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Game News Underworld Ascendant Released

Infinitron

I post news
Staff Member
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97,232
Codex Year of the Donut Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
Tags: OtherSide Entertainment; Underworld Ascendant

Nearly four and a half years after it was first announced, Underworld Ascendant was finally released today, with more of a whimper than a bang. This game's development is truly one of the most shameful events of the Kickstarter era. It's one thing when a group of respected developers from the old days (and there are few who were more respected than this bunch) fail to recreate the magic and come out with a disappointing game. God knows we've seen plenty of that. It's quite another thing when they reveal themselves to have had no idea how to even make a game.

To be sure, Ascendant is janky, buggy and incomplete, but its real problem is quantity rather than quality. It's been cut down to the absolute minimum. With enough patching, its gameplay could perhaps become acceptable, but we didn't need to bring Paul Neurath and Tim Stellmach out of retirement to create what is basically an Early Access indie dungeon survival game of the sort that three-man teams from Eastern Europe release on Steam every week. Frankly, it's kind of hard to believe that the game even exists. It's the sort of project that's supposed to get cancelled and rebooted before ever seeing the light of day. The really sad thing, though, is that there aren't enough people who care to have even made much of a fuss about it.



Naturally, there are no reviews of the game, only a flurry of interviews with Warren Spector and a few "sponsored" previews on YouTube. It won't be long before the fun begins, though. If for some reason you'd like to experience it first-hand, Ascendant is available on Steam for $30 with a 15% launch discount until next week. Apparently GOG have refused to stock the game, which really tells you all you need to know.
 

Mustawd

Guest
giphy.gif


Zep Zepo tried telling us. We didn’t listen...
 

Sceptic

Arcane
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Mar 2, 2010
Messages
10,871
Divinity: Original Sin
I'm tempted to dig out my post from 4 years ago predicting this wouldn't be a UW successor, but to be fair I hadn't even imagined it would be this bad.

I'm also tempted to beg for a key in return for a review thoroughly comparing it to UW, but I think I'll wait to see when if they patch this into something at least semi-workable.

The really sad thing, though, is that there aren't enough people who care to have even made much of a fuss about it.
Those of us who cared made a fuss about it 4 years ago, then in the face of foolish optimism we stopped caring.

Well except for Zep I guess, but even he seems to have given up. And that really tells you all you need to know.
 

Infinitron

I post news
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Joined
Jan 28, 2011
Messages
97,232
Codex Year of the Donut Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
Do you have to be wrong even when you're right? The game's actually not linear - the level design is not bad and that you have to revisit the same areas multiple times is actually one of the complaints that people have.
 

skacky

3D Realms
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Mar 5, 2013
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I was saying a month ago with the relatively dreadful beta that the game needed a good 6-7 months of polish. It was of course impossible for them to fix all the game's issues in only one month considering the sheer amount of them. Infinitron is right that the level design is actually good and the art direction can look really good at times, but the game itself is very very barebones and the game is chock full of technical issues right off the bat.

I'm not angry I threw money at this. I'm just incredibly saddened that this is the result. I mean, these guys are ex-Looking Glass. They're supposed to be untouchable. Not like this. :despair:
 

tarasis

Novice
Joined
Apr 15, 2013
Messages
22
I did back the game, although only at the 20$ level + 5 for the novel.

*sigh* you win some and you lose some (it can’t be worse than After Reset RPG surely?)
 

Mustawd

Guest
Didnt have to be a fucking rocket scientist

- looked nothing like UU stylistically
- plays linearly
- development hell

Fine, but Zep Zepo was sounding the alarms back during the kickstarter campaign, and pointing out what he saw as out of touch developers. A lot of us, including myself, gave him shit about it back then. So at the very least it bears recognizing that.

four and a half years
:abyssgazer:

Holy shit...have I been on the codex 4+ years already??

D:
 

Zer0wing

Cipher
Joined
Mar 22, 2017
Messages
2,607
This is why people retire. Guess Warren have nothing to say anymore. Other than "we want kickstarte money"..

Does anybody have a spare key? Judging by the news, this game clearly not worth 20-30 bucks.
 

Bumvelcrow

Somewhat interesting
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Codex 2013 Codex 2014 Make the Codex Great Again! Strap Yourselves In
I didn't back this game, and considering I backed just about every other nostalgia-driven kickstarter for the first couple of years (except Shroud of the Avatar, I'm not that stupid) that should say something about how obviously this was going to fail. Zorry, Zep, you ain't that much of a prophet.
 

Pope Amole II

Nerd Commando Game Studios
Developer
Joined
Mar 1, 2012
Messages
2,052
Infinitron TBH, out of yesterday releases warhammer 40k mechanicus:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/673880/Warhammer_40000_Mechanicus/

Is much more deserving of a newspost. Playing it right now and while it's a bit on the easier side of equation (in the early missions, at the very least), at least it's a proper RPG/strategy hybrid and the writing is pretty decent. Much better than the average schlock that gets released under w40k brand nowadays.
 

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