The STEAM Sales and Releases Thread

[someone else]

I look at the games on sale in my wishlist still in early access and go heh.

 

[LESS T_T]

WRF Studios, the studios that has been making urban fantasy, mostly vampire-themed, games for over 30 years, and are recently known for same-y looking vampire hack and slash started from BloodLust... they finally make something else. A sci-fi hack and slasher!

Earth's Shadow is a third person action Sci-Fi dungeon crawler set in the year 3081 on planet Sumbra; a remote alien planet where legends of valuable relics surround this black world, calling to the greedy and brave explorers seeking a bright future... but end up uncovering an even darker past.

Working a dead-end job... Alexi-Ru, a cyborg CSP (cargo ship pilot), tends to fill the void-ness of his boring flight job by day-dreaming of the mysterious stories surrounding planet Sumbra, aka Earth's Shadow.

In the year 3081, the original Earth and it's galaxy has been dead for centuries, and although a few humans still exist, colonized in far away sectors... Earth's legacy is not forgotten with some even referring to Sumbra, as the shadow of Earth.

Intrigued by Earth's history, Alexi-Ru often finds himself flying millions of light-clicks off his normal cargo route just to speed by the mysterious planet, hoping to catch a glimpse of something on the alien surface via radar that might force him to slow down or possibly even stop.

Eventually Alexi-Ru's curiosity is justified when his ship encounters a malfunction one night, while passing by the tiny planet, forcing him to crash-land on the surface he dreamed of so often on previous flights.

Alexi-Ru remembers his attention right before the impending crash, focused on an un-jostled book, thrown from a compartment during the violent atmosphere re-entry, titled... "When Day-Dreams Turn To Nightmares"

"That doesn't mean anything," mumbles Alexi-Ru, trying to re-assure himself as he arms himself with a Tec-9000 semi-automatic and sets forth to explore... Earth's Shadow.

Features

• Explore and uncover secrets from an ancient alien civilization
  
• Find and equip weapons and tech with dynamic stats and modifiers
  
• Crawl through procedural and custom locations
  
• All loot is random, making each playthrough a different experience

In before the aliens are actually vampires.

 

[Azalin]

Got the Gorilla Scientist badge

Hey me too.

Me three

 

[Thac0]

good bundle
https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/18982/Old_School_Fantasy_RPGs_Bundle/

I refunded both Heroes of Steel and The Fall of the Dungeon Guardians...
Heroes of Steel has a classical party of fighter/mage/cleric/rogue. Each of those classes has two subclasses available for choice, which you have to pick at character creation as they dictate the look of the character aswell. So rogue can be a classical cloak and dagger rogue or an archer, but you have to make the choice at creation and can never go back on it. And sadly most characters are extremely ugly.
The raw combat and crawling after that is ok, but the progression is a bit shallow and I have a hard time enjoying a combatfag game which gives me this little ability to customise my party.

The Fall of the Dungeon Guardians is Grimrock, but with less/worse puzzles and shitty WoW inspired combat with ability cooldowns and all. The crawling itself was alright, but the very MMO like combat and itemisation had a large disconnect with the genre, and was unappealing for me.

Imo both are C+ rpgs. They are alright if you run out of stuff to play and start to really scrape the bottom of the barrel, but if you are willing to play low budget indies like this you can have better experiences for cheaper if you stick to stuff like:





If you are willing to spend a bit more look at:





I have not played the other two games in the bundle, but from the two I have played I would advise against it, unless you have really grazed the Steam store empty.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

if you like jrpgs you probably won't like them because they are quality western rpgs

 

[Thac0]

if you like jrpgs you probably won't like them because they are quality western rpgs

You think Divinity Original Sin 2 is better than Baldurs Gate 2

 

[rusty_shackleford]

if you like jrpgs you probably won't like them because they are quality western rpgs

You think Divinity Original Sin 2 is better than Baldurs Gate 2

well, yeah
IE games are garbage

 

[V_K]

If you are willing to spend a bit more look at: Operencia

Would brofist if not for this. Operencia is just a prettier Dungeon Guardians in TB - same kind of boring levels, same MMO-ish chardev.

 

[Dexter]

Hmm...

 

[Thac0]

If you are willing to spend a bit more look at: Operencia

Would brofist if not for this. Operencia is just a prettier Dungeon Guardians in TB - same kind of boring levels, same MMO-ish chardev.

Imo Operencia is a full class above Dungeon Guardians. It is nowhere near as derivative of Grimrock, it has some nice puzzles (some real bullshit too but whatever), the Hungarian mythology spin gives it a real edge, the game is gorgeous and the itemisation is ok if you do the puzzles and get the more interesting gear. I also liked some of the characters, like that thief Joska. I played on the hardest difficulty, and build him as a poisoner. His asphyxiation skill with an aoe instant kill effect was really nice to have in the final stages.
But yeah it is a bit weak compared to Xulima and Dungeon Rats specifically, I just skimmed my library quickly for other recommendations, since ripping into something without providing alternatives is always a bit weak.

I would put up Legends of Eisenwald as another cheap and nice game if someone wants a low fantasy Schwarzwald Disciples:

 

[JDR13]

WRF Studios, the studios that has been making urban fantasy, mostly vampire-themed, games for over 30 years, and are recently known for same-y looking vampire hack and slash started from BloodLust... they finally make something else. A sci-fi hack and slasher!

It would need to be a huge improvement over their previous games to be worth checking out.

 

[Jenkem]

dude you've been shilling for CUCK SIMULATOR don't play martyr lmao

Where have I ever shilled for it? I made a let's play because it's funny.. never did I tell anyone to buy it, in fact the LP allows people to have fun w/ it without buying it.. so how is that shilling? and what does that have anything to do with Intergalactic Fishing?

how about you stop being a fucking loser?

 

[V_K]

Operencia [...] has some nice puzzles

Admittedly, I didn't get very far (Deva's Fortress is where it bored me into giving up), but puzzles were the biggest disappointment for me. Like, they put some effort into making them visually and mechanically different - and then ruined everything by making your characters outright tell you the solution every single time.

 

[Fedora Master]

I bought Railway Empire - It looks a bit casual but it really isn't, there are a ton of variables to it.
Also it teaches me US geography. :D

 

[OSK]

How did this game turn out? I remember being turned off by it because there was a giant Slavic circle-jerk going on around the game during its Kickstarter. After being burned by The Witcher, I ignored it.

 

[Machocruz]

Subnautica

That good?

I think so. Survivalcraft has been one of my two favorite genres for the past few years, but I know a lot of people here think they are pointless. But the progression feels just right, you're building/getting better stuff at a good clip. Resources aren't laborious to gather and you don't need stupid amounts to build stuff. The alien ocean environment is immersive and beautiful. In a way it scratches the Metroid Prime itch with its exploration, scanning stuff, getting better stuff to explore further, cool tech, alien world, 'mysterious' plot. Not really any combat from what I've seen so far (13 hours in). You can kill some things with your little knife, but not worth the effort. Probably going to wait until I get a better PC to play further, as I have to run it on medium-low settings to get a smooth frame-rate. Game deserves better.

 

[Wild Slop]

Just make sure to skip the follow up game: Below Zero. Is bad.

 

[Krivol]

Subnautica

That good?

I think so. Survivalcraft has been one of my two favorite genres for the past few years, but I know a lot of people here think they are pointless. But the progression feels just right, you're building/getting better stuff at a good clip. Resources aren't laborious to gather and you don't need stupid amounts to build stuff. The alien ocean environment is immersive and beautiful. In a way it scratches the Metroid Prime itch with its exploration, scanning stuff, getting better stuff to explore further, cool tech, alien world, 'mysterious' plot. Not really any combat from what I've seen so far (13 hours in). You can kill some things with your little knife, but not worth the effort. Probably going to wait until I get a better PC to play further, as I have to run it on medium-low settings to get a smooth frame-rate. Game deserves better.

Yeah, game is great. The idea to not give a player any weapon (besides weak knife) is awesome and builds great feel of danger. It has lovecraftian vibe in some places and is actually quite stressful when youhave look for O2 during exporation. Also nice - if simplistic - base building. And visuals are incredible.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

How did this game turn out? I remember being turned off by it because there was a giant Slavic circle-jerk going on around the game during its Kickstarter. After being burned by The Witcher, I ignored it.

It's a good game. Setting is more Darklands than Witcher.

 

[e-mailio estevez]

How did this game turn out? I remember being turned off by it because there was a giant Slavic circle-jerk going on around the game during its Kickstarter. After being burned by The Witcher, I ignored it.

It's a good game. Setting is more Darklands than Witcher.

Listen

everyone raves about darklands

But isn't the combat in that game terrible? like you can't control shit?

i don't regret not playing it.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

But isn't the combat in that game terrible? like you can't control shit?

it's just rtwp.
And the comparison was with respect to setting, and Eisenwald is turn based.

 

[Thac0]

Operencia [...] has some nice puzzles

Admittedly, I didn't get very far (Deva's Fortress is where it bored me into giving up), but puzzles were the biggest disappointment for me. Like, they put some effort into making them visually and mechanically different - and then ruined everything by making your characters outright tell you the solution every single time.

The NPCs telling you puzzle solutions never gets better. I remember a puzzle from the second to last area that was spoiled by an NPC. I turned off voiceover eventually for that reason.
But the puzzles themselves get pretty good, with some strong thematic hints. I remember a puzzle where three parallel hallways were painted with the heads of a three headed dragon, and you needed to take them in the right order.
Also I liked the Metroidvania element of the game giving you progression abilities later which you need in earlier dungeons. In Deva's Fortress you get the ability to repair long destroyed buildings, there are a few bridges you can repair in the first dungeon with that for extra fights and loot.

I finished the game, and while the final boss is a bit disappointing (JRPG bullshit, has 10 different phases and is invulnerable half of the fight as he swaps phases and delivers dialogue) the dungeons get a LOT more whimsical and interesting. You enter the mechanical forest of a dwarven king, climb the branches of the world tree, waltz into the glass castle of the underworld and raid the tomb of Attila the Hun.

I like it a bit more than MMX even, both flawed experiences but with definitive strengths in some areas which make up for the flaws in my book.

 

[Azalin]

How did this game turn out? I remember being turned off by it because there was a giant Slavic circle-jerk going on around the game during its Kickstarter. After being burned by The Witcher, I ignored it.

It's good,it's on the difficult side but good.Definitely worth the money.Bastard and Road to Iron Forrest were also good

 

[V_K]

the dungeons get a LOT more whimsical and interesting. You enter the mechanical forest of a dwarven king, climb the branches of the world tree, waltz into the glass castle of the underworld and raid the tomb of Attila the Hun.

You should play Anvil of Dawn then. That one has both creative dungeons and proper, unspoiled puzzles.

 

[Thac0]

the dungeons get a LOT more whimsical and interesting. You enter the mechanical forest of a dwarven king, climb the branches of the world tree, waltz into the glass castle of the underworld and raid the tomb of Attila the Hun.

You should play Anvil of Dawn then. That one has both creative dungeons and proper, unspoiled puzzles.

No worries, I plan to, eventually.
I havn't gotten into any of ye olde real time blobbers properly yet, Lands of Lore, Eye of the Beholder, Dungeon Master, Anvil of Dawn are all still in my backlog for rainy days.