Shadow Realms, Bioware's new episodic online co-op action-RPG - Canceled

[Arulan]

Any faint hope that I had for this, which was solely based on the D&D with DM concept was lost after watching this.

 

[Ascensa]

Yeah, but can I have sex with it?

 

[sser]

Dungeonland did this, right? And an indie game just came out with the same concept. I don't mind the idea but so far the attempts have been fairly meh.

The whole episodes thing doesn't make any sense to me, though.

Edit: game looks like hot garbage. Dragon Age 2 engine shaped into the terrible action it game it always strove to be, I guess.

 

[eremita]

BTW, This means Bioware's new IP (the one made by Bioware Edmonton, guys behind ME) is still not revealed... So apparently, they now have 5 franchises - Dragon Age, new IP, Mass Effect, SWTOR and this.

Are you sure this isn't the new IP?

Yep, pretty sure. Ohlen leads the Austin studio, while people in Edmonton are completely separate. I think the new IP will be revealed next year. Probably E3

Video: Game looks too actiony for my taste. I fail to see some complex mechanics behind that furious button mashing. I mean you don't necessarily need TB combat and complex math to make game strategic and tactical, but still... Too much action here for a Dungeon Crawler. But who knows, I'll decide once they reveal more... cause I do like the concept a lot (DM fucking around with players).

 

[Avellion]

Any faint hope that I had for this, which was solely based on the D&D with DM concept was lost after watching this.

One response is not enough, so I will have multiple.

1. Is this supposed to be a horror game. An episode of Teletubbies is more horrifying than this.
2. Holy shit those are some bad graphics. I have seen indie games with better technical graphics.
3. Mash the LMB over and over and occationally the 1-3 button, is this what passes as gameplay to BioWare? Even Super Mario 64 had Mario do more tricks in combat than this and that game wasnt even combat oriented.
4. Holy crap they made the setting seem soo bland. Change their clothing to be more knightlike and I could have mistaken it for any generic fantasy setting.
5. The combat looked well... the less said about it the better. The feedback looked terrible, and it seemed to be nothing but a stunlock to death fest.
6. The game was waaaay too bright.

 

[crawlkill]

good old generic noun + generic noun naming conventions. Dragon Age, Mass Effect, Dragon Age: Inquisition (ooh, a slightly less generic third noun), Shadow Realms (a plural! we're breaking ground!). oh for the days when massive, alien corporate marketing departments didn't have veto power over creative decisions.

 

[Angthoron]

ok so

1) no romances wtf
2) what part is rpg not even clothes
3) like painkiller but on a tighter budget
4) episodic more like epileptic
5) was LoL too hard? heres the solution
6) what if i don't have 4 friends to play it with

Spoiler

no shit i don't, friendlist will get a purge if i see anyone playing it

7) to scary and intense
8) shadowgrounds did shadow + noun better also actually had shadows

8/10 edgies would not buy.


Also how is this an MMO now, since when is a lame 4-player co-op an MMO.

 

[Dr Tomo]

I'm surprised that's not a MOBA though.

EA's moba. Seems like EA's marketing department has been lazy or just stopped giving a shit. This is EA we are talking about, they jump on the band wagon right after the peak not the tail end of it dying (Gearbox/Crytek).

This is actually what I advised that Bioware should have done years ago - kept their toe in the PC-exclusive market with a non-massive multiplayer evolution of the Neverwinter Nights concept.

Instead they abandoned all the hard work they did on NWN1 and went full console. Well, better late than never.

Well f2p (doubt it will be b2p) is now the norm so now would be a perfect time to release something that allows you to customize your character and purchase xp boosts and other awesome stuff behind pay walls.

6) what if i don't have 4 friends to play it with

Spoiler

no shit i don't, friendlist will get a purge if i see anyone playing it

Play with randoms using in game TS and something that no one can resist, f2p using a "stream lined" client called Origin.

 

[LeStryfe79]

Lol at the Budk catalog style weapons.

 

[SuicideBunny]

what's with the recent rise of online coop hns and rpgish shooters....

 

[polo]

This looks so bad. Im not even pirating it.

 

[Avellion]

what's with the recent rise of online coop hns and rpgish shooters....

Borderlands 2 selling 8.5 million copies?

 

[deuxhero]

EA focus groups EVERYTHING. How the hell did they miss that "Shadow Realm(s)" is synonymous with 4Kid's shitty Yugioh dub?

 

[crawlkill]

EA focus groups EVERYTHING. How the hell did they miss that "Shadow Realm(s)" is synonymous with 4Kid's shitty Yugioh dub?

a quick google search for "shadow realms" -bioware -EA -gamescom turns up about 150,000 hits. one of the first is for a LARP in Whitby, Ontario. I'm pretty sure those are both words boring people like to include in meaningless attempts at ominousness.

 

[Tigranes]

Pretty much. A DARK MENACE COMES FROM THE SHADOW REALMS, A LAND OF BLACKEST NIGHT, ALSO THE GLOBAL LEADER IN GOTH FASHION TRENDS AND CURE ALBUMS

 

[Night Goat]

So, it's a "modern fantasy" game...but it has generic fantasy classes, and "the shadowlord" sure does sound like a generic fantasy villain. I wish they were ripping off The Secret World.

 

[Stainless Veteran]

So, it's a "modern fantasy" game...but it has generic fantasy classes, and "the shadowlord" sure does sound like a generic fantasy villain. I wish they were ripping off The Secret World.

They very well could be ripping from it still , and game's fantasy classes + "Shadowlord" will be marketed as "improvement" and "innovation" on modern fantasy formula. DA tried to rip off from ASoIF (badly though) with added generic Forgotten Realms elements and stupid approach "Let's add more inverted tropes, very original!". ME wasn't a pinnacle of originality either.

 

[crawlkill]

I wish they were ripping off The Secret World.

seriously. maybe not THE best wordlbuilding in a game ever, but way, way up there, and close to the top for the most memorable dialogue (monologues?) ever, against any single-player game you could name. I played most of TSW at release, years ago, and I can *still remember* most of what most quest NPCs asked me to do, and why, and some of the words they chose. fucking love that game, and so sorry to see it having floundered (even if I can understand why). I hope it struggles on as long as it can.

one of my worries is that this might leech the last bit of new blood off of TSW. it sounds more "playable," if nothing else, and people don't realize how verbal and immersive-intriguing TSW is gonna be until they play it (I mean, I followed development, and -I- didn't).

 

[Avellion]

So, it's a "modern fantasy" game...but it has generic fantasy classes, and "the shadowlord" sure does sound like a generic fantasy villain.

I remember playing a tongue in cheek fantasy game before that ridiculed all sorts of fantasy and gaming tropes. A name that was very similar to that was one of the bosses, which was followed by the protagonist ridiculing him for his incredibly cheesy and cliche name.

I really hope that BioWare realizes just how cheesy it all sounds.

I wish they were ripping off The Secret World.

They could still have ripped off TSW, but simply failed to understand what made TSW good in the first place. They might have seen TSW has a modern setting, monsters, people in normal clothing, and usage of melee weapons. Then failed to understand what made those things work in the first place.

Speaking of which, I would love to see Funcom make a TSW spiritual successor or sequel. That is a single player experience this time around.

 

[DeepOcean]

Mordern fantasy/horror setting need to play with the fantasy elements and horror elements. You need to be surprised, the writers need to keep some sense of secrecy where the expectations of the player are thrown out of the window as he explore things. I liked secret world in his regard because it knew that a really good and moody atmosphere needs some secrecy and play with the player expectations. Do I trust Bioware at understanding this? NOPE, Bioware has the subtetly and understanding of a sledgehammer.

There must be some level of creepyness on the creatures you are going to face, I was fascinated in Secret World when you could watch some sorry undead fuckers comming out of the sea pregnant with some huge ass oyster, they got to the beach and just die on the sand, over them, a huge and disgusting cocoon would develop and you could see alot of those cocoons infecting the beach it was dangerous as fuck getting nearby them as powerful monsters would be born out of them and with a low level character, two of them meant death. Seeing generic skeletons and spirits on 2014 makes me yawn. This shadowlord thing is truly pathetic and I won't even mention the gameplay.

 

[Angthoron]

They should've gone with my idea.

 

[Ranselknulf]

I like the concept of a 4 to 8 player co-op episodic rpg adventure.

Anything made this way will be monetized to fuck though. I'm imagining paying $20 for 2 hours worth of content once a week.. or something along those lines. Which isn't bad if the quality is good.. but since when is DLC good?

 

[crawlkill]

Speaking of which, I would love to see Funcom make a TSW spiritual successor or sequel. That is a single player experience this time around.

I need that IP not to die so bad. I like the MMO...kinda...would like it more if it had more of a playerbase so I wasn't wandering around on my own all the time. Kingsmouth alone deserves to be developed into a full-scale single-player RPG. So much shit going on there, so much loving level design, and so much more that could be done, too.

Now Bioware's muscling in on the urban fantasy/horror genre with their now-customary corporatized blandness. Look, zombie-skeletons! Look, the word "shadows!" Look, he's got swirly black particle effects, he's gotta be a bad, bad man! Maybe it'll cause an explosion of popularity among terrible people? Maybe that could help TSW (or at least its IP) get its second wind? That would be nice. Doubt it, though.

I like the concept of a 4 to 8 player co-op episodic rpg adventure.

Anything made this way will be monetized to fuck though. I'm imagining paying $20 for 2 hours worth of content once a week.. or something along those lines. Which isn't bad if the quality is good.. but since when is DLC good?

I don't think DLC CAN'T be good. What bothers me is the constant feeling that DLC was actually content cut out of the main game, or the general tendency for the price point to be absurdly high for what's on offer. I'm immensely cynical about EA DLC. They've gone on record way too many times, both in terms of what they've said and what they've done, with their willingness to completely wring players of money.

This is the nature of the megacorporation. They really don't care about the quality of their product or consumer satisfaction. They're digital pushers, interested only in hitting enough of your buttons that you're curious enough to come back when they resell the same product next year in another six installments. You usually get the impression that 90s games came out of some kind of pride--they were businesses developing them, sure, but they were naive businesses, not so callous and manipulative.

 

[Dr Tomo]

I wish they were ripping off The Secret World.

They could still have ripped off TSW, but simply failed to understand what made TSW good in the first place. They might have seen TSW has a modern setting, monsters, people in normal clothing, and usage of melee weapons. Then failed to understand what made those things work in the first place.

Speaking of which, I would love to see Funcom make a TSW spiritual successor or sequel. That is a single player experience this time around.

I think they are trying hard to rip off TSW as the setting is telling enough with the use of modern day aesthetics of clothing, weaponry, and etc. It seems they missed one key ingredient which is the sense of wonder/mystery and hopelessness that shit is only going to get worse while you slowly traveled through the different areas in TSW. Bioware might be successful and better then TSW depending on their ability to write aka avoid doing a information dump and leaving stuff open ended and up to interpretation (can't think of the term it eludes me but applies to today's cinema).

*edit also an interview to give us more info

Shadow Realms interview: BioWare sending out alpha invites next month
Tweet
Wes Fenlon at


Shadow Realms will be playable sooner than anyone expected. BioWare only announced the 4v1 action RPG at Gamescom on Wednesday, but speaking after the EA press conference BioWare Austin General Manager Jeff Hickman revealed that alpha invites will be arriving in players’ inboxes next month. "I've never put a game into a player's hands as early as we're putting this game into players' hands," he told PC Gamer.

Shadow Realms' reveal didn't give us much beyond the broad strokes of its story and the gist of its action RPG combat, but our interview with Hickman helped sketch in some details. We talked about Shadow Realms' D&D roots, how the shadowlord will affect the story, and BioWare's take on episodic storytelling.

The classic BioWare storytelling will definitely show up in Shadow Realms, which mixes a modern day Earth setting with the more classical fantasy world of Embra. But as Hickman explained, the story and adventure parts of the game will be separated. "You're going to get the feel of a BioWare game and a BioWare story, just like any other," he said. "Story with choice, story that hopefully evokes emotion in people, betrayal, saving your love, romance options." that story will be told through singleplayer experiences, but the bulk of the game will be spent in the 4v1 shadowlord mode, where four players team up to take on a quest, and one player fills the D&D role of a dungeon master trying to stop them.

"As you're getting your story missions, they're developing the backstory of the game, and you come to these cliffhanger moments," Hickman said. "I've read probably the first 30 episodes now, and each one has this awesome cliffhanger moment where you're making a choice and the episode's done."

Hickman said BioWare is still experimenting with how long each episode should be, trying to find the right mixture of story and gameplay. The developers also want each adventure sequence to be replayable with different hero combinations, specializations, and shadowlords. Finding that balance is part of the reason BioWare will start allowing players into the game at the alpha stage of development.



There will be at least six classes in the game—warrior, cleric, wizard, assassin, ranger and warlock are the ones BioWare has listed so far—which can be specced differently, have different specializations, and varying equipment thanks to a loot system. The shadowlord is essentially another player class, who spawns with the hero party as a phantom and runs around manipulating the environment. The idea for Shadow Realms really grew from that dungeon master role.

"James Ohlen, our creative director, said that [despite how amazing some RPGs are now], we still don't have that thing we had in D&D—a dungeon master sitting at the edge of the table creating things and changing things and being dynamic in the game. We have AI, it's awesome, but imagine if you enhanced it with a dungeon master."

From that starting point, BioWare built out the capabilities they wanted their DM to have: spells that affect the heroes, the ability to spawn monsters, controlling the overall monster makeup of a level, spawning tricks and traps. "That was the pretty straightfoward stuff," Hickman said. "Then you get into: can we allow him to change the world? In its simplest form, as players are passing through [a level], the shadowlord says: there's two doors in the room. That door will open, that door will not. Or there are two destructible walls, or whatever—he makes a choice and says that one won't open, that one will. By giving the shadowlord those kinds of things to do, we can change the flow of the environment."

Hickman also hinted that BioWare has ambitions about how the shadowlord may even be able to affect the story. "The shadowlord is part of the story. As of right now, he can't change the story directly, but he definitely has an impact on the story in some ways...[that's something] we're going to continue to experiment with."

BioWare plans to use the Shadow Realms alpha to get feedback on the 4v1 shadowlord gameplay—the feel of the action RPG combat, difficulty, balance. "When we get to the point where the players and us think it feels good, we'll put the progression system in, and the loot system, and the story," Hickman said.

Stay tuned to our Gamescom coverage for hands-on impressions of Shadow Realm coming soon.

*source

 

[crawlkill]

I think they are trying hard to rip off TSW as the setting is telling enough with the use of modern day aesthetics of clothing, weaponry, and etc. It seems they missed one key ingredient which is the sense of wonder/mystery and hopelessness that shit is only going to get worse while you slowly traveled through the different areas in TSW.

To be fair, TSW didn't invent the dark urban fantasy/horror genre. But it's certainly the best example I can think of by a wild margin.