There's like 3 fight songs and one ambient track per zone
I think for me it definitely had to be the adrenaline for a huge part. I remember roaming around the deserted and vandalized Gaulish village that was so close to what I had still in mind from reading the comics with the game's frantic pace of movement and the characters' overdone spiky armor while the tragic synth line was playing over a pulsating electro beat in the background.
The dark lighting, the void spaces, the hypnotic soundtrack, that's what got me.
.
Interesting, to hear the other side @MoistMan
For me it's the combat. Fighting against hordes of Roman at the same time, but still being able to be in control of the chaos due to responsive controls and a nice set of attacks. Especially the Roman whip in XXL2 and picking up Romans in XXL1 makes the combat really fun for me. This is also why I dislike XXL3: You're never in control of the combat because of that dumb energy bar and the Romans that take far too many hits. Then, there's also the amazing landscapes in XXL1 and, well, my nostalgic value for XXL2 ^^
But binging it in two 5-hour sessions gave me a foul taste of the game
And I won't be re-playing it any time soon
I got the game from my father when I was a kid, I don't remember the exact year but it was somewhere in 2004-2005. The game seemed interesting to me but I struggled with it, and oneday Dad found a trainer. Most time I spent in the game was beating up everyone in one hit, collecting helmets (inefficiently...) and looking around the locations. This game is also how I got introduced to Asterix.
I think it's mostly nostalgia that makes me still enjoy it today, but I also began appreciating the OST more.
The fighting system is more fun in XXL2 though, you can Power-Hammer Romans into the ground from the start of the game.
Yeah, XXL2 is way more refined from a gameplay point of view. And story. And graphics...
Still I never got into it that much because it lacked that distinctive "two Gauls against the world" feeling that XXL1 delivered.
I didn't get into xxl2 because of the shitty framerate on the remaster on the Switch and the really bad pop-culture references.
The thing is, I spread my love for XXL pretty much everywhere for a few years back then. It couldn't take hold with kids who were avid gamers already, they all despised XXL and thought it was a bad game.
But those who - like me - had never been into gaming much, were completely sucked into XXL,, just like myself.
Somehow that game speaks to a different audience than most games in my experience.
I couldn't think of a more magical time than Christmas 2003... XXL was my first PS2 game, or my 4th game ever. It was the first time that I had to get used to joystick movement, I still fondly remember this as my first experience minute 1 into the game.
XXL 1 felt... big, misterious, and scary
Imagine those kids who got King's Field II (US KFI) as their first PlayStation game
Now that game is mysterious and scary
Like, I have myself stuck in Normanddy's beginning for probably a year or so because my eyes couldn't spot the very first archer we meet, and being stabbed 5 times with huge spears from seemingly nowhere reaaaally scared me back then, I simply refused to take a step towards the general direction where the archer was camping.
I can kind of imagine what you're talking about
I remember when my father introduced me to Portal
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