KickStarter Underworld Ascendant is a disaster

[Hines]

Even the game's biggest pre-release supporter, Flug, is devastated by the current state of the game. In terms of expectations associated with Underworld and the pedigree of people involved, this might be the worst Kickstarter of all time.


https://www.othersideentertainment.com/forum/index.php?topic=6496.0

 

[Nano]

I feel like the person who's credibility is hurt the most by this game is Tim Stellmach. Lead designer on the two Thief games as well as UUW2. I guess after almost two decades of not working on anything noteworthy, he forgot how to develop good games.

 

[DeepOcean]

I feel like the person who's credibility is hurt the most by this game is Tim Stellmach. Lead designer on the two Thief games as well as UUW2. I guess after almost two decades of not working on anything noteworthy, he forgot how to develop good games.

I think the big number one problem of this game wasn't design wise, a lead game designer can only work with what he has, the big problem was with the producer, the one actually responsible for the budgetting, they clearly didn't have programmers up to the task and people enough to actually produce the content, animators to actually make decent animations and the list of shortcomings were big.

Someone should have realized this and cut hard the scope of the game before it was too late. As Zep Zeppo commented, the top guys responsible for the tech side of Thief weren't around too and this makes a huge difference. I think they could realistically make an Arx Fatalis kind of game, linear Dungeon Crawling game with limited levels and they would make a playable game if they chosen that path.

 

[LESS T_T]

Well, fwiw Arx Fatalis had many more developers than this.

 

[Doctor Sbaitso]

UW exporter completely breaks continuity with the original at this point. If that doesn't register for you then don't ever speak about mechanics in a public forum again.

 

[Hines]

Well, fwiw Arx Fatalis had many more developers than this.

Really? Raphael Colantonio said Arkane had 9 developers when they made Arx, which presumably excludes contractors like Otherside does with Ascendant when they say 10.

https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2007/11/02/making-of-arx-fatalis/
https://www.pressreader.com/uk/retro-gamer/20180419/281668255554960

 

[Deleted Member 16721]

What bothers me is that gamers can't seem to appreciate differing design visions. Not saying this game is great, but I notice the same complaints of "can't save anywhere". To that I say, so what? The game is designed that way for a reason, not for some oversight by the developers. BT4 had to patch in save anywhere because gamers are simply unwilling to adapt to a different experience and still seem to require every game to homogenize. To stay positive I'll just say that I hope this game gets patched up as it seems to need it right now. But let's remember that not every game needs to be the same...

 

[JBro]

UW exporter completely breaks continuity with the original at this point. If that doesn't register for you then don't ever speak about mechanics in a public forum again.

Elaborate.

 

[Darth Slaughter]

What bothers me is that gamers can't seem to appreciate differing design visions. Not saying this game is great, but I notice the same complaints of "can't save anywhere". To that I say, so what? The game is designed that way for a reason, not for some oversight by the developers. BT4 had to patch in save anywhere because gamers are simply unwilling to adapt to a different experience and still seem to require every game to homogenize. To stay positive I'll just say that I hope this game gets patched up as it seems to need it right now. But let's remember that not every game needs to be the same...

The thing is, it's not that you can't save anywhere... it is more the fact that you can't save at all. Say you explore a level for 1 and a half hours, but you suddenly have to stop playing due to real life obligations - or maybe a bug that crash your game. You "save" the game, and when you come back, you have to play the whole level again, with all enemies alive, all chests locked, and what is actually saved is your inventory. There's the silver sapling checkpoint system, but it works only for your current play-through. leave the game or reload, it's back to start. It is an oversight by the developers, since the levels are actually big.

I don't think a save anywhere system is really necessary, but a checkpoint system is really missing or any alternative. Kingdom come deliverance had many complaints about its saving system, but it actually worked. And you could save anywhere in that game, if you could overcome the imposed limitations by learning how to brew save potions, or progress through the quests so you would get autosaves after completing important tasks.

What it seems is that the developers couldn't figure out a solution and now it may be a little late for a saving system.

 

[Deleted Member 16721]

Well, I'm not commenting on the game in specific. I enjoyed BT4's save system. It gave a sense of a bit of tension in that you had to find a stone to save your progress, and made things more interesting. I agree that some sort of checkpoint save or something needs to be there, you can't play for an hour and a half and lose your progress, that's just bad. They should have went with the save stone system from BT4 it sounds like. At least then you'd have a compromise, and a good one at that.

 

[El Presidente]

What bothers me is that gamers can't seem to appreciate differing design visions. Not saying this game is great, but I notice the same complaints of "can't save anywhere". To that I say, so what? The game is designed that way for a reason, not for some oversight by the developers.

I don't get your point, so the game's not as bad as some people are making it out to be because.... some things aren't just technical problems but conscious decisions of the dev team? What if these decisions were shit, which is exactly the case of dozens of them in this game - including not being able to save anywhere?

The game's a technical disaster AND a decision making trainwreck, the latter isn't just a matter of unappreciative zealots of a niche genre. On the contrary actually: I have the impression many people would be lenient with Tim Stellmach's (et al) comeback to the industry, but the delivered product was awful enough to granted a 39% mostly negative score by a community that was very likely trying to look at it through the best possible angle.

 

[LESS T_T]

Well, fwiw Arx Fatalis had many more developers than this.

Really? Raphael Colantonio said Arkane had 9 developers when they made Arx, which presumably excludes contractors like Otherside does with Ascendant when they say 10.

https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2007/11/02/making-of-arx-fatalis/
https://www.pressreader.com/uk/retro-gamer/20180419/281668255554960

Well I said that only according to the credits, they seem to have many more artists and programmers (including contractors I guess) than this game.

From what I was watching, Otherside Boston only had handful of programmers and artists, which is crazy considering their original ambition.

Well if someone can provide credits screen for this game...

 

[JBro]

Since they have the UW 1 and 2 source code, why don't we just go there and stand outside their offices with torches and pitchforks?

 

[Curratum]

Wait, what?

Neurath and Co still has the source to the originals AND the rights to dispense with it as he sees fit?

If that is the case, I'm so going back to the Steam hub to pester them to at least release this so we can finally have a proper sourceport. How glorious would that be, the ZDoom of UU!

 

[Feyd Rautha]

Hehe imagine being one of the five persons who pledged 10k

 

[fantadomat]

Hehe imagine being one of the five persons who pledged 10k

 

[Sacibengala]

Even the game's biggest pre-release supporter, Flug, is devastated by the current state of the game. In terms of expectations associated with Underworld and the pedigree of people involved, this might be the worst Kickstarter of all time.


https://www.othersideentertainment.com/forum/index.php?topic=6496.0

Hehe imagine being one of the five persons who pledged 10k

I am proud to be a backer of the worst kickstarter ever!

 

[Nyast]

What bothers me is that gamers can't seem to appreciate differing design visions. Not saying this game is great, but I notice the same complaints of "can't save anywhere". To that I say, so what? The game is designed that way for a reason, not for some oversight by the developers.

Nice speech. I'd agree if it wasn't for one thing: the devs have admitted they actually wanted a true save system but weren't able to make one due to technical challenges. Also, they're working on a fix. Again. So yeah, I don't think "design" has much to do with this mess.

 

[vota DC]

It has some annoyances.

At first I though the blood stains were mini fires...but that's because they aren't oriented to the floor properly.

Occasionally, "debris" would end up floating in the air.

Trading (or was it bartering) is finicky, the solution is to just keep trying until it is accepted.

Zep--

Trading was bad in original because you needed two skills (charm and appraise) and you had the bug that people gave you items for free with a relation downgrade but after you spoke with them again you reset to to friendly. Goblins, trolls and dwarf blacksmith worked well because they turned hostile if if asked free stuff.

 

[Ranarama]

Also, what the fuck is with the system requirements? I'm going to have to wait way beyond the time it'll be on clearance to even try this clusterfuck for myself.

 

[TemplarGR]

we are now in the age of Microsoft, Bethesda, Belgium and Russia

It's so sad when you put it this way. I might as well commit seppuku.

Well, at least there is still Bioware... I mean, they are making Dragon Turd 4 and all...

 

[Big Wrangle]

Funnily enough, Ubisoft is now Spiders with a budget when it comes to the last two AC games.

 

[Zep Zepo]

More than 3 and a half years ago by Chris.

https://forum.quartertothree.com/t/...ought-to-you-by-zombie-looking-glass/76311/33

Telling...It WAS all about the MONEY.

Zep--

 

[Zep Zepo]

Hehe imagine being one of the five persons who pledged 10k

Fargo was one...

Good thing he hit that big payday with Microsoft to lessen the old sting.

Zep--

 

[Zep Zepo]

Against my better judgement, I read that whole QT3 thread.

Chris is telling the same lies (3 years ago) he was telling 2 weeks before this shit released.

Zep--