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Space Hulk: Deathwing - may the Emperor's legs be OK

Joined
Aug 10, 2012
Messages
5,869
I would definitely be playing this to completion if I didn't have such incredible performance problems for no reason. I'm honestly getting 20ish FPS in fights on a 1070 while GPU/CPU utilization is at 50%, it's that bad.
 

Ezeekiel

Liturgist
Joined
Dec 19, 2016
Messages
1,783
I wonder if people saying that this is "fine" realize the concept of sub 30 fps gameplay being completely unacceptable for this kind of game.

FPS etc differs massively for people, seemingly regardless of hardware. There's gotta be some weird issue(s) causing this, not gfx per se.
This kind of game though? It's not a twitch shooter or anything... Or even difficult. More about positioning and then aiming your doomgun/spells down a corridor until all the red blips disappear.
Framerate doesn't impact the gameplay as much as it would with other types of shooters, it's just that this sort of performance is shit for any type of game unless you're one of the lucky few for whom it works fine for some bizarre reason.
 

Ezeekiel

Liturgist
Joined
Dec 19, 2016
Messages
1,783
I would definitely be playing this to completion if I didn't have such incredible performance problems for no reason. I'm honestly getting 20ish FPS in fights on a 1070 while GPU/CPU utilization is at 50%, it's that bad.

Let's hope they find the issue and fix it... Not like I enjoy low framerates either.
 

Ezeekiel

Liturgist
Joined
Dec 19, 2016
Messages
1,783
Oh yeah, game autosaves at those log terminals. Basically like a manual save almost. Just gotta find one and press the use key to read the log, then it autosaves.
I note that professional reviewers seem to have missed that part somehow...
 

Direwolf

Arcane
Joined
Jul 25, 2006
Messages
1,009
Location
Pōneke
Performance is fucking abysmal. As soon as you get more than 2 genestealers on the screen the framerate drops and never recovers. I finished the 1st mission yesterday, but don't want to touch it again until this shit is fixed. Glad I didn't pay for it.
 

Darth Roxor

Royal Dongsmith
Staff Member
Joined
May 29, 2008
Messages
1,878,404
Location
Djibouti
finished mishun 6

i must admit

the more i play

the more i feel this game is wasted potential :negative:
 

Siel

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Aug 25, 2013
Messages
885
Location
Some refined shithole
Performance is fucking abysmal. As soon as you get more than 2 genestealers on the screen the framerate drops and never recovers. I finished the 1st mission yesterday, but don't want to touch it again until this shit is fixed. Glad I didn't pay for it.

A patch came out an hour ago.
Oh wait you actually pirated it. :lol:
 
Joined
Nov 29, 2016
Messages
1,832
Encountered some really shitty bugs: sometimes when I hack a turret, my loadout reverts to the way it was in previous mission. Sometimes that is ok, like switching to vengeance to hellfire, but going from the spear of Caliban to heavy flamer when you are about to storm a large room is not ok. Also, with the dialogue slomo enabled, the muting effect sometimes persists after the dialogue is done, basically ruining the sound in the game and fucking up every save game you make after the fact.

Stuck on objective 1 of mission 6 currently. My actual thoughts are somewhat on par with Roxor's. I find the core gameplay loop really fun, I appreciate that the game is mostly about positioning and tactics (as basic as they are), and finding a path through the space hulk while managing your medkit charges/psygates is p. cool. However, the game is start to show its cracks. For instance, the spoilerific enemy at the end of Mission 5 was a joke, the strategy against it amounted to backpedaling to the staircase and firing continuously. Hearing the librarian describe how they overcame the threat with "much challenge and loss" was hilarious.

Some questions about the storyline to whose who have finished it:
Please tell me there will be something more besides two varieties of genestealers? The game did a decent job in providing cool plot hooks, with the mysterious signal sent out by the dead Dark Angel and the UMBRA MORTALIS premonitions hype at the beginning, but all it has amounted to so far are Yngarl genestealers souped up with 10k year old Dark Angel geneseed. I thought there'd be something about Luther, maybe a different enemy time (Fallen) in the final levels, though perhaps I had been expecting too much - is there going to be any more surprises thrown my way, or is it just recycling of the plot to Aliens from here?

That being said, I also mostly find myself agreeing with a lot of Ezeekiel's assessments. Perhaps I am less annoyed with the negatives and more satisfied with the positives than he is. That said, my frame of reference is definitely EYE, which I loved - I have not played all the old Space Hulk games.

After finishing the game I intend to replay it on the highest difficulty and find all the relics, let's see how the game holds up then.
 

Freddie

Savant
Joined
Sep 14, 2016
Messages
717
Location
Mansion
I wonder if people saying that this is "fine" realize the concept of sub 30 fps gameplay being completely unacceptable for this kind of game.
Don't know whom post you are referring to, but at least for my experience sub 30 fps moments are rare and they don't happen in combat situations per se, but there's like 1 second very noticeable drop in fps before enemies appear. I play on second hardest difficulty. i5 4440 @ 3.1 Ghz, 8 Gb, AMD RX 470 4 Gb (Sapphire factory OC, but in quiet mode).

Otherwise, I made it to 3rd. mission and I'm considering starting over on lower difficulty or dropping exploring the hulks. It's not that it's so difficult, but it's becoming tedious. Maps are graphically still okay, but they appear to be bigger and there are less quiet moments and there's just no time to check the environment and enjoy the settings. All together exploring has become quite risky.

Today devs released a hotfix. Didn't tried yet if it changes anything in campaign, but I didn't notice any improvement in multiplayer. There's lag and even this was supposed to improve performance overall, I got severe lag spikes and overall connection issues appear to be the same.
 
Joined
Nov 29, 2016
Messages
1,832
Otherwise, I made it to 3rd. mission and I'm considering starting over on lower difficulty or dropping exploring the hulks. It's not that it's so difficult, but it's becoming tedious. Maps are graphically still okay, but they appear to be bigger and there are less quiet moments and there's just no time to check the environment and enjoy the settings. All together exploring has become quite risky.

I'd say stick with it. Mission 2 was so far the hardest thing I've done and took me multiple repeats, but the game becomes less challenging the further you go in (until Mission 6, that is taking me multiple attempts right now). If you switch to an easier setting you might find yourself disappointed by the lack of difficulty.
 

Freddie

Savant
Joined
Sep 14, 2016
Messages
717
Location
Mansion
Otherwise, I made it to 3rd. mission and I'm considering starting over on lower difficulty or dropping exploring the hulks. It's not that it's so difficult, but it's becoming tedious. Maps are graphically still okay, but they appear to be bigger and there are less quiet moments and there's just no time to check the environment and enjoy the settings. All together exploring has become quite risky.

I'd say stick with it. Mission 2 was so far the hardest thing I've done and took me multiple repeats, but the game becomes less challenging the further you go in (until Mission 6, that is taking me multiple attempts right now). If you switch to an easier setting you might find yourself disappointed by the lack of difficulty.
:bro:
Okay, I felt bit burned getting into 3rd. mission right after second, found one major relic but couldn't find a terminal to use as save spot.
 

RK47

collides like two planets pulled by gravity
Patron
Joined
Feb 23, 2006
Messages
28,396
Location
Not Here
Dead State Divinity: Original Sin
Is there even a way to go back to previous missions if the auto-saves are overwritten every time?
I finished the campaign and couldn't find a way to do that.
I really wish I could just try clearing previous levels with new weapons and try out new combinations.

It's just bizarre how basic functions for a PC game is missing for a PC-centric game.
 
Joined
Nov 29, 2016
Messages
1,832
I wish that, instead of multiplayer that doesn't even work, we'd get randomly generated missions just like in EYE. Sure, those were basic and had a few mission types that were a pain or even warranted a mission restart (like Protect) but they were fun to replay. It would also fill those environments with new meaning and give you a reason to go back and explore the corners of the maps that were not used in the campaign.
 

RK47

collides like two planets pulled by gravity
Patron
Joined
Feb 23, 2006
Messages
28,396
Location
Not Here
Dead State Divinity: Original Sin
I wish that, instead of multiplayer that doesn't even work, we'd get randomly generated missions just like in EYE. Sure, those were basic and had a few mission types that were a pain or even warranted a mission restart (like Protect) but they were fun to replay. It would also fill those environments with new meaning and give you a reason to go back and explore the corners of the maps that were not used in the campaign.

Yeah, in the absence of new levels, just recycle the SP maps and add new objectives:
1. Extraction: Make it to Extraction Point within time limit.
2. Survival: Horde Mode, withstand onslaught for a set wave.
3. Exterminatus: Plant a bomb - get out before time limit is up.

If they do this, the MP would get some replay value instead of the SP maps stripped of scripting and cinematic.
 

Freddie

Savant
Joined
Sep 14, 2016
Messages
717
Location
Mansion
In chapter 4 now. Earlier tried chapter 2 again and it started really bother me that I couldn't find those relics. So I look for relic guide. I was like WTF, I have explored those locations. Turned out there's a bug where some relics, some particular relic or all relics don't spawn on map. No wonder it started to feel more like work than fun in chapter 2... That said, relic hunting is optional.
 

Darth Roxor

Royal Dongsmith
Staff Member
Joined
May 29, 2008
Messages
1,878,404
Location
Djibouti
Aaaaand finished.

Verdict: I liekd it, but...


To start off with what I liekd:

- Just about all the guns and powers in the game are fun. Each time I took something different for a spin, it felt satisfying to use it, and some of those guns are even downright hilarious (hellfire bolter). In the end I stuck with the ol' faithful plasma cannon, which seemed the most effective to me, but all the other gits I talked with about the game were all saying a different waffe felt the best to them, so I guess that attests to Deffwing's arsenal being gud.

- 40k architecture admiration simulator, nuff said. All the care that was put into this game to make it reflect WH40k as closely as possible is nothing short of amazing. There's also plenty of neat enviro-storytelling everywhere if you pay attention.

- Making hordes of xenos explode is almost always fun, and only gets "old" around the last level.

- A bunch of the "hold out for a few minutes" scenarios were p. tough, or the ones where you'd have hordes of hybrids appear overhead with heavy stubbers and RPGs. Also, hybrid psykers are OP AS FUK.

What I didnt liekd all that much:

- Having only two battle bruvas and having them so insanely limited. As I mentioned here previously, bruva apothecary is basically confined to bolter/narthecium because you'd have to be suicidal to make him switch to sth else. Why can't he swap the default stormbolter for another one, though? Also, bruva Barachiel, in my experience, is confined to lightning claws, unless you want to see him die at every step. He's terrible with the autocannon, and a bit less terrible with the plasma cannon. I thought he'd be gud with the thunder hammer and storm shield, but with that he's also extremely shit. Meanwhile with lightning claws he gets a massive reflex boost, parries every hit and slices and dices anything that gets close, essentially becoming unkillable. I really would have liked to have at least one more battle bruva, especially after all the promo pix that were showing a squad of 5.

- The level design. Having big non-corridory maps with a bunch of different routes available is very welcome, but in practice there is very little point to them. Since it's always the same enemies everywhere, since turrets don't matter, since there's no keycard hunting, taking whatever route basically boils down to the exact same thing: you go through a bunch of rooms shooting xenos that spawn from marked spawn points. All this stuff is only there for you to go around pocketing relics like a Blood Raven, and well, it's not exactly required of you to do so either, and it's even more lame that those relics don't give you anything except for a free town portal once you've got enough of them. Also, the arbitrary blockades can get ridiculous at times, like how in the last mission my terminator squad was stopped by... a knee-high concrete barricade set up by the hybrids. :nocountryforshitposters:

- In the long run, it's way too easy. Apart from a few exceptions (like the aforementioned last stands, or a few places where you have to close spawn points while stuff keeps endlessly bumrushing you [mission 2 genestealer nests come to mind]), it really does just get formulaic eventually. Go through corridor, splat some dudes with plasma cannon, unleash an inferno behind you, rinse and repeat. Entering a big room, look out for hybrids. Shoot around when your radar starts fizzling to splat the stalkers. The few times I died in this game were almost exclusively when I was acting carelessly. Also, the biggest enemies (scythe-strains and broodlords) are scrublords and pushovers, especially if you have the warp rift spell. Stuff like turrets and door blocking are also disappointing - it's idiotic that you can't activate turrets to help you without taking control of them, and door blocking is just a waste of time. It also doesn't help that you will have seen all the enemies this game has to offer by level 5 (out of 9).

- I think Streum were intending to make this a proper "Space Hulk" game in that it was supposed to be horror-ish, but they failed spectacularly at that, and it's a huge disadvantage. It's hard to be scared of the jeanstealers when they can hardly harm you, and you yourself are a mountain of steel that can make whole mobs of them explode with a handwave.

- All the time before release, I was expecting this game to be like Republic Commando, in that it wouldn't really be much of a tactical squad shooter, but you'd at least be able to continuously give your bruvas rudimentary orders and spam dat E button to make them engage in various weapons manoeuvres or haxx0rz, etc. Unfortunately, the degree of squad command here is limited to "stay here", "follow me", "HEAL PLZ". Meanwhile, if you could order them around to man special positions and the like, put enough of them on the whole level and marked a bunch on your map, it would help the level design and movement-through-level planning IMMENSELY.

So yeah.

I ultimately liekd it. But it's really a waste of potential tbh.
 

Freddie

Savant
Joined
Sep 14, 2016
Messages
717
Location
Mansion
Finished the single player campaign.

- Just about all the guns and powers in the game are fun. Each time I took something different for a spin, it felt satisfying to use it, and some of those guns are even downright hilarious (hellfire bolter). In the end I stuck with the ol' faithful plasma cannon, which seemed the most effective to me, but all the other gits I talked with about the game were all saying a different waffe felt the best to them, so I guess that attests to Deffwing's arsenal being gud.
Didn't try out that many weapons in SP. Stormbolter variants didn't suite my playing style so heavy flamer and plasma cannon were my weapons of choice from chapter 4 or 5. There is a bit difference which one is more suitable in different situations, overall I liked plasma cannon a lot, but it has slow fire rate and I felt flamer made several hold the forth situations easier.

- 40k architecture admiration simulator, nuff said. All the care that was put into this game to make it reflect WH40k as closely as possible is nothing short of amazing. There's also plenty of neat enviro-storytelling everywhere if you pay attention.
Environments are absolutely great work and there's lot of things that are very telling. There are also sort of eastern eggs, code snippets in some terminals and written on the walls have actually meaning, though I just noticed on Steam forums that someone has actually translated some of them.

- Making hordes of xenos explode is almost always fun, and only gets "old" around the last level.

- A bunch of the "hold out for a few minutes" scenarios were p. tough, or the ones where you'd have hordes of hybrids appear overhead with heavy stubbers and RPGs. Also, hybrid psykers are OP AS FUK.
Hybrid Psykers instakilled me few times before I spent few points to Devotion branch, which reduced damage. They can be really dangerous in some places if you don't have suitable weapon to deal with them.

What I didnt liekd all that much:

- Having only two battle bruvas and having them so insanely limited. As I mentioned here previously, bruva apothecary is basically confined to bolter/narthecium because you'd have to be suicidal to make him switch to sth else. Why can't he swap the default stormbolter for another one, though? Also, bruva Barachiel, in my experience, is confined to lightning claws, unless you want to see him die at every step. He's terrible with the autocannon, and a bit less terrible with the plasma cannon. I thought he'd be gud with the thunder hammer and storm shield, but with that he's also extremely shit. Meanwhile with lightning claws he gets a massive reflex boost, parries every hit and slices and dices anything that gets close, essentially becoming unkillable. I really would have liked to have at least one more battle bruva, especially after all the promo pix that were showing a squad of 5.
This. There really aren't other sensible choices but those two for squad mates. Makes sense that one of them is close combat specialist, but nothing but Lightning Claws don't actually work for him and for Apothecary Bolter / Narthecium is only reasonable choice too, but why in the world he can't use Bolter 'side-grades' at least. So for my experience that limits variety, on harder difficulty levels at least, also to what are practical options for Librarian too.

There are scenarios where you need a weapon to support your squad from becoming rushed. Barachiel can hold mostly on his own, but Apothecary is very vulnerable in those situations. So flamer or plasma, and if you pick flamer your long range combat options suck, because while occasional rush to burn the fucking Xenos and their long range support can be rewarding experience, if there are Psykers, they can instakill you, so you need to protect Apothecary so he can take them with his bolter, which happens, sometimes, when he isn't shooting something else.
So too often options are a) Duck with flamer near your squad, b) use plasma cannon, which gives options taking Xeno rocket guys and Psykers out faster, but if Xenos get too close and it jams on that moment, Apothecary is fucked and so is your exploring because you need his healing ability. That said, Psygates are option too, but using them lowers score which determines how many skill points player gets.

I felt this is actually contributing problem for game coming tedious, at least if you go relic hunting where you explore more and so have more battle encounters. The more of the same factor starts to build up because options that are actually practical for player are very limited. Giving more options how to equip Apothecary and buffing him a bit might help, giving more options also to player, like actually being death machine raving around battlefield instead of being a baby sitter.

- The level design. Having big non-corridory maps with a bunch of different routes available is very welcome, but in practice there is very little point to them. Since it's always the same enemies everywhere, since turrets don't matter, since there's no keycard hunting, taking whatever route basically boils down to the exact same thing: you go through a bunch of rooms shooting xenos that spawn from marked spawn points. All this stuff is only there for you to go around pocketing relics like a Blood Raven, and well, it's not exactly required of you to do so either, and it's even more lame that those relics don't give you anything except for a free town portal once you've got enough of them. Also, the arbitrary blockades can get ridiculous at times, like how in the last mission my terminator squad was stopped by... a knee-high concrete barricade set up by the hybrids.
Where level design (and architecture) can really shine is multiplayer. For now it's still a bit of hit or miss if you find a squad that can move fast and is good at combat. The biggest problem is that mission objectives don't always show up on maps (LOL). But anyway, IMO map design and all the detail can add longevity to game. in SP though, I can't recommend this for those who like exploring. It felt too much like work and too little like fun for the reasons you wrote. Not at least in this shape it's now (relics don't always spawn at all).

- In the long run, it's way too easy. Apart from a few exceptions (like the aforementioned last stands, or a few places where you have to close spawn points while stuff keeps endlessly bumrushing you [mission 2 genestealer nests come to mind]), it really does just get formulaic eventually. Go through corridor, splat some dudes with plasma cannon, unleash an inferno behind you, rinse and repeat. Entering a big room, look out for hybrids. Shoot around when your radar starts fizzling to splat the stalkers. The few times I died in this game were almost exclusively when I was acting carelessly. Also, the biggest enemies (scythe-strains and broodlords) are scrublords and pushovers, especially if you have the warp rift spell. Stuff like turrets and door blocking are also disappointing - it's idiotic that you can't activate turrets to help you without taking control of them, and door blocking is just a waste of time. It also doesn't help that you will have seen all the enemies this game has to offer by level 5 (out of 9).
I recall there were couple of maps where door blocking was actually at least somewhat useful, maybe 7 and 9? don't recall for sure. Turrets, what comes to them I think whatever devs were planning for them, didn't made it to game. Now they their only function is that few of times in entire game I was able to use them to clear long range support Xenos from location I was about to enter.

- I think Streum were intending to make this a proper "Space Hulk" game in that it was supposed to be horror-ish, but they failed spectacularly at that, and it's a huge disadvantage. It's hard to be scared of the jeanstealers when they can hardly harm you, and you yourself are a mountain of steel that can make whole mobs of them explode with a handwave.

- All the time before release, I was expecting this game to be like Republic Commando, in that it wouldn't really be much of a tactical squad shooter, but you'd at least be able to continuously give your bruvas rudimentary orders and spam dat E button to make them engage in various weapons manoeuvres or haxx0rz, etc. Unfortunately, the degree of squad command here is limited to "stay here", "follow me", "HEAL PLZ". Meanwhile, if you could order them around to man special positions and the like, put enough of them on the whole level and marked a bunch on your map, it would help the level design and movement-through-level planning IMMENSELY.

So yeah.

I ultimately liekd it. But it's really a waste of potential tbh.

I think there was lot of effort, but this is unfinished product. While there were some great moments in SP, those same moments were even better in multiplayer (when it worked.) because I didn't needed to babysit anyone.

This is a game I really wanted to like and it's not entirely bad in sense (I played through it). I didn't suffer any horrible performance issues in SP mode, at least in comparison to Bioshock Remasters. Then, lot's of people are having issues and on MP side, there were were some practically few seconds long freezes few times. Connection issues are still there but player base is forming. Much easier to find a decent group than on last week. At least some players have learned maps, objectives, learned not be on each others way, etc.

Technical aspects aside, there are also other issues in MP. Character progression system doesn't work. Practically only way to reach class level 7 (and unlock those achievements) is soloing MP missions. There just isn't enough XP to level up to level 7 in single map if there are other decent players in squad. So it doesn't work. Also, while I wouldn't otherwise care, the thing that character progression is reset after completing MP chapter, on next mission everyone starts on level 1 again, sucks. Even with a decent team chapters are too long for this sort of system. So either developers should either increase XP given per kill, or make progressions system work from chapter to chapter.

Overall I still felt this was okay game. Not everyone cup of tea and I can't recommend this for anyone before another patch at least.

I also think this game lives and dies with MP. There are fans of tabletop and settings, maybe this can attain some sort of cult status, but only if developers fix the existing issues and pretty fast.
 

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