the precursors

[SuicideBunny]

there's a fan translation for the game which translates all the ingame text and contains transcripts or summaries of the cutscenes.
playing the game right now, and it's pretty nice, though i'm not that far into it yet.

it has localized damage (left/right arm/leg, torso, head) with different effects (arms damage reduces firearms accuracy, legs damage reduces running speed and will make your character limp), and so on. will post more impressions later if anyone is interested.

 

[Admiral jimbob]

This sounds really interesting, but English information is thin on the ground. Keep us posted.

 

[SuicideBunny]

it's primarily a shooter, but quite complex.

instead of skills the game has perks, and some perks are required for others or have level requirements. perks are divided into five categories that roughly equate to combat stuff, auxiliary, technical, rogue/social, outdoor. each category has seven perks, some depend on perks from other categories.
most perks only give passive boni, but a few enable you to do more stuff, like using heavy weapons.

inventory has slots and a weight limit, the latter can be raised through a few perks. the weight limit is rather low, so no carrying around tons of stuff.
there are only three equipment slots (weapon, armor, ammo type).

weapons have durability, different ammo types, some are fairly exotic (like an insect which acts as a knife), and they can be modded, which seems to have a chance of failing as there is a perk which increases the chance of success. no idea how exactly the mods work or look yet.

there are vehicles, you can steal them, and they also have storage space.

healing items have an addiction rating, and there are three different addiction bars the game tracks (drugs, meds, alc).

there seem to be at least 7 factions (empire, republic (lol), free traders, bandits, civilians, clatz revolutionaries, nest clatz). looks like there is only one kind of negative rep: hostile, but a proper progression for positive rep.

the game has stealth, but it's kinda weird. instead of crouching and just staying out of sight, which will still get you noticed rather fast, you have to enable a separate stealth mode, which will color the edges of the screen and slow down your movement speed considerably. in stealth mode you see enemies within a certain range on the radar, regardless of whether you see them or not, and if you do something to increase their awareness, they will also display sight cones. it's sorta stupid, no idea if it gets better later on.

the starting map is in no way representative of the game, as i just found out. the first real map is pretty friggin big, and if you wait for a bit instead of doing what you are supposed to, you get to steal a small ship and dick around the map. will post some more later.

 

[SuicideBunny]

ok, there is normal progression for negative rep as well.

the game is quite rough and unpolished. landing a flier the wrong way might kill you, attacking security droids in a flier is a sure way to die as they will fly against the flier from the top and push it in a way that will turn it upside down as well as pushing it towards the earth, which will make you explode, for the same reason as wrong landings).
there's also a lot of stuff hidden on crates in the starting spaceport, but you can't just get to since you jump just a little too low to get on crates, which i think is a bug...

nobody seems to react to you just stealing all the shit lying around, including fliers and buggies, but people will react to you drawing a gun on them or shooting nearby, and shooting at someone might get you killed or arrested (although in the starting area getting thrown into jail seems to only be an opportunity to loot it).

you can't attack certain plot-critical people, it seems, but everybody else, and that's a friggin lot of people.

 

[Raapys]

Playing this myself. As you say it's very rough around the edges, and it crashes every once in a while.

Bugs aside though, I've found it to be a surprisingly decent game. There's some character development, some C&C, and both the shooter and space-arcade game modes are okay'ish implemented( though mouse acceleration sucks ). Too bad that none of the other planets can stand up to the quality of the starting planet, but that would probably be too much to ask for.

 

[JarlFrank]

I played it when the translation was half-done. It's pretty fun, although after the first world it got a lot more linear.

 

[SuicideBunny]

linear in what sense?

Playing this myself. As you say it's very rough around the edges, and it crashes every once in a while.

despite all the bugs (hey, this buggy has a lvl 3 lock, only it doesn't do anything.. whut...) it is pretty amazing.
having to buy spare tires because bandits shot them rules.

 

[Topher]

Looks neat, I guess I've got to torrent it? Any other way to get it in the US?

 

[Konjad]

Just got it in a bundle, gonna give it a try today as I have some time to kill. Hopefully it's fun for a few hours at least.

 

[Konjad]

OK, so I played it for one hour so far.


The game installed in English. I begin the game on a 'normal' difficulty. I watch the intro in Russian, with no subtitles (there's no option for subtitles in the game options either).

Then I begin the game. Within one minute I get killed by a fucking plant.

I restart the game on normal and watch the intro again, because you can't skip it. I kill plants and some animals. About 5 minutes within the game I encounter aliens throwing insults at me in Russian. I get wrecked within seconds.

Fortunately this time I quicksaved after plants.

I reload the save and kill the Russian speaking aliens using all ammo in my rocket launcher. Happy that I won I pick up their equipment and move forward.

After I move a few metres beyond last killed alien I get mowed down by a fucking mech.

Reloaded and killed the mech using all my granades and some other weapons. I move forward, see some crashed spaceship, then get a vision with another kind of aliens, then after another movie in Russian, I am in another place, some kind of a city. So I watch an ass of a female NPC.

Seems like this game will provide hours of fun cyka blyatch, aliens.

Screens:

Spoiler

 

[Baron Dupek]

Seems like they already included voice files, no need to DL 1GB+ from other sites.
And heard there are StarForce files in the game directory but not sure if the actual DRM is installed.

Konjad
what's the game version?
Did you installed with Wesp5 patch 1.8?
http://www.patches-scrolls.de/patch/3211/7/60988/download

changelogs

Spoiler

v1.8 11.02.2014
----
Fixed dialogue issues of Leemin and Grayson, thanks to Danko Simons.
Made Kasterley in the BBK mediate with Free Traders multiple times.
Set weight of all undroppable quest items to 0.01 to avoid problems.

v1.7 15.05.2013
----
Added link to moddb page and continued improving translation issues.
Improved all cutscene voice-overs, see credits below the changelog.
Included removal of film grain noise effect into flicker fix option.
Fixed Grayson's quest removing wrong inventory item after delivery.

v1.6 12.07.2012
----
Fixed mission-order issues for Doctor Amon and intelligence officer.
Continued improving translation, names and similar inconsistencies.
Restored missing title for Doctor Amon's weapons experiment mission.

v1.5 28.08.2011
----
Removed double line about Dust package and Clatz cell key after use.
Continued improving translation, names and similar inconsistencies.
Added zoom and range indicators to binoculars, thanks to The Silver.
Fixed directions to the mediator on Reandore and some NPC factions.
Increased cost of the BBK mediators and made Kasterly a Free Trader.
Hopefully fixed possible cutscene crashes by including sndlist.dat.
Included HUD improvements and missing icons, thanks Shepard_the_3rd.

v1.4 18.04.2011
----
Changed inventory and trade screens to show more, thanks to badmofo.
Continued improving translation, names and similar inconsistencies.
Swapped green spaceship engine trail with unused but better red one.
Fixed Misa not accepting fuel and Ramall's missions end and double.

v1.3 07.02.2011
----
Included English cutscene voice-overs, thanks jorgamesh and badmofo.
Corrected BBK drinker, Darkon race organizer and Norman quest bugs.
Added postprocess folder to avoid ATI flickering, thanks sq_paradox.
Fixed merchants window bugs and some space engineers not repairing.
Removed 5th ship engine and added flashlight, binoculars, smartlink.
Swapped HUD drug and medicine addictions and fixed perk conditions.
Fixed cargo merchants exploit and unlocked belongings box at prison.
Added infos for undefinable controls and created installer version.
Corrected loading and menu videos that slowed loading and menu down.
Continued improving translation, names and similar inconsistencies.
Fixed Ridinger bandit faction change and improved the BBK mediators.
Merged with 1.1 patch and enhanced the phrasing, thanks to badmofo.
Changed Soothsayer quest line and fixed damaged ship mission issues.
Restored some unused music pieces when in space, thanks to player1.

v1.2 21.12.2010
----
Added faction status changes for Bush, Skeleton, Shaman and Ridiger.
Fixed more details and inconsistencies and a few generic NPC names.
Turned Kasterley, Scrubby and representatives at BBK into mediators.
Changed warden lines to give info on box with your stuff at prison.

v1.1 30.07.2010
----
Fixed many details and inconsistencies, and added item descriptions.
Corrected transactions with Perk, ice collector and race organizer.
Changed Kasterley missing quest line and vehicle menu to roll/slide.

v1.0 04.06.2010
----
All in game text translated to 100%, thanks for the help to badmofo.
Added several game engine cutscene transcripts to the patch readme.

v0.7 05.05.2010
----
Added subtitles for intro video, thanks for the translation to Metz.
Fixed broken weapons and redid strings to 100% and dialogues to 1%.

v0.6 31.03.2010
----
Fixed many small details and names and did 7% of the dialog strings.

v0.5 03.03.2010
----
Created English loading and menu screens by using logos from videos.
Translated all string categories to 100% and the dialogues to 0.1%.
Created Precursors icon by using graphics from the official webpage.

 

[Konjad]

MotherMachinae

Thanks. I did not install any patches, I played the game on Steam as is.

There is no StarForce.

 

[Jinn]

Grabbed it because the bundle was $1 and there were a couple other decent looking games that came along with it. Looking forward to seeing some more impressions from you, Konjad. Are you thinking of installing that unofficial patch?

 

[abnaxus]

The StarForce files are included in the installation, it just doesn't activate. They really did zero effort on this.

 

[Konjad]

Grabbed it because the bundle was $1 and there were a couple other decent looking games that came along with it. Looking forward to seeing some more impressions from you, Konjad. Are you thinking of installing that unofficial patch?

Well, I played some more and it seems like a fun game actually. The world is open, but tbh it's a bit too large for it's own good - it's like oblivion, new vegas, skyrim or twitcher 3, where you have interesting places with mostly nothingness between them, albeit it's not a big deal because even before you leave the first town you get a car, so it doesn't take much time to travel. Writing is meh, but I am an exploretard, so just give me a map with some places and i will have fun

I guess the patch requires playing anew, which is bad, because the beginning is linear and meh, but I do think it's a good idea to play it with a patch, so I will install it (and try my old save first)

Some more screens from me:

Spoiler

 

[MadMaxHellfire]

Just got it in a bundle

which bundle?

 

[Konjad]

Just got it in a bundle

which bundle?

https://www.bundlestars.com/en/bundle/chaos-bundle

 

[Baron Dupek]

I noticed something - Precursors icon in Steam library have same icon as Boiling Point exe launcher :D

 

[MadMaxHellfire]

probably because they didn't really remove sf3, they used the famous boiling point demo exe to bypass it.
unbelievable.

 

[Konjad]

It's a very good mix of RPG and FPS, with lots of exploration.

It has one of the most open worlds ever, or actually, multiple worlds, because you can travel between them in space, something I've never seen before (kind of like X series mixed with a role-playing game). I must say, that the game is a bit flawed - requires installation of unofficial Wesp's patch (otherwise enjoy watching movies in bolshevik), the space part is average at best and a bit dull (fortunately, it can be rushed through), and the writing is just okay (with mispellings too), but despite these flaws the game is a blast to play for those who love open-world role-playing games - it has many different areas. You can explore six planets in total, fortunately there are enough land vehicles (or mountable animals) so you don't have to walk vast territories. You can sink in the multiplicity of sub-quests, the game always gives you many things to do at the same time, and the gameplay itself is quite fun too - the combat system is basically a first-person shooter that is a mix of arcade and realism - the action is very fast, but both you and your enemies die very quickly. The faction system and choices whom to help will also add to the role-playing element. I'd recommend it for all those who enjoy open-world games, both role-playing ones, and shooters. Just apply the unofficial patch.

Some more screenshots:

 

[TripJack]

dat russian architecture

 

[Jinn]

It's a very good mix of RPG and FPS, with lots of exploration.

It has one of the most open worlds ever, or actually, multiple worlds, because you can travel between them in space, something I've never seen before (kind of like X series mixed with a role-playing game). I must say, that the game is a bit flawed - requires installation of unofficial Wesp's patch (otherwise enjoy watching movies in bolshevik), the space part is average at best and a bit dull (fortunately, it can be rushed through), and the writing is just okay (with mispellings too), but despite these flaws the game is a blast to play for those who love open-world role-playing games - it has many different areas. You can explore six planets in total, fortunately there are enough land vehicles (or mountable animals) so you don't have to walk vast territories. You can sink in the multiplicity of sub-quests, the game always gives you many things to do at the same time, and the gameplay itself is quite fun too - the combat system is basically a first-person shooter that is a mix of arcade and realism - the action is very fast, but both you and your enemies die very quickly. The faction system and choices whom to help will also add to the role-playing element. I'd recommend it for all those who enjoy open-world games, both role-playing ones, and shooters. Just apply the unofficial patch.

Thanks for the impressions, Konjad. I always appreciate when you take a closer look at some more obscure titles that others won't necessarily give the time of day. I started playing this myself and enjoyed it a fair amount from the little I explored. Unfortunately I got distracted by some other games that came out recently (very good: Battle Brothers - not-so-good: Torment: Tides of Numera), but was just starting to feel the hook sink in before I took a break from it. With this perspective of the full game, I'm definitely going to hop back in soon.

 

[Outlander]

Konjad, quickie incoming?

 

[JRIz]

Interesting game, should try. I just wondered if you guys know about the Wikipedia discussion from 2010 where Wesp5 was fighting those Wikipedia cunts about simply including the information that his patch exists in the article. You can read it here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Precursors_(video_game). It is both hilarious and infuriating.

 

[Plane Escapee]

Interesting game, should try. I just wondered if you guys know about the Wikipedia discussion from 2010 where Wesp5 was fighting those Wikipedia cunts about simply including the information that his patch exists in the article. You can read it here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Precursors_(video_game). It is both hilarious and infuriating.

No wonder. The wall that he is arguing with is Danish. The Danes are by far the dumbest and most insufferable people in northern Europe. I'm glad he eventually made it past the wall, kudos for enduring that shithole.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Is this worth playing?

 

[JarlFrank]

Yes

 

[Deleted Member 16721]

Yeah, it's pretty darn good. I almost helped wesp rewrite the entire script to give it a more natural translation. But the current translation is fine, and the game is fun to play and quite complex for a shooter. Think STALKER but in a Star Wars/sci-fi setting instead. It's worth a look.

 

[ShaggyMoose]

I am surprised this is on Steam but not GoG.

Also, the total lack of shadows in every screenshot is freaking me out. Everything looks like a NorK photoshop job.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Is this worth playing?

Installing it now.
Apparently Wesp5 made an unofficial patch for it.

 

[jebsmoker]

Is this worth playing?

Installing it now.
Apparently Wesp5 made an unofficial patch for it.

i won't spoil anything about the game, but its ending falls flat like a wet fart. beyond that, if highly ambitious fps-rpg games are your thing, then it's worth trying