KickStarter Underworld Ascendant is a disaster

[ZodoZ]

Kickstarter supporters are rubes.
Try before you buy.
The only sensible response to the years of shit releases.

 

[MasterLobar]

Xbox review.

"This is at best an alpha version. This game was released incomplete, it does not have the features listed in its description and is very bugged. Please Google its release info and its patch info. The developer knowingly released a broken product."

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/p/underworld-ascendant/9mzg29lrcck0?activetab=pivot:reviewstab

 

[Katana1000S]

I propose this game (and I use the term loosely) be re-named Underhand Deception ... the Dull buggy RPG

 

[Sacibengala]

Underdumpster: Assmadeincompetent

 

[Sinatar]

I propose this game (and I use the term loosely) be re-named Underhand Deception ... the Dull buggy RPG

It's Undermountain Descendant, the spiritual successor to Descent to Undermountain.

 

[MasterLobar]

I propose this game (and I use the term loosely) be re-named Underhand Deception ... the Dull buggy RPG

One way in which this game could still make some money is if it were turned into a parody.

Like having Typhon's voice taunting the player for having been so dump to buy the game and having a Jurassic Park-style "ah, ah, ah" message after each crash.

Or stuff like adding "and don't ask me how I wrote this while in the cage" to this graffiti.

From the Steam forums: story telling level: grand master

Spoiler

That way, it could really make the game worth buying for $5. I'm serious.

 

[LESS T_T]

I guess their new project is now at the stage of doing actual level design?: https://www.linkedin.com/in/justin-pappas-49771a3/

Lead Level Designer on an Unannounced Project
Dates Employed Jul 2019 – Present
Employment Duration 1 mo

 

[Child of Malkav]

If the unannounced project is Thief, then they can't fuck it up as bad as UA, right? I mean, they have to get the stealth right, the sound propagation system, the level design, the atmosphere, the light gem with it's granular increase/decrease, the various surfaces with different noises, the equipment, the rope arrows, the swimming and diving, the...........Yeah, you know what, they can fuck it up.

 

[glass blackbird]

With thief they have the benefit of Thief 4 setting the bar so low they can hardly help but clear it

 

[Child of Malkav]

True. But compared to T1 and 2? I mean........topping 4 isn't exactly an achievement or a challenge by any stretch of the imagination but the previous ones, considering they're about to shut down and all the financial problems that they have does cause some concern.

 

[MasterLobar]

Folks, this "unannounced project" is a red herring. It's meant to signal to potential SS3 publishers that OS has plans for the future and expects to continue operations.

Why is it "unannounced"? Because OS doesn't want inconvenient questions. How many people are working on it? How are you going to fund it? Any publisher interest? As long as it's "unannounced", they can always say they aren't ready to disclose any details yet.

Besides that, if they have a big unannounced project that is about to start, why did they lay off half of their Boston team two weeks ago?

They are still hoping that someone will bail them out and this is a desperate attempt to distract form the underwhelming progress they have made so far with SS3 and their hopeless financial situation.

 

[Katana1000S]

MasterLobar is absolutely right of course, these vile scumbags have lied to us from day one in order to make a quick buck, lets disregard the fallacy it's a different team doing SS3, that in its self is an admission of guilt ,,, the mere fact they said this SS3 game was MORE than HALF way finished as early as January this year speaks volumes about their honesty and commitment, what have we seen so far, a couple of very bad screenshots and that was months ago too, from a game that was supposed to be MORE than HALF way finished.

Their words, their scumbag LYING words.

These guys are despicable, the scum of the earth, they don't care, they got paid, and they surely never delivered, the idiotic white Knights who come here to defend this rubbish need to get their collective heads out of their arse's and go join that Razorfist moron in one of his public masturbation videos, they have as much credibility as him ... and yes, Razorfist did do that, yet he is seen as the celebrity Gamer who thinks this Undertard Demented POS is one of best games of all time.

I rest my case.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

and having a Jurassic Park-style "ah, ah, ah" message after each crash.

is this serious?

 

[MasterLobar]

It's very obvious what's going on:

- They don't have an "unannounced project," that's all BS

- After having abandoned UA, they laid off QA and other support staff (the CM will leave soon, too)

- They still have some money in the bank from their $3.5 million stock sale last August

- With that money, they are paying the remaining Boston staff and the Austin team to work on SS3

- They hope that they can make some more progress and finally convince a publisher to fund SS3 and keep them afloat

- Of course, "more than halfway completed" was a lie, and SS3 is nowhere near where it should be after more than 2 years of development

- Publishers also see clearly that they are so incompetent that even *6 months* after launching UA, they couldn't bring that game to an acceptable level (both PC and console)

- So every publisher knows that SS3 won't be released any time soon, will overshoot budget, and once it would finally be released, it would be delayed again and again (OS never met any deadline for anything) and at launch it will be the same mess as UA proved to be

That's why no publisher is going to dump $12+ million into this bottomless pit and they are going to run out of money in the next couple of weeks.

I stand by my prediction: OS will shut down in August.

 

[Infinitron]

Always so extreme, Lobar. There is an unannounced project, presumably "Thick as Thieves". The guy's not going to lie on his own LinkedIn page.

What is true is that project is nothing more than ideas and maybe some early prototypes with the UA engine, and may never go beyond that. If you want to call something like that not actually a project, be my guest.

 

[Efe]

SS3 is going to be awesome.
and you will learn to love underworld ascendant in retrospect

 

[Rahdulan]

Reading through these responses really reminds me we need a SICK BURN button.

 

[BEvers]

This is the first time I've seen a game deliberately remove its intro movie through a patch:

 

[Silentstorm]

That is...impressive, also, an intro movie isn't fun gameplay wise, well, no shit, unless it has some random QTES, the purpose of a cutscene is to add to the freaking story or at least be entertaining to watch, but the fact they felt confident in removing the intro movie tells me they did not think it gave any actual interesting details for the plot or setting, and was so boring it could be removed.

 

[Glic2000]

I'm thrilled they got rid of that stupid talking mask intro. It looked cheap and gave a terrible first impression. The amusing thing is it took them THIS long to realize it was terrible.

 

[Cael]

I'm thrilled they got rid of that stupid talking mask intro. It looked cheap and gave a terrible first impression. The amusing thing is it took them THIS long to realize it was terrible.

There is a difference between realising it is shit, and admitting publicly that it is :D

 

[Curratum]

SS3 is going to be awesome.
and you will learn to love underworld ascendant in retrospect

SS3 cannot be any worse than Ascendant. It's factually not possible to release a non-self-published game that is in a worse state than Ascendant.

 

[Nyast]

I'm thrilled they got rid of that stupid talking mask intro. It looked cheap and gave a terrible first impression. The amusing thing is it took them THIS long to realize it was terrible.

Shall I dare mention that it was all part of the feedback we originally gave them during the alpha, almost 2 years ago ?

Now the loop is looped. Wait another 2 years and they might remove feats from the game.

 

[Terenty]

SS3 cannot be any worse than Ascendant

Warren Spector: hold my beer

 

[Silentstorm]

There is an easy way to make it worse, have SHODAN not appearing and not even being mentioned and have her be replaced by some boring generic evil AI with a lame voice.