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Current state of Russian RPGs (with screenshots)

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In the thread about declining Chinese RPGs somebody asked "what about the russians?" (torpid, I think). I started to type an answer, but when my comment reached xbox-hueg size I've decided to post it as a standalone topic.

So, what about the Russians? We don't have strictly RPG developer teams, at least not good ones. Sure, we have Katauri, for example - authors of King's Bounty remakes (they were also part of the team which made Space Rangers), but they don't make single genre games.
As for companies still active this days, they are usually belong to one of the following groups:

Edit: To clarify, I'm not listing multi-genre games. We've got many of them, and some are quite good (i.e. Corsairs 1, Vangers, Space Rangers, King's Bounty, Hammer and Sickle, etc), but that would be a list for general and/or strategy gaming board.

Companies which made mediocre RPGs, and now are making shit

Burut. They made Goldenland series and Hard to be God. Both were shitty, but early Goldenland were playable, if boring.
Hard to be God (based on unreleased russian movie, which in turn was based on good sci-fi novel by Strugatskie):


Nival. Quite a famous company, they've made Allods series. First games were solid, if somewhat boring, realtime RPGs:

Now series are turned to MMORPG, Allods Online:


They've also made "Night Watch" (2005) and "Day Watch" (2006) (correction: Day Watch was made by Targem games, and Nival just published it. Thanks for pointing it out, Arem!)games, based on movies by the same name. Both were pretty linear, had non-existent plot and boring combat.



Primal Software. From interesting action/RPG in spirit of Magic Carpet they turned to making bad movie-based games.
"Eye of the Dragon" (2004). It was an interesting, if rather dumb story-wise Action RPG, in which you played as (you guessed it) a dragon.


"Волкодав: Месть Серого Пса" aka "Requital" (2007). Shitty game based on movie, which in turn was based on rather bad "slavic fantasy" novels:


. Another famous company, right now it's our biggest software and games reseller. They acquired some game developer teams, and made quite a few games, including RPGs. For example, they've made Konung series, mediocre, if playable RPGs at first, which were turned into unplayable ugly 3d shitfest.
Konung 2 (2003)

Konong 3:Ties of the Dynasty (2009)


Also they've made "Санитары подземелий" aka "Planet Alcatraz" (2006), a surprisingly good game. Its English translation sucked dead donkey balls though.

Its sequel,"Санитары подземелий 2: Охота за черным квадратом" (2008), was way worse. Basically, it was a stand-alone addon in guise of sequel, storyline sucked, it became much easier and more buggy.


Arise and KranX Productions. 1C also published "Не время для драконов" aka "A Farewell to Dragons". It's based on quite popular steampunkish novel by two bestselling russian authors - Perumov and Lukyanenko. Novel is decent, game isn't. It's even sadder to know that one of the developers of this game made Perimiter and Vangers.



Companies which make shitty RPGs (often based on books or movies)
Quant Games: "Diamond Sword, Wooden Sword" (2008). Crap game based on popular books by russian fantasy author.


Meridian'93. "Волкодав: Последний из рода Серых Псов" (Wolfhound: Last of the Grey Dog tribe) (2006). Same setting as one above, even worse game.


Game Studio "SEMARGL". Authors of banal, shitty and boring Action/RPG "Заговор Темной Башни" aka "Conspiracy of the Dark Tower".



Companies which make mediocre-to-good RPGs (and now are often defunct)
Rostok-Games (strictly speaking it's an Ukrainian company, but whatever). Made "Beltion: Beyond Ritual" (2009). It's a rather boring (but playable) Gothic clone.


DVS. Made "Восхождение на трон" aka "Ascension to the Throne" (2007), rather solid (if not very innovative or polished) RPG/TBS hybrid.


Jonquil Software (RIP). Authors of quite an interesting, if unpolished, isometric RPG, which had an emphasis on economy - "Заклятие" aka "Spells of Gold" (2002).


SkyFallen Entertainment. They've made unusualAction/RPG "Магия Крови" aka "Dawn of Magic". In this game you can even play as a baker's wife. Sadly, some game mechanics were underdeveloped and it had bugs.



So, there you have it. I could have forgotten something, so don't afraid to correct me or add some games.
 

deus101

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Project: Eternity Wasteland 2
HU5IGl.jpg

Thanks to my million fetishes my libido is up.
 

Karmapowered

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I used to play Allods Online.

Good game, too bad you have to reach level 25 something to actually start PvP'ing, the real fun of the game.

I stopped playing when I realized that in order to remain competitive in PvP I had to shell out 100€ per month in runes, and that a level 33 critter could beat the crap out of my level 32 Warden with über gear (for my level).

Thanks for the review of other companies/games.
 

Murk

Arcane
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Good man, rather terrible state of affairs tho.

Would you mind expanding on that Gothic clone, Beltion: Beyond Ritual? Would you happen to know if there is an English version?

This trailer shows some nice locations and it seems to be pretty open-world. Is it closer to say... 2 worlds, Oblivion, Gothic, ... ?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1RQzn4DDEV0
 

zeitgeist

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Great post. So much work for nothing, and so much wasted potential. Can you imagine how many people worked on these and for how long combined? And many of them could probably have ended up as pretty decent games with better project direction, at least some QA, competent translations, and so on.
 
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Mikayel said:
Good man, rather terrible state of affairs tho.

Would you mind expanding on that Gothic clone, Beltion: Beyond Ritual? Would you happen to know if there is an English version?

This trailer shows some nice locations and it seems to be pretty open-world. Is it closer to say... 2 worlds, Oblivion, Gothic, ... ?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1RQzn4DDEV0
I don't have much time right now, so can't write a detailed answer.
Some points though:
Storyline was written by rather famous russian fantasy author Zorich, (actually it's a pseudonym for husband-wife writing team). I'm not a fan of their work though. Story is rather boring, and generic. It's based on their Equilibrium novels, you can read shitty google translation here. Game often presumes that you've already read them.
Game is rather linear, not free-roaming, at least story-wise.
Ambient life, NPC schedules - game hasn't got them.
Skills are similar to Gothic series, if somewhat simpler.
There were no combos in the game, or special attacks, IIRC.
Graphics and animation is p. shitty, but that's to be expected given the lengthy development cycle and troubles with publishing.
 

mikaelis

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Stainless Veteran said:
Burut. They made Goldenland series and Hard to be God (both were shit, but early Goldenland were playable, if boring).
Hard to be God (based on hit russian movie, which in turn was based on good sci-fi novel by Strugatskie):

This is from Farewell to Dragons, mang! And I am not even Russian to know it.

Yeah, but details aside. Quite a heavy concentration of shit you brought along. And I tried couple of them. "Hard to be a God" and "Farewell to Dragon" seemed to be so interesting, because of the premise (story, setting, etc). But turned to be quite a thick turd from the gameplay side.
I am tempted to try Planet Alcatraz, but I am quite reluctant right now after being burned by other titles. Anyone else can recommend it?
 
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mikaelis said:
This is from Farewell to Dragons, mang! And I am not even Russian to know it.

Yeah, but details aside. Quite a heavy concentration of shit you brought along. And I tried couple of them. "Hard to be a God" and "Farewell to Dragon" seemed to be so interesting, because of the premise (story, setting, etc). But turned to be quite a thick turd from the gameplay side.
I am tempted to try Planet Alcatraz, but I am quite reluctant right now after being burned by other titles. Anyone else can recommend it?
Ah, thanks. Messed up imgur links and forgot to type a paragraph. :oops:
 

FatCat

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"Санитары подземелий" was truly fun and p.unique game , sadly second wasn't so there won't be 3rd one.

The fuck did Goblin retire or smthn..
 

Mangoose

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Karmapowered said:
I used to play Allods Online.

Good game, too bad you have to reach level 25 something to actually start PvP'ing, the real fun of the game.

I stopped playing when I realized that in order to remain competitive in PvP I had to shell out 100€ per month in runes, and that a level 33 critter could beat the crap out of my level 32 Warden with über gear (for my level).

Thanks for the review of other companies/games.
How was the ship-to-ship combat in that game? That was the main highlight for me, besides being able to play as Hitler.
 

ecliptic

Liturgist
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Messages
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Good post. I tried Spells of Gold. Liked the idea, couldn't get into. I own Farewell to Dragons and Planet Alcatraz but am a bit too scared to install them.
 

Gnidrologist

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Hard to be God (based on hit russian movie, which in turn was based on good sci-fi novel by Strugatskie)
You mean A. German's ''Massacre of Arcanar'' is finally released (after 10 years in making or so?) or are you referring to the old movie that was co produced with germans or something (was that a ''hit movie'' though?).
 

ElectricOtter

Guest
I think I remember playing Spells of Gold briefly, or at least hearing about it. Nice post, as well. Russians cannot into RPGs?
 

majestik12

Arcane
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Good summary, Stainless Veteran. And what do you think about Сердце Вечности (Heart of Eternity)?

Also, I've played Valkyrie: Ascension to the Throne. Despite noticeable balance issues it turned out to be a pretty fun game. Bonus points for art direction and the protagonist being a cute topless lady.
 

saenz

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Stainless Veteran said:
...a totally awesome and informative post...

Great post but two points:

1. You kinda short-changed Nival Interactive and 1C. While not explicitly RPG's, they do deserve an honorable mention for making the cult classic Silent Storm series and Space Rangers series respectively.

2. Which of these games have English localizations? I'm not a Russian speaker, but you've mentioned some titles I'm really curious about.
 

easychord

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I have played a bit of Planet Alcatraz and the English voice acting was so bad that I had to turn it off. There was something good about it but it also had a mission to kill rats in a warehouse which wasn't promising.

Does the combat get much more interesting when you get some NPCs in your party?
 

torpid

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Thanks for all the info, even though it's pretty depressing overall. The :decline: truly has no borders.

Any one have more on Spells of Gold? Looks interesting.
 

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