Codex Interview RPG Codex Interview: Chris Bischoff on Beautiful Desolation

[Kev Inkline]

Stasis and Cayne were obviously inspired by the Alien films and other sci-fi horror. What are the fictional inspirations for Beautiful Desolation?

There really were many, as we draw our inspiration from each book, film, game, etc., that we enjoy. If I’d run them off, I’d say Fallout, Mad Max, The Book of Eli, A Boy and his Dog, even painters like Albert Goodwin have had some sort of influence on the look of Beautiful Desolation.

So far gotten some Greg Bear's Eon vibes - 80s scene, a huge object from unknown world appears near Earth etc.

 

[Darkozric]

Upon a closer look it reminds me of Disco Elysium, but better. Lighter on walls of text and has actual combat.

It is better, BD has gameplay. Disco it's pretty much a visual novel with 0 puzzles and 0 actual detective work.

 

[The_Sloth_Sleeps]

So far, I'm not overly impressed. Its ok, not bad but not great either.
I'm struggling to continue with it if I'm being honest. But I do want to like it.
I don't like how the scenes are composed visually, the characters don't pop out enough.
I don't like the green boxes that seem pointless.

 

[The_Sloth_Sleeps]

Yeah just refunded. Eh I also don't like how I can only interact and talk with select characters and objects.

 

[Kev Inkline]

How far did you make it?

Spoiler

also refunding is gay and so are you

 

[The_Sloth_Sleeps]

How far did you make it?

Spoiler

also refunding is gay and so are you

Just over 1.59 hours in.

 

[Zarniwoop]

Refunding is super gay tho.

That's the reason Steam sales aren't really Steam sales anymore.

 

[The_Sloth_Sleeps]

Refunding is super gay tho.

That's the reason Steam sales aren't really Steam sales anymore.

What do you mean by "super gay"? I think that its a good policy given that most games since '99 don't have demos.

 

[Zarniwoop]

Refunding is super gay tho.

That's the reason Steam sales aren't really Steam sales anymore.

What do you mean by "super gay"? I think that its a good policy given that most games since '99 don't have demos.

It's a shit policy because entitled millennial shits abuse the hell out of it.

And because it's the reason Steam sales went from 80-90% events to maybe 50% if you're lucky. And no more flash sales. Thank you refundfags.

 

[The_Sloth_Sleeps]

Refunding is super gay tho.

That's the reason Steam sales aren't really Steam sales anymore.

What do you mean by "super gay"? I think that its a good policy given that most games since '99 don't have demos.

It's a shit policy because entitled millennial shits abuse the hell out of it.

And because it's the reason Steam sales went from 80-90% events to maybe 50% if you're lucky. And no more flash sales. Thank you refundfags.

How can it be abused? 2 hours is about enough time to know if you want to play the game.

And how do you derive those figures? And wheres the connection between those figures and refunds?

 

[Zarniwoop]

How can it be abused? 2 hours is about enough time to know if you want to play the game.

And how do you derive those figures? And wheres the connection between those figures and refunds?

Gaben himself said so. He said that's the reason sales are changing and why they abandoned flash sales.

 

[Darkozric]

Yeah just refunded. Eh I also don't like how I can only interact and talk with select characters and objects.

It's an adventure game not a cRPG. If you want a talking simulator then definitely this game is not for you.

 

[Morality Games]

Refunding is super gay tho.

That's the reason Steam sales aren't really Steam sales anymore.

What do you mean by "super gay"? I think that its a good policy given that most games since '99 don't have demos.

It's a shit policy because entitled millennial shits abuse the hell out of it.

And because it's the reason Steam sales went from 80-90% events to maybe 50% if you're lucky. And no more flash sales. Thank you refundfags.

... it's impossible for me to believe that consumers shouldn't have a right to a refund.

 

[Zarniwoop]

... it's impossible for me to believe that consumers shouldn't have a right to a refund.

Do any of the other game rental services offer refunds?

 

[Morality Games]

... it's impossible for me to believe that consumers shouldn't have a right to a refund.

Do any of the other game rental services offer refunds?

No, because digital marketplaces (selling software as licenses or subscriptions, etc) are an aggressive exploitation of loopholes and poorly adapted laws that software developers use to avoid the previous century's already weak consumer protections. Legislators err heavily on the side of businesses over consumers when it comes to this industry because the overwhelming majority of them are old codgers who wouldn't understand how to operate a Roku if push came to shove. It's impossible to tell if a business is predatory or harmful to the national economy if you don't understand how they work.

Why it took them decades to impose Internet sales taxes, for example.

I also have no real belief that refunds are the primary cause of scaling back Steam sales, sounds more like public relations BS; like paid mods, Steam and especially game developers have wanted to scale back sales for a long, long time, but were unable to due to the nature of the market they had cultivated.

One of the primary (but by no means the only) reason why Steam had low sales was because they wanted to preserve their monopoly over PC-game sales by ensuring the barrier of entry was too low for any competitor to seize any market share, but now that powerful corporations with deep pockets have decided to be in the market no matter what, Steam will have to maintain more realistic prices.

That's because Epic Games and Microsoft will literally pay developers far more money than they can make on a 90% steam sale just to put games on their stores (regardless of whether anybody buys them) while not putting them on Steam, all without odious demands like owning the IP -- it's the same reason why Sony maintains a monopoly on the popular mainline Persona series.

So, while Steam might still be willing to sell games at 90%, they can't find software developers to put a game on their store if Epic and Microsoft are just going to use unlimited financial resources to pay developers *not* to put their games on Steam for as many years as it takes.

 

[Xzylvador]

If a person thought he was buying an RPG and found out it was actually a point-and-click adventure game, why shouldn't he be allowed to get a refund?
That's not 'exploiting'; it's fixing an honest mistake.
Not The Brotherhood's mistake, it's not marketed as an RPG. (Though I wonder if the engine couldn't be used as one, it's a damned beautiful game!) An interview about said game on a site called the RPGCodex might have caused that mistake.

My review:
A somewhat short and not too difficult point-and-click adventure which might also be the best looking adventure I've ever played. (The not-too-difficult part is not meant as a bad thing; the solutions simply make sense. No nonsensical combining random items with each-other is good.)
Voice acting varies from great to pretty bad. Ironically the main character's is probably the worst but after a while I got over it and figured it was just his way of talking I guess.
The atmosphere and setting is beautiful, the story is good though I didn't really like the ending; somewhat feels like a lost opportunity because I'm certain there's a better way to end it.
Finished it in 14 hours according to steam. Could have done it sooner and quicker but some reloading and afk-time are added to it. It might deserve a second playthrough to witness the results of the other choices, but ultimately in the end it doesn't matter really much so I'm not certain, more about this below. It will be a lot quicker to go through, so I might...
Also my completionist OCD made me repeat the pixel-hunting 'gold item finding' more often than required. This is the only part of the game that I didn't really like: You have to really zig-zag across every map, making sure you've checked every possible corner, hoping for an eye icon to pop up so you can find money which helps to buy some items you need to progress. A simple occasional glitter of gold in the sunlight, indicating that there's something to look for, might have been welcome here. This pixel-hunt just distracted me from enjoying the amazing beauty of the place I was exploring, which it bad because the art that each location in this game really is, deserves to be admired without distraction.

-- I almost wrote something about wanting more C&C and the lack of meaningful effect my choices had on the ending. But as I wrote it, I realised it's because of the same mistake The_Sloth_Sleeps made.
This game looks so much like an RPG that it's hard to avoid the mistake of comparing it to one. But it is, ultimately, a point-and-click adventure game and C&C never really is a part of this genre. The fact that there is some C&C is pretty unique for the genre and really adds flavor to the story and setting.
The same could be said about the 'lack of interaction' The_Sloth complained about. It does make the place feel more dead and empty than we're used to. But this, again, is because it's so easy to mistake the game for an RPG where these things are common. In this game, as an adventure game, only being able to interact with objects/persons which help you progress actually made the game a lot easier and removed the frustration of having to talk and try each item on every random people over and over in the hope that this would somehow progress the puzzle.
To avoid future butthurt: It is not an RPG and should not be in the 2021 poll.

 

[Kev Inkline]

I like the main character's voice acting. Have you heard how Pyke sounds? Boith the character and its creator are from a world alien to us.

 

[baud]

and it should not be in the 2021 poll.

Well, it's been released in 2020, so in any cases it won't be in the 2021 poll.

 

[Darkozric]

My review :

Beautiful Desolation is an adventure game not a cRPG.
I'm starting with this simple statement because some people expected ultra-high interactivity and talking to everything that is moving.
As an adventure game the puzzles are easy and logical and there are 0 nonsensical combinations of the items. The game’s challenge is achieved mostly from the various places you need to visit and NPCs. The world is open and if you hate some backtracking to find the appropriate NPCs or items crucial to the plot, then this game is definitely not for you.
The trick here is to remember very well the places and NPCs you visit. I saw many people complaining about the difficulty of the game and demanding a hint system. In my opinion don’t play this game using a hint system or walkthrough, you'll kill the purpose of the game and transform it to a pointless walking simulator. It's not that difficult as they claim to be, trust me. As a last resort just keep some notes on a piece of paper and you will be fine.
The setting is beautiful and bizarre, admittedly this is the main selling point here and the characters are very colorful and vibrant. I enjoyed most of the voice acting, especially the weird NPCs but the main characters voice acting could have been better.
There is some combat too in the form of an arena but don't expect too much depth from it, it's just there to kill some extra time while playing the game and completely avoidable if you want to. The story is also good, nothing ground-breaking but still enjoyable.
Music and sound are very well done and atmospheric as expected to be. Visually the game is gorgeous, the 2D isometric rendered environments are beautiful. They are like a slap in the face for those who claim that 2D isometric art is outdated. Basically, this is how Baldur's Gate 3 should look like in my opinion.
My biggest issue is that there is not enough weird animal wildlife as was presented in the early Kickstarter footage and many truly beautiful levels left out from the game. It's a pity that they left them out, I wanted to explore Babel more... It took me around 20 hours to finish without hints or walkthrough and doing all the combat. It is definitely a value for money and it has some replayability for a second playthrough.

As a final line, let’s hope that the Brotherhood will hear our voices and make an RPG for their next project in a similar beautiful environment.

 

[The_Sloth_Sleeps]

What I can't get my head around is why such a nice isometric environment was NOT made into a CRPG. Instead they choose adventure, which is totally wrong. All adventure games are made in AGS. Everyone knows this fact.