Putting the 'role' back in role-playing games since 2002.
Donate to Codex
Good Old Games
  • Welcome to rpgcodex.net, a site dedicated to discussing computer based role-playing games in a free and open fashion. We're less strict than other forums, but please refer to the rules.

    "This message is awaiting moderator approval": All new users must pass through our moderation queue before they will be able to post normally. Until your account has "passed" your posts will only be visible to yourself (and moderators) until they are approved. Give us a week to get around to approving / deleting / ignoring your mundane opinion on crap before hassling us about it. Once you have passed the moderation period (think of it as a test), you will be able to post normally, just like all the other retards.

Shadwen - "a true stealth game" with time manipulation by Frozenbyte

LESS T_T

Arcane
Joined
Oct 5, 2012
Messages
13,582
Codex 2014
Frozenbyte (developer of Trine series) announced "a true", "back-to-the-roots" stealth game Shadwen.



Shadwen is a true stealth game where the only rule is to remain unseen. Stay hidden - or the ruthless guards will kill you on sight!

Shadwen, an assassin on a quest to kill the king, has a chance encounter with a little orphaned girl, Lily. She follows Shadwen on her dangerous journey, but when the ruthless guards get too close, Shadwen must take action right in front of Lily's eyes. Will she resort to violence and let Lily witness her crimes, or can she find another way and protect the child's innocence?

To kill or not to kill - that is the question.

FEATURES
  • Stay hidden - avoid detection and guards, who will ruthlessly kill you upon capture.
  • Time is an accomplice - time stands still until Shadwen moves. Carefully rewind time to manipulate your past and present actions to gain an upper hand on the guards. Make precision movements to nail each move and try different strategies for the ultimate solution.
  • Pick your assassinations carefully. Avoid being seen, heard or getting caught indirectly. Suspicious sights and noises will alert the guards - use it to your benefit.
  • Grapple and sneak around the dark and gritty medieval world and use the environment to your advantage - grapple onto rooftops, drop from ceilings, hide in the shadows.
  • Use physics and a freely attachable rope to weave a web of tangled objects, make deaths look accidental; let gravity do the grave work.
  • Set up traps and hazards to lure guards towards their early demise; discover new ways to eliminate or distract your foes by crafting items into deadly surprises, including poison traps, spike devices, smoke bombs and more.
  • Lethal and non-lethal solutions - choose your play style but remember: actions have consequences.
  • Become a true god of stealth and protect Lily's innocence - complete the game with no bodies left behind.
  • Jump anywhere and everywhere.

http://store.steampowered.com/app/425210/

Since pre-alpha demo was given to Humble Monthly subscribers, there are some gameplay videos on the tube.



Anyone played this?
 

Markman

da Blitz master
Patron
Joined
Dec 31, 2002
Messages
3,737
Location
Sthlm, Swe
Serpent in the Staglands Codex USB, 2014 Shadorwun: Hong Kong
Looks like Styx.
Didnt try it, nor planning to. Sadly there's no steam key to gib, just a download link.
 

zwanzig_zwoelf

Graverobber Foundation
Developer
Joined
Nov 21, 2015
Messages
3,086
Location
デゼニランド
Enemy AI doesn't seem to react to any sounds and is practically blind.
Doesn't look like they're able to look up or down too. Pretty meh.

The concept would be interesting in a game with better AI and where time manipulation would be a limited resource (and the game would run in some sort of iron man mode, so you can't just reload a save or keep rewinding stuff).
 

Baron Dupek

Arcane
Joined
Jul 23, 2013
Messages
1,870,765
The Dark Mod had ability to rotate and manipulate objects, but beside wooden boxes it didn't used his potential beside tutorial.
So many work into something that nobody use...

Maybe this game do better than Styx, which was nice game, but people had "meh" attitude toward it because it wasn't made by big AAAA studio or pixel diarrhea indie game (I mean - the common concept of middleware is alien to most folks these days).
 

tormund

Arcane
Joined
Aug 15, 2015
Messages
2,282
Location
Penetrating the underrail
It doesn't look too bad, art direction looks like the darker version of one from Trine.

Other than that, I don't know what to say at this point. Something like Tenchu with Braid's time manipulation could be really good, depending on level design, AI, and how many and what kind of tools player will be able to use. On the other hand, I wouldn't care for gimmicky puzzle game with basic stealth coat of paint, if that is what they are going for...
 

Beowulf

Arcane
Joined
Mar 2, 2015
Messages
1,963
Well, this gameplay demo visually looks ok. It's hard to judge how the shadows change the detection range of the guards.
It just looks too easy. And I'm not talking about the time rewind ability. The AI is bad at detecting the player and it fails to notice missing comrades (that may be tied to those difficulty settings , though). Those rooms and chambers seem to be designed to use that grappling gimmick in mind and allow the player to quite literally skip those locations.
I need to see more of it to see for myself if it develops into poor man's Ass Creed, or something worth time and money.
 
Last edited:

JarlFrank

I like Thief THIS much
Patron
Joined
Jan 4, 2007
Messages
33,052
Location
KA.DINGIR.RA.KI
Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
It looks okay, and yay at being able to jump everywhere, but the fact that this has to be listed as a feature shows what a sad state modern gaming is in - 10 years ago that would've been a matter of course.
 

cfisher2833

Learned
Joined
Jan 1, 2015
Messages
94
Eh...I don't really trust Frozenbyte to nail down the gameplay mechanics. The Trine games were all style over substance--mediocre puzzle platformers that only wowed due to how pretty they were.
 

toro

Arcane
Vatnik
Joined
Apr 14, 2009
Messages
14,031
It looks like shit: a Styx clone for retards.

Also they are selling the pre-alpha!? Fuck'em.
 

octavius

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Aug 4, 2007
Messages
19,184
Location
Bjørgvin
Third person? Khajiit has no time for this.
Also, sound plays no part (again hard to with 3rd person view)?
Apart from that the art style, graphics and physics engine look good
 

Farage

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Feb 17, 2014
Messages
596
The protagonist... shes so weird, she looks like some kind of feminist crazy cat lady
 

SCO

Arcane
In My Safe Space
Joined
Feb 3, 2009
Messages
16,320
Shadorwun: Hong Kong
Fucking 3rd person cameras on my fucking stealth games, the people that make decisions on this just don't learn that that crap is completely unnecessary and increases their costs by 20 times while decreasing believability.

The real reason that that a game that allows 'jump everywhere' (lol) is a surprise is because to do that with those complex animations you need a complex bone kinematics/physics system that is hell to code and make content for (so it's not usually middlewared), just to make a jump landing look good. Pathetic.

Oh well, maybe in 30 years, with a lot of pathfinding integration maybe this will allow enemies to jump-chase you without scripted sequences. I wouldn't bet on it though.
 
Last edited:
Joined
Feb 12, 2016
Messages
8
Location
Longzaru
I mean, I grew up with Metal Gear, so I'm looking forward to some third-person action stealth. The game is pre-alpha, which means it has a long way to go. I'll keep an eye on it and hope it doesn't go the Alien: Colonial Marines way.
 

Siveon

Bot
Joined
Jul 13, 2013
Messages
4,509
Shadorwun: Hong Kong
just don't learn that that crap is completely necessary and increases their costs by 20 times while decreasing believability.
Yeah, I wouldn't even BOTHER playing a stealth game without some 3rd person animations! /s

Joking aside, it is pretty dumb.
 

Alienman

Retro-Fascist
Patron
Joined
Sep 10, 2014
Messages
17,046
Location
Mars
Codex 2016 - The Age of Grimoire Make the Codex Great Again! Grab the Codex by the pussy Codex Year of the Donut Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
The autopause-instafail-when-spotted-rewind- thingy if annoying. You can turn it off though, but didn't get any feel for the game. And yeah, permanent escort quest :)
 

JarlFrank

I like Thief THIS much
Patron
Joined
Jan 4, 2007
Messages
33,052
Location
KA.DINGIR.RA.KI
Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
Eeeeh.

Has potential, but they just had to add popamole features that just don't work in stealth games. Reasonably enjoyable but the next Thief it ain't.

And wtf 3rd person perspective already is like cheating in a stealth game why add some fucking xray vision too what is this shit
 

As an Amazon Associate, rpgcodex.net earns from qualifying purchases.
Back
Top Bottom