Demise: Ascension $6 sale on GamersGate (excellent grid-based dungeon crawler)

[Stabwound]

I already own the game, but if you've wanted to pick it up, here's a good opportunity: just got an email about the sale.

You get it and 5 other games for $6 - the game is usually $32 so it's a pretty good deal.

If you haven't played the game, it's basically a VERY long/detailed 1st person grid-based dungeon crawler. There is a ton of info on it on this site and elsewhere if you want to google it. Maybe someone else will be willing to give more info on the game.

Link: http://www.gamersgate.com/indiefort-bundle

Pretty good deal for a great game if you're into the genre. Think of it as a Wizardry-style game with a dungeon 10x the size of the typical Wiz 1-6 dungeon with a very in-depth character/class system. There's also a free demo available here: http://decklinsdomain.net/downloads/Demise100/demisedemo100r2.exe and although it's very outdated, the game has been updated many times, it will give you a good idea of what the game is like.

The game has literally hundreds of hours of content in it for people that don't mind grinding levels/equipment and diving deeper and deeper into a grid-based 1st person dungeon. Hundreds of items, tons of spells, tons of races/classes/etc. The common complaint is about the combat system: it's basically automated with very little input from the player other than choosing to cast spells.

The game has pretty outdated 3d visuals, but it's 10 years old (the expansion just came out within the past year, though) so don't expect GLORIOUS Skyrim shit. If you dismiss it because of the graphics then you're doing yourself a huge disfavor: the game is awesome.

 

[Mackerel]

No thanks, I've already got Mordor 1.1 on Win 3.1 in DOSbox to occasionally fire up and remind myself that I am not masochistic enough to enjoy these games.

 

[PorkaMorka]

Thanks for posting this. There was definitely a period where I wanted to impulse buy this game, but the lack of a quick digital download purchase option made me lose interest.

I think that loss of interest was permanent, but letting us know about this was still a valuable service.

 

[Metro]

...the game is usually $32 ...

Some indie developers are utterly clueless when it comes to pricing their games.

 

[Hobo Elf]

Screenshots kind of remind me of EQ. It also has multiplayer which could be fun with bros.

 

[Stabwound]

Some indie developers are utterly clueless when it comes to pricing their games.

Yeah, I dunno what's up with the pricing. I bought it for about that much like... 6-7 years ago and it still hasn't dropped in price much if at all. I know the current IP owner was a fan of the game who shelled out his own cash for the rights, so I guess he's pricing it at a point where he can make money on his investment. But still, that's an absurd price for an indie game released over 10 years ago. Although to be fair, it doesn't make the price better but the did just release the Ascension expansion, which literally doubles the size of the original dungeon among other things.

The game really needs to be played to get an idea of what it's like. It's basically an absolutely massive dungeon crawl: I doubt there is any game that comes close to it. It's 30 floors of 90x90 grids, not all maps take full advantage of 90x90 but you get the idea. It's absolutely massive.

 

[udm]

Stabwound I'm a level 6 Warrior, and because I keep dying, I'm unable to scrimp enough for good equipment, and items I loot from monsters also tend to be quite lousy. I found the slave drivers' hideout (I think) for the first quest, but those guys kill me in under 5 seconds. Any tips?

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

Even with the lack of Steam I'm mildly tempted to get that bundle for this and Dark Scavenger, even though I know in my heart of hearts I wouldn't really play either of them. Hell, I still haven't finished Grimrock. Racked up 18 hours getting to the "Temple" levels and then kinda petered out.

So the dungeon isn't randomized? How about encounters/loot? Entirely single character, or can you have a party?

 

[visions]

Hm, I can't use my crt probably until autum so I've held off from playing games that I want to experience in full-screen glory unhindered by shitty scaling and the general subpar nature of my laptop's lcd but maybe I will try this in the meantime since 1) the visuals probably won't benefit from playing in fullscreen anyway 2) almost certainly I won't be able to complete this in a couple of months so I can continue in fullscreen unscaled glory anyway when I get the chance.

I'll at least download the demo and spend some time with it after I finish some uni shit.

 

[Stabwound]

Stabwound I'm a level 6 Warrior, and because I keep dying, I'm unable to scrimp enough for good equipment, and items I loot from monsters also tend to be quite lousy. I found the slave drivers' hideout (I think) for the first quest, but those guys kill me in under 5 seconds. Any tips?

Sorry, it's been years since I played the game extensively and can't really offer any advice. You could check the official forums, though; the game has a pretty active community, just google them.

Even with the lack of Steam I'm mildly tempted to get that bundle for this and Dark Scavenger, even though I know in my heart of hearts I wouldn't really play either of them. Hell, I still haven't finished Grimrock. Racked up 18 hours getting to the "Temple" levels and then kinda petered out.

So the dungeon isn't randomized? How about encounters/loot? Entirely single character, or can you have a party?

Dungeon isn't randomized, but it's hand crafted and varied and the levels are absolutely massive. Think Legend of Grimrock where the dungeon is 50x the size if not more. As for the rest:

Party: Maximum of 8 characters + hired monsters
The encounters are roughly randomized, think Wizardry style, and certain enemies show up in certain enemies.
Loot is randomized in that you're find random stuff everywhere, and there are hundreds (if not thousands in the Ascension expansion) to find.

 

[Spockrock]

dat UI...

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

Grinding sounds a bit worrisome, one large reason I can't stand JRPGs. Then again I can occasionally go for grind, as seen by my love of action RPGs. Still, glanced at the reviews at Gamersgate and one guy mentioning a bunch of issues and general unstable crashing kinda dampens my enthusiasm even more.

Watched a gameplay video that looked kinda cool though. I liked how perception seemed to be having a large impact, and the fact that time passes and your characters age sounds sorta interesting. HMMMMMMMMMMMMMM.

 

[mondblut]

Bought it. Thanks for the timely tip!

 

[udm]

Let me know if you guys get a server up and running. I've been testing the game out on the GOG server for a bit. It looks like you can transfer multiplayer characters across servers, which is pretty cool.

Multi-Headed Cow the aging mechanic was a surprise to me. I started off at 16 years of age, and by the time I got to level 6, I'd already turned 18 lol. I'm not sure what effects aging has on stats though.

The game's basically a first-person roguelike. I don't find combat as fun as other FPP grid-based dungeon crawlers though, like Dungeon Hack, although I get the feeling that I'm only seeing the tip of the iceberg right now with regards to monsters and items.

 

[Rpgsaurus Rex]

Can you just make up whatever kind of party you like and play / win for fun ?

Or do you have to powergame or get your ass kicked ?

From what I've heard this game requires a lot of meta-preparation, and this is what's turning me off atm.

 

[joeydohn]

Looks interesting, is Gamersgate something like Steam or do they give you DRM free installers?

 

[Stabwound]

I've never got very far into the game (it's extremely long) but...

Yeah, your characters age, but there are also means of reducing age like the Might & Magic games. And yeah, there are tons and tons of different items and monsters.

I know that the original Demise was unbalanced in that some races were just horrible, but the Ascension expansion balanced them out a bit. I don't believe that powergaming is 100% necessary, but the good thing is that your automap/items can be traded between all characters and new parties, so even if you run into an area that you can't get through, you can add another dude to your party and quickly level him up.

But yeah, the combat is the downside. It really is a lot like a 3RD person roguelike, except the dungeon is static. The game, especially with the Ascension expansion, takes hundreds of hours to complete; it's fucking massive. And yeah, there are lots of secret doors and areas that you need perception to detect. Also spinner/teleportation/pits traps and all that great stuff. It's all automapped, though.

If you're into the genre I don't know a better way to spend $6 and get so much game out of. There are dungeon levels that are literally 90x90 grids in the Ascension expansion.

dat UI...

The UI isn't the best, but you can turn most of it off so that you have a very minimalist UI with just the minimap. You don't need the character sheet and all that up there.

 

[udm]

From what I've heard this game requires a lot of meta-preparation, and this is what's turning me off atm.

Metagaming to win seems to be the way to go. You definitely have to read up on the more than basic stuff in the manual - for example, if you min-max your warrior (min INT and WIS, max STR, CON and DEX), you will not be able to read tomes to increase stats. Even if you do spend time to read every single topic in the manual, chances are somewhere down the line, when playing with your first (or second, or even third) character, you'll realize you made a slip up. I gave my warrior 11 DEX, which is 1 point less than the requirement to wear bronze plate mail and certain magical equipment, so now I'm struggling to survive encounters with the harder monsters. Dying is also a frequent occurrence, and the best way to avoid the money penalty when you die is to not sell all your loot at one go (so your assets are not liquidated).

All that being said, I think the game is fun. At one point it started growing tiresome when I kept dying and had to confine myself to the first few floors of the dungeon, until I realized that it was necessary to metagame a bit. I've spent about 10 hours on the game already, and it still feels like I haven't explored much. I also haven't tried forming a serious party with others.

Looks interesting, is Gamersgate something like Steam or do they give you DRM free installers?

You must login to download the installer, and officially you must stay logged in to use the installer. There is, however, a workaround. If you stay logged in while the installer is running, then you just need to copy and paste the installer file somewhere else, and you can then get a DRM-free installer (provided the game itself is DRM-free under the publisher's specifications).

The game, especially with the Ascension expansion, takes hundreds of hours to complete; it's fucking massive. And yeah, there are lots of secret doors and areas that you need perception to detect. Also spinner/teleportation/pits traps and all that great stuff. It's all automapped, though.

Yeah I wouldn't have believed it, if I hadn't played the game and seen it for myself. It's very non-linearly mapped. On any one single floor, there are bound to be rooms that can only be accessed via teleporter or multiple stairs involving more than one floor. Even with the automap, it's crazy trying to find your way around.

 

[joeydohn]

You must login to download the installer, and officially you must stay logged in to use the installer. There is, however, a workaround. If you stay logged in while the installer is running, then you just need to copy and paste the installer file somewhere else, and you can then get a DRM-free installer (provided the game itself is DRM-free under the publisher's specifications).

Thanks for the info, not interested .

 

[Stabwound]

udm

Did you buy the game from this sale? See if you can log in here: http://www.decklinsdemise.com/mydemise.php because I'm 99% sure you should be able to, and download a DRM-free version of the game from there. Well, DRM-free as in you need to input your key to install, but it's a standalone installer.

That's where the constant patches are uploaded to so I would imagine buying it from this bundle would get you access to the page as well.

 

[Humanity has risen!]

Wow, getting crushed in the Gamersgate reviews. And you need XP?????

 

[visions]

The review says he needed to run it in xp compatibility mode.

 

[Stabwound]

What? I run the game perfectly fine on Windows 7 x64, you just have to set compatibility mode on the .exe.

The people in the GamersGate reviews are idiots. It's possible that the game has crashing problems, and yes the graphics are outdated, but the game is over 10 years old. It's clearly a product of late 90's/early 2000's 3D.

 

[visions]

The demo link in the op seems dead btw.

Found this though:

http://www.decklinsdemise.com/IGMdemo.htm

You can get the promo code from here:

http://www.indiegamemag.com/demise-the-little-legacy-rpg-that-wouldnt-go-away/

 

[udm]

Did you buy the game from this sale? See if you can log in here: http://www.decklinsdemise.com/mydemise.php because I'm 99% sure you should be able to, and download a DRM-free version of the game from there. Well, DRM-free as in you need to input your key to install, but it's a standalone installer.

That's where the constant patches are uploaded to so I would imagine buying it from this bundle would get you access to the page as well.

Thanks for the link bro! It works for me

They really should put it in a less inconspicuous place. Decklin's has 2 main domains, and only one of them contains that link (which is easily overlooked if one doesn't know it exists); I also don't see it in the email I got. It's likely most people will not even know about this, which is too bad.

What? I run the game perfectly fine on Windows 7 x64, you just have to set compatibility mode on the .exe.

The people in the GamersGate reviews are idiots. It's possible that the game has crashing problems, and yes the graphics are outdated, but the game is over 10 years old. It's clearly a product of late 90's/early 2000's 3D.

Yeah I haven't had a single crash, and graphics don't bother me because it's a pretty solid game once you really put your mind down to playing it properly. I'd give it 4 stars - I'm still not a fan of the auto-attack gameplay mechanism - but otherwise it's very addictive. The initial maps are mostly bland dungeon corridors, but the lower levels are really cool. Plus, because levels are hand-crafted, there are some really nasty surprises waiting for newbies.