RaggleFraggle
Ask me about VTM
- Joined
- Mar 23, 2022
- Messages
- 1,431
This game has a great atmosphere. Perfect example that new original IPs are totally worth investing in.
I think that'd do it. Yeah.I dunno why the bloated corpses in the sub disturb me so much. There are worse depictions of death in this game but it made me actually nauseous.
Maybe it triggered actual trauma because when i was 12 i witnessed a toddler drowning in a crowded pool and they pulled him out completely white and blue (not bloated ofc that come much later but i guess there is trigger by association)
Just finished it, at 24 hrs b/c I'm slow. Really enjoyed it, will give some constructive criticism when I've had a chance to process it more. A few questions:
Why did the MULE have those giant stones with Soviet iconography on them? The stones appear to be the Xaar's calendar, it makes no sense for there to be soviet art on them unless it was made "recently" by the troglodytes under Bayan's Russian Orthodox influence
Why does veles DNA/RNA in the form of microbes cause the melting of some people, like we see in the decontamination lab, and for others it doesn't?
Are all the Xaar's heads so distended because they have parasites in them? Early photos from DS15 show X-ray like images with parasites roughly the size of the holes in the distended skulls, implying the parasites crawled out. Yet, we see later in the troglodytes that they all have the same skull type, and they're alive and apparently don't have the full parasitic form that, say, Charlie has.
I believe one of the lab results indicated that the Xaal have architecture and/or DNA is from ~1600 AD, but also 2000 BC. Is the ~1600 AD from the old galleon we find outside Alpha lab?
The giant waterwheels crushed bones to *remove* all parasites and veles from them, right? Why then do the troglodytes seem to revere Charlie for having her infection? In general, the waterwheels / crushed bones spoke of a desire to purify dead bodies of a thing that the troglodytes themselves seem to hold in high regard. What's up with that?
With the hindsight of the end-game, what happened aboard DS15 is more confusing. What is PS139, beyond a recovered Xaar with microbe isolates related to the Veles? Was it the crazy botanist's mixing of PS139 isolate w/ MDMA that caused all the ritualistic killings aboard DS15? Why weren't people on DS15 melted/digested and reformed due to their microbe exposure likes those we see in Omega lab?
and finally..
Related to Q6, was this game developed in two parts? The DS15 and MULE + Omega section feels like one game's tone, while everything Alpha base and after the Blister feels like another tone. I don't dislike it, and it was a great experience that kept coming, but I noticed that some of the DS15 art and puzzles screens were lower resolution, like they had been developed earlier.
Was there two different concepts that got welded? Even if not, I'm curious about earlier drafts of the story.
Fingers crossed, hope this gets optioned by a studio looking to branch-out into Alien-likes. Great job Pyke & co!
Getting close to the end.This game has a great atmosphere. Perfect example that new original IPs are totally worth investing in.
Video games are a competitive market. If your game is good, then you’ll likely find success. Corpos may be screwed up, but indie flourishes.Getting close to the end.This game has a great atmosphere. Perfect example that new original IPs are totally worth investing in.
When people complain about gaming being too samey, soulless, cynical, etc...
Games like this are why I remind myself that I still love this hobby.
Wow. What a nice compliment. Thanks so much!Getting close to the end.This game has a great atmosphere. Perfect example that new original IPs are totally worth investing in.
When people complain about gaming being too samey, soulless, cynical, etc...
Games like this are why I remind myself that I still love this hobby.
I see.The niche genre is more 'horror point and click'.
I dont think that someone who plays Silent Hill or Dead Space is nessesarily someone who will play our games - and point and click players tend to have very specific types of PNC games they prefer to play.
Our market isnt horror players who play point and click games - its point and click players who like horror.
TBH, at some point in future I don't think having a 3rd person horror game ala Silent Hill (first trilogy) set in the Stasis universe would be such a bad idea.The niche genre is more 'horror point and click'.
I dont think that someone who plays Silent Hill or Dead Space is nessesarily someone who will play our games - and point and click players tend to have very specific types of PNC games they prefer to play.
Our market isnt horror players who play point and click games - its point and click players who like horror.
Now that I finished the game, some musings:
The submarine and the temple sections feel like they were part of a separate game, which is kinda more or less what happened as they were made separately from the rest of the game.
I don't get why Moses could hear strange whisperings and laughs in the MULE laboratory. Or hell, even in the oil platform IIRC. What was that supposed to be? Early signs of infection? Can he be infected since he's a cyborg? One easy to miss comment from Moses is that he has one biological CPU kind of like the Lumen. Also, doesn't CAYNE use regular digital AI? What's the big deal with the Lumen and why are they so important?
I liked that the description stated that Lumen invariably become malicious.
Why was the one you find ingame abandoned though if they are so important? As a punishment for the fuck-up with the breach?
Lastly, those that are infected with the spores... Do they eventually mutate horribly, or only those with direct contact with the parasites? Speaking of: What was the deal with the giant brain you find that has a large parasite inside? Supposedly the parasite creature was born and produced on purpose. Was it made to make the brain extra-big or something? Didn't they use a variant of the spore formula?
About that, why does Cayne use classic tech such as ancient computer screens and DVDs? The latter I can buy as you see modern versions of it. The gameplay explanation is to make puzzles more immersive, but I suspect Cayne are being cheapskates.This was something that I struggled with from an art direction point of view. I really wanted each piece of the world technology - the Mule, the Lima, and the Temple to feel completely different from a design point of view. The idea was a 'this is what happens when worlds collide'. I think I was perhaps a little too successful here. :