Game News Conglomerate 451 Released

[Infinitron]

Tags: Conglomerate 451; RuneHeads

You might remember Conglomerate 451, the fancy-looking procedurally generated cyberpunk dungeon crawler by Italian indie team RuneHeads that was released on Steam Early Access back in May. In the nine months that have passed the game has gotten plenty of updates and today it's ready for release. Here's its launch trailer and description:

Conglomerate 451 is a grid-based, dungeon crawling first-person RPG with roguelike elements set in a cyberpunk world.

You are the CEO of a Special Agency, instructed by the Senate of Conglomerate city to restore the order in sector 451, where corrupted corporations have established their turfs. Thanks to the last constitutional decree, you are allowed to create human clones. Build your own team, manipulate DNA, train your agents, equip them with high-end weapons, choose what cyberlimbs to implant, and send the squad to the field with only one goal: eradicate crime and restore order at any cost.

• Manage your resources - Make use of your own personal R&D department to research advanced technology, unlocking new features, powers and options for progression
  
• More than just body mods - In addition to upgrading weapon and armor proficiencies, augment your body with interchangeable cyber implants that completely change your agent’s skills and utility
  
• Pain and Trauma system - Even the smallest wounds can have a lasting impact. By taking damage in combat, agents risk generating permanent Traumas that will follow them between missions
  
• Story or Endless Mode - It's your choice. The Story Mode brings you in a world filled by events and a war with corrupted Corporations and their propaganda. In the Endless Mode, the game will create endless content for you
  
• Perks and Mutations - Your agents can acquire special skills (Perks) and obtain Mutations
  
• Drugs and Disorders - buy synthetic drugs to temporarily empower your agents, with the risk that they develop Mental Disorders
  
• Procedural cyber dungeons - Experience the dungeon crawling you love, mixed with future technology as you take on procedurally-generated dungeons and missions
  
• If you die in the game... - Each mission could be your last thanks to agent permadeath. Consider every move, because if an agent dies in battle, they will be lost forever
  
• Hack the world - Enter cyberspace mid-mission and hack your way ahead of the competition to get crucial intel and give yourself the advantage
  
• Collectables and Achievements - find collectibles around the dungeons and bring them to the Collector to discover the truth

The Codex community tends to avoid Early Access these days and has never been a big fan of procedural generation, so we have little idea of whether Conglomerate 451 is any good. If you want to give it a try, the game is available on Steam now for $20, with a 15% launch discount until next week. Apparently it'll also be available on GOG after the weekend.

 

[Strange Fellow]

Yet another interesting game sabotaged by those two words: "procedurally generated".

 

[luj1]

Oh it's that game with a cool name and shitty everything else.

 

[Zed]

not wholly uninteresting imo.
maybe in a future sale..

 

[Taxnomore]

I am not entirely sure the genre is entirely compatible with the Cyberpunk atmosphere.
When I think Cyberpunk, I think shadows, I think plotting, I think atmosphere, mid range intermittent combat yep, but certainly not "Let's go some place and kill shit in corridors".

 

[MadMaxHellfire]

actually i think there's very little more cyberpunk than being killed in a damp, dimly lit corridor.

 

[SerratedBiz]

In that regard, it's not that different from Syndicate. It's just a setting for its blobber gameplay and, for what it's worth, I think it's good that developers are taking risks and extending beyond 'generic fantasy land' for their blobbers.

 

[FeelTheRads]

Yet another interesting game sabotaged by those two words: "procedurally generated".

Interesting how "we don't want to actually design content" has become a selling point.

But I guess when everything is a "rogue-lite" and the dumb sheeple lap it up that's how things go.

 

[luj1]

Interesting how "we don't want to actually design content" has become a selling point.

See Kingmaker and Kingdom management. "We can't be arsed coming up with traditional quest structure, here's an automated system with broken time attacks."

Which is then lauded as a stretch goal among easily appeased hipsters of the Fluent variety.

 

[lukaszek]

deterministic system > RNG

 

[Grampy_Bone]

I feel like we are on the tail end of the procedural gen craze.

Has anyone actually played this?

 

[Trash Player]

I think nerd commando, aka Pope Amole, played and trashed it in its earlier form on his channel. Steamspy shows less than <20k owners, likely not even half, dev made another shovelware earlier.

 

[Urthor]

I congratulate these people for at least actually releasing a video game in the first quarter of 2020, instead of dropping early access releases and delaying titles to September

 

[Pope Amole II]

I think nerd commando, aka Pope Amole, played and trashed it in its earlier form on his channel. Steamspy shows less than <20k owners, likely not even half, dev made another shovelware earlier.

Yup.

I'm not sure when I'll have time to go back to this thing but, given how barebones and unfinished things were back then (half a year), there's no way in hell this is a proper release. More likely they've released it into early access > earned no money > decided to not really develop it > hasty release.