Game News Underworld Ascendant Prototype Gameplay Footage at PC Gamer and Polygon

[Nyast]

I didn't think it was that bad, especially considering they don't have an AAA budget.

I agree it doesn't have the UU feeling. It felt more like a mix of Arx Fatalis and Thief for me. So for now I'll simply expect a game "loosely" based on UU and see where it goes, instead of a true UU successor. That way I hope I won't be disapointed.

I quite liked the little I saw about dungeon design. Lots of complex walls, verticality, etc.. So there might be some hope.

 

[Metro]

And he said it was set for release end of 2016? That's a year away. I don't see that.

 

[Crescent Hawk]

Well Neurath did work on Thief and System Shock, but I wonder if he knows what made Thief goddamn amazing.

 

[Infinitron]

Even if he doesn't, this game's lead designer was the lead designer of Thief.

 

[Metro]

Ken Levine did System Shock 2. These guys never forget what made their older games great!

 

[Excidium II]

The last people I trust are those retired rockstars. They always come up with some stupid revolushonary ideas.

 

[Crooked Bee]

I wish Doug Church wasn't wasting his time at Valve.

 

[Metro]

I wish Doug Church wasn't wasting his time at Valve.

Pffft. He probably disagrees getting paid $300k/yr to cyberfuck VR hotties.

 

[Crooked Bee]

Like I care what he thinks

 

[Crescent Hawk]

The last people I trust are those retired rockstars. They always come up with some stupid revolushonary ideas.

I agree, Ken Levine did have Looking Glass behind him for SS2, but the conditions and the team that made Thief are gone. Who were the greatest influences in the style and sound? Sometimes we put too much faith in a couple of names and forget games really are collaborative efforts of dozens of people. And even if he knows what makes Thief a masterpiece doesnt mean he can pull it off again. Arkane did try with Dishonored and it was pretty meh triple A.
We shall see.

 

[Darth Slaughter]

I mentioned before that it has a bioshock vibe, but i actually did like the demo. Mostly because they had not showed anything before, I was getting worried they were doing nothing at all. Also, the part that reminds me of bioshock is the visuals, and that's not a bad thing. Bioshock gameplay and story were the worst, but visuals were nice.

Also, the visuals remind me of atlantis in indiana jones and the fate of atlantis, but gameplay is actually reminiscent of alien isolation, amnesia and those kind of games. This is what I don't like, since these new games are considered by mainstream media a natural evolvement of thief games - PC gamer compared thief to gone home and walking simulators in their recent top 100 pcgames.

I'm also not expecting a tradional RPG, the only rpgs looking glass did were ultima underworlds, but system shock and thief were more inovative and not RPGs. I don't give a fuck if this game end up not being an rpg.

 

[Crescent Hawk]

PC gamer compared thief to gone home and walking simulators in their recent top 100 pcgames.

Dont worry they will burn in hell for that.

 

[m_s0]

I didn't think it was that bad, especially considering they don't have an AAA budget.

I agree it doesn't have the UU feeling. It felt more like a mix of Arx Fatalis and Thief for me. So for now I'll simply expect a game "loosely" based on UU and see where it goes, instead of a true UU successor. That way I hope I won't be disapointed.

I quite liked the little I saw about dungeon design. Lots of complex walls, verticality, etc.. So there might be some hope.

I didn't think it was bad at all, frankly - for a couple of months, 6 people and a tiny budget it's actually very impressive what they managed to put together. The only issue is that there's just not enough there to do a proper presentation yet, especially considering what this game is supposed to be aiming for. At this point it seems to be fine for screenshots or teasers, but that's about it.

 

[Darth Slaughter]

Dont worry they will burn in hell for that.

I'd be more happy if they actully burn here on earth...

 

[Darth Slaughter]

That Shadowbeast looks like something from the boxart of a 90's GPU box.

it looks like diablo:

 

[Mustawd]

What's funny to me is that these guys still have no sense of marketing and PR. Not that I care if they do, but it's a bit surprising.

For example, how hard is it to release a pre-alpha clip, like they just did, and include a 2-4 minute blurb on what they're trying to showcase, explain what the placeholders are, explain more detail on certain aspects of gameplay that may change (like VO), etc.? I mean they ended up doing it anyway...after the fact..in text form where not everyone will read it.

In this day and age backers still do not understand how raw some of this footage still is and how much a project can be in flux until the last third or so. Especially in a pre Alpha, things can still change, be added, or taken away. Naturally, we all nitpick the shit of it because these guys don't understand that they need to explain all these things so we don't assume the final gameplay will be like this. I mean it's common fucking sense

Someone donate them a publicist or something.

 

[thesheeep]

Exactly.
It is quite funny how people who have some insight into how development works see this video and think "Well, yeah, that's nice for this state in the cycle", where people who obviously lack that insight and are used to "beautified" videos and other PR stuff get mad about how unfinished everything looks.
And yes, they could have done some explaining on the video.

Seriously, the progress shown in the video is okay at this point. And if what they say about the AI is true, that's quite the achievement. Most games, even AAA titles, are not able to deliver an AI that does these things reliably. Of course, we don't know yet if this one will.

Honestly, the first 90% of development (of any game) does not yield truly visible results, while the last 10% of development will look like 90% of development came in all at once. I'm actually surprised they have this lava effect working already. Such a thing would usually not have the highest priority in development.

 

[Burning Bridges]

Honestly, the first 90% of development (of any game) does not yield truly visible results, while the last 10% of development will look like 90% of development came in all at once.

lolwut
ninety-ninety rule for dummies
"we have something truly amazing, but you will only see it at the great final presentation"
*disappears the day before the great presentation*

 

[Scroo]

That vid doesn't look very good. It looks like some random console game and the slow camera movement supports this, it looks as if being played with a controller

 

[Burning Bridges]

This has nothing in common with UW. Proves again that material has to be shown before the pitch, not long afterwards.

Gameplay looks horrible, derivative, and completely "un-rpg" like. I hope this is a really really abstract representation of what they are aiming for.

You know that it isn't. This is basically what you will get. Messiah of Might and Magic for the poor with some influences from our other beloved "games" that have been releases in the last 10 years.

 

[thesheeep]

lolwut
ninety-ninety rule for dummies
"we have something truly amazing, but you will only see it at the great final presentation"
*disappears the day before the great presentation*

Of course you can show a bare bones version of "something amazing" - which is what these guys did! -, but it might just look like shit if you can't see through all the unfinished stuff.
And most people can't. That is just a skill that develops once you start developing software yourself. I doubt that many non-developers can do that.

I'd rather see 10 devlog-kinda videos like this than 1 video where some developer wasted his time polishing 100% WIP videos for the unwashed masses.

Still... even devlog videos should have some kind of comment by the developer.
So yes, even by my standards, this is not a great video.

 

[Infinitron]

You know that it isn't. This is basically what you will get.

Early Thief: The Dark Project trailer AKA "Medieval Guard Shooter 97":



That's about 14 months into development.

 

[Durwyn]

That vid doesn't look very good. It looks like some random console game and the slow camera movement supports this, it looks as if being played with a controller

Probably because it's just a scripted cinematic that imitates gameplay hence the pad-like camera movement. Most of recent so-called gameplay trailers suffer from it (FC: Primal for example)

Nice lightning, nice effects altough everything looks like made of plastic reminiscing me of Doom 3 for some reason + gummybear monster.

Still not convinced about the game, will refrain from voicing any optimism until they show something less railroaded.

 

[Burning Bridges]

"unwashed masses" LOL

I am glad I did not give money.

 

[Burning Bridges]

All this game can ever hope to achieve be is already available: It's called Dark Messiah of Might and Magic.