Game News Backspace: Obsidian's unproduced "Sci-Fi Skyrim"

[Rake]

The only definently shit thing about it is Skyrim engine. Unless it's a significant improvement from their NV one(i haven't played Skyrim)
Everything else is just speculation.Maybe it would be good. But as it would be a multiplatform action AAA game... i can live without it just fine.
Just let them modify the concept and make a time travel sci fi RPG for their next kickstarter. Way more

 

[Bluebottle]

Plenty of interesting ideas could come from the time travel angle, specifically within the realm of c&c. Always wanted to see an RPG that stretched across two times, with choices made in the earlier time having massive effects in the later period.

Using the Skyrim engine in order to make a game that doesn't sound so massively open world sounds like an odd choice, though. It does seem to be the only thing the engine really has going for it. Of course it's unclear exactly how open each section would have been and engine choice is only really of minor consequence anyway, providing the writing and mechanic design is of sufficient quality.

 

[himmy]

Actually what turned me off was the time-travel stuff. Do not want that.

WHO THE FUCK DOESN'T LIKE TIME TRAVEL?

 

[Grunker]

The only definently shit thing about it is Skyrim engine.

Yeah man, a mix of Mass Effect and Borderlands with faster combat than Skyrim! SOUNDS GREAT, RITE?

The combat is paced similarly to Skyrim, but slightly faster [...] The easiest way to look at it is a mix of Mass Effect, Borderlands

inb4 "but they threw in System Shock 2 in that mix! Doesn't shit taste better when you add some sprinkles?"

Considering how disgustingly bad Alpha Protocol was for the most part, I'm not sure a game with an even more popamolish profile is the right move for Obsidian.

 

[Excidium]

I don't even know what that's supposed to mean.

 

[A user named cat]

Just play Timequest instead.

 

[DeepOcean]

The concept of doing quests in different time lines is very interesting but this kinda enter in conflict with open world because they would had to make different versions of alot of things, unless the time travel element was to be very limited to certain places and that would turn it into more of a gimmick than something more developed. An open world Singularity made by people that can write would be something very interesting. The Skyrim comparisons are very funny, I'm not against the idea of first person open world action RPGs, I'm against the idea of modern Bethesda making them.

 

[Grunker]

Man, someone really should make an Infinite Worlds cRPG.

 

[Cassidy]

Yeah man, a mix of Mass Effect and Borderlands with faster combat than Skyrim! SOUNDS GREAT, RITE?

For certain users in RPGCodex, that definitively should sound MAJESTIC, because I have no doubt there are enough popamolers, idiots and posers here for at least one of them think Mass Effect, Borderlands and Skyrim are better games than Fallout. Just like there are people here who will swallow anything if it has Obsidian in it.

 

[Rivmusique]

The combat is paced similarly to Skyrim

Now there's your problem.

 

[Deuce Traveler]

What I find funny is how everyone here (including me) took time to post in a AAA game thread that has now reached more than 60 replies in less than a day just to dog on a game we never got to see.

At the same time, on the Classic RPG thread we have:

- A thread started at the same time of this one on a Spiderweb Software bundle sale selling early Jeff Vogel games which only now has 6 replies.
- A discussion started last week trying to spearhead an effort to create Stones of Arnhem from the current notes we collected, which only has 19 replies.
- A Sword of the Stars: The Pit discussion started in March that only has 54 replies.

And on and on...

In fact the AAA threads seem to get a lot more posts than the classic threads, despite everyone swearing up and down that the older games and current Indie games are superior. It seems that despite the talk, even at the Codex it's the new AAA games that get the attention. Stay classy 'Dex.

 

[Grunker]

Another poster that identifies - to everyone's great surprise - that's threads that discuss current news where people disagree get more posts than threads with old news where people don't disagree.

 

[Western]

Meh, would prefer the concept if it wasn't an action RPG, especially one on Skyrims engine.

 

[Hellraiser]

Man, someone really should make an Infinite Worlds cRPG.

Only if you can side with the Centrum and/or Reich. Still, that shit has great potential for RPG if done right.

Using advanced weapons in timelines that never dreamed of them? Get considered a witch or have the government's spooks after you (thinking you're aliens and/or enemy secret agents). Hoarding currency from timeline X? Useless everywhere else, you're as broke as a beggar there.

 

[Roguey]

Considering how disgustingly bad Alpha Protocol was for the most part, I'm not sure a game with an even more popamolish profile is the right move for Obsidian.

The article didn't mention anything about cover. If the levels were sufficiently large, that likely wouldn't even happen.

Also nothing wrong with fast action games as an idea. This one would have been bad though.

 

[Grunker]

Man, someone really should make an Infinite Worlds cRPG.

Only if you can side with the Centrum and/or Reich. Still, that shit has great potential for RPG if done right.

Using advanced weapons in timelines that never dreamed of them? Get considered a witch or have the government's spooks after you (thinking you're aliens and/or enemy secret agents). Hoarding currency from timeline X? Useless everywhere else, you're as broke as a beggar there.

Yep. It's worked as one of the easiest campaign for instant fun and intrigue for P&P games for a long time. But it would have to be quite an expensive RPG I think, since so much is going on. And no AAA developer is going to touch it, probably.

 

[evdk]

Yep. It's worked as one of the easiest campaign for instant fun and intrigue for P&P games for a long time. But it would have to be quite an expensive RPG I think, since so much is going on. And no AAA developer is going to touch it, probably.

Not that you would want them to.

 

[Infinitron]

So, what are the chances of this being some kind of a foreshadowing for Obsidian's next Kickstarter?

It would be interesting if Obsidian tried to create a dynamic where they go up to publishers and tell them "Fund this game, or we'll Kickstart it and take all the money for ourselves!"

 

[Hellraiser]

Well you could always limit it to a few select worldlines for some reason vital to both the Homeline and Centrum (also Reich-5 nazis, but more covertly), a reason which would be related to the main quest. The issue is that doing it properly, that is with 3-5 quest hub cities/locations that feel like real locations with local conflicts and issues (and not just the Homeline-Centrum multiversial shenenigans), rather than small themeparks with a few quest giver NPCs, would require considerable resources. Otherwise it would just feel cheap and honestly why bother using a multiverse with different timelines in the first place, if you're not going to let the player feel (*gasp* immershun!) like he's exploring different worlds rather than just another city with a different coat of paint on it.

Yeah also AAA would mean obvious decline and dumbing down, I would be content with a lower budget for a such a thing as long as the content and mechanics would be top notch. Fuck visuals and even voice acting.

 

[boltrek]

So, what are the chances of this being some kind of a foreshadowing for Obsidian's next Kickstarter?

It would be interesting if Obsidian tried to create a dynamic where they go up to publishers and tell them "Fund this game or we'll Kickstart it and take all the money for ourselves!"

As if anyone would back a Kickstarter for a Skyrim-clone.

 

[Infinitron]

So, what are the chances of this being some kind of a foreshadowing for Obsidian's next Kickstarter?

It would be interesting if Obsidian tried to create a dynamic where they go up to publishers and tell them "Fund this game or we'll Kickstart it and take all the money for ourselves!"

As if anyone would back a Kickstarter for a Skyrim-clone.

Of course they wouldn't. It would be Kickstarted as a different type of RPG. But the basic idea behind the game would remain.

 

[boltrek]

So, what are the chances of this being some kind of a foreshadowing for Obsidian's next Kickstarter?

It would be interesting if Obsidian tried to create a dynamic where they go up to publishers and tell them "Fund this game or we'll Kickstart it and take all the money for ourselves!"

As if anyone would back a Kickstarter for a Skyrim-clone.

Of course they wouldn't. It would be Kickstarted as a different type of RPG. But the basic idea behind the game would remain.

Fair enough. Though I think it would make sense for them to focus on games in the Project: Eternity setting. For example if they wanted to do a first-person game, what about an Ultima Underworld/Battlespire dungeon game, cheap to make and likely to appeal to grognards as well as have crossover appeal.

 

[Rake]

So, what are the chances of this being some kind of a foreshadowing for Obsidian's next Kickstarter?

It would be interesting if Obsidian tried to create a dynamic where they go up to publishers and tell them "Fund this game, or we'll Kickstart it and take all the money for ourselves!"

This, the "Hidden" thing they revealed, i excpect Obsidian to have a whole desk choke full of rejected pitches and ideas floating around.

 

[evdk]

So, what are the chances of this being some kind of a foreshadowing for Obsidian's next Kickstarter?

It would be interesting if Obsidian tried to create a dynamic where they go up to publishers and tell them "Fund this game, or we'll Kickstart it and take all the money for ourselves!"

I don't much like time travel in stories, because it usually becomes either a nonsensical mess with plot holes that can be easily spotted by a small child, absolute "fill a notebook with charts to try to make sense of it all" exercise in spergery or a pretentious pseudo intellectual mind fuck. The gameplay aspect of it then always come with a monstrous amount of hype while being relegated to some half broken gimmicky implementation in the actual game.

 

[Rake]

So, what are the chances of this being some kind of a foreshadowing for Obsidian's next Kickstarter?

It would be interesting if Obsidian tried to create a dynamic where they go up to publishers and tell them "Fund this game or we'll Kickstart it and take all the money for ourselves!"

As if anyone would back a Kickstarter for a Skyrim-clone.

Of course they wouldn't. It would be Kickstarted as a different type of RPG. But the basic idea behind the game would remain.

But it wouldn't sell 8M copies if it wasn't marketed as "sci-fi Skyrim", so maybe publisers won't care.