Vapourware Forever Winter - artfag survival scavenging

[Haba]

TL;DR: megaAI's fight an eternal war, rebuilding and destroying the world around you. You are a scavenger trying to survive in the middle of it all.

It has a kinda unique idea. You basically lurk around the battle, trying to loot the corpses of the fighting megaliths without getting caught in it all.

The art direction is godlike. Naturally, as it is brought you by the guys who made the JPGs for Star Citizen, Witcher, Doom Eternal and Mass Effect. They take "inspiration" from all the right places (hell, even from "Mad God").

Will they run out of money before the game is even made? How many diversity bucks can they milk to make more crazy assets before the investors wake up?

Spoiler

Media:

 

[Catacombs]

The art direction is godlike.

Indeed. I really enjoyed the trailer. I hope this isn't only a co-op and online game.

 

[VonMiskov]

The art direction is godlike.

Indeed. I really enjoyed the trailer. I hope this isn't only a co-op and online game.

They said on Discord that it will have solo mode with bots or something like that. The artwork looks great but it will probably wither pretty fast after release. Just give me the artbook and f-off.

 

[Lagi]

Very interesting concept that PCs are sneaking behind 2x fighting sides. Plus the art is amazing.

 

[ropetight]

Looks fantastic, like embodiment of 90's dystopian anti-war SF comics, manga & anime.
I don't care much for looter shooters, survival horror or co-op multiplayer, but I get similar vibes that Stalker games gave in 2000's - new ideas, ambitions through the roof for the style and gameplay.
So I wish these FunDog guys all the luck to make something on par the first Stalker.

 

[Haba]

Coming to Early Access 24.9.2024



$27 dolla, promises no scummy DLC on the roadmap. Local hosting possible alongside P2P.

 

[Wirdschowerdn]

More shit Early Access Unreal Engine slop.

 

[Lagi]

just for the effort, art direction and courage, im buying this

 

[Haba]

Too many filters IMHO, I'd prefer to actually see some shit. The big boys duking it out in the background with big boy toys was cool.

 

[thesecret1]

It's out. Anyone played it?

 

[Lagi]

I insta buy it. Will play till 2 am (maybe not because i need to work) tonight. Im a casual gamer, but will drop some sentence with my first impression. From steam reviews is extremely buggy.

 

[ropetight]

Mixed reviews on Steam - very buggy (AI, invisible walls, RNGesusing) and slow performance.
Some nonsense with looting and equipment.
But it gets pretty intense with all giant mecha, cyborg zombies and ammo scarcity, atmosphere is great.

WHY DO I HAVE TO DEAL WITH EPIC GAMES??? Seriously, i didnt see anywhere that the game was gonna be linked with epic, such a horrible system and the friend invite doesnt work at all. If i buy a game on steam, i want the friend system on steam.

This PSN/Epic/Origin/Rockstar launchers that connect accounts became epidemic.
I hope they fix it out later in the development.

 

[Catacombs]

i didnt see anywhere that the game was gonna be linked with epic, such a horrible system and the friend invite doesnt work at all. If i buy a game on steam, i want the friend system on steam.

Did they really?

 

[Lagi]

I play it for 48 minutes and refunded.

It automatically installs some Epic software. It weights 36 GB, download for ages (2h+ for me).

Poor performance, my rig allows me to smoothly play Elden Ring, but Forever Winter has a stuttering mouse cursor. Quite long loading times.

There is not any story explained. You are drop immediately to training mission, where you drop water, and then try to kill at once 5x terminator like looking enemies, that are very likely to kill you. You can change shotgun to some submachine gun. Select junk or normal ammo. or fire mode. There is also melee, but i never use it.

C-rawly, Space-jump, Tab to open backpack, Z to "info-lock" on target, Alt is moving camera over shoulder. There is no zoom or i cannot find it.

Then you are in Innards (? i dont know what the hell is going on or who are this guys - there are no explanations of this in game at all) base where you can just wander around. In-game menus you pick up quest, and from the same menu you are instantly teleport to the mission.

Mission show you multiple Euro- factions fighting with each other Euruska, Eurasia, Euro(something)... you can examine the names using Z key. That works a bit awkward, as you move the mouse blindly and keep pressing Z trying to highlight the interesting target.

They looks like they're using human infantry. But maybe they are cyborgs. It's quite easy to move behind them, until you trigger evacuation. Then suddenly a lots of enemies spawn around and are highly interested in killing you.

Controlling of your old men is junky.

The map feel restrained, doesn't allow you much freedom or explore.

Factions fighting in the background doesn't feel convincing that they are fighting, instead being place there for me. And their animations are poor.

I once killed 1 officer and 2 infantryman. After few seconds, 3x tanks T-90 comes and retardedly keep spinning the turrets and looking up and down with the barrel. I was maybe 10m away from the tanks behind 2x steel beams.
==============
Maps are nicely detailed, and the general art direction is great. I find it hard to submerge into this world although, as the gameplay feels very shallow to me.

 

[Alienman]

From what I see in the videos, is that it has awesome environmental art direction, but totally wasted on the gameplay.

 

[thesecret1]

I insta buy it. Will play till 2 am (maybe not because i need to work) tonight.

I play it for 48 minutes and refunded.

That bad huh

 

[Haba]

Yeah, from what I saw it was way too early for early access.

 

[Catacombs]

It automatically installs some Epic software.

That's some bullshit. If it's on Steam, it should play on Steam.

 

[thesecret1]

Apparently there's a water mechanic where you stokpile water you find during missions. Each real-life day (even if you don't log on) the water counter goes down by one. If it reaches 0, it wipes your progress. All your items, vendors, etc. it's all gone. The only thing that gets preserved is XP.

What in the world are they thinking? No wonder it's got under 50% rating on Steam, this is insane.

 

[Lagi]

Apparently there's a water mechanic where you stokpile water you find during missions. Each real-life day (even if you don't log on) the water counter goes down by one. If it reaches 0, it wipes your progress. All your items, vendors, etc. it's all gone. The only thing that gets preserved is XP.

What in the world are they thinking? No wonder it's got under 50% rating on Steam, this is insane.

This water mechanic sounds cool.

Forever Winter is bad. It has great graphics (maps are nicely detailed, and you feel like in post nuclear zone) and innovative concept of sneaking behind fighting forces - that creates GREAT ambient/vibe/atmosphere.

GAMEPLAY sucks.

tldr

There is no open world to explore like sandbox. There are no narratives; nor in your face like in Last of Us, nor subtle like in Elden Ring. There are no RPG story elements.

You are dropped on single mission, in enclosed map - i dont know like Instance in World of Warcraft? Where you are going to move from A to B and activate Evacuation zone, to escape back to main hub.

Enemies ignore you completely, like if you are cockroach (which is kind of cool) and are blind till you not in the Evacuation zone. There is no Object in evacuation zone, you stand in the middle of the empty field and press 'e'. Then a significant group of enemies is spawn (in multiple waves) and run to your direction, like if you carry GPS in your ass, and suddenly ending your life is every faction highest priority.

PERFORMANCE is unacceptable.

.

how come my PC is cooked? from what 2x low poly tanks, and 5 humanoids with awkward animation display at once? Damage model is just dead animation (nobody is even scatter around from explosion, or collapse temporary from wound), i don't think the environment is destructible (even by the giant machines). And this is NOT an open world. You clip with environment all time. There is no AI, as the enemies dont react to you at all, or during Evac have homing to your location and just charge head on

Watch above 2x video reviews, and listen what this dudes have to say - they are correct.

==================================
To make a interesting game You need to have:

Concept - Forever Winter have great one
Audio-Visuals - serviceable, and build vibe
Story, narrative, flesh out setting - none. Its Arcade kind of game.
Gameplay - hiking simulator, and zombie shooter (during evac).

 

[Tyranicon]

Sucks that the game isn't good. This thing generated massive hype through streamers and 'tubers.

I wonder what all of them are going to make videos on now.

Probably other things they get paid to shill

 

[PanteraNera]

Probably other things they get paid to shill

Ah I see you are putting your kickstarter money to good use!

 

[toro]

Game has a mixed rating on Steam (65% positive atm) and it's (already) like 18$ on reseller sites.

The water counter goes down in real-time which basically means that you are punished for not playing the game every day. Simply retarded.

The water issue alone will kill this game but I'm sure it will be patched however they botched the EA release and that cannot be patched.

I will pass this one.

 

[PanteraNera]

It was 18$ on reseller sites from the start. I bought it on steam as I want to support the dev's as they are basically giving the current game industry the middle finger and try something new & clearly have a vision for their game.

I really hope they stay with the water system as is and also do not make the game easier for all the casuals and people crying.
Half of the negative reviews are retards that didn't figure out you could simply press "No" to not link to your Epic Games account.

Other half are bitching about the water system, without even understanding/trying it.

Generally I get the impression that most people absolutely do not get what the game intends to be. And hate it for that.

 

[thesecret1]

Game has a mixed rating on Steam (65% positive atm) and it's (already) like 18$ on reseller sites.

The water counter goes down in real-time which basically means that you are punished for not playing the game every day. Simply retarded.

The water issue alone will kill this game but I'm sure it will be patched however they botched the EA release and that cannot be patched.

I will pass this one.

Yeah, the water system is impressively retarded. Like it's obviously just a FOMO mechanic to try and force player retention in the stupidest way possible, and since everyone criticized them for it, they made it so you can stock it up for like 80 days in advance and made water an incredibly common drop. Meaning that now water is worthless, yet you still get the FOMO crap, truly the worst of both worlds.

I really hope they stay with the water system as is and also do not make the game easier for all the casuals and people crying.

You're such a dicksucker, holy shit Dev comes in with a predatory system lifted from gacha games (worse, even, as gacha doesn't punish you for not logging in, rather you just lose the benefits), and you think it's some super hardcore experience? Cuck.