Incline Play Ashes 2063 and Ashes: Afterglow

[SilentSeeker]

Are you really using "You're gay" as an insult after the release of a Top Gun movie?

Ah, I see. Objection withdrawn.

 

[Luka-boy]

 

[Berg DK]

I thoroughly enjoyed Ashes, played both episodes around the time the standalone pack version was released.
Some of the best level design I've experienced, constantly rewarding exploration and looping back on themselves with new shortcuts especially in afterglow, great combat and love the music.
Silent Protagonist with choice of gender like pretty much all games should have.

My only real issues were limitations/ quirks of the engine like the insane movement speeds mixed with believable environment, janky zoom with sniper and very hard to read text.
Better than anything New Blood interactive has made .

I'd say its up there as one of the few nu retro shooters that are actually worth playing along with Ion Fury and maybe Dusk if cheap.

Vehicle sections are pure ass though!

 

[Sigourn]

My only real issues were limitations/ quirks of the engine like the insane movement speeds mixed with believable environment, janky zoom with sniper and very hard to read text.

I agree with this. Often I wish my movement speed was slower because it just didn't blend in well with the realistically-dimensioned spaces.
I never bothered with the sniper zoom either. And the text font is something to improve for sure.

 

[Haba]

Looks more of a Duke than a Doom. Which is a plus in my book.

Now if I only had the time to actually play it.

 

[Arthandas]

Sigourn
You should also try Blade of Agony and CountryCide (which is a prologue to an upcoming total conversion called trench Foot).

 

[Sigourn]

Arthandas They look really good, thanks for the suggestions!

 

[pOcHa]

blown away how good this was

 

[Ash]

It's arguably the best FPS in over 20 years, and it's a mod.

I call it the answer to the question "what if 2000s-era FPS weren't total shit?". It has that realism-driven ambition they had, combined with what they lacked: actual engaging game design, vast levels, solid theme that is actually interesting, kickass music and plenty creativity.
Or alternatively, it's just a 90s shooter taken to one possible next step/branch of logical progression.

Word of warning though, Ashes 2063 is not that notable, but arguably neccessary as a tutorial and introduction. It is Ashes "Episode 2" Afterglow that is the highlight. It's easy to play Episode 1 and think "is this all?". EP1 is very good don't get me wrong, but taken alone without Afterglow it's just another mod.

 

[Sordid MCA/Prosper Hybryd]

I enjoyed the first episode more, actually. Over the years, I've grown to appreciate a simple, elegant design without hubs or contrived upgrade systems.

 

[pOcHa]

binge played all 3, back to back - didn't do any work during that whole week...

 

[Ash]

I enjoyed the first episode more, actually. Over the years, I've grown to appreciate a simple, elegant design without hubs or contrived upgrade systems.

Implying Afterglow is anything less than elegant. How dare you.

Are you trying to be a contrarian for the sake of it? Afterglow is legendary, and a full-length game. Episode 1 is just a nice mod that doesn't amount to much by itself. How could it, being only 6 hours long or something like that. Most games need to be longer than that out of necessity, and I'll explain why if one is curious.

 

[Ivan]

never heard of it, adding it to my play list

 

[robinox]

Afterglow is a masterpiece, but I also disliked the weapon upgrades (I never appreciate those mechanics, one of the reasons why Stalker SoC is better than the others: no weapon upgrade bullshit).

 

[Ash]

Contrarians to the left, contrarians to the right.

 

[Ivan]

Are most of these balanced for "normal" vs "ultra violence" ?

 

[Baron Dupek]

Isn't the difficulty designes in certain way? Higher difficulty means less ammo, but also enemies being less spongy?
Crowbar might be useful in more situations then...

Might play it again, with the mod that combine Ashes2063 and Dead Man Walking into one, long journey. Just forgot/lost the files...

 

[Ivan]

That's what I'm playing, it's called 2064 Enriched

Episode 1 was pretty awesome. Had a great time on Ultra Violence.

Ep2 Afterglow:
-Lordan-eque level design, with HUGE, YUGE, levels that loop back into a central hub. enemies don't respawn, so it made for some fun, WTF haven't I been moments
-more mental gymnastics once you hit a wall, or aren't sure where to go next. thankfully the map comes in handy
-driving feels unhinged but is thankfully a very small part of the experience
-finished it on "norma" and had a good time with allotted resources.

TLDR: a full-length campaign with great combat and YUGE levels to get lost in. plenty of fun a-ha moments where maps fold into themselves

 

[orcinator]

Played it, liked it, not to the levels where I'd say it's goated with or without sauce but I liked it.
Did get annoyed how they spoke of a raider mutie alliance but never had you fighting both at once. Next/Last episode better get on that, I'm getting tired of the endless PinkieMutie + Impfiend encounters that just beg you to circle strafe around until most of the enemies die to infighting.

 

[Valestein]

This tune reminds me of these games:

 

[Morgoth]

 

[Unkillable Cat]

I'm literally basking in the afterglow of having finished Afterglow.

That's the most fun I've had with a game in a very long time.

By no means perfect, but damn good at what it's doing.

About the only thing 2063 did better than Afterglow was having the weapon upgrades be upgrades, most of them felt like sidegrades in Afterglow.

I'll be playing this again sometime in the future.

Highly recommended!

 

[pOcHa]

https://www.moddb.com/mods/ashes-2063

Greeting scavs,

It's been a bit, hasn't it? While we've trickled out small pieces of news on various discords and forums, it's been too long since we've dropped a good and proper official update. Herein we'll compile the various fragments we've teased into a cohesive whole, add some new stuff, and just generally do some rumor control.

First off, the main event:

Ashes: Hard Reset​

Art by Snordix


Hard Reset (HR) is the prequel expansion for Afterglow and will be a linear campaign in the style of 2063. Take the role of the veteran scav Walker as he guides a team of elite soldiers into The City. As events spiral out of control Walker finds out that a long forgotten foe has caught up with him... and that not all injuries are of the flesh.

Planned features include:

• 7 new weapons, including the stealthy suppressed Police Pistol and Xbow, the stylish Lever Action Shotgun and the highly versatile Modular Rifle.
• 9 new enemies: trade fire with the Black Water Bandits and their immortal chief, flee in terror from the Cannibal Gladiator, and learn that even your own eyes can't be trusted when encountering the Possessor Worms.
• 12 maps, including entirely new locations and some that might be familiar to you, from the backwater town of Junction, into the irradiated concrete and glass canyons of The City.
• New ammo, new items, new music, new voices, and more.

HR is spearheaded by team member RetroMuffin34, and at this point in time there is no release date. When It's Done, but hopefully SOON(tm).

Have some screens (WIP!):

Episode 3 Update and Afterglow Post Mortem​

Episode 3 remains in pre-production as we hammer out the details of the story and test ideas for new game mechanics. In a way HR will serve as a dry run for some of these ideas, and quite possibly not all of them will survive outside contact. Development is going to remain glacial as most of our attention will be on getting HR out the door, but rest assured Ep3 is not canceled or abandoned.

We've talked internally about what worked and didn't work in Afterglow, and what aspects are worth bringing forward. We closed in on a few sore points and I want to lay these out here:

1. Too Much Dialog - We believe that talking with NPCs is an important feature, and we aren't going to cut it just because some people are proud of being illiterate. That said, we agree the amount of mandatory dialog in Afterglow could be a bit much, especially in the 2nd hub area. We plan on paring down the amount of talking you need to do to progress the main path, while still offering side content and world building dialog should the player choose to engage with it.
2. Unclear Progression - We aren't going to simplify progression or put quest markers down, so don't worry. However there are a few things in Afterglow that were incredibly obtuse and poorly communicated to the player (again, especially in that troublesome 2nd hub). There's no magic bullet that will fix this in all cases, but it's something we will consider much more carefully in the future.
3. The Bike - We know it's jank, and it seems our improvements in handling for Afterglow weren't nearly enough. I believe half of this is a level design problem, and the first part of Sigma in Afterglow was an attempt to relieve some of the issues. It seems even that wasn't quite enough. Nothing is set in stone yet, but we don't know if the bike is going to make the cut going forward. If it does expect another attempt to improve the handling, and more open bike levels with fewer blind corners and sharp turns.
4. The Mutants - From the midpoint on most of the combat revolves around fighting mutants. If you like that, cool, but from a combat variety standpoint things get very stale. Another problem with no magic fix except to be more considerate in our future designs.

Some have said that certain parts in the back half of Afterglow felt rushed, and in truth they were. Our deadline was self imposed, but it was driven by real world commitments and a desire to stop the release from slipping far into 2022. Thus a lot of things didn't get the iteration they needed to be truly polished. We have a better understanding now and a pretty good idea of what not to do, so hopefully we can avoid these pitfalls for Ep3.

Do you have thoughts on this? Is anyone still reading? Does Randy Pitchford deserve the hate? Feel free to leave a comment.

The Question Of Money​

We still aren't taking money, and have no immediate plans to start. You could say that's insane or stupid and yeah you're probably right. We appreciate the people offering to line our pockets, but for now if you want to help us out sharing Ashes with your friends is more than good enough. Spread the word.

One day maybe we'll clean up the complete series and throw it up on Steam for a few bucks, but that day is far in the future if it comes at all.

 

[f2a]

You cannot not praise both Ashes 2063 and its sequel Afterglow.

Personally, being more keen to Doom action, I slightly prefer the first chapter (mostly linear levels + a modicum of story at the end of them). Afterglow embraces open world, side-quests and other RPG elements; I believe it would be better received by codexers.

One thing I really love about the gameplay is the scarcity of resources/ammo. Serves both as a mechanic and a first hand reminder of the barren world Scav lives in, much more effective than any lengthy description.

If you liked Strife, you will enjoy this for sure!

 

[Sigourn]

One thing I really love about the gameplay is the scarcity of resources/ammo.

Agree, I used my sidearm quite often in these games. By comparison, it is very rare that in one of the modern Fallout games you will be forced to use anything but a gun.