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Game News Underworld Ascendant Update #12: Prototype Gameplay Footage, now with commentary

Infinitron

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Tags: Chris Siegel; OtherSide Entertainment; Tim Stellmach; Underworld Ascendant

As expected, in the latest Underworld Ascendant biweekly update, OtherSide Entertainment have followed up on last week's prototype gameplay footage with a cleaned up version with developer commentary and additional explanations. Now you can watch it accompanied by the soothing voice of Tim Stellmach rather than annoying game journalists:



The Prototype is tightly focused around highlighting key areas of recent progress:
  • We wanted to have a big step up on the visual bar from the rough prototypes we showed during the Kickstarter. The final game will look even better of course, but this snapshot shows a lot of progress.
  • Finding the right look of the Stygian Abyss. We looked at classical artists like Dore, 18th century impressionists, and even some surrealists out of Russia. We wanted to show a couple of different types of play spaces, so we are showcasing a few signature spaces in the Abyss, such as the colossal caldera, with a towering lava vortex, and a more typical hallway and natural meld you could expect to see while travelling in the Abyss.
  • In the gameplay department we're showing some fun stealth gameplay, but flipped on its head of what we designed for Thief. Here a stealthy monster, the Shadow Beast, is stalking the player. Our protagonist is a virtually unarmed rogue who must rely on her wits to defeat a deadly Shadow Beast. This interaction highlights the capability of the Improvisation Engine, from manipulating the lava flow and lighting torches to change the light levels to keep the beast away.
  • Then there is the immersive audio soundscape to help deepen the immersion, as well as select voice overs to convey the game's narrative. If you listen closely to the soundscape you will hear some 'musical' beats happening. We have some ideas on how to work with sound as a game system and to enhance the character of the Underworld itself. We learned a ton of lessons about sound and its importance on Thief and System Shock 2. Just to be clear, the VO of the rogue in the prototype is there only as a narrative piece to explain what the player might be thinking. There will not be player VO in the final game, as it's a true role-playing game and we don't intend to speak for the player.
The Prototype covers just a tiny corner of the Abyss, and is focused on just the single encounter between a rogue character and the Shadow Beast. In the actual game there will be a lot more going on, and many more choices for a player. Regardless, we think the Prototype shows great progress since the Kickstarter and we hope you agree. We will be updating the Prototype about monthly going forward, showing more gameplay and features at each step. Right now in the alchemy lab Tim is whipping up the spell system, Will is working on a new playground for development and testing, and others are off on secret quests for the time being.​


OtherSide have also uploaded a completely commentary-free version to their YouTube channel. Or you can watch a version with commentary from both Tim Stellmach and lead producer Chris Siegel over at IGN. There's something for everybody! Hopefully we'll get to play this ourselves soon, as implied last week on the game's forums.
 

Mustawd

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Just to be clear, the VO of the rogue in the prototype is there only as a narrative piece to explain what the player might be thinking. There will not be player VO in the final game, as it's a true role-playing game and we don't intend to speak for the player.

Nice.
 

ROARRR

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Much better! Still I would like voice acting in some important situations, like say when health is under 25% or in other statuseffects the own char could say something cool. Or when doing some critical hits...just like in BG2
 

Aenra

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You liked it? I'd have thought an intelligent white male with all the correct genes (and only those) would have found it rather ..insulting.. if not detrimental. Why play an RPG when the voice does the thinking for you? You'd only be stuck with the akshun
 
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Irenaeus II

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I can't remember much, but I mostly liked when the voice laughed at the monster being struck by a spike trap or something when hunting our heroine. Reminded me of something out of a cheesy 80s action movie, which is consistent with what we should expect from this game in terms of plot. They wouldn't voice the whole game, it would be nearly impossible. Though I haven't played the recent AAA cinematic FPS/adventures disguised as cRPGs, which I hear some have this kind of constant in-person voice-overs. As for me being an ntelligent white male with all the correct genes, that's a bit of a stretch and not really the truth.
 

mastroego

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You liked it? I'd have thought an intelligent white male with all the correct genes (and only those) would have found it rather ..insulting.. if not detrimental. Why play an RPG when the voice does the thinking for you? You'd only be stuck with the akshun
It's a game, you focus on the advancement of skills and so on. Besides, a fine voice is pleasant to listen to.
Of course, it depends on the VA. For instance I was annoyed by the new Tomb Raider, with that oh so innocent, oh so hurtful voice.
But this Rogue sounds fine actually.
 

Aenra

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mastroego got no issues with her voice, jeez :)
It's just that as i stated in the main UA thread, i want player exploration to be rewarded in any RPG; considering where this one's coming from?

Man, just think about it..you play UU1/2 ok? And the moment you 'activate' a BET rune from your satchel, a VA starts playing telling you "if i combined this with WIS and EX i could probably find out where i am.."
Or you are at the tombstones of the two knights, and again your faithful F4 dog VA starts chirping merrily "why if i only looked down now, i bet there'd be a code here, hmm..."

UA has some big(foot) shoes to fill. Very big. No excuses, they asked for this; most especially no excuses when it's going to be made from the same people that made the originals in the first place. I find me neither over-demanding nor unreasonable.
 

ROARRR

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How do you know? I just remember that say said no full voice over and the fact that they made a vid with VO should awake some doubts about "No voice over at al".
 

Mustawd

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See post #4 in this thread.

Just to be clear, the VO of the rogue in the prototype is there only as a narrative piece to explain what the player might be thinking. There will not be player VO in the final game, as it's a true role-playing game and we don't intend to speak for the player.
 

Aenra

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Am aware, was just (re)explaining myself to mastroego. But thanks :)
 

mastroego

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It just wouldn't that big an issue for me, it depends how it's done generally, if it's really intrusive or just added flavor and so on.
Silent as in the original is fine of course.
 
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It looks good, but that looks heavily scripted to me. Even down to how long it took the beast to open the door
 

Mustawd

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It makes sense that it was at least heavily iterated. I mean I hope it'd be if they have any marketing talent whatsoever.
 

Krash

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Why does it feel like everything is moving through syrup? And yes that FoV, barf. Hopefully this is not too reflective of the final game.
 

The Fox Bard

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I hope the game's progression is not so straightforward as in the video.
 

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