Current state of Russian RPGs (with screenshots)

[Stainless Veteran]

...a totally awesome and informative post...

Great post but two points:

1. You kinda short-changed Nival Interactive and 1C. While not explicitly RPG's, they do deserve an honorable mention for making the cult classic Silent Storm series and Space Rangers series respectively.

Mate, saying that 1C made Space Rangers it's like saying that Zenimax made F:NV, or Interplay made PS:T. It was made by Elemental Games, who at one turn split up and part of them became Katauri.
Silent Storm was made by Nival, sure. But I'm not listing it here, and stated my reasons at the end of my post. Silent Storm is a great game, but it's a TBS/RPG hybrid, and TBS is a main part of that game.
Also, at least 4 from 7 of people who worked on it don't work at Nival anymore. (If you are curious: http://translate.google.com/translate?j ... %3Fid%3D69)

 

[Stainless Veteran]

Any other RPG with this kind of atmosphere?

With atmosphere of "slavic fantasy"? Konung series, Goldenland series. First two Konungs are decent, if boring. I wouldn't recommended Goldenland though, it just wasn't very good.

 

[racofer]

 

[Stainless Veteran]

Companies which made mediocre games

Nival

You gotta be fucking shitting me

My post was about RPGs, or games in which RPG is a main element.
Here is a list of their projects from dtf.ru:

Компания участвует в проектах (25):
Brave Dwarves: Creeping Shadows как издатель. Проект выпущен.
Heroes of Might and Magic 5: Hammers of Fate как разработчик, издатель. Проект выпущен.
Heroes of Might and Magic V как разработчик. Проект выпущен.
Heroes of Might and Magic V: Повелители Орды как разработчик, издатель. Проект выпущен.
J2ME: Silent Storm Mobile как издатель. Проект выпущен.
Robogear:Battle Mobile как издатель. Проект выпущен.
Silent Storm как разработчик. Проект выпущен.
Silent Storm: Sentinels как разработчик. Проект выпущен.
Аллоды 2: Повелитель Душ (версия для PocketPC) как издатель. Проект выпущен.
Аллоды Mobile как издатель. Проект выпущен.
Блицкриг 2 / Blitzkrieg 2 как разработчик. Проект выпущен.
Блицкриг / Blitzkrieg как разработчик. Проект выпущен.
Блицкриг II Mobile как издатель. Проект выпущен.
Блицкриг II: Возмездие как издатель. Проект выпущен.
Великие Битвы: Высадка в Нормандии как продюсирование. Проект выпущен.
Великие Битвы: Курская Дуга как издатель. Проект выпущен.
Великие Битвы: Сталинград как издатель, продюсирование. Проект выпущен.
Демиурги / Etherlords как разработчик. Проект выпущен.
Демиурги II / Etherlords II как разработчик. Проект выпущен.
Демиурги II Mobile как издатель.
Дневной Дозор как издатель. Проект выпущен.
Мир Былин как издатель.
Ночной Дозор как разработчик. Проект выпущен.
Серп и Молот как разработчик. Проект выпущен.
Серп и Молот Mobile как издатель. Проект выпущен.

Please point me at the great RPGs in this list. And no, Hammer and Sickle doesn't count, it was made by group of enthusiasts and Nival just helped. Also it's a TBS/RPG.

 

[Hamster]

Elemental Games is working on 2 MMO sequels to Space Rangers and Katauri is working on MMO sequel to Kings Bounty.
Decline is fucking absolute.

 

[.Sigurd]

It's amazing how many games come out of Russia with all of them being broken or dysfunctional.

Any other RPG with this kind of atmosphere?

Trust me, you are being deceived by the still shot. The only atmosphere that game has is one of absolute boredom and the game looks much worse in action. Plus, you really don't want to make "atmosphere" a priority for yourself. All the Russian games I've played are riddled with inanely semi-functional interface. I much rather play broken RPGs from late 80s than play a Russian RPG again.

I'm not talking about the game itself, I'm only asking if there's another RPG that looks like this one.

Any other RPG with this kind of atmosphere?

With atmosphere of "slavic fantasy"? Konung series, Goldenland series. First two Konungs are decent, if boring. I wouldn't recommended Goldenland though, it just wasn't very good.

Thanks.

 

[Stainless Veteran]

Thanks for the summary SV!

This looks kinda nice. Is that "emphasis on economy" you mention just a gimmick or something, you know, really interesting?

IIRC, it had quite a few trade-sim elements, but developers failed to make that system interesting. I liked that game, but didn't finish it.

 

[DraQ]

I have a bit of a love-hate relationship with Primal's IoTD.

On one hand, it was a complete waste, with story that didn't even pretend to be trying, uninspired monsters, and agonizingly-slow gameplay.

On the other, there were nice-ish landscapes and it's about the only game where you could play as a dragon where you *felt* the power - by the end you could vaporize a major part of a human city with single casting, or turn a large part of some forest into a geyser of charred splinters. There were even a few short missions where you played as a human and this was a brilliant decisions as it really underlined the contrast between puny hyooman and dragon might. Also, dragons were nicely done and animated and they grew and looked more adult as the leveled up. You also had to devour stuff - dead or alive, depending on your preferences.

About every single good thing I have mentioned was fucking awesome.

Replace the story with something that at least tries, tweak the gameplay pace and diversity and replace the boring monsters with human fortifications that are fun to trash and you have an instant hit.

 

[Stainless Veteran]

Nival didn't make Day Watch. True, Night Watch was banal and boring, however I found Day Watch a better game in about all aspects. Hell, it even had a fun minigame. Just make sure you don't play english version as it was never patched and has a horrible, horrible translation. Pure gibberish.
Ascension to the Throne is decent, it just becomes way too easy towards the end, where you can breeze through battles without any casualties.

Ah, you're right, it was made by Targem Games, of Ex Machina fame. I'll fix it. Well, it'll teach me not to make late night post while being half-asleep.

 

[Serus]

From all games listed here Planet Alcatraz looks most interesting. Is it worth trying ?

 

[Stainless Veteran]

Я был уверен что "Трудно быть Богом" была основана на книге, а не на фильме. Даже не знал что фильм существует

Ну тут мне еще нельзя писать с недосыпа, т.к. факты перепутались, и подумав о "Обитаемом острове" само собой напиалось hit movie, а надо было unreleased movie. Если я правильно помню, то игра вышла как раз когда в очередной раз заговорили, что вот-вот выйдет вот это: История арканарской резни, тогда он еще звался одноименно с книгой.
Но фильм так и не вышел, а игра осталась.

 

[Darth Roxor]

Please point me at the great RPGs in this list.

Fucking Rage of Mages 2

And fucking Etherlords 2 if it counts (but I guess it doesn't)

 

[Stainless Veteran]

It's amazing how many games come out of Russia with all of them being broken or dysfunctional.

Your mother was broken and dysfunctional.

We have great TBS/RPG hybrids, for example Brigade E5: New Jagged Union (RtwP which works!), Hammer and Sickle, Silent Storm. We have great adventure games, e.g. Tension, Pathologic, etc. We have innovative RTS, Perimeter, for example. We have good FPSs, e.g. Metro 2033. I already mentioned Sea Dogs (Корсары: Проклятье дальних морей), King's Bounty, Space Rangers, Vangers, Faces of War (В тылу врага), Star Wolves, and that's not even a half of list of great games.
And what great games were made in your country?

 

[Stainless Veteran]

Please point me at the great RPGs in this list.

Fucking Rage of Mages 2

And fucking Etherlords 2 if it counts (but I guess it doesn't)

Well, to each it's own. I still think that Rage of Mages 2 was mediocre.
Maybe it's because I mainly played sorceress, she was extremely annoying.

 

[Stainless Veteran]

Great post. Those are some good engines and graphics, such a shame the games are bad.

How about "Dungeon Cleaners" ? Wasn't that some ridiculous RPG filled with anal sex, references to Russian crime and written in slang?

Dungeon Cleaners = Planet Alcatraz. Same game, "Dungeon Cleaners" is a direct translation of russian title.

 

[mondblut]

How about "Dungeon Cleaners" ? Wasn't that some ridiculous RPG filled with anal sex, references to Russian crime and written in slang?

That's Planet Alcatraz mentioned before.

 

[Phelot]

From a graphics whore perspective, Russians make some nice looking art and settings. Some of those screenshots look sexy even if the game itself sucks.

 

[Elzair]

"Заговор Темной Башни"

WTF is a 3 doing there?! You should not be using an Arabic numeral as a goddamn letter, you fucking untermensch!

 

[Jaesun]

Nice read Stainless Veteran.

 

[pipka]

How is A.I.M. series(1 and 2), if someone tried it?
I find the premise to be interesting: robot planet, you start as lowly last-gen A.I. and make your way to the top of faction you choose, heavy emphasis on trading.

 

[chzr]

this thread needs more Evil Islands.

 

[DraQ]

"Заговор Темной Башни"

WTF is a 3 doing there?! You should not be using an Arabic numeral as a goddamn letter, you fucking untermensch!

Ruskies were using 13375p33k not just before it has been adopted by braindamaged AOLtards, but 11 fucking centuries before Usenet and even first computers came to existence.

Who is an Untermensch now?

 

[Fowyr]

By the way, great review, I was not aware about half of the titles. This don't say much, though. The last Russian RPG what I played was roguelikes Avanor (awesome) and Tme of Old Ages (meh).

 

[Elzair]

"Заговор Темной Башни"

WTF is a 3 doing there?! You should not be using an Arabic numeral as a goddamn letter, you fucking untermensch!

Ruskies were using 13375p33k not just before it has been adopted by braindamaged AOLtards, but 11 fucking centuries before Usenet and even first computers came to existence.

Who is an Untermensch now?

Since 13375|*34|<3R5 are inane, this explains why Russia always seems to get sodomized.

 

[Unradscorpion]

"Заговор Темной Башни"

WTF is a 3 doing there?! You should not be using an Arabic numeral as a goddamn letter, you fucking untermensch!

Ретард?