ManjuShri
Self-Ejected
I think it's +1 per karma collection received.
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Shadowrun Shadowrun Returns - Dead Man's Switch Original Campaign
- Thread starter evdk
- Start date
crawlkill
Kill all boxed game owners. Kill! Kill!
- Joined
- May 9, 2012
- Messages
- 674
You lost all hope in the team? I thought you already decided not to buy it.
crawlkill
Kill all boxed game owners. Kill! Kill!
- Joined
- May 9, 2012
- Messages
- 674
aren't you Canadian? show some fucking humanity.
sea
inXile Entertainment
- Joined
- May 3, 2011
- Messages
- 5,698
Thoughts so far.
- Excellent visuals. Fantastic character designs and environments. Character animations are a bit meh, but ah well, overall the game looks great.
- The writing, save for a few typos, is very good and probably the game's biggest strength next to the graphics. Characters are interesting and have decent depth to them without resorting to walls of text, nice dialogue options available, etc.
- DAT MUSIC
- Do dialogue skills even matter that much? Maybe there's some C&C at some points in the story but I'm seeing very little right now.
- The actual gameplay is kinda weak unfortunately. It seems to consist mostly of walking around barely interactive environments, clicking icons as they pop up, and then getting into combat. Granted, I'm very early in (maybe 2 hours) but I'm not too impressed at the sheer lack of stuff to do and the relatively small combat sections. Even just having some more containers to loot and bits and pieces in the environment to examine or read would help. It's all very clean and spartan.
- Combat is definitely solid, but not especially deep. On the default difficult it's indeed too easy - my character has very little HP yet is still able to tank most enemies at point-blank range, for instance. I like it. In a game that is less linear and had more than just fighting and dialogue, it'd be totally fine. But it has to carry most of the gameplay, and it's not quite good enough to do that.
It's been shown to being a scam, and the woman behing the campaign to be a shady character to say the least. But nevermind that.
Sensuki
Arcane
I posted this on a different non-RPG site that I post on. Contains stuff people here already know but anyway.
Okay after a few hours playing. I will say the game is definitely worth the $15 I spent on it. Also definitely worth $20, but apparently the amount of content in the first campaign is pretty short, its 8-12 hours but there will be a second campaign released as free DLC and there's also the editor so there will be heaps of custom content.
That probably means I'm halfway through or more already.
It's a linear story with sidequests that are pretty hard to miss. It's definitely "Shadowrun style" though. For the most part you run around with your PC and talk to NPCs, then you go into a "mission" and gain a temporary character from the world and/or you can hire Shadowrunners to help you out, which is hooked into the story rather than just being a random mechanic in the game.
The art style is definitely charming, the character/NPC portraits are very cool. Any changes you make to your character are reflected on the character model.
Character building system is classless, although there are some pre-defined paths that you can choose. You gain 'Karma points' from doing missions/objectives and you spend them on attributes and skills (which are sub-components of attributes).
It's a pretty good system although like most other games it is definitely prone to min/maxing. As a Street Samurai style character, I have absolutely no use for Intelligence, Willpower or Charisma outside of dialogue options - but I think that's fine because it's a requirement to access skills associated with that. I have missed out on locked doors and stuff because I haven't had a Rigger in my party during missions.
The only reason I mentioned that at all is because I've been having arguments with one of the Project Eternity developers about system design. Josh Sawyer believes there shouldn't be trap choices when building characters. If I put points across all the disciplines I will be a worse character for it because I won't have access to any of the high level options. There are a lot of people who are terrible at games out there, and being able to gimp your character during character creation does turn noobs off from playing RPGs like this because they find it too hard because of their poor strategical choices when building a character, which has delayed ramifications.
Shadowrun Returns definitely has this (as do most RPG games) and I think to compensate for it, the difficulty of the game is dumbed down, so people who are not retarded will find the game pretty fucking easy, and those that build gimp characters will be moderately challenged.
Personally it's not something I care about personally, I know how to build characters and I'm not bothered by the status quo of RPG character systems. But it does annoy me that games are dumbed down because of this.
The linearity of the story kind of makes it feel like an interactive novel. Dialogue is pretty much a one way street. It is clear pretty much all the time which dialogue option is the 'win' option, and there are a lot of trap options in the dialogue, so be careful when playing. I noticed this pretty early on, and I think only once I missed out on some information because of an option I selected but it didn't matter anyway as it was pretty much just fluff info that would have given me a little bit of extra insight into the mission.
Combat is alright, it's not exactly deep, I think it's a little bit better than Expeditions: Conquistador in execution but it's definitely a lot easier. In Expeditions: Conqustador, since there's no permadeath in combat (well if there is it's HARD to achieve), it's common for you to lose characters during a fight, you just have to heal them afterwards over several rests before they can be used again.
In Shadowrun if your PC goes down in combat, game over. If your Shadowrunners go down, you've got about 3 turns to revive them or they're dead. I haven't had a story NPC die on me yet, so I don't know how that affects the game, but I've had a couple Shadowrunners get dropped, one of them I didn't notice because the shadowrunner was disabled, then slept and because I had 3 of my characters bunched up and the animation of them being dropped doesn't look like death I didn't realize, so that girl died.
That's my own fault for not looking at the UI though, however the UI being right-sided is kinda weird. This is what I don't like about UI's where the stuff you have to LOOK at is on the right and the interactive side is on the left. There is a higher chance of you missing information because studies have shown that people pay attention to stuff on their left more than their right (they look at the right side of things). That is definitely true for me. I'd prefer to have the interactive side of the dialogue on the right and the dialogue/character portraits etc on the left.
Characters with guns have to reload, but there unlimited ammo (which I think was a consequence of low budget (or at least that's what they said) rather than a design choice. So that makes things kind of easy.
I do like the item system though, it suits the game. More choice is always welcome but so far I think there's been enough items and item progression - my fear is that it will cap off before the game ends and things will become a bit stale.
The inventory system is fine. You can also apply cyber upgrades to your character too which I think is a nice touch, however doing this reduces your magical capability. Not an issue as a Street Samurai or a Decker (or an Adept possibly).
There's no looting bodies, but I've seen characters drop mission items from their bodies through the scripted interaction system. Characters do not drop guns or items or anything. Apparently according to Shadowrun players this fits with the setting, as P&P Shadowrun isn't about looting anyway. Shadowrunners are professionals and get payed for runs. But this is also (stated by devs) a consequence of budget rather than a design decision.
Another budget limitation was no save anywhere. Instead there is a checkpoint save system. So far I haven't been compromised by it, but I can see how if you have to leave or do something in the middle of a mission, you're gonna have to start again - or just leave the game open. Which should be fine if you're not in combat ... even in combat, dunno if turns have a timer.
Expeditions: Conquistador had a budget of 80K and they managed to include a save anywhere system ... this game got $1.8M and they couldn't so perhaps it also says something about how Hairbrained the Hairbrained Schemes development pipelines are.
Another thing to take into consideration is that this game was originally going to be a Mobile/Tablet game or something, but when they got heaps of money they decided to make it a PC, Mac and Linux game as well, so while not consolized, they haven't taken full advantage of what a PC RPG can do, and instead kept things relatively simple so iPhone and iPad users can play the game too.
I don't want to say anything about the story to avoid spoilers, but I will say that so far it has been good/fun, if predictable. There's no voice acting but the writing is good and characters are instilled with their own personality. I have seen very, very little dry statement of facts by anyone. Characters definitely do exist solely as plot devices but they are written with personality. The vibe of the game is kind of ... Sin City but Cyberpunk/Fantasy.
The biggest downside so far is I'm having issues with the Audio. I've had issues with every Unity game I've played so far - when assets are being loaded in real time by the hard drive the game microstutters and the audio crackles. It happens in Expeditions: Conquistador as well. I don't seem to be alone with the problem but not everyone gets it. I can't help but think if I installed it on my SSD that the problem would be less noticeable. It's the worst when the game loads the avatar in the character screen.
Anyway, I'm enjoying it so far. I was a bit apprehensive in the weeks leading up to the game but I would say money well spent.
Okay after a few hours playing. I will say the game is definitely worth the $15 I spent on it. Also definitely worth $20, but apparently the amount of content in the first campaign is pretty short, its 8-12 hours but there will be a second campaign released as free DLC and there's also the editor so there will be heaps of custom content.
That probably means I'm halfway through or more already.
It's a linear story with sidequests that are pretty hard to miss. It's definitely "Shadowrun style" though. For the most part you run around with your PC and talk to NPCs, then you go into a "mission" and gain a temporary character from the world and/or you can hire Shadowrunners to help you out, which is hooked into the story rather than just being a random mechanic in the game.
The art style is definitely charming, the character/NPC portraits are very cool. Any changes you make to your character are reflected on the character model.
Character building system is classless, although there are some pre-defined paths that you can choose. You gain 'Karma points' from doing missions/objectives and you spend them on attributes and skills (which are sub-components of attributes).
It's a pretty good system although like most other games it is definitely prone to min/maxing. As a Street Samurai style character, I have absolutely no use for Intelligence, Willpower or Charisma outside of dialogue options - but I think that's fine because it's a requirement to access skills associated with that. I have missed out on locked doors and stuff because I haven't had a Rigger in my party during missions.
The only reason I mentioned that at all is because I've been having arguments with one of the Project Eternity developers about system design. Josh Sawyer believes there shouldn't be trap choices when building characters. If I put points across all the disciplines I will be a worse character for it because I won't have access to any of the high level options. There are a lot of people who are terrible at games out there, and being able to gimp your character during character creation does turn noobs off from playing RPGs like this because they find it too hard because of their poor strategical choices when building a character, which has delayed ramifications.
Shadowrun Returns definitely has this (as do most RPG games) and I think to compensate for it, the difficulty of the game is dumbed down, so people who are not retarded will find the game pretty fucking easy, and those that build gimp characters will be moderately challenged.
Personally it's not something I care about personally, I know how to build characters and I'm not bothered by the status quo of RPG character systems. But it does annoy me that games are dumbed down because of this.
The linearity of the story kind of makes it feel like an interactive novel. Dialogue is pretty much a one way street. It is clear pretty much all the time which dialogue option is the 'win' option, and there are a lot of trap options in the dialogue, so be careful when playing. I noticed this pretty early on, and I think only once I missed out on some information because of an option I selected but it didn't matter anyway as it was pretty much just fluff info that would have given me a little bit of extra insight into the mission.
Combat is alright, it's not exactly deep, I think it's a little bit better than Expeditions: Conquistador in execution but it's definitely a lot easier. In Expeditions: Conqustador, since there's no permadeath in combat (well if there is it's HARD to achieve), it's common for you to lose characters during a fight, you just have to heal them afterwards over several rests before they can be used again.
In Shadowrun if your PC goes down in combat, game over. If your Shadowrunners go down, you've got about 3 turns to revive them or they're dead. I haven't had a story NPC die on me yet, so I don't know how that affects the game, but I've had a couple Shadowrunners get dropped, one of them I didn't notice because the shadowrunner was disabled, then slept and because I had 3 of my characters bunched up and the animation of them being dropped doesn't look like death I didn't realize, so that girl died.
That's my own fault for not looking at the UI though, however the UI being right-sided is kinda weird. This is what I don't like about UI's where the stuff you have to LOOK at is on the right and the interactive side is on the left. There is a higher chance of you missing information because studies have shown that people pay attention to stuff on their left more than their right (they look at the right side of things). That is definitely true for me. I'd prefer to have the interactive side of the dialogue on the right and the dialogue/character portraits etc on the left.
Characters with guns have to reload, but there unlimited ammo (which I think was a consequence of low budget (or at least that's what they said) rather than a design choice. So that makes things kind of easy.
I do like the item system though, it suits the game. More choice is always welcome but so far I think there's been enough items and item progression - my fear is that it will cap off before the game ends and things will become a bit stale.
The inventory system is fine. You can also apply cyber upgrades to your character too which I think is a nice touch, however doing this reduces your magical capability. Not an issue as a Street Samurai or a Decker (or an Adept possibly).
There's no looting bodies, but I've seen characters drop mission items from their bodies through the scripted interaction system. Characters do not drop guns or items or anything. Apparently according to Shadowrun players this fits with the setting, as P&P Shadowrun isn't about looting anyway. Shadowrunners are professionals and get payed for runs. But this is also (stated by devs) a consequence of budget rather than a design decision.
Another budget limitation was no save anywhere. Instead there is a checkpoint save system. So far I haven't been compromised by it, but I can see how if you have to leave or do something in the middle of a mission, you're gonna have to start again - or just leave the game open. Which should be fine if you're not in combat ... even in combat, dunno if turns have a timer.
Expeditions: Conquistador had a budget of 80K and they managed to include a save anywhere system ... this game got $1.8M and they couldn't so perhaps it also says something about how Hairbrained the Hairbrained Schemes development pipelines are.
Another thing to take into consideration is that this game was originally going to be a Mobile/Tablet game or something, but when they got heaps of money they decided to make it a PC, Mac and Linux game as well, so while not consolized, they haven't taken full advantage of what a PC RPG can do, and instead kept things relatively simple so iPhone and iPad users can play the game too.
I don't want to say anything about the story to avoid spoilers, but I will say that so far it has been good/fun, if predictable. There's no voice acting but the writing is good and characters are instilled with their own personality. I have seen very, very little dry statement of facts by anyone. Characters definitely do exist solely as plot devices but they are written with personality. The vibe of the game is kind of ... Sin City but Cyberpunk/Fantasy.
The biggest downside so far is I'm having issues with the Audio. I've had issues with every Unity game I've played so far - when assets are being loaded in real time by the hard drive the game microstutters and the audio crackles. It happens in Expeditions: Conquistador as well. I don't seem to be alone with the problem but not everyone gets it. I can't help but think if I installed it on my SSD that the problem would be less noticeable. It's the worst when the game loads the avatar in the character screen.
Anyway, I'm enjoying it so far. I was a bit apprehensive in the weeks leading up to the game but I would say money well spent.
Where is the proof of it being a scam? While it's a highly peculiar Kickstarter campaign, I wouldn't call it a scam until nothing is delivered. In the comments section, it appears some goods have been sent. Doesn't appear to be a scam yet.
However, I agree that the "send my kid to camp even though I could easily do it" campaign was off-putting, which is why I decided not to help fund it.
you know what time it is
Arcane
Fairly shitty game to be honest, modders might save it but...
everything about it is boring
combat is simplistic and dull
writing is average at best
interaction is very limited and streamlined
its also very linear (like MW singleplayer kind of linear)
no variety in terms of gear
skills are just bland + - stat adjusters or flat damage dealers without any interesting effects.
overall - very meh, turned it off after 2 hours
everything about it is boring
combat is simplistic and dull
writing is average at best
interaction is very limited and streamlined
its also very linear (like MW singleplayer kind of linear)
no variety in terms of gear
skills are just bland + - stat adjusters or flat damage dealers without any interesting effects.
overall - very meh, turned it off after 2 hours
The woman is a millionaire who exploited her sons and daughter to bilk money from impressionable feminist idiots and white knights who lap that shit up as though it's ambrosia. Anyone who donated should be ashamed of themselves. The only aspect of the campaign that bothers me is that Kickstarter allowed a "fund my life" project to go forward in violation of the rules because it had an "ITZ FOR WOMYN" stamp on it.
I'm pretty sure Steve Jackson joined the RPGnet-flavored camp of ultralib feminist toadyism years ago. A lot of tabletop gaming omega males have. It's an unfortunate reality of the industry, but I stopped playing tabletop half a decade ago and so it doesn't really affect me at this point.
The same woman has been linked to various other scams and money-grubbing enterprises.
I'm pretty sure Steve Jackson joined the RPGnet-flavored camp of ultralib feminist toadyism years ago. A lot of tabletop gaming omega males have. It's an unfortunate reality of the industry, but I stopped playing tabletop half a decade ago and so it doesn't really affect me at this point.
The same woman has been linked to various other scams and money-grubbing enterprises.
Sensuki
Arcane
For $15 I'd say it's alright. I wasn't expecting anything great from this one, but I would be very disappointed if Wasteland 2 or Project Eternity was as simple as this game is.
Seems like more of a play once and forget game.
Seems like more of a play once and forget game.
- Joined
- Nov 23, 2002
- Messages
- 6,083
So as a Shaman does any skill raise your summoned spirits chance to hit? I was going through without too much trouble, then I made it to the graveyard and suddenly my spirits have like a 55% chance to hit anything so now unless the ai bothers to waste a ap or two shooting them they are pretty much useless, and not the dinky little force 1 ones, the force 3 and 4 ones that cost like 600 nuyen. I can hire a runner that sticks around for the whole mission for just twice that.
Grrr I finally got the stupid Decker out of the matrix in the temple with the unkillable bugs and the game locked up on the enemy turn before I could run my squad out of there
Grrr I finally got the stupid Decker out of the matrix in the temple with the unkillable bugs and the game locked up on the enemy turn before I could run my squad out of there
I made a shotgun tooting ork just to get a feel for the game but I ended up playing for much longer than I intended. Man does this game have nice atmosphere. I'm currently fighting the bugs in the brotherhood's cellar.
Aye, the modding community might do some interesting stuff with it that makes it worth keeping on your HDD though.
Since you probably pirated it anyway....I say Good fucking riddance.
Multi-headed Cow
Guest
Thoughts after 5 hours, according to Steam.
Combat is really fucking hard if you're a decker and chose pistols. I'm almost completely useless. Had to use medkits often, I'm not very accurate, and I do shit for damage.
That said, combat AI is dumber than a sack of hammers. Playing on hard and it never ever ever attacks more than once in a turn for a unit and regularly does things like casts a +AP buff on a unit that has already used up all its AP, which then does nothing.
Only gone into the matrix once. (During Coyote's mission to get.. Uh... Some dude. I've already forgotten and I played it 5 minutes ago) Matrix was really kinda cool, I like how it plays on a different playing field and at a different speed to the real world. Only problem is I'm not sure if my "Programs" are single use per-time I jack in or not. I assumed not, but I'm not clear on that. Anyway, that was sorta neat. Made my decker less useless since I was able to calm all the chipheads down. Took a few turns though and if I was a badass fighter I probably could've done the same just killing 'em AND been more useful in non-decking situations, but ok.
Writing has been a bit of a mixed bag, but really it just feels like someone DMing a tabletop game only without the bonus of being as free and open as a tabletop game. 'sok.
I'd be fine with the linear and railroaded nature of the game if you had more options for dealing with things, especially non-combat solutions. Combat sometimes is the only option, sure, but there have been a few moments where I felt like there should be more wiggle room. Seems like no real branching C&C anywhere yet, at best there are side missions you can take or not take. I am enjoying the world and the setting apart from the fact that your character is completely retarded. Strung out junky shadowrunner has a $100,000 insurance policy which you'll get if you find his killer, and you believe him because he shows you 5 seconds of a guy in a suit. Uh-huh. I've never played Shadowrun but I've played and DMed a hell of a lot of other RPGs and I'm calling shenanigans. Then again I guess you have to start the adventure somehow, but still.
Interface is kind of annoying. Someone in CDS had to tell me how to cast spells outside of combat, 'cause I couldn't figure it out myself (Character sheet and then spells/items). No keyboard commands listed in-game either. Kind of disappointing that usable objects would blend into the background so much that giant "USE HERE" icons are required.
Graphics are nice. Noticed some poorly stacked buildings (Could see the gaps between layers). I wish you could run at the max run speed (Seems to be walk, run 1, and run 2) at all times, and I wish you could increase the combat animation speeds since it gets a bit dragassy with 8-12ish enemies slowly animating their way around. The animations themselves are stiff but who cares, the backgrounds and the little 3D models are nice.
FUCK THE CHECKPOINT SAVES TO DEATH. I was completely fine with checkpoint saves until I saw how they're spaced in this game. One save at the beginning of each new zone doesn't cut the mustard.
Haven't futzed with the editor yet. Hoping better adventures come out of that than the official campaign thus far. It's not NWN1-bad by any means, but smaller adventures with more options may be more to my taste. Not sure how well the game will handle importing/exporting characters though.
Overall it's alright. Probably worth the $15 from the Kickstarter (Plus I'll get Berlin when that's released, I guess) but after playing it a bit I'm not super pumped about playing more. Roxxor was full of shit about the soundtrack being great too. All I can think of is Starcraft 1. It's driving me crazy, actually.
Combat is really fucking hard if you're a decker and chose pistols. I'm almost completely useless. Had to use medkits often, I'm not very accurate, and I do shit for damage.
That said, combat AI is dumber than a sack of hammers. Playing on hard and it never ever ever attacks more than once in a turn for a unit and regularly does things like casts a +AP buff on a unit that has already used up all its AP, which then does nothing.
Only gone into the matrix once. (During Coyote's mission to get.. Uh... Some dude. I've already forgotten and I played it 5 minutes ago) Matrix was really kinda cool, I like how it plays on a different playing field and at a different speed to the real world. Only problem is I'm not sure if my "Programs" are single use per-time I jack in or not. I assumed not, but I'm not clear on that. Anyway, that was sorta neat. Made my decker less useless since I was able to calm all the chipheads down. Took a few turns though and if I was a badass fighter I probably could've done the same just killing 'em AND been more useful in non-decking situations, but ok.
Writing has been a bit of a mixed bag, but really it just feels like someone DMing a tabletop game only without the bonus of being as free and open as a tabletop game. 'sok.
I'd be fine with the linear and railroaded nature of the game if you had more options for dealing with things, especially non-combat solutions. Combat sometimes is the only option, sure, but there have been a few moments where I felt like there should be more wiggle room. Seems like no real branching C&C anywhere yet, at best there are side missions you can take or not take. I am enjoying the world and the setting apart from the fact that your character is completely retarded. Strung out junky shadowrunner has a $100,000 insurance policy which you'll get if you find his killer, and you believe him because he shows you 5 seconds of a guy in a suit. Uh-huh. I've never played Shadowrun but I've played and DMed a hell of a lot of other RPGs and I'm calling shenanigans. Then again I guess you have to start the adventure somehow, but still.
Interface is kind of annoying. Someone in CDS had to tell me how to cast spells outside of combat, 'cause I couldn't figure it out myself (Character sheet and then spells/items). No keyboard commands listed in-game either. Kind of disappointing that usable objects would blend into the background so much that giant "USE HERE" icons are required.
Graphics are nice. Noticed some poorly stacked buildings (Could see the gaps between layers). I wish you could run at the max run speed (Seems to be walk, run 1, and run 2) at all times, and I wish you could increase the combat animation speeds since it gets a bit dragassy with 8-12ish enemies slowly animating their way around. The animations themselves are stiff but who cares, the backgrounds and the little 3D models are nice.
FUCK THE CHECKPOINT SAVES TO DEATH. I was completely fine with checkpoint saves until I saw how they're spaced in this game. One save at the beginning of each new zone doesn't cut the mustard.
Haven't futzed with the editor yet. Hoping better adventures come out of that than the official campaign thus far. It's not NWN1-bad by any means, but smaller adventures with more options may be more to my taste. Not sure how well the game will handle importing/exporting characters though.
Overall it's alright. Probably worth the $15 from the Kickstarter (Plus I'll get Berlin when that's released, I guess) but after playing it a bit I'm not super pumped about playing more. Roxxor was full of shit about the soundtrack being great too. All I can think of is Starcraft 1. It's driving me crazy, actually.
you know what time it is
Arcane
That's not necessarily true - http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1477083354/14-yr-old-wants-to-make-his-1st-game-a-first-perso
I suspect the main reason these were allowed is the end product: the game. You're probably right that emotion probably played into high funding, but I don't believe these kids are getting exploited for Mommy and Daddy's vacation or some other mischievous plan. That is just too cynical... even for me. I think they're just too cheap to provide for their kids interests and development.
Grimlorn
Arcane
- Joined
- Jun 1, 2011
- Messages
- 10,248
It's a scam because there is a rule against funding life stuff. Also, she cancelled the camp trip and someone at MIT offered to teach her for a week for free. She got a free laptop from Dell. Basically the money is going nowhere but in the mother's pocket because there is nothing to spend it on for a little girl making a game in RPG maker. I think it was suppose to be delivered sometime in July, but doubt that is going to happen. I also think there was mention of some sort of trip to Istanbul for some kind of feminist meeting that was paid for too, but not sure if I'm getting that mixed up with something else I read.
13 hours on steam, including idle time for a dinner break. Finished on Very hard. Decker/Rigger setup. Didn't bring a gun along until the last mission. else it was just cyberdeck and 1-2 drones. (Ranks in ranged were mainly to get the third weapon slot).
Writing was decent. Not amazing, but better than most of the videogame shit we get these days. I did get a bit annoyed with how it suddenly devolved into a save the world scenario with immortal elves and dragons suddenly talking to you as if you were some sort of equal but meh... I guess they were really itching to namedrop. Only deaths I had were the namedrop decker, who took fireballs while doing the last matrix run and the namedrop elf in the last mission who took 3 crits in a single turn. There were some good setpiece encounters with interestign enemy placement though. and even if I lived trough all of them on the first try, I did end up using way more consumables than usual.
Story was linear as all hell - but we've been saying we expected that pretty much since the kickstarter. Dialogue choices were extremely biowarian -- and I feel kind of cheated on the etiquettes. They barely saw any use.
The matrix runs were prety interesting. I liked how they (usually) ran simultaneously with a regular firefight and forced you to be a bit more aggressive than you might've liked because things were shooting in meatspace. The game could've done a bit more to inform players about how programs and ESPs worked. Namely programs are reusable and the amount you can bring are limited by your deck, while ESPs are one-use thingies like spirits. I was confused for a while about how to actually equip the programs I got (And srsly Harebrained. No Black Hammer? For shame!). The help screens could do with mentioning you get to equip them from your stash when you jack in.
The game's going to stand or fall on the community-made missions. I'm poking around the editor now.
Writing was decent. Not amazing, but better than most of the videogame shit we get these days. I did get a bit annoyed with how it suddenly devolved into a save the world scenario with immortal elves and dragons suddenly talking to you as if you were some sort of equal but meh... I guess they were really itching to namedrop. Only deaths I had were the namedrop decker, who took fireballs while doing the last matrix run and the namedrop elf in the last mission who took 3 crits in a single turn. There were some good setpiece encounters with interestign enemy placement though. and even if I lived trough all of them on the first try, I did end up using way more consumables than usual.
Story was linear as all hell - but we've been saying we expected that pretty much since the kickstarter. Dialogue choices were extremely biowarian -- and I feel kind of cheated on the etiquettes. They barely saw any use.
The matrix runs were prety interesting. I liked how they (usually) ran simultaneously with a regular firefight and forced you to be a bit more aggressive than you might've liked because things were shooting in meatspace. The game could've done a bit more to inform players about how programs and ESPs worked. Namely programs are reusable and the amount you can bring are limited by your deck, while ESPs are one-use thingies like spirits. I was confused for a while about how to actually equip the programs I got (And srsly Harebrained. No Black Hammer? For shame!). The help screens could do with mentioning you get to equip them from your stash when you jack in.
The game's going to stand or fall on the community-made missions. I'm poking around the editor now.
You can press "enter" to continue in dialogs and can select dialog lines by pressing number keys.
Probably there are more but couldnt play a lot yesterday.
Chaotic_Heretic
Arcane
How else do you expect to become a millionaire...that too a womyn? Through hard work?
Chaotic_Heretic
Arcane
Played it for whole night, now doing mission for Baron. I've made an eco-terrorist elf with average rifle skill, dodge, shamanism and almost maxed charisma
- The world is more of a static screen with activated checkpoints for stuff. Not even breakable objects, can throw grenade at half-cover table, nothing will happen with it. World is a decoration for the story.
- Very linear, mission based.
- Levels are not very complex. They are flat, I don't remember even ever climbing a ladder or something for better position.
- Non-combat abilities are only semi-useful, I know 5-6 etiquettes, doesn't matter for shit. As a non-combat ability, decking is probably most useful, because it gets you interesting info and money.
- "I wish I had another fighter now". Shamans are somewhat useful when you can get cannon fodder, Shadow spell is pretty interesting. But a good buffed shooter can kill anything JA2 style (anyone remember shoving ton of combat stims and camouflage and sending dude into building to see how he steal the initiative from 12 morons inside and start blasting? that's what happen when you haste-aim-armor a troll with shotgun here). Mages blast everything to bits. Melees, did't try them. Deckers without droids are worthless. Specialization pays off in this game more than trying to get at least 2 stats to a good level.
- Killing flying cubes in The Matrix is only fun for first time.
- Game is a bit laggy and could use a little polishing in UI area.
- I don't like cartoon style much
- Yeah cartoony ... BUT IT IS GORGEOUS. The portraits are absolutely fantastic, I scrolled through every one to see them. And that isometric is so clean and neat, I can't help but stop and just stare at signs, and shops and bikes... it is almost mesmerising.
- And music is awesome, of course.
- Combat is like new X-COM, but more fair, balanced, doesn't feature Final Fantasy spawns (unless it's scripted events).
- The skill checks are fair and clean, there's something in dialogue for everyone.
- Characters are well written, they get new lines every time you visit your base. Very charismatic, with that wacky Troika style of writing. These are the characters who SHOULD have had good voice acting, Bloodlines quality.
- Story was decent at first, now I'm not sure if it will go a bit derp or not. That FalloutCathedral level and it's locals got me a little out of the mood, although two characters I got to meet after that made me want to play and learn more about them.
- Side quests are fine, for a mission based game.
- Checkpoints are't a deal breaker for me so far, game saves every time you travel from one screen to another.
I already know I'm going to replay this at least once. I want to continue playing but I can't cause I really need some sleep. When I was playing first three hours or so, I was thinking "Now I believe Kickstarter can bring us good games".
- The world is more of a static screen with activated checkpoints for stuff. Not even breakable objects, can throw grenade at half-cover table, nothing will happen with it. World is a decoration for the story.- Very linear, mission based.
- Levels are not very complex. They are flat, I don't remember even ever climbing a ladder or something for better position.
- Non-combat abilities are only semi-useful, I know 5-6 etiquettes, doesn't matter for shit. As a non-combat ability, decking is probably most useful, because it gets you interesting info and money.
- "I wish I had another fighter now". Shamans are somewhat useful when you can get cannon fodder, Shadow spell is pretty interesting. But a good buffed shooter can kill anything JA2 style (anyone remember shoving ton of combat stims and camouflage and sending dude into building to see how he steal the initiative from 12 morons inside and start blasting? that's what happen when you haste-aim-armor a troll with shotgun here). Mages blast everything to bits. Melees, did't try them. Deckers without droids are worthless. Specialization pays off in this game more than trying to get at least 2 stats to a good level.
- Killing flying cubes in The Matrix is only fun for first time.
- Game is a bit laggy and could use a little polishing in UI area.
- I don't like cartoon style much
- Yeah cartoony ... BUT IT IS GORGEOUS. The portraits are absolutely fantastic, I scrolled through every one to see them. And that isometric is so clean and neat, I can't help but stop and just stare at signs, and shops and bikes... it is almost mesmerising.- And music is awesome, of course.
- Combat is like new X-COM, but more fair, balanced, doesn't feature Final Fantasy spawns (unless it's scripted events).
- The skill checks are fair and clean, there's something in dialogue for everyone.
- Characters are well written, they get new lines every time you visit your base. Very charismatic, with that wacky Troika style of writing. These are the characters who SHOULD have had good voice acting, Bloodlines quality.
- Story was decent at first, now I'm not sure if it will go a bit derp or not. That FalloutCathedral level and it's locals got me a little out of the mood, although two characters I got to meet after that made me want to play and learn more about them.
- Side quests are fine, for a mission based game.
- Checkpoints are't a deal breaker for me so far, game saves every time you travel from one screen to another.
I already know I'm going to replay this at least once. I want to continue playing but I can't cause I really need some sleep. When I was playing first three hours or so, I was thinking "Now I believe Kickstarter can bring us good games".
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