Game News Monomyth Beta Released

[Iluvcheezcake]

Game looks great

 

[Shin]

Judging from that trailer/WIP video, it looks pretty good imho. The only thing I'd really like to see in such a game (and was missing in the video) is large-ish environments, just like in Thief: TDP and Thief 2: TMA (which seems to be an inspiration). But I'm all for immersive sims either way, so kudos to the developer.

 

[thesheeep]

 

[epeli]

Promising game. The level design is great for exploration. Lots of secrets and alternative routes through the demo area. I thought it was nice that lockpicking the tower door next to the magically sealed Lysandria passage reverses pretty much the entire route through Serpent's Bastion. I played through the demo 3 times with different builds, your basic warrior/rogue/mage archetypes, and still didn't find all the secrets.

Use this FOV fix if you're going to try the demo. https://steamcommunity.com/app/908360/discussions/0/3060744478181075146/#c3060744478182693155

Random notes/feedback
- One of my characters had a bug where I didn't get skillpoints from every level-up
- Melee combat is ve-e-ery easy even without any skillpoints in melee skills, but it takes basic tactics, so it's not bad
- Dagger is the best weapon
- Bows feel awful and ranged spells are pretty disappointing considering the smoothness and ease of free melee
- In the demo/early game you won't have enough stat points to play a full 3-school mage. The 7 spells already need 3+2+4 stat points, nevermind increasing mana and spell slots. You get to level 4 in the demo.
- Of the skills I tried, Stealth and Arcane Connection felt useless. In the demo, Lockpicking is also useless with any dex. Athletics just works. Search is pretty neat but I have no idea what leveling it does.
- The game has lots of systems inspired by Thief 1/2 in place (stealth with dynamic light sources, water/fire arrows and the like to manipulate them, etc), but there's not much point to them in the demo.
- The lowered mouse sensitivity during weapon swaps and the like feels awful. It's not immersive, just makes you wonder if there's something on your mouse sensor.

My favorite secret is

the debug room Nice little sneak peek into things to come and for testing things. I always appreciate when games ship with this kind of "unreachable" content.

 

[JMab]

Looks great, I’ll give the demo a go.

 

[elverkongen]

You'll have to pardon luj1. He's missing a few chromosomes.

yeah

im missing the devastating brain rot you shit swallowers contracted from playing too much shit

Cynicism for the sake of cynicism is inarguably an indication of decline - socially, intellectually, and emotionally. Sure, maybe you get a few emojis on your posts but the more you rely on this mindset for social approval (both real and imagined), the more it takes a hold of you.

The coarse and callused exterior of the morbidly cynical individual belies the deeply hurting child within - the child who has been let down too many times; the child who has faced disappointment or abandonment by caregivers, peers, and/or their surrogates (often television programs, movies, and video games). It's easier for them to push back or push away and thereby provoke loss, abandonment, dissapointment rather than face the fear of the uncertainty of this loss. At least in the former case they can point and say, "See, I knew that was going to happen." The condition is thus reinforced, and the shell grows thicker.

 

[Ysaye]

I was initially hesitant on the visuals when I first saw only the still pictures of this game, but the game comes alive when you actually play out the mechanics of it and I think that is great in this day an age when most indie projects focus on drawing people in on having amazing graphics and then deliver dud game-play.

Most games have "generic" enemies (I am pretty sure crabs, rats and bandits are the first things you fight in Wizardry 8?); but the beta is that combat and the relevant controls feels really smooth and responsive (even on a keyboard and mouse setup), much like a first person Dark Souls may feel or M&M: Dark Messiah feels like (as opposed to say the dodgy combat of Skyrim/TES games). Your choice of timing for swings and blocks as well as equipment makes a big difference to how combat plays out and it is fun to play, and this is coming from a person who prefers turn based games. Additionally there is a strong Ultima Underworld / later Ultima feel to the interactivity of objects far beyond most modern first person games; it is not all perfect but it adds a depth to the game that is maybe not obvious from the screenshots whilst being a lot tighter and professional than anything attempted in Underworld Ascendant.

I won't dispute that I find the font is a little off-putting, but overall I don't feel visually I am playing Grimrock or Underworld Ascendant (and definitely not WoW - the colour scheme is much much darker than WoW, even the subterranean bits you mentioned). If anything the game's palette more generally is going for a Kings Field or Dark Messiah feel as well as Thief, which are three of RatTower's other inspirations (also the logo is a clear homage to King's Field).

 

[Zenithsan]

All the comments are about enemies, maps, combat, etc.
But what about the story? Isn't this supposed to be an rpg? Or it's one of those games where the setting is an excuse for the mechanics?

It can be interesting either way, but I am just curious if the dev has any idea, themes, or character traits that he wants to explore, or it's just a numbers simulator (which is also okay)

 

[Barbie]

All the comments are about enemies, maps, combat, etc.
But what about the story? Isn't this supposed to be an rpg? Or it's one of those games where the setting is an excuse for the mechanics?

It can be interesting either way, but I am just curious if the dev has any idea, themes, or character traits that he wants to explore, or it's just a numbers simulator (which is also okay)

I played the demo pretty recently. The story is passable, at least in the demo. Nothing to write home about but I also do not believe there was enough game to show real indicators about the quality of the story or the direction it will take. Seems like the goal is to penetrate the fortress and find a person who went missing in an expedition of sorts, without giving too much detail. Passable concept.