Reply With QuoteThe editor stretch goal was not reached, unfortunately.
Saw somewhere recently that Otherside is saying the game will actually be out in 2018. Not a big deal, but I just hadn't heard them say that before.
That new vid looks good. Say, did they ever mention in stretch goals or anything that they might include an editor?
The editor stretch goal was not reached, unfortunately.
Saw this article recently:
https://www.rollingstone.com/glixel/...ve-sim-w515957
There's now a teaser trailer:
and a Steam page!
http://store.steampowered.com/app/69...rld_Ascendant/
Say, I haven't seen any spiders in the most recent videos and images. Are they out? If so, the chances of me buying this went up significantly.
The trailer makes it look more a puzzle platformer than an RPG.
It breaks my heart to see what this game is turning into.
There will be more -- rune magic and equipment and lockpicking and lizardmen language and so on.
Here's some early gameplay of the tutorial. All the usual caveats apply: pre-alpha footage, subject to change, lots of placeholders and work in progress, and a lot of elements and effects are still not implemented:
I kind of like what I see (and hearing SR is always a pleasure to my ears), but over 3 years have past, and they still use very basic assets and materials? I mean, sure, I don't expect Dishonored 2 level of polish, but PBR has been a standard for quite some time now, and I'd expect wood to look like wood, not pasta, and stone to look like it has some diffuse texture, not just normalmap with single color.
They promised to start polishing things up after all the mechanics have been implemented. Probably not the best move PR-wise, but they don't really have a choice. Doing it the other way -- first polishing things up and then testing and changing things around -- would be just too costly.
Absolutely, there's no sense in jumping to detail before locking down the core stuff. I just wonder what took them so long, is it a side-project of the team or something like that? That would make sense then.
It's just a very small team. Frankly, based on what has been shown and told to backers, I don't see how they can finish this by the end of the year, even with outsourcing.
Apparently it'll be out in September!
Heh, Dominic Tarason at RPS also pointed out that it looks like "Thief by way of Trine". Which sounds great to my ears, but then again I've never played any Underworld games, but loved Thief and Trine.Originally Posted by ZylonBane
This is just one opinion, but the PC Gamer hands-on preview is surprisingly negative:
https://www.pcgamer.com/underworld-a...re-hoping-for/
Even if it turns out to be clumsy, perhaps it'll have enough imaginative elements to be a cult classic, as the writer sort of suggests/hopes in the final paragraph of the preview:It's the same assortment of simple chemistry and physics magic we've been performing in games since Half-Life 2 made boxes cool. But for all the talk OtherSide Entertainment's marketing has generated about how Underworld Ascendant will move the immersive sim genre forward, I was surprised by how dated and clumsy it feels in practice.
Another sharply negative hands-on from Ars Technica:OtherSide's ambition is clear, but Ascendant just doesn't feel ready to be released anytime soon. If it has to be, I hope it at least manages to be an obtuse, messy game with interesting enough level design and skill combinations to hold it all together.
https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2018/...elm-ascendant/
I'd be less worried if the game wasn't coming out in less than four months.
Last edited by Twist; 1st Jun 2018 at 13:27. Reason: Added Ars preview
Looks ok but nothing that has really captured my interest just yet, and based on these previews it looks like it hasn't improved much from the recent release of their vertical slice, which I found underwhelming. I've already tempered my expectations however, which is probably a better position to start from rather than making unhealthy or unrealistic comparisons to a series that made such a significant impression on my views of gaming.
That said, while I'm not going to overly compare the final product to the originals, I do hope that we haven't got another Ion Storm on our hands, releasing weak, compromised and technically challenged sequels to their classics.
Last edited by twisty; 1st Jun 2018 at 19:39.
Having just finished replaying Arx Fatalis, I wish Ascendant had a less stylized art style but overall it looks fine to me gameplay-wise. I do wish that here, in 2018, Otherside (and Arkane, for that matter) would commit to diegetic interfaces because those giant stealth and interaction icons and glowing levers and whatnot are hilariously awful.
Last edited by Jason Moyer; 2nd Jun 2018 at 10:28.
Stop saying dumb things. Clear HUD elements will almost always be superior for conveying information to the player. Just say no to health boob tattoos.
Oh god, yeah, I see your point. I guess it's less that it has non-diegetic HUD elements and more that they look stupid.
Here's the Writer/Director talking to Shacknews about the game:
Hey why am I the one posting most of the videos ITT? I don't even care about this game!
Ok, I care a little. I'm curious to see how it turns out.
The alpha demo for backers is supposed to drop today, so there will be more material soon. Meanwhile, here's a short clip of some fun with bottles:
https://t.co/ir5fSPWb5N
Funny how a silly little clip with bottles can get me as excited as it does
The alpha demo was delayed for a week to address some of the recent criticisms and feedback, so here's an older clip about a rope bug instead:
https://twitter.com/Underworld_Asc/s...27273980645377
Some footage (not mine) of the alpha demo:
Obviously, it's not a full game yet, but I've been having some fun with it. Stuff like physics and movement feel like most of the way there and the general ambiance feels great. There's even some little fun things here and there in the demo, like being able to roast meat.
Those creepy wriggling zombie hands have got to go.
The Deadly Shadows style frob hilight could go too.
I played it a bit.
It still feels really clunky, very much like a prototype of a game that's a long way away.
It relies heavily on physics, but the physics is the usual physics-in-games affair, only here it applies to everything.
Not only did I keep upsetting objects that I walked near, but I also kept injuring myself by touching physics objects while moving. Trying to actually use the physics system to my benefit tended not to work out - it took me ages to stack two boxes on top of each other to make a ramp, picking up and manipulating objects is awkward because they block most of the view, and there's that usual problem of hitting objects with other objects and knocking everything over while trying to move or place things.
There's a spell for locking physics items in place, so at one point I tried to place a table over a chasm and jump onto it, but the physics didn't make that easy and I just slid off because the table wasn't flat, and fell to my death.
The game is insanely dark. There's a brightness slider that just makes the bright areas too dark, while still leaving the dark areas pitch black, making it impossible to see. You can douse torches while trying to sneak, but it almost makes things harder for you than for your enemies, since now you can't see ether. It doesn't help that the parts which aren't dark tend to be very bright and glowing, therefore ruining your night vision. The spells are also really bright and glowy, so the effects when using them blocks out your ability to actually see what they're doing.
The AI is very basic, they have some rudimentary stealth / detection AI, but are unobservant, slow, have trouble navigating their own maps, and are very clumsy in combat.
Again, the whole thing still feels like a prototype, unfinished and very rough around the edges.
I could mention once again that I still don't think the cartoony art style works for an immersive sim which is supposed to be recreating a realistic environment, but I'm sure I've complained about that often enough already.
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