I played 13 demos in the Steam event, here's what I wishisted

[Curratum]

First things first, the entire event is a load of shit. The vast majority of the game are a complete crock of shit, would be even if they weren't late alphas / early betas but were actual final releases.

Out of the 13 demos I tried, only two games caught my eye and I actually wishlisted them. Yes, I tried Cultic, Raskopnik and Selaco. No, they're not in here, but there's another GZDoom engine game which I liked a lot more.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1898610/Hands_of_Necromancy/

"Hands of Necromancy is a Dark Fantasy First Person Shooter and metroidvania game, similar to Heretic, made with the GZDoom engine."
The metroidvania part means Hexen-like hubs that keep the world state when you switch between them. I did my best to enjoy Selaco but that engine just doesn't suit the sort of game they're trying to make, and this is much more traditional, and I think it's better for it at the end of the day.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1835570/BioCrisis__Return_2_the_Lab/

"The game is a rail shooter where you can use a mouse or a light gun to aim and shoot at zombies."
Boppin tunes, cool zombies and a classic lightgun on-rails shooter experience. Nothing to write home about but pretty good fun in the demo.

Given that the second game in here is literally a time-waster, you can get an idea of what the state of game demos featured in the event is.

 

[Zenithsan]

In my first "I fucking hate AAA lets give my money to the indies" phase, I also had hope and would buy anything.
Little did I know: indies were the same shit as AAA games.
It was never a budget problem, but a talent one.

So spin the wheel and take the chances, because most certainly the game you are about to play is fucking shit.

 

[Curratum]

Zdoom's new owner / maintainer / admin, who took over after Randi Heit, Rachael Alexanderson, cropped up replying to a question I had on the Hands of Necromancy Steam hub, and xir is obviously a developer on that too.

 

[vibehunter]

In my first "I fucking hate AAA lets give my money to the indies" phase, I also had hope and would buy anything.
Little did I know: indies were the same shit as AAA games.
It was never a budget problem, but a talent one.

So spin the wheel and take the chances, because most certainly the game you are about to play is fucking shit.

Indie developers are just as prone to being populated by talentless hacks as AAA studios, if not more so.

Probably around 95% of indies are mediocre to trash. That 5% though? Really great games which still make me glad for the indie market.

 

[Eisen]

BioCrisis pretty cool, i need the entire The House Of The Dead series on Steam

 

[Fedora Master]

Indie developers are just as prone to being populated by talentless hacks as AAA studios, if not more so.

Probably around 95% of indies are mediocre to trash. That 5% though? Really great games which still make me glad for the indie market.

The 5% are mostly projects that have been going on for a long time like Starsector or Dwarf Fortress. The newer ones are almost always fad-chasing garbage.

 

[soulburner]

Hands of Necromancy at least looks like a proper retro first person shooter, unlike other games which - for an unknown reason - try to emulate a weird color palette. Like, I don't know, CGA or something. I can't look at Project Warlock or Clutic. Especially the latter looks like a hi color image reduced to 6 colors in IrfanView.

 

[Curratum]

I did my best to like Cultic but the 16-color overdone paletted EGA bullshit is way too much.

 

[lightbane]

Indie developers are just as prone to being populated by talentless hacks as AAA studios, if not more so.

Probably around 95% of indies are mediocre to trash. That 5% though? Really great games which still make me glad for the indie market.

The issue though is that indie devs are even more vulnerable to tranny infiltration than AAA companies, who eventually fire these lunatics once the losses are too much.

 

[Lyric Suite]

Hands of Necromancy at least looks like a proper retro first person shooter, unlike other games which - for an unknown reason - try to emulate a weird color palette. Like, I don't know, CGA or something. I can't look at Project Warlock or Clutic. Especially the latter looks like a hi color image reduced to 6 colors in IrfanView.

Maybe but in typical retro boomer shooter fashion, it looks worse than Hexen did.

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

The newer ones are almost always fad-chasing garbage.

So were most of the old ones too...

I tried demos of Ragtag Crew and Untamed Tactics.
1st is Darkest Dungeon knock off in futuristic wasteland, suffers from same LOL randomness on combat as DD.
2nd one was tactical RPG with furries, trivially easy.

I'm going to still try Aledorn demo.

 

[whydoibother]

Out of the 13 demos I tried

Did you exclusively try first person shooters, specifically ones that look like Hexen II?

 

[Skdursh]

First things first, the entire event is a load of shit. The vast majority of the game are a complete crock of shit, would be even if they weren't late alphas / early betas but were actual final releases.

Out of the 13 demos I tried, only two games caught my eye and I actually wishlisted them. Yes, I tried Cultic, Raskopnik and Selaco. No, they're not in here, but there's another GZDoom engine game which I liked a lot more.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1898610/Hands_of_Necromancy/

"Hands of Necromancy is a Dark Fantasy First Person Shooter and metroidvania game, similar to Heretic, made with the GZDoom engine."
The metroidvania part means Hexen-like hubs that keep the world state when you switch between them. I did my best to enjoy Selaco but that engine just doesn't suit the sort of game they're trying to make, and this is much more traditional, and I think it's better for it at the end of the day.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1835570/BioCrisis__Return_2_the_Lab/

"The game is a rail shooter where you can use a mouse or a light gun to aim and shoot at zombies."
Boppin tunes, cool zombies and a classic lightgun on-rails shooter experience. Nothing to write home about but pretty good fun in the demo.

Given that the second game in here is literally a time-waster, you can get an idea of what the state of game demos featured in the event is.

I personally fucking hated Hands of Necromancy, all the weaponry feels weak and the level design clumsy, kinda of like early 90's DOOM wads, but with admittedly better detailing. Cultic has been my #1 so far. Selaco was also pretty good if a bit hectic visually. Supplice is another in-dev GZDoom game that shows a lot of promise as well. I still have a few more to play. Still have a bunch of other stuff to play though. Saving the RPGs for last.

 

[Sacibengala]

but there's another GZDoom engine game which I liked a lot more.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1898610/Hands_of_Necromancy/

They nailed on the music, can tell you that. Pure Hexen.

 

[Curratum]

I personally fucking hated Hands of Necromancy, all the weaponry feels weak and the level design clumsy, kinda of like early 90's DOOM wads, but with admittedly better detailing. Cultic has been my #1 so far. Selaco was also pretty good if a bit hectic visually. Supplice is another in-dev GZDoom game that shows a lot of promise as well. I still have a few more to play. Still have a bunch of other stuff to play though. Saving the RPGs for last.

Supplice will be the retro shooter GOTY when it comes out. If it comes out anytime soon, because frankly fuck devs announcing their games years before they're ready.

 

[Fedora Master]

The issue though is that indie devs are even more vulnerable to tranny infiltration than AAA companies, who eventually fire these lunatics once the losses are too much.

Cope

 

[Antigoon]

The issue though is that indie devs are even more vulnerable to tranny infiltration than AAA companies, who eventually fire these lunatics once the losses are too much.

That's bs. Just look at all those diversity hire at AAA/AA whatever studios, virtually none have any indie experience. They just pop up one day, maybe having written some fanfic, and jump straight to a high position at a pretty large studio. The larger the studios, the more "diverse" their teams are, without a doubt.

 

[lightbane]

That's bs. Just look at all those diversity hire at AAA/AA whatever studios, virtually none have any indie experience. They just pop up one day, maybe having written some fanfic, and jump straight to a high position at a pretty large studio. The larger the studios, the more "diverse" their teams are, without a doubt.

True, but some studios/companies/whatever eventually realize they're losing money and decide to fire the worthless hires. Didn't it happen with Activision if I recall correctly?

 

[Modron]

Lost Eidolons, Dreams in the Witch House, Old Skies, Near Mage, and Last Time I Saw You. Granted I still have a lot to play but this next fest doesn't seem to have as much oomph as the last one. Granted this may have to do with steam establishing a rule you can only participate in one next fest for your game so people are holding off until ones closer to release and a finished product. That or we're really starting to feel the effects of covid on game development.

 

[Tacgnol]

Rachael Alexanderson

Christ, that's a can of worms.

Female anime avatar, "Madame Alexanderson" name on Github, pronouns in twitter and tons of pro-trans stuff re-tweeted.

What the fuck is it with the doom community and these headcases?

 

[whydoibother]

Christ, that's a can of worms.

Female anime avatar, "Madame Alexanderson" name on Github, pronouns in twitter and tons of pro-trans stuff re-tweeted.

What the fuck is it with the doom community and these headcases?

The previous developer was also a transwoman, right? Very weird for something like Doom.

 

[lightbane]

What the fuck is it with the doom community and these headcases?

Someone here said that the Doom community is already volatile (kek), which made them easy to be infiltrated by the usual crowd. The result is the occasional meltdown where one or more modders are excommunicated for the crime of not being woke enough, finding something arbitrary that offended someone (which may or may not have existed for a while without issue), making fun of the SJW, and so on, as well as mods/wads of dubious quality.

 

[toughasnails]

They are one of the most consistently productive communities out there so eh, I'm not too bothered by it. It's not like you can use Doom wads to push some ideological messaging unless it's the case of some explicitly political TC. Also these types also tend to be the one who innovate and push the boundaries the most. Basically if you play some tight, extra difficult slaughtermap with memorable artsy visuals, or anything that tries to mix things up in some way, you can make some guesses about the author and chances are you might be right. It's p much the creatives being crazy as they tend to be.

What actually is the problem is the community being so prone to drama and backstabbing and Doom community was that way even before these things became so prominent.

 

[Curratum]

The previous developer was also a transwoman, right? Very weird for something like Doom.

What exactly is weird about guys liking a retro fps? Who else would you expect to like this sort of game?

 

[Modron]

The previous developer was also a transwoman, right? Very weird for something like Doom.

Who likes modding things? Autists. Who likes transitioning? Autists. Nothing weird about it just part and parcel of the autism to tranny pipeline.