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Please do tell! I swear I should have been able to trigger these deaths, but no dice so far. Especially the item ones that do not seem to do anything when attempting to use them onto the character's portrait (as that's probably how you use an item onto the character).
Got through chapter one, and the beginning of ch2. So far it plays great and looks fantastic. The bear is weird in a good way - sometimes I feel for the poor thing, sometimes it gives me the creeps. Also wondering whether it's just a thing or actual person (no spoilers if there's any related to it).
Now, which one fine Bulgarian members here is trolling on steam for BG language support? А, другари? Кой се прави на интересен?
that he didn’t have a real heart, but had a brain.
He didn’t say a real brain, but given Charlie’s competency as an engineer, her defensiveness of Moses, and her saying that she upgraded him; I’m half-expecting Hope’s brain to have been a firmware upgrade (Hope is the couple’s drowned daughter).
Been playing for an hour or so now. The story is very intriguing, and I like the main characters so far. The visual style is also very nice. However, I have two problems. The teleporting items between the two characters feel a bit off... and dare I say it? Unimmersive (if that is a word). If stuff can be teleported between the two, you might as well have gone with 1 character. And the UI is an overload for the senses. There are so many blips and blops, and lines to things. There is also something to read in every corner, so it feels like my eyes are darting all over the place constantly. Hopefully, I get used to these things soon, because as I said, so far the story seems good.
Great to see this being released, I would like to snap this up immediately but one thing is stopping me: I'm still on Windows 7, and support for that is only claimed as "should work".
Can anyone give a more concrete answer than that, as to whether it works on Win7?
Been playing for an hour or so now. The story is very intriguing, and I like the main characters so far. The visual style is also very nice. However, I have two problems. The teleporting items between the two characters feel a bit off... and dare I say it? Unimmersive (if that is a word). If stuff can be teleported between the two, you might as well have gone with 1 character. And the UI is an overload for the senses. There are so many blips and blops, and lines to things. There is also something to read in every corner, so it feels like my eyes are darting all over the place constantly. Hopefully, I get used to these things soon, because as I said, so far the story seems good.
Sounds like we're somewhat similar in our reaction to the pinging system / hotspot presentation.
Here's how I do it: play fully zoomed in for new areas, don't ping, and use the fact that each character's headlamp tracks the mouse to slowly scan areas and inspect one hotspot at a time. By being fully zoomed in and not using ping, you get less visual clutter. By using the lamp-follows-the-mouse thing to slowly scan the environment, you get a few bonuses. it's atmospheric as fuck, it slows down the rate you process the map so you can appreciate the art, and helps you get immersed (I hate this word) in the role of a scavenger. Scanning shit slowly and methodically, looking for things that matter: it doesn't get more scav than that.
For the characters thing, I disagree. Sounds a bit like autism tbh. It's ok, we all have our forms of it. I think it's a great narrative device, akin to books that present scenes from multiple character's perspectives. Did you know that item descriptions change depending on which character looks at them? Not hotspots, but items. I like the multiple characters, and while the quantum whatsamacallit is kinda silly, it's a small conceit for ~900 years in the future.
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Pyke I know how proud of the ping system you are - and I think it's a great idea to ease the barrier of entry for people new to AGs - but I want to give you some feedback on what doesn't work for me about it and hotspot presentation.
Visual clutter. Pinging POIs makes a really cluttered visual that can be both overwhelming and pull you out of the moment. I think the visual clutter contributes to both of those things. The flat textured, primary color lines that connect to each POI, and then the rings showing their approximate interaction zone, could be changed to achieve the same result (show players POIs) while lessening the problems. I don't know exactly how it would look, but here's some suggestions
Texture the lines. Rather than a flat textureless line connecting from the player to each POI, something simple that looks in-world (like the drone's laser scan VFX?) only color coded in a similar manner to how they are now: green for read, blue for interact. By switching to something similar to drone's scan VFX, you have a much more diffuse visual indicator that doesn't read like current RGB spaghetti connecting the player to everything in the map.
Change the rings. I don't know if the above would apply to the rings indicating approximate POI location, as in change it from a RGB donut to a textured donut or perhaps something more believable that would be drawing the player's attention in-universe. Building on the suggesting of the drone scan for the indicator lines, maybe the donut/circle is replaced with a small square area made of a laser raster/hologram indicating an area of interest with the color. It's still a simple geometric shape, but rather than RGB donut smacking you in the eyes, the graphic is more diffuse.
Change mouse-over graphics for POIs when ping is OFF. When you mouse over a POI, the RGB spaghetti strikes back! Unlike ping, where I know and understand the value of the drawn lines, I don't see what this line is doing for the player. It adds to the visual clutter, a bright line that constantly resizes itself and shifts as long as the player is walking. It's unnecessary and doesn't add value, while being distracting.
The second part of my argument that the way POIs are presented is distracting and doesn't work well is: text description placement! I don't think this has ever been an issue in other AGs for me, but perhaps because I can actually render BT at 2560x1600, there's a big disconnect between looking at the POI itself and reading the text. I have these bright lines and rings showing me approximately where the POI is, it's relation to me, and my eyes are fighting with that visual while also trying to drag themselves to the bottom of the screen to read the text. I don't think this would be an issue on a small screen like a handheld, but on a big modern monitor, it feels like my eyes are darting all over the screen just to look at the object and read the description. The description appearing in a semi-translucent text box adjacent to the POI itself would vastly improve the experience.
I know that's a lot of text for a simple part of the game, but given how integral POIs are and how important the pinging is to help new AG players, I thought it was worth it.
I'm having a blast with BT so far, btw. I can tell it was made by people who enjoyed some of the same classics as me. From the writing, to the visuals and music, to the cinematics and puzzles themselves - it's great! I wouldn't write all of this if I didn't genuinely want to see you all do well.
These nitpicks may only be my peculiar form of autism rearing it's ugly, robotic head. Yet, after reading Alienman express some of the same sentiments as me, it got me thinking. There may be other players who would absolutely love the game, but bounce off the visual noise. If they don't know your studio from playing an earlier game, they could pass on BT.
In chapter 3, and of course it gets darker and darker. Really good stuff so far as well, puzzles quite logical. Except
the brain tumor puzzle. I get that the paper provides hints on what action to take on which number, but couldn't figure out exactly how to decipher it. still, managed to stumble through it.
Reached Chapter 2. I noticed that characters indeed look uglier for some reason. Was this the standard AAA game treatment? At least the girl was not turned into a butch. Even the bear is uglier, and I miss the dialogues he had in the demo such as "talking" with the Captain. Or how he used a different, recorded voice when introducing himself.
Yeah, 3h in and the ping system... I understand why it's there and it is a very immersive way to show the player all PoI. But I really dislike it.
Enter a new area, right click and follow the lines, makes me not focus on the environment at all, and makes me not appreciate "discovering" a descriptive hot spot, now I just quickly glance over all the green ones and then focus on the blue stuff. Sure, you could say "just don't use it", that's not how I work thought, if it's there I will use it. My problem in the end, I guess.
The same goes for the cloes ups, instead of looking for stuff I just right click and it feels cheap, I want to do some detective work. Even though stasis 1 was super annoying to me a few times, I'd much prefer your solution was to just make interactive stuff stand out more. Like, it's a dark, desaturated game, just give PoI a bit more color, maybe some focused lighting, something.
Anyhow, good game otherwise, more stasis, me like.
How are the sales going so far? Haven't seen this game mentioned basically anywhere, makes me sad
For the characters thing, I disagree. Sounds a bit like autism tbh. It's ok, we all have our forms of it. I think it's a great narrative device, akin to books that present scenes from multiple character's perspectives. Did you know that item descriptions change depending on which character looks at them? Not hotspots, but items. I like the multiple characters, and while the quantum whatsamacallit is kinda silly, it's a small conceit for ~900 years in the future.
Yeah, I do like the three different characters, the banter, and that they have different strengths. The only problem is the items. The setting seems grounded otherwise, so I just don't get the teleport thing. At first, I thought maybe they ran to each other to swap items off-camera, but it seems you can be locked in and still be able to swap items. A lore explanation would calm my "autism"
Yes, I did notice that the items changed the description. Pretty nice detail. And on the hotspot thing, I might change to a controller. That might work better for the immersion if the game controls works as how I think it will. If you control by clicking still, then it might not matter much.
For the characters thing, I disagree. Sounds a bit like autism tbh. It's ok, we all have our forms of it. I think it's a great narrative device, akin to books that present scenes from multiple character's perspectives. Did you know that item descriptions change depending on which character looks at them? Not hotspots, but items. I like the multiple characters, and while the quantum whatsamacallit is kinda silly, it's a small conceit for ~900 years in the future.
Yeah, I do like the three different characters, the banter, and that they have different strengths. The only problem is the items. The setting seems grounded otherwise, so I just don't get the teleport thing. At first, I thought maybe they ran to each other to swap items off-camera, but it seems you can be locked in and still be able to swap items. A lore explanation would calm my "autism"
Yes, I did notice that the items changed the description. Pretty nice detail. And on the hotspot thing, I might change to a controller. That might work better for the immersion if the game controls works as how I think it will. If you control by clicking still, then it might not matter much.
In world explanation - its the same type of device that John used in Stasis 1 - but more advanced. Hadley also used one. The ones John and Hadley used were for storing medical information, as well as certain medications that were patient specific.
The idea is that it stores and object in a snipped off pocket dimension. Then it recalls it again into our dimension. Charlie modified their Quantum Storage Device to share the same pocket dimension - allowing them to save items and transfer them around as they do their salvaging operations.
Slow and steady. We know our games are slow burn games. Hell, 8 years later Stasis still sells a copy or 2 a day. :D
I expect most of the reviews will drop next week. We just happened to launch during a pretty heavy glut of cool games - so reviewers are backlogged! I think the only reason ACG got our review out in time was cos his System Shock broke. :D
Both have advantages. Steams audience is bigger - so if you're planning on dropping a review, Steam is really good for us. But GOG definitely gives you a good deal, and they are just an awesome group of people. There isn't really a preference from out side!
Slow and steady. We know our games are slow burn games. Hell, 8 years later Stasis still sells a copy or 2 a day. :D
I expect most of the reviews will drop next week. We just happened to launch during a pretty heavy glut of cool games - so reviewers are backlogged! I think the only reason ACG got our review out in time was cos his System Shock broke. :D
