Safav Hamon
Self-Ejected
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Is there any difference if you let Gosp kill the man at the end or not?
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KickStarter INSOMNIA: The Ark - dieselpunk sci-fi action-RPG set on a decaying space station
- Thread starter Guyduk
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Who cares? Bayonet revolver, man.
toro
Arcane
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Jinn
Arcane
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Was taking a look at the Insomnia steamspy numbers and was happy and surprised to see them sitting at the 20,000-50,000 mark. Considering the game was only backed by around 3,500 people, at least 16,500 units have been sold and that's on the lower side of the estimation.
After seeing the state in which their last patch came out, I decided to give it a good long rest before I return to it. Really hope they have a little more success with polishing this up in the next month or so. I really want to play it, but I don't want to ruin it for myself with all the little issues that tend to pop up around the game. While I selfishly just want to get back to playing it, I really hope they get this in a better state quickly so they can salvage its reputation and attract more sales. It's a rough first product from a team of clearly very ambitious folks, and no matter what it tends to do wrong, there is something that will always draw me to it and want to play it more. And no, it's not just how beautiful and atmospheric I feel the game is. The basic principles of the game design are things that in essence I support, and you can tell they wanted to do even more but just didn't have the time or resources.
Anyway, was glad to see that these guys have probably at least made enough to stabilize, if not make a profit. Really want to see more projects from these guys in the future.
After seeing the state in which their last patch came out, I decided to give it a good long rest before I return to it. Really hope they have a little more success with polishing this up in the next month or so. I really want to play it, but I don't want to ruin it for myself with all the little issues that tend to pop up around the game. While I selfishly just want to get back to playing it, I really hope they get this in a better state quickly so they can salvage its reputation and attract more sales. It's a rough first product from a team of clearly very ambitious folks, and no matter what it tends to do wrong, there is something that will always draw me to it and want to play it more. And no, it's not just how beautiful and atmospheric I feel the game is. The basic principles of the game design are things that in essence I support, and you can tell they wanted to do even more but just didn't have the time or resources.
Anyway, was glad to see that these guys have probably at least made enough to stabilize, if not make a profit. Really want to see more projects from these guys in the future.
Pretty happy about how this game turned out to be.
It even has flying robo-skull named Mortimer!
It even has flying robo-skull named Mortimer!
toro
Arcane
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- Apr 14, 2009
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- 14,928
The game cannot be finished at the moment. At least 3 main quests are bugged.
The funny thing is that these quests stopped working after the latest patch. It seems Russians have a special software development process.
The bugged quests are:
What is the price of freedom? - main story
Hot Blooded - main story
Bane of mills - main story
A simple job - dupe bug
When one reaches all of these missions then it will know that it's time to stop and wait for an patch. I've put 25 hours into the game.
The funny thing is that these quests stopped working after the latest patch. It seems Russians have a special software development process.
The bugged quests are:
What is the price of freedom? - main story
Hot Blooded - main story
Bane of mills - main story
A simple job - dupe bug
When one reaches all of these missions then it will know that it's time to stop and wait for an patch. I've put 25 hours into the game.
Last edited:
toro
Arcane
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- Apr 14, 2009
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- 14,928
Impressions after 25 hours.
Art/visual/sound/atmopshere/world design are excellent. This is one of those games where the world is not just a stupid prop and it actually provides environmental story-telling. Not to mention that it's quite original.
Note: For some reason the visuals feel like they are taken straight out of Blade Runner however it's much more than dumb imitation. There is an entire process of world building behind these visuals (although not every door goes into a room).
The world's design is especially great because each location has its own specific background and purpose and, in some cases, its own specific environment. The world is filled with all the characteristics of a bad place but also with mystery ... and it sucks you in. Literally.
The story is good until now and there is a lot of lore and attention to details. I especially like the fact that the story doesn't start with you and your role is just a piece of a greater story. You are somewhat of a antihero in the context of the game (and not another Chosen One as I expected with fear).
You have combat/stealth quests, fetch quests and exploration. The quests design is not as intricate as in Fallout (not a surprise) but it manages to create a intertwined landscape of the world. Progression through smaller quests is intelligently delivered and some of them are quite interesting.
Don't click unless you've reached the part with the broken quests.
The combat is pretty simple and I still don't like the melee clunkiness but the firearms combat have started to grow on me. Taking down an enemy Garon is much harder and much more satisfying than defeating a Big Daddy in Bioshock.
There are many technical issues with the game: primitive inventory, missing graphic settings, unbindable keys, broken quests, companions's quests and so on. But the most infuriating issue is that the translations are shit: there is a lot of text which simply doesn't make sense in English probably because some amateur tried to translate Russian poetry into English. Also there is text which is untranslated.
Other major issues are the loot system and the economy which are simply bad. I assume that they weren't able to manually set the loot therefore they've created this random loot system where you'll get shit 80% of the time. They also added the hunger and thirst mechanics in order to balance your ever growing inventory but overall the entire system is pointless. These issues could have been avoided with hand placed loot.
To cut it short the game's design is very old. While most new games are trying to accommodate you into their world, well, this one doesn't. It doesn't give a shit about you. You need to work and extract useful information from the game world.
- The areas are not big but you need to learn to navigate them and keep a record of the most important locations/NPCs+Traders.
- Sometimes resources are required in order to solve some quests or even random encounters. If you don't have the resources then you'll either backtrack or lose the encounter.
- The important NPCs have a sign above them but there is no quest compact and there is no conversations log. You need to listen to the NPCs and follow their directions.
- You need to learn mobs weaknesses by experimenting on them. You need to learn what resources you can get from disassembling stuff and so on.
Overall everything contributes to a really immersive experience and it feels like playing Gothic 1&2 (without the factions) in a dystopian/post-apocalyptic setting. Without a doubt it's much better than Elex, Technomancer and many AAA titles.
The most shocking part it that this game was developed by inexperienced developers. You can see it in their craft. But they dared and they managed to deliver something original and imbued with potential to be great.
I'm pretty sure that after the patches this game will be up there with Gothic, Fallout and Thief. Maybe not as good but strong INCLINE in our times. Impressive.
PS. Sorry for my English. I'm tired.
Art/visual/sound/atmopshere/world design are excellent. This is one of those games where the world is not just a stupid prop and it actually provides environmental story-telling. Not to mention that it's quite original.
Note: For some reason the visuals feel like they are taken straight out of Blade Runner however it's much more than dumb imitation. There is an entire process of world building behind these visuals (although not every door goes into a room).
The world's design is especially great because each location has its own specific background and purpose and, in some cases, its own specific environment. The world is filled with all the characteristics of a bad place but also with mystery ... and it sucks you in. Literally.
There are anomalies like in Stalker. There are mutants in ungoverned areas. There is a sea coast you can visit. And so on.
The story is good until now and there is a lot of lore and attention to details. I especially like the fact that the story doesn't start with you and your role is just a piece of a greater story. You are somewhat of a antihero in the context of the game (and not another Chosen One as I expected with fear).
Russians know how to depict real oppression: Civilians are summarily executed or massacred when they don't obey military orders.
You have combat/stealth quests, fetch quests and exploration. The quests design is not as intricate as in Fallout (not a surprise) but it manages to create a intertwined landscape of the world. Progression through smaller quests is intelligently delivered and some of them are quite interesting.
Don't click unless you've reached the part with the broken quests.
There is one quest clearly inspired by Judge Dread or The Raid. I was giggling like an idiot.
The combat is pretty simple and I still don't like the melee clunkiness but the firearms combat have started to grow on me. Taking down an enemy Garon is much harder and much more satisfying than defeating a Big Daddy in Bioshock.
There are many technical issues with the game: primitive inventory, missing graphic settings, unbindable keys, broken quests, companions's quests and so on. But the most infuriating issue is that the translations are shit: there is a lot of text which simply doesn't make sense in English probably because some amateur tried to translate Russian poetry into English. Also there is text which is untranslated.
Other major issues are the loot system and the economy which are simply bad. I assume that they weren't able to manually set the loot therefore they've created this random loot system where you'll get shit 80% of the time. They also added the hunger and thirst mechanics in order to balance your ever growing inventory but overall the entire system is pointless. These issues could have been avoided with hand placed loot.
To cut it short the game's design is very old. While most new games are trying to accommodate you into their world, well, this one doesn't. It doesn't give a shit about you. You need to work and extract useful information from the game world.
- The areas are not big but you need to learn to navigate them and keep a record of the most important locations/NPCs+Traders.
- Sometimes resources are required in order to solve some quests or even random encounters. If you don't have the resources then you'll either backtrack or lose the encounter.
- The important NPCs have a sign above them but there is no quest compact and there is no conversations log. You need to listen to the NPCs and follow their directions.
- You need to learn mobs weaknesses by experimenting on them. You need to learn what resources you can get from disassembling stuff and so on.
Overall everything contributes to a really immersive experience and it feels like playing Gothic 1&2 (without the factions) in a dystopian/post-apocalyptic setting. Without a doubt it's much better than Elex, Technomancer and many AAA titles.
The most shocking part it that this game was developed by inexperienced developers. You can see it in their craft. But they dared and they managed to deliver something original and imbued with potential to be great.
I'm pretty sure that after the patches this game will be up there with Gothic, Fallout and Thief. Maybe not as good but strong INCLINE in our times. Impressive.
PS. Sorry for my English. I'm tired.
Last edited:
BEvers
I'm forever blowing
- Joined
- Aug 14, 2018
- Messages
- 808
Maybe developers have caught wise to the fact that most RPGs only have a 3-5% completion rate for the first few months after release (Bard's Tale 4 is at 2.1% after three weeks). Late game plot stopping bugs must be considered relatively minor in the great scheme of things, especially if it takes more than two hours to reach them.
toro
Arcane
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- Apr 14, 2009
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- 14,928
Maybe. Just don't use Bard's Tale 4 as a reference for anything except as an abject failure.
Edit: Also the quests above worked but they botched the last patch.
Safav Hamon
Self-Ejected
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- May 15, 2018
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- 2,141
Great review, Toro.
Insomnia's biggest accomplishment is managing to create an original world with a compelling narrative, lore, art and music direction. It's special when an RPG succeeds in all five areas.
What stops me from recommending it is the abysmal performance, gamebreaking bugs, and lack of QoL features. If polished it would be a great game, but I'm not certain it ever will be.
Insomnia's biggest accomplishment is managing to create an original world with a compelling narrative, lore, art and music direction. It's special when an RPG succeeds in all five areas.
What stops me from recommending it is the abysmal performance, gamebreaking bugs, and lack of QoL features. If polished it would be a great game, but I'm not certain it ever will be.
toro
Arcane
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They just have to fix the broken quests and the game is good to go.
Safav Hamon
Self-Ejected
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- May 15, 2018
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Impressive considering the developers are only 10 people with no development experience, working on and off.
Life of the Party
Arcane
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unfairlight
Self-Ejected
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better than elex btw
toro
Arcane
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You can bet your ass on it.
We are swimming in incline waters nowadays, sadly it's infested with bug piranhas
toro
Arcane
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We are swimming in incline waters nowadays, sadly it's infested with bug piranhas
Yeah. It seems that incline comes from new developers which are biting more than they can chew.
In the case of Insomnia, they are doing rookies mistakes like not-translating text or allowing bindable keys. Their second patch broke the main storyline.
In the case of Pathfinder, the rule-set complexity and the campaign were too big. Their patches are breaking more stuff than fixing.
The situation is frustrating but on the other side the incline is real: these guys delivered new classics like Underrail or AoD. (*honestly I don't like AoD but that's a different topic)
Now, they just need to patch the damn things
Puteo
Learned
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- Apr 28, 2018
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- 171
Did you try the fix suggested on the forums? The theory is that it's triggered by leaving the antique shop too early.
Load a save from before you get there and make sure you talk to every single shadow/person and do all the quests possible before sitting in the chair and leaving.
It's supposedly fixed it for some people
So this is worth getting?
Jinn
Arcane
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- Nov 8, 2007
- Messages
- 5,507
If you've read at least the last couple of pages of this thread, you're asking this because your cursor is hesitantly hovering over the buy button.
In this case, long answer is yes, but it's not quite worth playing yet. If you want to support a new developer who made a fun game around an awesome setting, with an excellently crafted atmosphere, buy it, but buy it knowing it's probably not going to truly be ready to play for another month or so. For me, I have zero regrets even though I'd really like to be playing it right now and am slightly annoyed that I'm unable to enjoy a somewhat polished finished product.
Puteo
Learned
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Do you want to play the most inclined RPG since Gothic 2?
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