KickStarter Underworld Ascendant is a disaster

[Old Hans]

Guys I believe I'm close to finishing this mess.
I have all 7 keys and I just lack the faction influence. Three missions for each faction are enough though and I already got the expedition.

Playtime around 20 hours, 10 of which are spent bypassing bugs and looking for items that aren't there.

 

[Gord]

Performance & Stability
Surprisingly well optimized for being Unity, does not eat up huge resources like many Unity games do. Solid 60FPS at 1440p maxed out [i7 4820K, 16GB RAM, GTX1080].

That's not what I've been reading elsewhere.

Performance has been (mostly) solid for me as well so far. But I've only made it to Upper Erebus, and allegedly the real issues start later - or when you set the whole level on fire, which I haven't done so far, either.
Only exception I had was once after alt-tabbing for extended time due to having dinner. When I came back it was super stuttery and sluggish until I switched the level.

 

[Stokowski]

Somebody is claiming that Steam granted him a refund with 8 hours played

https://steamcommunity.com/app/692840/discussions/0/3020122487778165959/?ctp=2#c3020122487780245073

I bet the Kickstarter backers wish they could get one too

This is just a sidenote, but:

Steam's "2 hour" limit can't override existing consumer protections where you live. If you've decent laws in your country/state/ethnic protectorate, quote them back to the fuckers, and you'll get your refund regardless of Steam's entirely non-enforcable rules.

 

[Gangrelrumbler]

Guys I believe I'm close to finishing this mess.
I have all 7 keys and I just lack the faction influence. Three missions for each faction are enough though and I already got the expedition.

Playtime around 20 hours, 10 of which are spent bypassing bugs and looking for items that aren't there.

What compelled you to do this to yourself?

 

[Hines]

Absolutely pathetic!

 

[Max Heap]

Okay I take it back.
I just finished my last shambler mission and the doom counter went to max.
Wanna know what happens??

An epic battle between Marcaul and the undead maybe??
Nope!
You go to Marcaul after your mission, get a speech from cabirus that you suck (but that's okay) and are presented with credits!
There is no way of preventing this. I had some mana cores I could have thrown into the machine for the doom counter but no. Game Over.
The last autosave before this is 3 hours ago.

WELP.... GUESS I'LL DO ALL THAT SHIT AGAIN!

Spoiler

Edit:
I loaded the old save state after loading the game over state and it keeps the faction influence I had, so I guess the bugs and fucked data structure can also work in your favor.

 

[Curratum]

Sweet lord, I should let the people on the Steam hub know. Nobody was too sure what happens when the counter maxes out but the consensus was (even on the Steam hub) that it would be too damn retarded for the game to just end with a "tee hee, try again!" message.

 

[Max Heap]

That is pretty much what Cabirus says.
He doesn't giggle like a kobold, but he literally says "we can try again!".

It's like a punch in the nuts.
But the worst part is: You can reload the exact state where you leave your last mission and watch it ALL OVER again!
And those are basically all your last auto save states.

 

[Astral Rag]

Guys I believe I'm close to finishing this mess.
I have all 7 keys and I just lack the faction influence. Three missions for each faction are enough though and I already got the expedition.

Playtime around 20 hours, 10 of which are spent bypassing bugs and looking for items that aren't there.

What compelled you to do this to yourself?

krokodil is a hell of a drug

 

[Zombra]

I'm not saying this is a good game, but I'm OK with a game having a long term time limit.

 

[Max Heap]

Well...

I did it.

And you know what?
As a last fuck you it crashed at the ending cutscene.

Wasn't anything interesting anyway. Cabirus talking some stuff like in the intro.
Oh yeah the last boss is....

Spoiler

Not typhon but tyball

Also you have to sacrifice yourself, by jumping into that chasm to destroy him. I don't fucking know, guess it's supposed to be dramatic. But in the end it just breaks the ending cutscene even more by actually killing the player character and not just fading out during the jump

Jesus what a shitshow....

This isn't even underwhelming. This is just upsetting.
How can you fuck up even the ending cutscene???

Anyway...

Oh yeah, playtime: 16 hours.
Including at least 5 hours (!) of trying to avoid bugs or looking for stupid shit.

Edit:
Tried it again.
end sequence cut out again.
I don't even know what happened.

Spoiler

I guess Cabirus takes Typhons place?? Or maybe some shit like that? I don't fucking know. They hint at stuff like that in various memoras, but I can't say cause the conclusion is even more broken than the rest of the game.

I have heard stories about how Might & Magic 9 is a shit game and how you end it by pulling some levers.
Guess what you are doing here!? Whoop-de-fucking-do! That's right!

Fuck this game!
Holy shit!

I'm done!

I gotta take a dump.
And it's gonna be better than this turd.
I've never given a steam review before, but here. Holy shit, the only thing keeping me from it is wasting even more time on this garbage.

God damn. God fucking damn.

 

[Curratum]

Told youuuuuu! I KNEW there is no Typhon in the game.

The fucking concept art of him is a lie, just like this entire fucking shitshow of a game.

More lies and more cut content:
EXCLUSIVE: GET A GLIMPSE OF A BIG BADDIE FROM UNDERWORLD ASCENDANT
https://www.syfy.com/syfywire/underworld-ascendant-sneak-peek

 

[unfairlight]

This is just a sidenote, but:

Steam's "2 hour" limit can't override existing consumer protections where you live. If you've decent laws in your country/state/ethnic protectorate, quote them back to the fuckers, and you'll get your refund regardless of Steam's entirely non-enforcable rules.

That, or you can just contact Steam Support directly and tell them that you are outraged, disappointed and you won't ever buy again unless this matter is resolved. The usual bullshit you'd say to a telecom company guy over the phone. I got a refund that way once.

 

[The Bishop]

The big difference is that PoE had functional project management behind it.
You could have pumped another 5 million into UA, it wouldn't change a thing if team leaders just fuck around for two thirds of the time and then in the last year they realize "Whoops, we gotta make a functional product - better start on that!"
That's what killed this. That and probably badly defined project goals from the very start.

I mean it's so fucking obvious they made these levels in the last few months. Not only if you followed the newsletters - you just gotta look at them. It all seems like it was hastily put together and barely tested. That's also why you got all those holes in the environment.

It does appear that devs were aiming for a somewhat functional tech demo in hope that publisher will give them more money and time to actually develop it into a real game. But publisher wasn't impressed and told them to release it as is. The biggest question here is what actually prompted the devs to be so extremely enthusiastic about their project or expect any of this to work in the first place. This whole story sounds strangely similar to Theranos.

 

[Max Heap]

I would believe that story if this had come out 2 years ago.
This was just mismanagement. There is no prototype. This is the game.
And it was an exit/monetization strategy on the currently available assets. As I have predicted months ago.
That becomes extra apparent as one of Cabirus last sentences is a cut version of something he says right in the beginning.


Anyway...

Spoiler

"Also fuck you!"

 

[Zer0wing]

You know, for a shitty knock-off of UUI, this game has far too many nods to the original game, from the name of the dungeon to a silver respawn tree, which all are just a punch to the gutter for those who gets them.

Glad I'm not wealthy and guilt-tripped enough to not pirate a game funded through a fucking kickstarter.

 

[Curratum]

I'm still so mad at all of this because they never once behaved like men, even before they had a publisher.

The change of course and the gaping holes in the whole thing were visible a good while ago. And the community manager or whoever dev could find the time to post would always be "It's coming along great, guys, we've been putting lots of work! Things are shaping up!"

Never a word of hesitation, never a show of weakness, never admitting a big misstep.
"Hey ho, we're INDUSTRY VETERANS, let's give some more interviews for IGN, it's all coming together folks! We didn't know if Thief would be any good literally days before launch! The magic of the immersive sim happens in the last few weeks of development!"

It's that smug facade that pisses me off the most and that's the reason I'm still on the Steam hub, making fun of this wreck and trying to inform newcomers what they're walking into.

 

[Doctor Sbaitso]

So, this is much worse than a bad game made in good faith. It's a betrayal.

 

[Zep Zepo]

Max Heap

So in your play through, how many monster types did you come across if you can recall?

Zep--

 

[Curratum]

There is no way a studio could produce this in good faith. Read what Max posted here, he's using my key. I myself watched some 6-7 hours of streams. There is no way in fucking hell this game was made in good faith or with honest effort.

 

[Latelistener]

It does appear that devs were aiming for a somewhat functional tech demo in hope that publisher will give them more money and time to actually develop it into a real game.

4 years for a tech demo? 16 for a real game I assume?

 

[Latelistener]

So, this is much worse than a bad game made in good faith. It's a betrayal.

 

[Zep Zepo]

So, this is much worse than a bad game made in good faith. It's a betrayal.

So, would you like to apologize to me now after you ragging on me for 4 years when I would say this would be a train wreck?



Zep--

 

[Doctor Sbaitso]

My issue now more with the duplicitous behaviour. You can miss the mark honourably, be humble and carry on. This is such a bad showing on every level.

 

[Doctor Sbaitso]

Max Heap

So in your play through, how many monster types did you come across if you can recall?

Zep--

I didn't rag on anyone, I made the mature decision to base my views on facts and a released game. Doesn't make you less of an asshat.