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Arthurian Legends - Witchaven-like medieval first-person slasher

Tacgnol

Shitlord
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Codex 2016 - The Age of Grimoire Grab the Codex by the pussy RPG Wokedex Strap Yourselves In Codex Year of the Donut Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag. Pathfinder: Wrath I helped put crap in Monomyth
So the sprites for the assorted humanoid enemies appear to be based on the photos of costumed actors. Very much in line with how Capstone did it. I imagine some hilarity in the dev asking his friends or relatives to don these garbs.

I'm not sure about this given the resolution but I'm getting the impression that some of the creatures, say the two-headed hounds, are either stop-motion models or the dev tried to have them look is if they were.
In any case, this adds another layer of authenticity that many of these neo-retro games lack.

Reminds me a bit of Stonekeep, as all the enemies in that were digitalised photos or stop motion models as well.

Also BaK with the NPCs.

Quite a charming style.
 

lightbane

Arcane
Joined
Dec 27, 2008
Messages
10,156
Watched a few videos, it seems fun.

Although IMO the enemies are too tough, it shouldn't take 3+ hits to decapitate someone. Perhaps it is related to the difficulty level? Or the game doesn't use locational damage?
 

toughasnails

Guest
Locational damage was definitely in the demo so it's probably just an attempt at balancing.
Shitty old game, but good. You could do that with a lot of Capstone's games and come out with something worth playing.
Somebody tried to do that with Operation Body Count already.

I know the original only by reputation, never having played it myself, so I can't say how much of it was left in that mod...
 

Morpheus Kitami

Liturgist
Joined
May 14, 2020
Messages
2,476
Somebody tried to do that with Operation Body Count already.

I know the original only by reputation, never having played it myself, so I can't say how much of it was left in that mod...

I don't think there was much beyond the big bad and the general weaponry. That mod doesn't really imitate OBC's level design, instead opting for something that's closer to a mix of inspiration from every other modern early '90s shooter game in general. Including the first Pie in the Sky engine game, Lethal Tender. Its been a while, but I also don't think that mod really copied OBC's other defining attribute, which was that weird squad stuff. That's not to say the Doom mod is bad, its actually fun, bit hard. He also did one for The Fortress of Dr. Radikai (misspelled, don't care) which I can't compare the two, because I only spent 5 minutes on the original game, and it was awful.
 

The Decline

Arcane
Joined
Aug 24, 2009
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7,248
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Everywhere
I had an issue with the resolution, but I found a workaround for my case. 1280x800 integer scaled to 2560x1600 gives me full screen without the zoom in. Really fun game.
 

Riskbreaker

Guest
I want to think that the lady who posed for the first chapter's boss is either the dev's wife or his gf, just for the sheer hilarity of him having her be this acid-spurting witch in his game.
 
Joined
Oct 1, 2018
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2,323
Location
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God damn, tried the demo of this and loved it. Gameplay's janky but the graphical style's spot on (The few 3D parts are glaringly sharp, they probably should be chunky voxels if not hideous 3D, but close enough) and the sound's nice, and playing on hard difficulty the bad AI works fine since combat's deadly. And I even bitched about the Supplice demo not playing up the shareware nostalgia and what do I see in the demo of this? Some good shareware nostalgia. Absolutely going on my wishlist to buy at some point.

DAFCC89A24CE3FBEA884FA2B0F4FB3BEE5C2DD8C


:greatjob:

Edit: Looking back at page 1 I see Bad Sector already brought that up, too!
 

Riskbreaker

Guest
I've been playing for some ten hours, I'm at the mid-point of the final episode. Bear in mind I'm not even combing the maps for all secrets nor am I even playing on the highest difficulty. There also appears to be something like NG+, the shop wherein you can spend the gold you've been finding appears only in the second playthrough. Plus there are other modes outside of campaign, Horde and Arena, tho they don't interest me overmuch.
In any case, there's a fair bit of game here for the price.
 

Naveen

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Joined
Aug 23, 2015
Messages
1,115
Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
I believe the game shines on higher difficulties. I'm playing on Legends Never Die and you really have to use all your tools and techniques, stuff that you might have noticed before but now becomes more important (or just cooler,) like blocking people's attacks with your own attacks, including ranged ones, and really using those bear traps and caltrops, and so on. Combat can get quite tense. Also, monsters that only appeared later now appear much earlier so you have to adapt.
 

Tacgnol

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Codex 2016 - The Age of Grimoire Grab the Codex by the pussy RPG Wokedex Strap Yourselves In Codex Year of the Donut Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag. Pathfinder: Wrath I helped put crap in Monomyth
Could still do with a few patches. I've had a few crashes saving and the performance is pretty bad.

Otherwise seems a pretty neat game.
 

toughasnails

Guest
I picked up the game in the end and I'm enjoying it so far. But, while the demo's issue with HUD and menu elements being displaced on some resolutions is fixed, the fov still seems much smaller than indicated. I guess I could try out different resolutions one by one to find one where the selected fov value corresponds to what's on screen. That's how I had to deal with the other issues in the demo... And I still have inexplicable framedrops.
All of this could probably be blamed on the esoteric old garageware engine this is running on. P much anything would've been the better choice so it remains a mystery why the dev went with this.

(The few 3D parts are glaringly sharp, they probably should be chunky voxels if not hideous 3D, but close enough) !
The engine probably doesn't support voxels. I have noticed that he tried to simulate voxels in some places, when you use keys in the locks you see them placed there like in Shadow Warrior but here you get two sprites rather than voxel model.
 

Riskbreaker

Guest
Having finished this I daresay that, alongside Mundaun and Metroid Dread, this my GOTY. 'Twas a pretty pathetic year in terms of anything I'd be interested in playing of course, but I'd also say that this is among the most enjoyable of these neo-retro first person games I've played so far and I've played most of them since this 90s FPS revival began.
 

Naveen

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Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
It's pretty good, and the dev seems to be fixing most issues (although I suspect the ones involving performance will take much longer.) Also, he has mentioned in the Steam forums he plans to release a fourth chapter as an expansion pack (and that's how he called it, "expansion pack," not DLC.)
 

Dexter

Arcane
Joined
Mar 31, 2011
Messages
15,655
It also had an issue with the game being zoomed in and all the hud and menu elements being slightly misplaced on certain resolutions... At least it was like that for me in the demo. The launcher lists p much any resolution regardless of aspect ratio by the looks of it but it doesn't look like the dev actually tested some of them.
I had an issue with the resolution, but I found a workaround for my case. 1280x800 integer scaled to 2560x1600 gives me full screen without the zoom in. Really fun game.
A lot of these "DOS-like" games (whether old or new) like Grimoire have DPI scaling issues if your Desktop Scaling is anything other than 100% that you can easily fix with a Compatibility setting:

1. Right-click on the game --> Manage --> Browse Local Files
2. Right-click on the "Arthurian Legends.exe" --> Properties
3. Click the Compatibility Tab --> Click "Change high DPI Settings" at the bottom --> Check "Override high DPI scaling behavior. Scaling Performed by: Application" at the bottom
4. OK/Apply/OK and it should fix the issue when you start up the game in 4K
 

Harthwain

Magister
Joined
Dec 13, 2019
Messages
4,688
I am not into slashers usually, but sometimes I feel craving for blood and I really like the presentation. The 2D-faking-3D style reminds me a lot of Lords of the Realm II. Also, a grim medievalistic setting is always a plus, so I will check out the demo before buying this.
 

Curratum

Guest
For some reason the demo of this thing keeps dropping below 30 fps for me, sometimes going under 20 as well. :(
 

toughasnails

Guest
For some reason the demo of this thing keeps dropping below 30 fps for me, sometimes going under 20 as well. :(
It happens in the full game too... He released a number of patches since I've bought the game but nothing has changed in that area.
 

Curratum

Guest
Welp... How is a game that runs like an absolute hot turd getting good reviews and why is even the codex excited about it?

I mean, even DOS games, running on actual DOS, have higher framerates, what the hell people...
 

Tacgnol

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Codex 2016 - The Age of Grimoire Grab the Codex by the pussy RPG Wokedex Strap Yourselves In Codex Year of the Donut Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag. Pathfinder: Wrath I helped put crap in Monomyth
Welp... How is a game that runs like an absolute hot turd getting good reviews and why is even the codex excited about it?

I mean, even DOS games, running on actual DOS, have higher framerates, what the hell people...

Because the game itself is fun, even if the engine is shit.

This is a salvageable situation, the reverse is not as the game will always be shit regardless of how well it runs.
 

Curratum

Guest
Welp... How is a game that runs like an absolute hot turd getting good reviews and why is even the codex excited about it?

I mean, even DOS games, running on actual DOS, have higher framerates, what the hell people...

Because the game itself is fun, even if the engine is shit.

This is a salvageable situation, the reverse is not as the game will always be shit regardless of how well it runs.

Mm, I don't think something that runs at 18 fps is salvageable.
 

Tacgnol

Shitlord
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Messages
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Codex 2016 - The Age of Grimoire Grab the Codex by the pussy RPG Wokedex Strap Yourselves In Codex Year of the Donut Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag. Pathfinder: Wrath I helped put crap in Monomyth
Welp... How is a game that runs like an absolute hot turd getting good reviews and why is even the codex excited about it?

I mean, even DOS games, running on actual DOS, have higher framerates, what the hell people...

Because the game itself is fun, even if the engine is shit.

This is a salvageable situation, the reverse is not as the game will always be shit regardless of how well it runs.

Mm, I don't think something that runs at 18 fps is salvageable.

I get between 80-100 most of the time, which isn't great considering I play on a 3080 but it's fine.

The devs are working with the engine creator to improve the performance, so I'll give them a chance to fix it.
 

Curratum

Guest
Welp... How is a game that runs like an absolute hot turd getting good reviews and why is even the codex excited about it?

I mean, even DOS games, running on actual DOS, have higher framerates, what the hell people...

Because the game itself is fun, even if the engine is shit.

This is a salvageable situation, the reverse is not as the game will always be shit regardless of how well it runs.

Mm, I don't think something that runs at 18 fps is salvageable.

I get between 80-100 most of the time, which isn't great considering I play on a 3080 but it's fine.

The devs are working with the engine creator to improve the performance, so I'll give them a chance to fix it.

If I could at least get a stable 40-something I'd be happy. The entirety of the demo I played ran around 30 fps with frequent dips below 30 and a number of places that dipped me below 20.
 

Harthwain

Magister
Joined
Dec 13, 2019
Messages
4,688
If I could at least get a stable 40-something I'd be happy. The entirety of the demo I played ran around 30 fps with frequent dips below 30 and a number of places that dipped me below 20.
What's your FOV? At what level you set your Visibility? Are you using V-sync? Do you have 3.5 GHZ and 8 GB RAM (recommended)?

I am running the game fine at 60 FPS with V-sync enabled, default FOV (90), default Visibility (0) and FPS limited to 60. I am using 3.3 GHZ and 16 GB RAM.

I will try to experiment more with the demo later today.
 

Curratum

Guest
Tried both software and hardware-acceld rendering, vsync both on and off, 90 fov, middle of the visibility slider at 0.

None of the settings make ANY difference on performance - it's equally shit at +100 visibility and at -100.

I am on an i5 3.2 ghz, supposedly boosting to 3.6 ghz, 16 gigs of ram, RX 570 4gb.
 

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