KickStarter Dex - a 2D Cyberpunk Sidescrolling RPG

[almondblight]

Same here. I'm especially wondering about the controls and how the beat'em up aspect feels.

The beat'em up element is kind of garbage at the moment, but they've acknowledged that and said there should be a hefty update in October. I don't expect it to be amazing, but there's some hints that it could be decent. Right now there are a few different moves, blocking, and slow block-breaking attacks (done by enemies), but currently the most effective move is to crouch and stunlock the enemy with punches until they die.

 

[dryan]

Marking this to check out later. I'm really fucking sick of medieval fairy tales and I'm willing to play nearly anything set in the present of future.

 

[StaticSpine]

I'm really fucking sick of medieval fairy tales and I'm willing to play nearly anything set in the present of future.

 

[Major_Blackhart]

WWilll check this out later.

 

[TheGreatOne]

If only the RPG part didn't look so simplistic. Skills and dialogues seem very poor. And I don't get that this is supposed to be a "homage" to 90's RPG's? Like what? Super Nintendo "RPG's"?

You wish. It looks more like a homage to a PS1 game (Symphony of the Night). It would be a lot cooler if it was inspired by SNES/Genesis Shadowrun (2 different games) and Chrono Trigger (party attacks from CT combined with cyberpunk character customization)

 

[SuicideBunny]

If only the RPG part didn't look so simplistic. Skills and dialogues seem very poor. And I don't get that this is supposed to be a "homage" to 90's RPG's? Like what? Super Nintendo "RPG's"?

You wish. It looks more like a homage to a PS1 game (Symphony of the Night).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/River_City_Ransom
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dungeons_&_Dragons:_Tower_of_Doom
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dungeons_&_Dragons:_Shadow_over_Mystara
symphony of the night, too, i guess. anyhoo. sidescroller rpg-lites are kinda neat in their own way, and there aren't that many of them outside of the castlevanias.
i've been waiting a long time for something inspired by rcr, so i'm totally fine with dex going that route.

 

[mettalhed]

Same here. I'm especially wondering about the controls and how the beat'em up aspect feels.

The beat'em up element is kind of garbage at the moment, but they've acknowledged that and said there should be a hefty update in October. I don't expect it to be amazing, but there's some hints that it could be decent. Right now there are a few different moves, blocking, and slow block-breaking attacks (done by enemies), but currently the most effective move is to crouch and stunlock the enemy with punches until they die.

I really hope they manage to fix up the combat. I would be happy if it was anywhere in the range of Streets of Rage or Super Double Dragon. I understand it's supposed to have different moves that can be upgraded as you play, but i wouldn't mind if they went with a simpler beat'em up system. They could save the upgrading for stats, like stronger/faster punches and kicks, higher jumps, faster running, longer sliding, etc... you get the idea. That is if they can't get the current system sorted out.

i've been waiting a long time for something inspired by rcr, so i'm totally fine with dex going that route.

Yeah me too. That game was fun and an NES classic. Wasn't it based on an old school PC game? I'm thinking a series from the Spectrum or something similar. Renegade??? Can't be bother to look it up.

 

[TheGreatOne]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/River_City_Ransom
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dungeons_&_Dragons:_Tower_of_Doom
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dungeons_&_Dragons:_Shadow_over_Mystara

NES and Saturn, so neither are SNES RPGs. Anyway the demo footage looks more Symphony of the Night inspired than like a Guardian Heroes clone with the jumping, sliding and non linear levels. Could be cool either way, but what I really would like is a cyberpunk RPG with a Parasite eve/Chrono Trigger type experiemental ATB system (team attacks, dodging attack patterns etc). The barkley sequel looks cool. And we need a proper turn based cyberpunk CRPG as well, Shadowrun Returns with more depth, open ended world design etc. Augmenting your party members and combining that with those Chrono trigger team attacks sounds exciting.

 

[SophosTheWise]

For the people who haven't played the game (and also speak German), there's a little preview I wrote.

 

[Doctor Sbaitso]

Final Fight meets Simon's Quest meets Blackthorne meets Another World?

 

[Torrasque01]

So Release Candidate 1 came out. Any impressions on how the full release will turn out?

 

[Torrasque01]

Aaaand full release was today.

 

[Roguey]

Why is this 2D game 5+ gigs, is it fully voice acted or what

 

[Major_Blackhart]

Any good?

 

[Ulminati]

someone playe dit in shoutbox earlier. Apparently it isn't. I played the "demo" version a few months back, but it was a buggy mess back then.

 

[almondblight]

It's a bit rough, but pretty good. I really like what they're trying to do (some kind of 2D Deus Ex), even if they don't succeed completely. The first hour or two is kind of railroaded until you escape the sewers and make it to a safe house (though there are a few ways to get out of the sewers), but then it opens up. On the plus side, it really nails the feel of wandering around a cyberpunk city. The level design is nicely vertical in areas (and you don't see the sky unless you're at the top of buildings), and the art design is pretty good (I like all the ads in the background).

The missions can be interesting. Crazy homeless guy wants me to get meds for him so he can finish his magnum opus. Finding a missing person poster outside leads me to a sister searching for her brother; I eventually find the brother working at a brothel on behalf of some girl who's leading him on. There doesn't seem to be anything in the way of fluff NPCs though; if you meet someone on the street, they are either selling something or giving you a quest (though you usually have various things you can talk with them about).

Combat is OK; I've only done melee so far, which is a lot of trying to dodge and hit. Lots of areas seem to be filled with the same few thugs (though I often just ran past them). The developers took out the earlier sneaking system they had (which was based on the opponents line of sight and the sound you made), and now it's basically running up behind someone and doing a takedown move.

There's an interesting augmented reality mode, which let's you hack various things in the real world. Not sure if there's a separate hacking mode or not (ran into an error when I was getting my hacking training).

Not perfect, but there's a lot of good stuff there, especially if you like cyberpunk.

 

[Roguey]

My favorite part of Flashback was the cyberpunk city so this sounds like something I should check out eventually.

 

[IHaveHugeNick]

Looks interesting.

 

[Eyeball]

It was me in the Scheissbox lambasting Dex. I actually take it back - it's good.

Sure, the platforming and combat are both meh at best, but the cyberpunk ambience is excellent, there is a pretty big open world to explore and there are loads of quests to do in order to make the cash and XP to level and cyber out your character enough to meet challenges.

There is also a hacking minigame which you can overlay on the real gameworld by pressing a button. You can then use this to hack turrets, cameras or even enemy cyborgs to do damage to them. It's a bit clunky, but nice in theory.

20 euros is way too expensive for this game, but it is absolutely worth it on a sale if you like cyberpunk or just well-crafted atmospheres and music.

 

[toro]

It was me in the Scheissbox lambasting Dex. I actually take it back - it's good.

Sure, the platforming and combat are both meh at best, but the cyberpunk ambience is excellent, there is a pretty big open world to explore and there are loads of quests to do in order to make the cash and XP to level and cyber out your character enough to meet challenges.

There is also a hacking minigame which you can overlay on the real gameworld by pressing a button. You can then use this to hack turrets, cameras or even enemy cyborgs to do damage to them. It's a bit clunky, but nice in theory.

20 euros is way too expensive for this game, but it is absolutely worth it on a sale if you like cyberpunk or just well-crafted atmospheres and music.

If your first impression was wrong then why would the second impression be better?

 

[Eyeball]

Because I fucked your mother.

 

[IHaveHugeNick]

If your first impression was wrong then why would the second impression be better?

Why wouldn't it? Took me 5 tries over several years until I managed to get out of Mortuary in PS:T.

 

[almondblight]

Why is this 2D game 5+ gigs, is it fully voice acted or what

It is, but the quality varies greatly. Some of the voice actors are pretty good, others...not so much.

As I said earlier, at the moment it's good but rough. You can check the steam forums to find a host of issues (save game issues, key rebinding problems, etc.), and if people don't want to deal with bugs and/or possibly being setback an hour of gameplay because of whatever random issues (for example, I got trapped in the sewers and had to redo the first 1/2 hour of the game again), they should probably hold off for a bit. It's probably more early access quality at this point, particularly since they've stated that they'll be adding some content in later patches in addition to fixing bugs.

Still, since this is the official release, it probably deserves a newspost Infinitron.

 

[Pope Amole II]

Playing and rather enjoying this atm. The game is somewhat similar to the Deus Ex in a sense that the whole is bigger than the sum of its parts. Mechanics themselves might not be that deep and some may be rather broken (for example, hacker combat is so much easier than the brawler/gunner) and the RPG system is rather simple (though it's more about progression than your final build) and stealth is not that complicated but somehow it all works together nicely.

The game's main flaw is actually its main plot - it's rather retarded and the writing is the fanfic tier. Really, really bad fanfic with the Chosen One Mary Sue in the main role. But, thankfully, you can just ignore the plot (at least for a while - a rather long while, actually) and go explore the city (exploration is probably the strongest element here), find some jobs, install some implants, kill some bandits, uncover some secrets. Frankly, the farther the plot remains, the better the game feels - I dread the moment when the side-content will end. But what can you do?

Another really strong aspect of the game are the visual & audio side. The graphics hit exactly the right spot with the atmosphere and the soundtrack is also rather good. That alone probably makes the game much more fun that it should actually be.

Anyways, it's probably worth checking out. I'm not sure if it is worth the european price (glory to Mother Russia and its delicious discounts), but it definitely deserves some attention and loving.

 

[General Maxson]

Will have to check it out surely, when it's patched and finished.