KickStarter Underworld Ascendant is a disaster

[Eli_Havelock]

T:TON

Toilet flush the box into a spin in blue water, dub with O-Zone - Dragostea Din Tei.

Torment: Ty-D-Bol of Numa Numa

 

[GentlemanCthulhu]

This game is okay with update 4 applied. I didn't hate my time, honestly had a bunch of fun messing with its systems. It's just that I spent all that time also mildly upset at how much better it all could've been if they didn't get shafted on the finance side of things and also did a better job at overall level design.

 

[Invictus]

This game is okay with update 4 applied. I didn't hate my time, honestly had a bunch of fun messing with its systems. It's just that I spent all that time also mildly upset at how much better it all could've been if they didn't get shafted on the finance side of things and also did a better job at overall level design.

Could you be a little more specific?

 

[Nyast]

He means that with Update 4 it's less buggy than Cyberpunk 2077. I know, it's not an achievement.

Unlike CB 2077, there's no brilliance anywhere to be found even if the game was ultra polished. Everything is a disapointment, or bland, or repetitive. You can't make a good game out of 5 enemy types over a 15 hours run. Some of the deeper levels have an "interesting" design, but that's the best thing that could be said about this game. Everything else is sub-par at best.

 

[GentlemanCthulhu]

This game is okay with update 4 applied. I didn't hate my time, honestly had a bunch of fun messing with its systems. It's just that I spent all that time also mildly upset at how much better it all could've been if they didn't get shafted on the finance side of things and also did a better job at overall level design.

Could you be a little more specific?

Well as far as immersive sims go, it has some decent systemic gameplay. Everything is a 3D physics object and you can mess around with them. Wooden objects catch fire with a nice fire propagation system, that sort of thing. You can do some fun builds (eg. with a high agility build you can *almost* fly) etc. It's basically an okay systemic sandbox. Sadly it's heavily let down by the level designs themselves not really letting you unleash the full potential of the systems all that often, though they did add some good side quests in Update 4 that kinda let you do that. And it's also p.bug-free at this point.

 

[prengle]

having fun by fucking around with a bad game doesn't make that game genuinely good

 

[Invictus]

having fun by fucking around with a bad game doesn't make that game genuinely good

Yup sounds like eating a Cinnamon bun smeared with Covid positive shit and say that the bun part wasn’t so bad

 

[GentlemanCthulhu]

Think this review does an okay job at being objective about it.

 

[Eli_Havelock]

This game is okay with update 4 applied. I didn't hate my time, honestly had a bunch of fun messing with its systems. It's just that I spent all that time also mildly upset at how much better it all could've been if they didn't get shafted on the finance side of things and also did a better job at overall level design.

I see OSE shit in your mouth until their excuses overflow and drip from your chin. That wasn't a matter of finances, but that the first producer snacked on lead paint chips as a child and washed it down with elemental mercury. If they had tried to do anything like the UU sequel they were selling to people then TTLG would give a damn to do anything instead of a ghost town of a forum, shamed that they ever promoted this scam. It also turns out that the whole issue of rights was a lie, unless you expect us to believe their lawyers were retarded with the rights like the company was retarded with finances, production, and communication with their backers for years. (The latter was a big issue until they could find one competent person - the Community Manager who wasn't there from the start.) The other competent person they found was Rich Gallup, a producer who arrived at launch and brought UA back into becoming something what it was supposed to be.

Is this a “spiritual successor” to Ultima Underworld? Is it Ultima Underworld 3? Or what?
Underworld Ascendant is a genuine part of the Underworld series. We have the rights to use all of the elements of the original Underworld games, except for the Ultima brand itself. The characters, monsters, settings, and stories from the original Underworld games are all available for us.

Dear fucking god, a hub with portals you jump through to do MMO instanced missions to have your grade posted on social media for grinding rep with factions not even in the game - what fucking part of that says UU at all? Or even play your way of an immersive sim?

Finances were no excuse at all for that shit design. It had more to do with how Richard Garriott thinks the future of gaming is on Facebook, and the relics in charge of this had the same understanding. It took someone with a clue about UU to make the thing be more like what it should have been.

What makes the whole thing hilarious? Paul Neurath started out with this shit and now they're back to sucking on EA's teat for System Shock 3 - EA China (Tencent). RIP LGS legacy unless it is made by Arkane or someone else. Fuck these overhyped clowns who can't even stay to the design ethos that made them famous and they waved around in their KS (because the real talent who made the thing is no longer there to make it for them).

 

[Sonus]

Interesting that the word "okay" is being treated as equal to "great", and negative criticisms treated as ringing endorsements. Derangement Syndrome. Yes, it's a fucked up game by a fucked up company.

 

[Eli_Havelock]

Interesting that the word "okay" is being treated as equal to "great", and negative criticisms treated as ringing endorsements. Derangement Syndrome. Yes, it's a fucked up game by a fucked up company.

More like: Imagine being upset for buying into the fucked up company's lies that the problems were because of finances.

Having to go back after release and make a proper save system that should have been in at the start should have made it obvious that the shitty release state was never an issue of money. The release state level design and what it was turned into was another indication that it wasn't because of finances, but because of early development incompetence.

The whole problem with UA was "let's do whatever the fuck we want despite what we sold to backers". That sentiment was again seen via the lovely backer rewards.

 

[Bad Sector]

This game is okay with update 4 applied. I didn't hate my time, honestly had a bunch of fun messing with its systems. It's just that I spent all that time also mildly upset at how much better it all could've been if they didn't get shafted on the finance side of things and also did a better job at overall level design.

Is there any plot or something or is just a sandbox? If it isn't too buggy and has some functional systems i might buy it at 2-3 euros or whatever at some point (i see at ITAD that it was sold at 3 euros some time ago), i do not mind a bit of jank, though i'm not a big fan of sandboxes.

 

[Stefano Canali]

Maybe another positive thing is that, after being aware that they released a big disappointment, they kept working and updating it alot.
I agree that doesn't mean it reached anywhere the status of "solid good game" but at least proves some commitment.

 

[Nifft Batuff]

Now you are starting to give me a mild curiosity to actually play this game.

 

[Eli_Havelock]

Maybe another positive thing is that, after being aware that they released a big disappointment, they kept working and updating it alot.
I agree that doesn't mean it reached anywhere the status of "solid good game" but at least proves some commitment.

The updates were from 505 Games wanting something to port to consoles, with the Switch version planned and announced but falling through. 505 didn't seem too happy with how OSE treated the target audience that left the publisher quite the turkey on their hands.

The backer rewards showed how well OSE were committed to fuckery that included ignoring the same backers' feedback months before the scud was launched. Props to the white knight knobgoblins for assuring those in charge that all was fine, since Paul Neurath himself seemed surprised at the reaction. The Almighty Warren Spector made some excuse about experimentation, which was kept hidden from both OSE Austin and the backers until the big unveiling of the fuck you to everyone at the backer beta, with the fucking being mostly upon the reputation of the company until only Tencent would touch them. It didn't help that OSE Boston were already starting work on another game at that time.

There's a reason why Joe Fielder looked like he shat himself making this unlisted update video - probably because he did.



He was supposed to be the game director and seemed to be missing from most of the public discussion with the community until that point. This might be why he doesn't list OtherSide Entertainment on his LinkedIn.
Pay no attention to them fucking around on everything else led by Chris Siegel until he no longer had a Sr Producer position at OSE.

 

[Doctor Sbaitso]

It was plain to see that they were fucked when I realized their senior producer literally couldn't spell. Small thing maybe, but give me a break, your senior producer can't spell?

 

[Eli_Havelock]

It was plain to see that they were fucked when I realized their senior producer literally couldn't spell. Small thing maybe, but give me a break, your senior producer can't spell?

His major malphunktion became frighteningly obvious when he kept mistaking all of "DM MOM" "Thief" "Skyrim" "Shock" for "genuine part of the Underworld series" - it shouldn't have been too difficult to understand when the series' basic design principles and feedback upon them had already existed for two decades. When your producer is that clueless your product is going to be fucked. This is how the former QA-turned-Sr. Producer found his destiny at someplace a little less taxing upon his "skills" - product manager for fantasy sports. But to his credit, I think it's quite likely that he's found some way to colossally fuck that up as well.

 

[LESS T_T]

After they lost office manager in 2019, Boston studio got new Director of Operations: https://www.linkedin.com/in/susanicox/

Director of Operations

Company Name OtherSide Entertainment
Dates Employed Jan 2021 – Present
Employment Duration 1 mo

Looks like they're slowly staffing up Boston studio.

 

[Eli_Havelock]

Looks like they're slowly staffing up Boston studio.

Oh, yes, their new title that already has a typo in it - it's really supposed to be Thick-Ass Thieves. They are certainly optimistic, and in no way diverting development money from System Shock 3 because they are such an upstanding company.

 

[LESS T_T]

Probably more like money from selling System Shock 3 (and possibly 4) to Tencent.

 

[kangaxx]

Don't Nightdive own the rights to the Shock games? I think OSE were just reeled in to develop it.

 

[Bad Sector]

AFAIK yes, but it depends on how naive and starstruck Nightdive was when they were drafting their contract for SS3's development with Otherside. Stephen Kick does seem to be a very big System Shock fan after all.

 

[Eli_Havelock]

Probably more like money from selling System Shock 3 (and possibly 4) to Tencent.

Don't Nightdive own the rights to the Shock games? I think OSE were just reeled in to develop it.

Holy shitshow, you're both right. OSE really are trying to outdo the tangled rights mess of System Shock 2. I wonder how stupid OSE were with that contract with Tencent, sine they apparently didn't realize until much later that they didn't actually have the rights to UU they claimed to have in the Kickstarter for this game.

So all that work by OSE Austin...

 

[LESS T_T]

From the press release of Starbreeze publishing deal, Otherside owned IP rights to SS3 while NDS owns SS as a whole (including the trademark).

It's my impression that NDS was naive when they were handing out the licenses and couldn't do much about OSE's deal with Tencent.

It always gave me an impression that NDS licensed the sequel(s) to OSE on pretty generous (maybe naive) terms, fewer obligations and restrictions on OSE's side. I'd imagine they were pretty excited about the idea of a sequel made by ex-LGS guys.

From SKicker:

When it was with Otherside, it was essentially with the original creators. So we were more or less leaving that up to them. We were supposed to get builds and marketing materials before they went out in the public but they never really got that far. So we never really got to review anything. But it was my belief that if development had continued we would have. But in terms of us getting to actually dictate what was in that game, again it was like, well the original developers are are working on it so we should let them do what they do best.

 

[LESS T_T]

They also got Audio Director. Pete Maguire, previously worked at Harnomix for 16 years and Ken Levine's Ghost Story for 2 years: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pete-maguire-15517a5/

Audio Director

Company Name OtherSide Entertainment (Full-time)
Dates Employed Jan 2021 – Present
Employment Duration 1 mo