KickStarter Underworld Ascendant is a disaster

[Nyast]

There is no salvation in fixing it. The only salvation is in rebuilding it. From scratch. Which won't happen.

 

[taxalot]

Ask Deepdive to demake the game using the System Shock engine.

 

[Infinitron]

https://www.thesixthaxis.com/2018/1...derworld-ascendant-and-why-we-cant-review-it/

Why You Should Avoid Underworld Ascendant, And Why We Can’t Review It
Save yourselves and stay away

At the risk of jumping on a bandwagon, we cannot review Underworld Ascendant in its current form. Despite having released this time last week, it’s clear that it’s still full of bugs and glaring design issues. It’s a shell of the promise from the original Kickstarter and from the team that made it at OtherSide Entertainment. In fact, I’m going to say that the game is simply unplayable as things stand.

That might sound like the kind of empty hyperbole that is thrown at games that don’t reach the levels of polish or quality that we might have expected, but here, the claim is a simple one. In tandem with crash bugs, the obtuse, baffling, and player unfriendly save system that OtherSide Entertainment have decided to use makes playing the game nigh on impossible to overcome. While you can create checkpoints within a level, your progress isn’t actually truly saved until you have cleared a dungeon. It takes the shell of an immersive dungeon crawler, matches it up with what’s akin to a roguelite save system, and doesn’t even explain it within the game.

My first attempt at playing was going well enough – with the caveat that the game itself feels dated and a bit janky – but as a parent with other commitments, I had to stop playing and selected save game from the menu. On returning to the dark and dismal underworld later, I was surprised to see that I was back at the beginning of the level with all of my inventory complete but no progress logged. I assumed that this was due to a bug since the game had updated to a more recent version, but once I looked at the discussion forums on Steam, it turns out that’s not the case. This complex game with large immersive dungeons is designed to not save your progress between sessions.

If this decision were not maddening enough, there is a checkpoint mechanic built into the game. Shortly after the opening section you find a silver sapling (nicely nodding back to the classic original Underworld games) which you can plant as many times as you like at predetermined points. This enables a restart point should you die, which given the shonkiness of the collision detection and physics is entirely necessary. Given the rigours of a game, even being able to use these as a suspend point (as is often found in handheld JRPGs) would be a blessing, but that’s not the case. Unless you are able to finish whole sections, and there is absolutely no way of knowing how long a section will be until you have finished it, you will be forced to replay boring sections of depressing dungeons again and again.

It is not just the save system that is broken, – though the fact that this was a deliberate decision means that’s not quite the right term. Underworld Ascendant is a physics-based sandbox, which means that there are potentially multiple ways to approach puzzles and combat encounters. Many of these solutions simply don’t work right now.

The object collision physics are ridiculously over responsive, so bumping into a pile of crates that you have spent minutes trying to make into a stairway knocks them all flying. Enemies have the AI of aggressive lemmings, running straight at you with no discernible behaviour types or strategies. Light and dark mechanics that seem to offer some interesting room management opportunities either don’t work or are deliberately scuppered by unquenchable light sources hardcoded into areas you’re forced to sneak through. Controls are jerky, the graphics are fine but certainly not cutting-edge, and the voice acting, or the little I have been able to experience, functional but annoying after repeated listens.

I just don’t know what to make of this released version of Underworld Ascendant. For a game with such a rich pedigree, especially given some of the talents who have been brought in to help with its design, it is currently a total failure. The mythological setting, the idea of multiple approaches and the updating of classic dungeon crawl mechanics all suggest that somewhere there is an idea of what Ascendant is meant to be. Surely what we have is not it.

Hopefully OtherSide are able to act quickly to address some of the most glaring issues with crashes and the save structure – they’ve released two hot fixes so far – before turning to other structural flaws. As it stands, this is a game that literally prevents you from playing it, and until it is able to be played, we can’t really review it. So for now, avoid Underworld Ascendant.

Editor’s note: While many of the same criticisms about bugginess, lost progress and poorly considered design were ones we levelled at Fallout 76, Steve has been unable to make any meaningful headway whereas Jason was able to at least delve 30 hours into the game and get a real feel for its weaknesses. As such, we’ll wait until issues with the save system and game crashes have been fixed before returning to review Underworld Ascendant.

 

[vota DC]

A comparison between first half hour of uw and ua tell everything.

UW you start in a site of a battle ,shortly after you speak with Bragit that explain what happened and invite you to visit his camp. In the outcast camp you find people that don't believe your innocence. Then you can go to grey goblins (you find the former cell of Bragit) and green goblins which king speak about the talismans and his difficulty to to understand what his lizardmen allies says.

UA you start with a ghost that tell you that you must save the world. Then you have to play macgyver. It takes a lot of time to encounter living people and they are sort of floating monks that mistake you for A-Team.

Macgyverism isn't very well implemented in UA. But even so in UW macgyverism was just one portion of the game and not the core.

 

[Sacibengala]

https://www.thesixthaxis.com/2018/1...derworld-ascendant-and-why-we-cant-review-it/

"It is to late for us, save yourself, tell our story..."

 

[Nifft Batuff]

Some game reviewers have to change job. Modern game design are too stressful for them. Playing these game has become a job.

 

[Glic2000]

I would honestly prefer if they DIDN'T spend too many resources on trying to fix UA. It's still gonna be a bad game. They need to cut their losses and just move on.

 

[Big Wrangle]

Well apparently the System Shock 3 team is a separate one altogether, so these lads will stay to support the game's post-launch. Some might be moved to the SS3 though. The bigger issue for OtherSide here is people's trust with the next project and possibility that the publisher might jump ship.

 

[rohand]

Funny thing is that I got a key for the old PREY by 3DRealms and finished that before the one by Arkane.

Their only similarlity are alien lifeforms and FPP, but I had loads of fun with both.

 

[zwanzig_zwoelf]

So, am I getting this right, they tried to start Looking Glass 2.0, but instead started Ion Storm 2.0?

 

[fantadomat]

So, am I getting this right, they tried to start Looking Glass 2.0, but instead started Ion Storm 2.0?

Ion studio have good games like Anachronox,Desus ex and thief 3.

More like a digital homicide 2.

 

[Zep Zepo]

I think they already alluded to the fact they were pretty much giving up on it. They may throw in another half assed attempt at a save system, but it's not going to help the game any.

Zep--

 

[zwanzig_zwoelf]

So, am I getting this right, they tried to start Looking Glass 2.0, but instead started Ion Storm 2.0?

Ion studio have good games like Anachronox,Desus ex and thief 3.

More like a digital homicide 2.

You're conveniently forgetting that the Dallas office delivered Dominion: Storm Over Gift 3 and Daikatana before Austin office managed to deliver Deus Ex (then Dallas office delivered Anachronox...).

Spoiler

Although Dominion was p meh and Daikatana was eventually patched to a playable state (and even enjoyable thanks to fans).

 

[fantadomat]

So, am I getting this right, they tried to start Looking Glass 2.0, but instead started Ion Storm 2.0?

Ion studio have good games like Anachronox,Desus ex and thief 3.

More like a digital homicide 2.

You're conveniently forgetting that the Dallas office delivered Dominion: Storm Over Gift 3 and Daikatana before Austin office managed to deliver Deus Ex (then Dallas office delivered Anachronox...).

Spoiler

Although Dominion was p meh and Daikatana was eventually patched to a playable state (and even enjoyable thanks to fans).

I didn't even knew that there are two offices. Still both games were a lot better than this shit. Did major gamer magazines refused to review that games because they were that shit?

 

[Metro]

I would honestly prefer if they DIDN'T spend too many resources on trying to fix UA. It's still gonna be a bad game. They need to cut their losses and just move on.

To what? Another bad game?

 

[taxalot]

I would honestly prefer if they DIDN'T spend too many resources on trying to fix UA. It's still gonna be a bad game. They need to cut their losses and just move on.

To what? Another bad game?

To be honest, it is not too much of a stretch to believe that while they have failed to produce a decent game they have learnt a lot from their mistakes. Their next game is bound to be much better should they be able to complete it.

 

[Big Wrangle]

I still wanna see the narrative trainwreck of System Shock 3 since the endgame 2 didn't even try. That shit was straight out of a b-movie.

 

[Mortmal]

A comparison between first half hour of uw and ua tell everything.

UW you start in a site of a battle ,shortly after you speak with Bragit that explain what happened and invite you to visit his camp. In the outcast camp you find people that don't believe your innocence. Then you can go to grey goblins (you find the former cell of Bragit) and green goblins which king speak about the talismans and his difficulty to to understand what his lizardmen allies says.

UA you start with a ghost that tell you that you must save the world. Then you have to play macgyver. It takes a lot of time to encounter living people and they are sort of floating monks that mistake you for A-Team.

Macgyverism isn't very well implemented in UA. But even so in UW macgyverism was just one portion of the game and not the core.

Ultima underworld was something exceptional, a game that made me switch from amiga to PC , not a small feat . A game i remember getting a 20/20 in the french magazine tilt , getting over 15/20 there was already rare , it was no doritos era .That's the only game to get that score ever, that in decades of gaming. So indeed the first 30 min of that on my 386DX40 were magical, some university roomate played 24H straight.
No one could expect people able to do that , could end up with something that bad.
Here for french oldfags:

 

[PhantasmaNL]

Recognizing possibly fundamental design flaws very early and as a result sometimes going back to square one is one of the most important lessons i learned a while after i started as a software developer. In the beginning i was unable to admit "defeat" and kept revising code. I could get this thing working dammit. The end result was horrifically complex code that was next to impossible to maintain. And it barely functioned. Great when i got it in my plate again a year later for maintenance.

These developers may have been in the same boat. Realising too late the design was critically flawed, but couldnt or wouldnt go back to square one. In stead they kept building their Frankenstein code into the abomination that was released.

They must have known this would end badly.

I guess they shelved their plan for a console release and DLC packs by now.

 

[Mortmal]

I remember seeing the ads for Ultima Underworld and thinking it was step-based, but then one day seeing a demo running in the window of my local computer game store and having my mind blown. It just seemed so real. I only had a C64 then (I was very behind the times then), and when I finally got a PC later on, I couldn't find UU anywhere for sale, and eventually had to call up Origin on the phone and order it straight from them. Getting that in the mail was an amazing day indeed.

Underworld Ascendant was like, instead of getting a truly awesome game in the mail, I got a bag of aids infected shit instead.

C64 still , so east sovietic block ?

 

[Mortmal]

Mortmal
USA, we didn't have a lot of money, but I loved that C64

And rightfully so you could still play most RPG till ultima 5.Most USA gamers had a NES or SNES back then.

 

[Glic2000]

The developers insisted there would be lots of post release support, with DLC even! Can you imagine, DLC for this game?

When asked about if there were lurkers in the game (like in UW of old) they hinted that lurkers might be DLC. You've gotta be fucking kidding me! Something that was mentioned in the KS pitch, you want me to pay extra for as DLC?!

 

[Mortmal]

Yeah, I even got Ultima 6 on C64! In hindsight, it never should have been released on that system, though (also in hindsight) its extremely impressive for what it is.

U6 on C64? Now i am watching it on YouTube, its truly impressive . I completely missed that, i played on the amiga and it was floppy hell already, although that was graphically as good as pc version with better soundtrack.

 

[Metro]

To be honest, it is not too much of a stretch to believe that while they have failed to produce a decent game they have learnt a lot from their mistakes. Their next game is bound to be much better should they be able to complete it.

They were working on this for four plus years. You'd think they would have learned during that time-span and helped to correct the project they were actively producing instead of marking it down for future endeavors. I don't know who would back another Kickstarter from these guys so I suspect it's a moot point.

 

[forumvisitor#451]

So I was very optimistic about this right until the release. I believed they can make it work. I believed they know what they are doing. I did not really follow their forums so I had no idea how many things they left out from original pitch.

Then the release, streams and Steam reviews happened.

Bugs or UI done in 2 minutes are the least of problems. Overpromising and underdelivering is. And they also "badly communicated, that it was supposed to be more of Dark Messiah than Underworld." Wow, I have no words. This was only Kickstarter I was interested in and was about to back.

They did not take it as men and did not apologize for making fools of people. So it deservers all the shit it gets. Let it burn and move on.

Monomyth is already better game and it's not even released.