Incline Albion thread

[rusty_shackleford]

Thread to discuss Albion. Because it's one of my favorite underrated cRPGs on the codex


Static recompilation for modern platforms(requires base game): https://github.com/M-HT/SR/releases/tag/albion_v1.7.1

There's a static recompilation version of Albion to play it natively, including rendering the 3D scenes at native resolution rather than at a lower resolution and upscaling it

https://github.com/M-HT/SR

Same-ish place at native resolution in dosbox:

Scaled, no filtering:

compare how crisp the far away areas are

It runs at a higher native FPS in the 3D zones which got rid of the motion sickness feeling it gave me.

WIP fan remake: https://github.com/csinkers/ualbion

scanned and touched up version of the english manual:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/eo4uq14eo1ix577/AlbionManual.pdf
reply in the thread if the manual link dies, I'll upload it elsewhere.

 

[Butter]

I've got this on GOG and played a little. Planned to finish it next year. There doesn't appear to be a manual though.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

I've got this on GOG and played a little. Planned to finish it next year. There doesn't appear to be a manual though.

scanned and touched up version of the english manual:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/eo4uq14eo1ix577/AlbionManual.pdf?dl=0

 

[Ladonna]

I have never played this before, but after a quick scan through the manual (thanks!) it looks similar mechanically to the Amberstar/moon games.

Why is this one of your favourite CRPG's?

 

[agris]

rusty_shackleford you are dangerously close to expressing a specific opinion for which you could be criticized for. Are you ok??

Can you elaborate on what you like so much about these games?

 

[rusty_shackleford]

I have never played this before, but after a quick scan through the manual (thanks!) it looks similar mechanically to the Amberstar/moon games.

It's a spiritual successor to them

Why is this one of your favourite CRPG's?

Interesting setting & good story. Good amount of environmental interactivity. Feels like a proto-Fallout in a lot of ways.

 

[Strig]

Albion is a fantastic game. Very flawed but it has so much personality and charm you just grind your teeth and soldier through all the annoying bits. After all these years I still remember the feeling of entering the earliest first-person town. The quality of the art, the imaginative things they did with the architecture around all the technical limitations, the colors — everything was so memorable. The planet itself looked alien and everything evoked a similar feeling those vintage sci-fi illustrations give you. On top of that it was a nice blend of sci-fi and Burroughsian science fantasy, which is always up my alley. A truly unique experience and, quite frankly, one of my favourites experiences in gaming.

 

[Cyberarmy]

One of my favorites back then. Loved its alien mood and unique experience.

 

[mediocrepoet]

I've had this in my GoG backlog forever. I guess I'll have to actually try it sometime soon, maybe over this holiday.

 

[Darth Roxor]

I've had this in my GoG backlog forever. I guess I'll have to actually try it sometime soon, maybe over this holiday.

Just as a heads-up, Albion is pretty massive. It took me all August to get through it.

To repoast my impressions from the wasting time thrad:

Very weirdo game in ways more than one.

The most fascinating part of it is probably how it stands with its legs apart in old and nuskool rpg design philosophies. On the one hand, it has dungeon crawling blobbery with all that entails, and on the other it has a lot of storyfaggotry. But both the aspects hardly feel finished, in fact I suspect the way Albion finally ended up is a far cry from its original vision. Stats that do nothing, mechanics listed in the manual that don't at all work like that in the game, big empty spaces of land, annoying cargo cult features, etc.

Still, I thought it was a cool game overall, if uneven or even downright confused. The beginning is very strong, and the first continent is alien enough to rival Morrowind in that aspect. And then you end up among space celts, wait what. Then there's a cool big continent with a complex and time-specific intrigue, which may have been the game's peak point. Then you meet the illuminati... and finally turn a space ship into a gigantic tree.

I liked the dungeons quite a bit though. A few of them may have been just a tad too long for their own good (druid HQ, kenget kamulos HQ), but they were true gauntlets that felt exciting to break through, and finishing them always felt like a relief after so much effort. Except the FUCKING equipment makers' lab, whoever designed that piece of shit should be sodomised with a rebar.

The backstory for the human presence on the alien world was also pretty weirdo, but in a good way. The people who made this game definitely had a lot of creativity, lots of things about it are very original.

Though as an addendum, I'd also mention that I wish the combat was better for how much of it there is in the game.

 

[Roguey]

Reposting the criticisms I mentioned in the shoutbox years back

Nov 20, 2019 at 3:10 AM - @Roguey: I did it, I completed the Albion demo. God what a terrible game
Nov 20, 2019 at 3:13 AM - @Roguey: The writing and the blobber dungeons/villages are the nadir. The combat's pretty bad too
Nov 20, 2019 at 3:14 AM - @Roguey: I couldn't afford a compass because the game expects you to grind for money
Nov 20, 2019 at 3:15 AM - @Roguey: "Solve this murder" *turns out the guy hired a guy to kill himself when he could have just wandered off into the wilderness and died to a random encounter*

Nov 23, 2019 at 8:31 PM - @Roguey: Anyway it's garbage because a) terrible, longwinded writing b) fpp is difficult to navigate even with a compass c) shops open and close at certain times and for some reason time blazes by in top-down mode d) not much "role playing" to it e) you're expected to grind if you want to buy anything f) a lot of superflurous area design/items to pick up

Nov 23, 2019 at 8:32 PM - @Roguey: Oh and g) furrybait

Nov 23, 2019 at 8:36 PM - @Roguey: Oh right another thing that annoyed me was going without sleep for too long made my characters exhausted and stuck and it was fortunate I had another NPC to redestribute the load, otherwise I'd have to lose items or be stuck forever because there was no way to rest at the spot I was at

 

[wishbonetail]

re: Roguey: "Solve this murder" *turns out the guy hired a guy to kill himself when he could have just wandered off into the wilderness and died to a random encounter*
No, he couldn't, because he wanted to set up the head of another guild for his daughter to leave it.

Anyways, I sorta finished this game a while ago. Like 80% of it, had to watch ending on youtube, here's why. I dumped like 10 hours in it, understood that i am requred to grind for spells on the first island and use exploit with health bottles to get cash, rage uninstalled. After a day installed again, endured all the slog, understood that i am requred to grind again and again till the glorious end. I'm very much familiar with 16bit era JRPGs and this game is just it. It is a western JRPG and while those are simple and enjoyable, this game manages to turn everything into a tediuos trudge. Mouseclicks are unresponsive, 3d dungeons are very hard to navigate and music is repetetive. That was a bad points.
Okay, sounds like I didn't like it but it's not it. I wouldn't waste my life on something i do not like, not willingly at least. Graphics are gorgeous in top down mode and holds quite well even in 3d sections. Gameplay offers no hand holding whatsoever and while the it is linear you still need to search for clues by walking and talkin, and this is a huge plus in my book. This kind of gameplay is practically abscent nowadays, which is really fuckin sad. 3d dungeons, while being a pain in the ass to navigate, offer a top notch blobber exploration with secrets, puzzles and resource management. Story is there and it's quite good for a middle 90's game.
Overall, i'm really torn on this game and still feelling like a pussy for not finishing it. So, someone who wants to start from a scratch just needs to be prepared for all the downsides and read tips and hints beforehand.

 

[Darth Roxor]

what's with you people and the supposed 'necessity' of grinding, i didnt need to do that at all wtf

i'm equally puzzled about the notion that the dungeons are hard to navigate

 

[wishbonetail]

The FoV in first person view looks like 50 degrees, everything seems too close to your face, and motion is too fluid, combined with unresponsive coontrols results in constant bumping into walls and objects (and traps, and holes). I should try this modern version, maybe it got fixed somehow.
And grind is less pain in the ass than playing without grind later on.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

I'm not one to argue with Jeff James, you should play this game.

 

[Sranchammer]

Dat ass

Dayum

 

[Darth Canoli]

Though as an addendum, I'd also mention that I wish the combat was better for how much of it there is in the game.

Fuck, I was almost about to launch it again, last time, i only played an hour before giving up...
The combat wasn't good and that's a choke point.

How is the itemization? Is it any good, at least?
A Remaster improving the combat UI, encounter design and even, why not combat mechanics would be so great.

Why spending millions on 3D shitty projects when you could build up on the gameplay of an old game to improve it?
Aand I mean really improve it, not dumb it down.

 

[Nikanuur]

Csinkers continues in his efforts. Last update on Jul 9.

https://github.com/csinkers/ualbion

 

[Nikanuur]

Though as an addendum, I'd also mention that I wish the combat was better for how much of it there is in the game.

Fuck, I was almost about to launch it again, last time, i only played an hour before giving up...
The combat wasn't good and that's a choke point.

How is the itemization? Is it any good, at least?
A Remaster improving the combat UI, encounter design and even, why not combat mechanics would be so great.

Why spending millions on 3D shitty projects when you could build up on the gameplay of an old game to improve it?
Aand I mean really improve it, not dumb it down.

Yes, when you find a new, stronger weapon or armor, you feel it and celebrate it. It's not like nowadays standard of looting 384 items by clearing one dungeon, out of which two give you an awesome +0,05 strognessesness
Also, some items have active options which you have to discover first.

Perhaps a little less related:

Some parts of this game fall short in comparison with newer games, that's for sure. But Albion's strength was never in the reputedly-groundbreaking-yet-questionably-quirky 3D movement, nor in the combat that takes getting used to, but in the sheer sense of adventure, magnificent story, seemless mix of sci-fi and fantasy, and an overflow of original, lush, exotic places and phenomena. And boy, did it overshadow most of the contemporary production in the size department! It received 10/10 as one of the first games to reach that score in our nation's one and only gaming magazine at the time. I have it on a figurative pedestal of the best games ever made, too.

 

[zapotec]

I get heavy nausea when doing the the first person parts, any tips? a part from stuff like be a man etc etc

 

[moleman]

I get heavy nausea when doing the the first person parts, any tips? a part from stuff like be a man etc etc

Be a man.

Try increasing / decreasing dosbox cylcles and see if it has an effect for you.