KickStarter Underworld Ascendant Pre-Release Thread

[Dreed]

Are there any veteran game developers who haven't been disappointing in their modern output? Can't think of a single unqualified success.

There is Chris Jones, Telsa Effect was good and faithful to Tex Murphy 3/4/5

 

[agris]

Didn’t they develop a VR game immediately after their UA Kickstarter was successful?

 

[skacky]

So I played the game for about 3 hours. Disclaimer: I'm a huge LGS fanboy. Thief 1, System Shock and Ultima Underworld are among my top-10 games of all time so I backed this as soon as the KS went live.
My impressions after these 3 hours? It's not good. At all, in fact. At least in its current state. Thinking it can be released next month is inconceivable. Which is a shame, because there is something promising under all this. It "just" needs tons of polish and refinement. I honestly feel like it needs 6 months to a year more in the oven before it's ready.

First, the few things I found good:
- I do like the art direction to an extent, at least when it concerns environments. Some bits genuinely look good, such as the big cave with the trees and the portal to Marcaul, or the first area in Upper Erebus.
- There is still this sense of exploration and wonder. The dungeons still beckon and most areas are pretty interesting.
- The level design is quite emergent and the maps are big.
- The sound design seems good overall, at least as far as ambience is concerned. The silver sappling noise is wonderful, I could spend hours listening to it.
- The inclusion of stealth is a nice touch and a welcome addition. It seems to be more complex than just a binary system, too.
- I like the inclusion of the auto-map, even though I wish it looked more like UU/UU2's.
- The magic system is as awesome as before.
- Darkness is dark as crap.
- The options menu seems pretty beefy.

Now, on to the bad:
- The movement system is downright TERRIBLE. There is no other word for it, it flat out sucks. It feels floaty and unnatural. Jumping feels bad, sprinting feels bad, mantling feels bad, swimming feels VERY bad. You constantly get stuck against geometry. All the time. You can't even climb stairs properly. Getting out of the water is often an ordeal.
- Combat is braindead and the AI is fucking stupid. There is no challenge to it unless you get stuck on geometry, which happens all the goddamn time. The AI often walks sideways or backwards too!
- You can't save? At least I haven't found a way to save.
- The maps are obviously completely unfinished. Marcaul looks like it's barely out of blockout phase. There are gaps to the void everywhere, floating props are found everywhere and it's easy to get out of bounds and boy, Z-fighting galore! It doesn't help that it's a downright ugly mess of an area that is also completely symmetrical. Other areas I visited are more polished but some still suffer from the same issues.
- The bloom effect is trashy and completely distateful. Your skin itself looks like it's dipped in vaseline. I thought we were over this fad.
- You can't bind controls. That... doesn't bode very well.
- You can't talk to anyone at all. Even the Talk prompts are a lie, since in the case of Aelita and the lizard dude, it just takes you to generic UIs for bartering and feats.
- The lizards look so fucking stupid it's taking me right out of the game. They look like someone's first model.
- The game just throws you into it with little to no explanation. I still don't know who I am and what I'm supposed to do.
- While I appreciate some of the UI (menus and inventory), the rest feels tacked on and kinda lazy. The magic UI in particular does not feel intuitive because of it.
- It looks like you can only pick up one quest at a time. And they're found on a bulletin board in a forum area that is COMPLETELY EMPTY.
- Can Typhon shut the fuck up already? I have heard him talk 5 or 6 lines and I just want to blow my brains out. What a terrible voice! Who thought this was a good idea? It's made even worse with his downright cringey dialogue. "HURK HURK HURK I'M VERY EVIL!". Cabirus is quite good overall.
- Performance is absolutely abysmal. 35fps on average on High with a 1060. One area in Upper Erebus made my framerate dip to 7-8fps and it did not stabilize back. Wow! What the fuck?
- Texture quality and resolution are all over the place. It isn't rare to see sharp wall textures next to completely featureless rock textures that look like uniform clay. Some textures look like they aren't even loaded properly in Pluto's Gate.
- You get glint on items you can take in your inventory, but only when you're near them. Why? The game doesn't need that.
- I feel like the disconnected nature of the Stygian Abyss is a move in the wrong direction. It's not like UU2-style disconnection either, here it looks like every level is a self-contained large, single map versus every dimension being a multi-layered dungeon in UU2.
- Stats screens at the end of each level? What? That's one of the most puzzling decisions so far. I don't understand it.
- I'm ambivalent about the feats system. I do not like, however, that Cabirus tells me I have gained a new feat every goddamn time.
- For some reason the game mixes up languages with VA. My game is in English but my system is in French, which results in Cabirus speaking one line in English and then the next in French.

Will probably play it some more later.

 

[unfairlight]

lol @ everyone who had any hope for this
I WAS RIGHT, I AM ALWAYS RIGHT.

Washed up hacks make a Kickstarter scam that will end up disappointing everyone or being casual shit. Whocareslol.

The gameplay hardly looks any different from Dishonored, if I had to guess it will probably disappoint since the devs are washed up hack frauds.

 

[Nano]

That comparison is insulting to Dishonored.

 

[unfairlight]

True, it's just a fourth rate knockoff of Dishonored.

 

[Junmarko]

The gameplay hardly looks any different from Dishonored, if I had to guess it will probably disappoint since the devs are washed up hack frauds.

True, it's just a fourth rate knockoff of Dishonored.

Location:
Estonia

Panic in the Elysium. Disco Delirious!

 

[unfairlight]

That game is probably going to be shit. I predict that it will be a pretentious piece of shit like Tides of Numanuma.

 

[V_K]

The movement system is downright TERRIBLE. There is no other word for it, it flat out sucks. It feels floaty and unnatural. Jumping feels bad, sprinting feels bad, mantling feels bad, swimming feels VERY bad. You constantly get stuck against geometry. All the time. You can't even climb stairs properly. Getting out of the water is often an ordeal.

So - very faithful to UW?

 

[Infinitron]

First, the few things I found good:
- I do like the art direction to an extent, at least when it concerns environments. Some bits genuinely look good, such as the big cave with the trees and the portal to Marcaul, or the first area in Upper Erebus.
- There is still this sense of exploration and wonder. The dungeons still beckon and most areas are pretty interesting.
- The level design is quite emergent and the maps are big.
- The sound design seems good overall, at least as far as ambience is concerned. The silver sappling noise is wonderful, I could spend hours listening to it.
- The inclusion of stealth is a nice touch and a welcome addition. It seems to be more complex than just a binary system, too.
- Darkness is dark as crap.

In other words, everything you need to IN ORDER TO MAKE A GOOD THIEF GAME FFS https://rpgcodex.net/forums/index.p...ing-november-15th.108483/page-62#post-5721850

 

[skacky]

V_K That's not a proper argument though. UU was released almost 30 years ago. You'd think that, in 30 years, there would've been massive improvements in that department between UU and UA. Same with combat and AI. For a game that boasts it's "innovative in bold new ways", it sure isn't.

 

[agris]

Didn’t they develop a VR game immediately after their UA Kickstarter was successful?

m_s0 Nano

I don't think this game has been in development for four years, I think it was under two.

• The UA Kickstarter concluded early March of 2015,
• UOverlord (their VR game in the UA universe) was released ~18 months after the KS, in December 2016 (link)
  
• So from the release of UOverlord to Nov 15th, you're looking at less than two years, making it ~23 months from the release of UO

I suspect that the KS funds and resulting press coverage were leveraged to develop a prototype of Underworld Overlord, their VR game, to pitch to publishers. See: Nightdive's SS1 as another example of this business model. These VR projects are usually heavily subsidized by the publisher, Google and partners in this case, so that funding was used to start the real development of UA with anticipated UO sales also contributing resources. See: inXile's Mage Tale / BT4 development for another example of this business model.

So there you have it, probably two years-ish of development.

That being said, I'm sure they were following the inXile model and trying to develop assets and pipelines that were as applicable to both games as possible, and I'm sure there was some work done on UA during 2015 - 2016, but UO didn't make itself - it took man hours, attention and focus.

 

[Infinitron]

Yeah, the game has been in development for four years, but much of that was this sort of flailing-around-and-not-getting-anywhere extended preproduction period (before they got more budget from 505).

Similar to Torment: Tides of Numenera's first 1.5 years of development before Wasteland 2 was released, but with even less budget and manpower.

 

[agris]

Yeah, the game has been in development for four years, but much of that was this sort of flailing-around-and-not-getting-anywhere extended preproduction period (before they got more budget from 505).

Similar to Torment: Tides of Numenera's first 1.5 years of development before Wasteland 2 was released, but with even less budget and manpower.

I feel as if you're stretching the term "development". Maybe you mean pre-production?

 

[taxalot]

Is there a connection between SotA and Ultima (and New Britannia and regular old Brittania)?

Since nobody is answering this, I will. Yes. There is, and it's hilarious. SOTA IS Ultima X story-wise and you do find enough references in the game to make this a certainty.

However, it's also hilarious how they tip-toe around the whole thing not to get into copyright or legal trouble. A character explicitly refers to Mondain, Minax, and Exodus but will refuse to say their name, instead he will ask you about them. You also have some characters who are explicitly descendants of Iolo, Dupré, etc, know they traveled with an ancient "Avatar" but seem at loss to tell you more.

Basically, yeah, the game world of SOTA is this : Avatar defeated the Guardian, but the moons were still fucked up in their orbit, Trammel and Fellucca collided and shards fell into Britannia completely obliterating it ; the current New Britannia is the remnants of Britannia rebuilt. You can find a lot of other references to old characters, old history, and even old geographical landmarks in that game, but they will always, always try to stay "subtle" about it to avoid legal trouble. Considering any Ultima fan would know what they are getting at, I am pretty sure EA could just send a cease & desist to Portalarium by this point but they are not out of pity.

 

[Infinitron]

When Underworld Ascendant was Kickstarted, its dark elf faction was meant to be an offshoot of the dark elves from SOTA, having arrived in the Abyss from New Britannia through a portal. But I think at some point they may have decided to downplay that connection or maybe even cancel it.

They also stopped calling the game's protagonist the Avatar (now he's the "Ascendant") and threw in a bunch of Greek mythology references.

 

[Gord]

At this point (but I guess their publisher will not like that) they should probably release this as early access, hoping to get at least a little bit of additional money and finish the thing during the next year or such.

Why early access?
"We can't honestly call this a remotely finished game at this point."

 

[Zep Zepo]

When Underworld Ascendant was Kickstarted, its dark elf faction was meant to be an offshoot of the dark elves from SOTA, having arrived in the Abyss from New Britannia through a portal. But I think at some point they may have decided to downplay that connection or maybe even cancel it.

They also stopped calling the game's protagonist the Avatar (now he's the "Ascendant") and threw in a bunch of Greek mythology references.

I'm sure they initially thought that linking up with SotA would get them some share of that YUGE 12 million(?) Garriott Bux from his supporters. Turned out to be a fail and they couldn't pay Richard his alms he probably requested.

Wasn't there also talk early on about being able to "portal" between the two games? Another failed idea.

Zep--

 

[Eggs is eggs]

Oh yeah I remember them mentioning that you would be the "Avatar" and that it was basically a sequel to Ultima Underworld. I wonder if they saw the trainwreck that is SotA and decided to distance themselves from it as much as possible? LOL

 

[DJOGamer PT]

Here's a nearly 4 hour beta gameplay video from the edge man.

 

[Bitcher1]

So by basically all accounts this seems like a spiritual successor to Descent to Undermountain, what with crappy movement, glitches galore, botched physics, laughable NPC models window-dressing RPG elements, and even skeletons featuring as the predominant enemy (as far as I remember).
Well, can't wait to try it out then, ready to get hit with a massive wave of nostalgia.

 

[Invictus]

I still don’t understand why did they release the Beta or whatever anyway; a beta is supposed to be the “complete” game without polish but everything is supposed to “be” there... so far it seems half of the stuff is missing and the other half is so poorly done that it looks like a vertical slice at best
This is the pinnacle of what a disappointment is and I truly hope this bombs so bad the whole studio shuffles off into oblivion, these people do not deserve our money or goodwill

 

[Zep Zepo]

Descent to Undermountain

Descent to Undermountain was developed by Chris Avellone,...

Learn something new everyday.

Game was pretty crap though, I did beat it after wrestling with all the bugs and crashes.

Zep--

 

[Ivan]

Combat is as basic as it gets. Bait the enemy into attacking while backpedalling, attack, rinse & repeat. You cannot lose while doing this unless you get stuck against geometry, which happens ALL THE TIME.

ah, the Gothic school of melee combat

 

[unfairlight]

Gothic's dodging isn't really the same because you're taking a pretty large risk by baiting them into an attack and then dodging.