminator." -> spin this off into its own sentence
• Another really solid section.

• Development and release

• "This concept appeared unfavourable because the destruction was merely used as an effect rather than as part of the gameplay. " -> "However, they decided against this concept because the destruction was merely a side effect rather than central to gameplay."
• "One survival game prototype that was explored featured giant spiders" -> "The developers explored a survival game prototype featuring giant spiders"
• This section is very long. The departure of Bengtsson or the clarity of the concept could be a good place to insert a subsection. (The previous section could be called "prototyping".)
• "announced that he had developed plans to release it as a game" -> "announced that he had a game concept that he could eventually release."
• "two-phase heist structure" -> maybe recap what those phases are.
• "As a result of the destructibility, obstacles within levels could only be designed with elevation, distance, water and unbreakable objects, though Gustafsson intended to use as few unbreakable parts as possible, limiting them mostly to the levels' lower bounds" -> I'm having trouble understanding this one. There's a lot of ideas packed into one sentence.
• "initially due to a technical restriction and later because he felt like it would have made navigating them tedious" -> "initially due to a technical restriction, and later to keep navigation from becoming tedious."
• "Gustafsson weighed several methods to impose a time restriction—such as setting the level in a cave that is slowly flooded—and eventually settled on a simple timer" -> "Gustafsson settled on a simple timer, rather than other concepts such as a slowly-flooding cavern."
• "the player would have travelled down to obtain an item, then take the same route in reverse to reach the getaway vehicle." -> "the player would have travelled twice, reaching an item and returning to the getaway vehicle."
• "scrapped this idea due to time and scope constraints" -> "scrapped the idea due to time."
• Were players reacting to previews, or were these testers?

The source just says "A popular suggestion has been ...", though I don't think there even were any testers and the requests likely came from Twitter users. Without this being mentioned explicitly, though, I would avoid speculating on it in the article. IceWelder [✉] 20:21, 16 November 2022 (UTC)[reply]

• "before he joined the project full-time " -> "before joining full-time"
• There is a lot of detail about the sound equipment sourced to primary sources. This could be WP:UNDUE weight and get in the way of making an article aimed at the average reader.

Let's pause there. This section is good overall, but might benefit from a subheading or two to make things more readable. Shooterwalker (talk) 16:50, 16 November 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you for your initial review, @Shooterwalker! Please see my comments above. Where there is no comment, I amended the article as requested (or very similarly). IceWelder [✉] 20:21, 16 November 2022 (UTC)[reply]

We're doing well so far. The only outstanding comment that needs some attention is the music section. It's entirely sourced to primary sources, which starts to feel like WP:UNDUE weight. I'd like to see some third party sources, or else try to summarize this with less detail.

Release

• The section is well written overall. If I have a minor comment, it's the use of passive voice. ("The game was planned to be released" vs. "Gustafsson planned to release the game".) It's not strictly ungrammatical, but it reads less than clear, and obscures who is doing what. Something to fix here and there, if you have time.

Reception/Legacy

• This section is generally well written. I might caution against overuse of quotes. Again, it's still grammatical, but it can start to distract from the point more than it helps. See if there are some quotes that would read better in plain language.
• "to excel that of foregone games like Red Faction: Guerrilla." -> "exceed" instead of "excel"? I think I'd also make it clearer what the comparison is, if we're comparing it to other games with destructible environments. That's probably more important than the name of the game itself.
• "Barbosa criticised the campaign for the pace at which tools are acquired, which we felt hindered" -> "Barbosa criticized the pace of upgrades in the campaign, feeling that it hindered"
• "Gustafsson had hired Marcus Dawson—the former chief executive officer (CEO) of Illusion Labs—as CEO of Tuxedo Labs, grown the studio's staff to six people, and assumed the title of chief technology officer." -> "Gustafsson had grown the studio's staff to six people, taking the title of chief technology officer, and hiring new CEO Marcus Dawson -- the former chief executive of Illusion Labs."

You've done a great job researching and writing this article, and there should be no trouble reaching GA after these small fixes. Shooterwalker (talk) 17:02, 17 November 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you again! I have made some more changes, including a reduction of the music section. IceWelder [✉] 21:29, 17 November 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for all those changes. Very happy to give this a pass towards a GA. Great work. Shooterwalker (talk) 23:40, 19 November 2022 (UTC)[reply]