Game News Consortium: The Tower, a Deus Ex-like first person immersive sim, now on Kickstarter

[Infinitron]

Tags: Consortium: The Tower; Interdimensional Games

The original Consortium by Interdimensional Games was a first person RPGish sort of game - a science fiction adventure set on board a futuristic aircraft, meant to be the first in a trilogy. Originally Kickstarted in 2013, it came out too early, received poor reviews and was largely ignored by the public. The developers spent some time fixing it and received some positive reappraisals, but were never able to earn enough money to make the sequel, which is why they launched an additional Kickstarter campaign earlier this month. The sequel's name is Consortium: The Tower, and as you can imagine, it's set in a futuristic tower. The developers describe it as "Deus Ex Meets Die Hard". Here's the pitch video and a gameplay description:

The experience of The Tower is one of absolute freedom of movement, speech and action, within a single-location, sandbox environment. There will be no cut scenes, and full control will never be taken away for “gamey” reasons. Immersion is absolutely paramount, and to that end the world within the Tower will feel realistically alive and reactive to however you choose to approach each and every situation.

A branching, “waterfall” narrative and dialogue system should appeal to those looking for a truly replayable experience, and will ensure that your decisions are plentiful without feeling cheap or obvious.

Diplomacy is a key way of traversing the narrative. Choose to speak anytime and anywhere with the push of a button. While rather difficult, you will be able to play through the entire experience without raising your weapon. Trick, bribe, scare, hire, or simply convince potential combatants to disarm, all while developing relationships with your crew, other Consortium officers, the London Police, and any other characters you meet throughout the experience.

The Bishop’s arsenal of customizable, futuristic gadgetry gives him immense freedom of movement. Run faster, jump higher, glide through the air, breathe underwater, and fall from great heights, all while exploring every nook and cranny of the Tower.

The Bishop can also utilize highly experimental, potentially dangerous stealth technology, such as invisibility and sound dampening.

Find yourself in the middle of intense firefights, and choose to either kill or incapacitate all those in your way. The Consortium officers working with you will praise you for using non-lethal means, but will react with increasing alarm should you too often resort to murderous violence. There may also be other factions interested in aiding you through the Tower, should the Consortium turn its back on you.

As with CONSORTIUM before it, many events within The Tower will play out regardless of your interaction with them, creating an environment cultivated for immersion and replayability. Your chosen actions (and inactions) within this environment will cause ripples, dramatically impacting the unfolding narrative in major ways.​

Check out the Kickstarter page for more information and more cool videos and animated GIFs. The minimum pledge to get the game is 15 Canadian dollars and the funding goal is a steep 450,000 CAD. I'm not sure they can make it, but let no one say I didn't do what I could.

 

[VladimirK]

"Deus Ex Meets Die Hard"

There will be no cut scenes, and full control will never be taken away for “gamey” reasons.

Well. They certainly say the right things...

 

[Siveon]

The Canadian dollar has been going down the tube lately, so in actuality it's only about $320,279.

Still a lot, but the difference is noteworthy.

 

[Aenra]

I cannot help, just bought a new pair of headphones at a price range well beyond the rational
(boys and their toys, yes yes, i get it, ok?)

I do wish them all the best though, whatever its many many many flaws and lacks, the first consortium had a solid enough setting and that "feel" of a game being made by people giving a damn. Definitely wish them luck.

 

[ArchAngel]

I like this part a lot from recent interview with devs:

• I’ve watched the “Impact on the World” video and while it was fun, I do have a concern: will the press always get wind of whatever actions you take as Bishop Six? It doesn’t seem like the CONSORTIUM would exactly allow the outside world to know everything going on in a critical mission like this one.
• That’s the interesting thing about their world, and about how the Consortium operate within it. They are technologically interconnected in ways we can’t even imagine, and Consortium officers are considered major pop culture celebrities. There are countless Consortium-based video games (“be a Bishop in V.R.!”), movies, and shows. A Bishop is the equivalent of a major movie star, with legions of fans all over the world. Pawn 12 on board Zenlil, for example, collects the digital equivalent of Consortium trading cards, and is utterly obsessed with all things Bishop. This all spawned from the Consortium King’s policy that their missions be entirely public record. Following every official mission, the King releases his field operative’s CMC log to the world. This means a full audio/visual feed directly from the Bishop’s eyes. Whenever a new CMC log is released, it is watched by billions of people within days. The public can’t get enough. Some would even say that this was a deliberate effort by the King to sway governmental favour through public support… and to ultimately ensure that the Consortium become the only remaining militaristic force on Earth. Now, during a live mission the public only see what the press can see. This consists mostly of periodic updates from the Consortium Queen (if the mission is high-profile enough to warrant it), and whatever they can figure out for themselves. For example, the press have cameras watching the rooftop and will at first see your every move (unless you utilize stealth). But this will change as you dig deeper into the Tower, mostly out of reach from the press. That said, you will still be given the chance to be interviewed over your conversation manager on “live T.V.” Say whatever you want, then sit back and watch the world’s reaction.

The video they are talking about is this one:

 

[Blaine]

This actually looks very interesting, although the franchise now suffers from Mishmash Title Syndrome. "Strunk: The Clonkening IV—Rise of the Drokmurkians"... actually, whatever that is, I want to play it now.

If they get their funding and implement the planned features properly, mite b. cool.

 

[Xzylvador]

Obviously a scam, sneakily using the T:ToN trailer to it to draw in unsuspecting backers.

Nvm, video in news post has been fixed.

 

[Kem0sabe]

Was the first game any good?

 

[Carrion]

Yeah, how's the first game?

Absolutely love their philosophy based on what they're saying. Not quite convinced they can pull it off, though.

 

[Xzylvador]

Just bought the first game because of this post/trailer. I figure that worst case scenario, I wasted 2.99 eurogold (Steam has it at -80% discount until feb 1) on a crappy game to save myself from instead wasting 25 eskimo coins on another one.

 

[Zombra]

That freefall trailer is so damn good.

 

[Feyd Rautha]

Already pledged! I really really hope they make it!

 

[ArchAngel]

Yeah, how's the first game?

Absolutely love their philosophy based on what they're saying. Not quite convinced they can pull it off, though.

Just bought the first game because of this post/trailer. I figure that worst case scenario, I wasted 2.99 eurogold (Steam has it at -80% discount until feb 1) on a crappy game to save myself from instead wasting 25 eskimo coins on another one.

Take into consideration that this game is remade in Unreal 4 engine and they took all feedback from first game and will be improving this game. Like making shooting parts better.

 

[NullFlow]

I found this project two days ago and it captured my attention. I really do like the idea of your approach to the game affecting how you are perceived, like if you sneak by everyone there will be barely any media coverage, but playing violently raises outrage and betrayal. I'll be keeping an eye out on this one, though I doubt I'll be backing it. There's a lot of ambition in this project but I get the feeling some of the elements will be dumbed down or not implemented well, but that's just my skepticism and being burned out from crowdfunding.

 

[Invictus]

Just bought the first game because of this post/trailer. I figure that worst case scenario, I wasted 2.99 eurogold (Steam has it at -80% discount until feb 1) on a crappy game to save myself from instead wasting 25 eskimo coins on another one.

I also did this to try out the first game, $3 to give a shot sounds like great value to try out the first game and see if it merits backing this...although they had me at Die Hard :p

 

[Xzylvador]

Well, so far I'm just past what I'd think is the introduction part of the game, and the story/immurshunfag part of me has got a serious boner.
They pretty much hit the right spot on a lot of things, except for what promises to be weak combat if the tutorial combat is anything to judge by... but at this point I don't care much unless there's too much of it and I'm anxious to see how they handle the rest of the game.

 

[Kem0sabe]

Well, so far I'm just past what I'd think is the introduction part of the game, and the story/immurshunfag part of me has got a serious boner.
They pretty much hit the right spot on a lot of things, except for what promises to be weak combat if the tutorial combat is anything to judge by... but at this point I don't care much unless there's too much of it and I'm anxious to see how they handle the rest of the game.

Tell us more.

 

[Xzylvador]

Dude, it's less than 3 bucks to find out yourself. Even if you only get an hour of mediocrity out of it, it's still better than most other forms of media.

But well, even just the way it drops you into the game is fresh and interesting right from the get-go, telling you that thanks to new technology you (as in you, the gamer) are streaming your conciousness into the body of some guy in 2042, splitting of a new parallel universe, that everything you see is a 3d interpretation of that actual world (explaining the non-realistic graphics due to bandwith issues) and what you do is real in said universe...
It sounds incredibly bad and cheesy the way I put it, but it's integrated and 'explained' inside the game a lot better. It's a risky move because, well, yeah, the way I just told it and most would do it just wouldn't work, but here it just works which is really quite an achievement. While playing you can ignore this concept and just play your character like you're him or actually continue being a gamer oblivous to what the hell you're being told (lots of acronyms thrown at you from the start) and trying to make sense of it (most people don't find their hero/soldier/superior acting like a retard very amusing).
Exposition's also done really well so far. Lots of stuff to read on your computer, but only if you care about that kind of stuff. If you don't, the situation directly affecting your character and the story gets told just by playing without over the top info-dumps. (Did have to reload after being stuck due to a clipping glitch and kind of missed being able to skip a 5 minute dialogue which I'd just listened to a moment before.)

It does seem to be a short game if doing a single playthrough (one location: an airplane and not even such a big one and walking speed is quick; according to steam reviews about 15hrs for a playthrough) but it promises replayability because of C&C. Will have to wait to see how much difference it really makes or if it's just empty words, but the fact that it seems to track reputation with every character you meet shows at least some potential.
And, well, it looks, runs and plays like low-budget FPS (it IS a low-budget FPS); which obviously doesn't bode well for combat. Did one real fight now, was hectic as fuck and not enjoyable but also completely skippable because of different solutions. Luckily it's very (too?) fast paced and because of the small areas (inside a plane!) I doubt it'd ever drag on for so long as to be insufferable.
Also, being low-budget has predictable consequences for things such as graphics, animation and voice acting.

But as I posted elsewhere, I shift pretty easily between different kinds of gamefaggotry depending on what I'm playing and can ignore flaws in some fields as long as other parts of me are being tickled the right way (possibly with added leniency for indiegames done well) and so far that's what the game's managing to accomplish splendidly. Might change my opinion if there's too much (forced) combat or the C&C proves to be fake.

 

[Stormcrowfleet]

This looks cool.

 

[Murk]

This actually looks very interesting, although the franchise now suffers from Mishmash Title Syndrome. "Strunk: The Clonkening IV—Rise of the Drokmurkians"... actually, whatever that is, I want to play it now.
.

u avin' a go at me m8?

 

[Joni Odin von Hassenstein]

Was the first game any good?

Yeah, how's the first game?

It's extremely short, and combat is meh.
But all in all I liked it since it has good c&c and many dialogue options. Pklus the setting has potential.
I think it definitely is good enough to back the second part, so I did.
Also, what Xzylvador said.

 

[Trash]

Played the first Consortium and can say that it's an interesting game. Not often that you see a dev try something new and they certainly did in the first game. It's a bit of a toybox meets cyoa meets fps with a heap of reactivity included. It's an odd mix but I found it to be alluring. Pledged instantly when I saw the new Kickstarter.

 

[MediantSamuel]

Looks good. Will pick up the original tonight and if it's something I enjoy I'm sure I can splurge 150 CAD for some masturbatory backer rewards.

 

[Jedi Exile]

Dude, it's less than 3 bucks to find out yourself.

I've also purchased the game but I am too lazy to play. Thanks for sharing your impressions.

 

[DwarvenFood]

Buying it as well. Will back Kickstarter, although my hopes are low. (for it succeeding)