KickStarter Underworld Ascendant is a disaster

[Child of Malkav]

The fps in Tyball's.......damn, 5-10 if that.
One more key left to find and probably the "boss".
Wow, to call this a game is being generous.

 

[Max Heap]

I'm currently doing a quick mage run (game can be finished in around 3 hours if you just avoid enemies) and i'm at Tyballs Folly as well.

I have yet to find runes beyond the ones that can be found in the tutorial.

 

[Child of Malkav]

I found other runes but the combinations are not saved, there's always 4 max spells you can see on the left even if you made a bunch.

 

[Max Heap]

My guess was that pushing the mage branch of the skill tree actually increases the chance of getting new runes. Good to know that doesn't work and success for a mage playthrough is completely randomized along with the loot.

Great planning

 

[Max Heap]

First automated character creation is making me a strong independent PoC woman and now the writing..... is getting kinda suspicious.

Don't use the M-Word kids!

 

[Gord]

Speaking of fire, I found a wand embedded with a fireball spell. First time I casted it, the fire ball projectile barely moved, and after some 4 seconds it just stoped moving and stood there in the spot floating. I then proceeded pick up the fireball (yes I picked up a ball of flames - which by the way didn't damage me in any way) and threw it at my enemy. And this seems a consist rule (one of the few in this game), you can pick up object on fire and don't receive any damage from it.

That orb of fire spell is more like a kind of movable flame to set fire to stuff when there's nothing else around.
I don't think it was ever supposed to be a proper fireball.
I do wonder if there are any fireball-like spells further down the line. Unfortunately I keep finding the same 4 runes from the tutorial. I'm only in the Underswamp, however.

 

[BEvers]

The game looked too good to pass up, so I've started playing it myself.

Aaand done. Took a bit less than 12 hours. This was broken, lousy, and only occasionally funny. The endgame hints at a "good ending" that might be unlocked by collecting all the memora from the levels, but screw that. I'm happy it's over

 

[Roguey]

Normally the first Sunday after release is the day when the most concurrent players are on, but not this time https://steamcharts.com/app/692840

The peak was on Friday with 322. Today's peak of 194 is even lower than yesterday's peak of 250. Immersive sims dying with a whimper.

 

[BEvers]

Normally the first Sunday after release is the day when the most concurrent players are on, but not this time https://steamcharts.com/app/692840

The peak was on Friday with 322. Today's peak of 194 is even lower than yesterday's peak of 250. Immersive sims dying with a whimper.

Don't use that site, it doesn't even have the numbers for launch day (where the real peak was). See: https://steamdb.info/app/692840/graphs/

 

[Cross]

Normally the first Sunday after release is the day when the most concurrent players are on, but not this time https://steamcharts.com/app/692840

The peak was on Friday with 322. Today's peak of 194 is even lower than yesterday's peak of 250. Immersive sims dying with a whimper.

It could still go out with a bang. It's so poorly optimized that I could see it overheating some graphics cards.

 

[Nyast]

Yeah there's a separate music download to put in one of the directories.

I found it. The music file zip is 10 times the size of the game.

Now to figure out how to use them.

Zep--

FYI the game is broken in UW exporter at this point for many reasons. It is promising but not ready. Plenty of feedback in the UW thread.

Is it now ? I had luck then, I played it before summer and it was perfectly fine and functional.

 

[Nano]

I refuse to believe this is the death of immersive sims. Deus Ex: Mankind Divided's cliffhanger just can't go unresolved like that.

 

[BEvers]

All time peak numbers, assuming UA will never get past its launch day peak (highly likely now):

22,724 - Deadfire
 5,148 - Necropolis
 4,146 - Grimrock 2
 2,901 - Ex-Viking
 2,395 - System Shock 2 Steam Release (2013)
 2,102 - Bard's Tale 4
 1,884 - Neverwinter Nights EE
   952 - Underrail
   703 - Age of Decadence
   696 - Bard's Tale Trilogy
   641 - Insomnia: The Ark
   638 - Stranger of Sword City
   622 - Underworld Ascendant <-----
   465 - Starcrawlers

 

[Nyast]

Could not complete Tyball's Fooly. Explored entire level, did not find the quest item. Accidentely raised the water level. Game over, 2 hours wasted.

Why do you keep raising the water level, btw?
I thought you need to put this Animat thingy into that machine thingy. Try to resist putting your thingy into openings.

In Upper Erebus that was by accident, I draged the wrong type of core into it ( cause there are 2: the ether one is important as it reduces the Typhon meter. The heart core however raises water levels and fucks your game. The two looke very alike ).

In Tyball's Folly in my streaming session earlier, I had simply explored the entire level without finding the quest item. I kind of ran out of ideas so I tried it, thinking it was only glitching the other levels and maybe that one was fine. I shouldn't have been so naive.

 

[smileyninja]

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

Yeah, first thing I did when I got my backer key was put it into Steam and see if I was eligible for a refund, since technically I had 0 hours played.

Did it work?

 

[glass blackbird]

I haven't played the game much (like 20 minutes) and while I get that it's clunky as fuck, it still felt kinda charming.

The beginning, while somewhat boring, is also relatively polished in terms of environment and not all the mechanics are complete shit or anything.
I would say they absolutely had some good ideas, they just never really managed to pull them off/make them work, or they are buried under glitches, bugs and a premature release.

Edit: Complaining is absolutely okay of course but some people on here just complain pathologically, which is funny, because complaining and entitlement is usually something they attribute to snowflakes :D

Yeah, well, welcome to the Codex.

Yeah, also the tutorial levels benefit from not having given you many tools yet. You've only got a couple things you can do, so they can put in ways for all of them to be useful. Later you have a bunch of runes and maybe some wands you realize, oh, these spells and mechanics don't do anything ever. There is no way to use them to solve a puzzle in a way the developer didn't intend not because the solution is scripted but because there is no way to use them to solve any puzzles, ever

 

[Alpan]

Hold it, guys. It's silly to consider UA as an actual finished product, let alone an immersive sim. You want to wait for System Shock 3 to deliver the killing blow before declaring immersive sims dead.

 

[Nyast]

OK but seriously write again when you've two hours in and we'll see how the hell you feel lol

I literally can't proceed in the game because it refuses to load the next level and I ain't the only one either

Two hours isn't really enough. For me the Underswamp ( level 4 ) is where you really start to see the limitations of the game, how lazy they were at building the assets and stitching them together. For example, prior to the Underswamp, you'll rarely see objects floating above the ground. After the Underswamp, you will simply be incredulous. There are tons of places where you can see holes and the "inside" of the level, too.

Level 5 is probably the worst in terms of level building. The layout is interesting ( very vertical ) and visually, it doesn't look bad but.. it's full of glitches.

Level 6 ( the one I streamed earlier ) is better. It still has lots of glitches and level building issues but they're not as frequent as in level 5.

On a side note, if you want a good laugh, check out this wiki page from before the game was released:

https://underworldascendant.gamepedia.com/Underworld_Ascendant

 

[BEvers]

I checked if the game indeed had nine levels as advertised, and sure enough it does. If anyone wants the list:

Spoiler

Pluto's Gate
Saurian's Challenge
Marcaul
Upper Erebus
Underswamp
Titan's Reach
Tyball's Folly
Cytheron Catacombs
Vault of Nyx

My game was pretty much over once I reached Tyball's Folly, because I couldn't bear the repetition anymore. I just ran past all the enemies and grabbed the objectives. The mandatory nine side quests took longer than the main quest, largely because of glitches and poor directions.

 

[Nifft Batuff]

Hold it, guys. It's silly to consider UA as an actual finished product, let alone an immersive sim. You want to wait for System Shock 3 to deliver the killing blow before declaring immersive sims dead.

After UA I doubt there will be a System Shock 3. They will forfeit.

 

[BEvers]

 

[Max Heap]

Alright I think I've had enough of this mess.

Finishing it once is enough. Mage archetype plays pretty much the same, except less fun (if you can call it that) due to the lack of high jumps.

Here is a tip if you wanna finish this game quickly: Do the faction reputation quests first, then the abyss key quests. If you do the key quests first you will only get shitty broken faction quests from the endgame like "retrieve this weapon from somewhere on the map" and those are pretty much impossible to finish (Or outright broken? I really wouldn't know).

Also found some runes. Still, i'm at the end of the game and I only got a few. No idea if there are any attack spells. The most useful was "Teleport", because it let me skip some annoying shit. Still less useful than high/double jump.

But who gives a shit? I might look into this again when its fixed (so probably never).

 

[glass blackbird]

Hold it, guys. It's silly to consider UA as an actual finished product, let alone an immersive sim. You want to wait for System Shock 3 to deliver the killing blow before declaring immersive sims dead.

After UA I doubt there will be a System Shock 3. They will forfeit.

If I remember rightly, they actually announced got publisher funding for SS3 (Starbreeze picked it up) before they ever managed to get a publisher for Underworld--which may also explain why nobody seems to have given a shit about Underworld for like three years. So I would imagine it'll come out at some point, good or bad.

 

[Zep Zepo]

Is it now ? I had luck then, I played it before summer and it was perfectly fine and functional.

The Exporter config has a path for "Ambient" sounds, but I can't find an ambient sound pack. Is there such a thing?

;Ambient sound.
;Atmospheric sounds for levels
UW1_Ambient=C:\Games\UWSoundPack\UW1_Ambient

Zep--

 

[BEvers]

Also found some runes. Still, i'm at the end of the game and I only got a few. No idea if there are any attack spells.

I found eight runes in my playthrough and was generally underwhelmed by the spells I could make.

Stuff like "damage plant matter" (far weaker than simply setting it on fire), "make plants grow" (why? where?) "create piece of clothing" (only created beginner items, and I unlocked it at the endgame), "create ball of plant matter" (why?) or "slow enemy" (seemed pointless). I found the formulas for the "shield" and "remote sight" spells, but never found the runes.

The only ones I used frequently were the self heal, the fire orb, teleport (as you said, useful to skip stuff), and the summon companion spell, which the enemy AI couldn't deal with at all. And that was supposed to be a pure mage build