KickStarter Underworld Ascendant is a disaster

[Tacgnol]

I already had concerns about System Shock 3, but this train wreck has made those concerns much worse.

Saying that, there is a good chance Otherside will fold before they even release anything, especially with the abysmal sales figures and reviews this one is getting.

 

[Gord]

Well, allegedly SS3 is made by a separate team and has much more money, too, so there's a bit of hope left.

Spoiler

 

[Glic2000]

Decided to check some more videos and holy shit, the dialogue is gamey as fuck. Now, I have no issue with games trying to explain and elaborate on mechanics via the game's narrative like in Prey, immersive sims and all, but Ascendant is just so fucking blatant about it. There is integrating mechanics into the world, and then thete is shoehorning things that any normal person can figure out into the writing.

That one of the most damning things about Underworld Ascendant. It's not just the bugs and glitches. It's that someone who worked on it thought it would be cool to have this awful, corny voice over and goofy looking Jar Jar Binks pimp dinosaurs for lizardmen. It's not just their lack of technical skills, it's like the developers also have bad taste. Like Curratum said, the backers told them the voice over was shit and then they went ahead and added a SECOND corny voice over for the villain!

I suppose System Shock 3's SHODAN will be just live action video of Terri Brosius' face, with a few wires taped onto it? I mean that's the level of quality I'm expecting at this point.

 

[Zep Zepo]

Well, allegedly SS3 is made by a separate team and has much more money, too, so there's a bit of hope left.

Warren is an employee like anyone else at OE. He does not cut his own deals with publishers while being under OE's umbrella.

The principals are controlling that money, not Waldo Rectum or his team.

If they want to dip into that money for whatever reason, they can surely do it.

Zep--

 

[Viata]

has much more money

I'm pretty sure money is not the real problem here, it's just bad design choices. If they had way more money, the game would still be the same shit, perhaps with less bugs.

 

[Big Wrangle]

I suppose System Shock 3's SHODAN will be just live action video of Terri Brosius' face, with a few wires taped onto it? I mean that's the level of quality I'm expecting at this point.

They're apparently trying to explore SHODAN's motivations already. Ya know, the AI that went haywire and got a God complex? What the hell is there to explore with "organs bad machine good."

 

[Gord]

I'm pretty sure money is not the real problem here, it's just bad design choices. If they had way more money, the game would still be the same shit, perhaps with less bugs.

It's just that many of the bad design seems to come from stupid choices that obviously have been made because they attempted to salvage (and I know I'm using that very liberally here) something for a release or from stuff that, while sounding interesting on paper, is just barely functional in game.

It might well have come out differently with a bigger team containing some more capable people. Then again, project management was quite obviously pretty bad, too, and more money would not have helped with it, so...

 

[Glic2000]

I suppose System Shock 3's SHODAN will be just live action video of Terri Brosius' face, with a few wires taped onto it? I mean that's the level of quality I'm expecting at this point.

They're apparently trying to explore SHODAN's maotivations already. Ya know, the AI that went haywire and got a God complex? What the hell is there to explore with "organs bad machine good."

I suppose they'll hire some ostensibly "well-known" author to write the story, pay him a couple of million dollars and then have no money left to actually make the game.

 

[Child of Malkav]

So I bought the locpicking skill and when i try to use it, it says that I need a key of a certain shape.
Now, the only keys you can collect are the 7 abyssal keys that have various shapes including the one that was required. Of course I only figured this out much later when I noticed that I could unlock doors. But you know what else I've noticed? Basically that, in order to pick a lock, you need a key.
I don't even......
Not to mention that unlocking doors most of the time only open halfway, juuuuuust enough to see what's on the other side (name drop). Pun intended or not I don't like what I see there.

 

[Curratum]

My monitor has turned to ass so I can't play any games. I'm instead lavishly showering new players on Steam with information. Managed to catch two guys within the two-hour window so far. A man's gotta do what a man's gotta do.

 

[glass blackbird]

I suppose System Shock 3's SHODAN will be just live action video of Terri Brosius' face, with a few wires taped onto it? I mean that's the level of quality I'm expecting at this point.

They're apparently trying to explore SHODAN's maotivations already. Ya know, the AI that went haywire and got a God complex? What the hell is there to explore with "organs bad machine good."

I suppose they'll hire some ostensibly "well-known" author to write the story, pay him a couple of million dollars and then have no money left to actually make the game.

They'll hire Chris Avellone

 

[Max Damage]

Another nostalgia cashgrab turns out to be shit, more news at 11!

 

[Max Heap]

 

[Big Wrangle]

Next time your game's a mess by the deadline, use Early Access.

 

[Nano]

Early Access wouldn't help. This game is terrible at the design level. No amount of bugfixing and new features will save it.

 

[Zep Zepo]

Guy in that video looks like he got the AIDS or something. He may not even live to the next patch.

Zep--

 

[agris]

The crowdfunding era of crpgs is over. It just produced mediocre games and now it can't even produce that. We are entering the dark age officially again....

It really isn't. Get away from the Obsidian/InXile/"Old Vets cashing in on Nostalgia" crowd and there's a lot of gems. The trick is it requires a bit more attention to catch them because they're such low profile. But since you're looking for good times, I'm sure that'll be trivial.

 

[sk2k]

What is happening? Where are the "official" reviews?

 

[Nifft Batuff]

This silence is even more humiliating than a 0/10.

 

[Glic2000]

Game isn't even worth reviewing. Reviewers are still busy jerking off over Spiderman, RDR2 and maybe even Fallout '76 (another disaster, but at least it's a disaster people care about).

 

[BEvers]

 

[Curratum]

This is too much. I give up. Even I have my limits.

I really, non-ironically hope Joe Fielder is fine, health-wise. He looks like a wreck in this video. I cannot hate on this. As a human being, I have my limits.

I feel like I spent whatever venom I had in me. I cannot hate on this. It's just too sad.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

What is happening? Where are the "official" reviews?

They're waiting for their bribe checks to clear

 

[Big Wrangle]

After the collective shittalk of the preview build by sites and apparently low sales, they can't even afford that.

 

[Nifft Batuff]

Just tried it out, but having an issue where turning mouselook back off (to pick up items) causes the mouse to pan uncontrollably across the screen left and right. Seems like it'd be great to play with otherwise.

I have the same issue (tried on UU2.)

Wrote the author of the hack, and he pointed out that DOSBox has an issue where the tab key will get stuck, if you've tabbed in and out of the game. So if you have the issue, try pressing the tab key while in the game. Worked for me (Although I only tried it on UU1).

Thanks, it worked for me also.