KickStarter Underworld Ascendant Pre-Prototype Thread

[Mustawd]

Voice Actress sounds like the girl from Torchlight...

 

[Ivan]

Love the look of it. Hope it won't have scary spiders like SS2. I don't even hate spiders, it's just seeing giant ones from the first perspective. bring em' on!

 

[Metro]

What's up with the narration/inner monologue?

 

[Doctor Sbaitso]

I'm assuming that is a staged demo or something. I wouldn't expect the game to have monologue.

 

[Metro]

Also I didn't really expect that quality level of graphics. I'm thinking they're going to burn through too much money on those versus something less refined.

 

[Lady_Error]

Just compare it to skyrim, but underground. I'm sure people will bite

Both are Action RPG, so the comparison is really not that much off.

 

[Mustawd]

What did you think of the point of view? Seemed a bit more zoomed in than what I was expecting. Not a negative, but interesting nonetheless.

Also I didn't really expect that quality level of graphics. I'm thinking they're going to burn through too much money on those versus something less refined.

Meh, I feel a bit better now with their progress. My main issue was total lack of practical progression. Seems they have been progressing ok, but they just suck overall at running an ongoing kickstarter campaign/updates.

 

[DawnrazorDCLXVI]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLkX_s2euRk

 

[Zed]

LMAO

they went for the C1n3m4t1K X-perience route by having a mongoloid main character narrate every fucking thing she does for any retard dumb enough to play this garbage

 

[DawnrazorDCLXVI]

As I recall, games used to bring up text descriptions when you clicked on objects, narrating them as well. Lands of Lore, one immediate example that jumps to mind.

 

[Old Hans]

That monster looks like some Poser model from the 90's. Like some intro video to Stonekeep. Im guessing The FOV is so low, because the framerate would sink into single digits if it went above 10

 

[Melan]

That doesn't look half bad. The psychedelic lighting is refreshing and very LGS, and the graphics, while low-key, are effective. Now what this doesn't show is the meat and potatoes of gameplay and level design - this is obviously one of the big set-piece puzzles they are working on. Granted, the player scrounging for food probably would not make for a showy video.

 

[Zed]

That doesn't look half bad. The psychedelic lighting is refreshing and very LGS, and the graphics, while low-key, are effective. Now what this doesn't show is the meat and potatoes of gameplay and level design - this is obviously one of the big set-piece puzzles they are working on. Granted, the player scrounging for food probably would not make for a showy video.

"hmmm... food...
if i eat this, it will still my hunger"

"hmmm... a weapon...
if i attack with this, i will damage my opponents"

- this game

 

[Bubbles]

http://www.twitch.tv/pcgamer/v/19430953

Paul Neurath and Joe Fielder guest star with some gameplay footage.

Rolled up shirt sleeves + bow tie + neckbeard is a very strange combo.

 

[Aenra]

too edgy a post, let me try again;

- voiced "haha" every few seconds is not my idea of the UU gameplay spirit
- voiced "a light source! There!" is just my idea of rewarding player exploration. Not

+ seemed to be dark enough in there! That's a good sign.
+ coupled with what little i could see from architecture, it could make for some interesting choices and encounters.
+ a lot of tight corners, staircases one might miss at a passing glance and so on..if they put as much an effort as in SS2, this will shine

- Might be they chose a poor illustration of the above, in that you'd expect "hostile guard mob" to spawn once picking the artifact up. No element of surprise there.

+ There's a vibe to what little is shown, and that's with a musical soundscore missing (naturally at this stage). So can expect it to be a lot better.

- The guardian mob's running speed could be a cause of worry. Be it due to them scripting it so in order for you to "haha, look at lighting torch, wow!111 -i fucking hate tutorials- or because AI is not fully in yet, which would make sense. To be seen.
[This being objective mind. Personally speaking, i don't really care about good AI in first/third persons. On the contrary, the dumber the better, i'd prefer it simple. Unlike iso/tb mode, reflexes come to play here. If my level of competence in a game is unrelated to level, thiking and time put in but is instead relative to my pewpew powarz? Not so much an RPG anymore]

 

[Infinitron]

Wow, that came out of nowhere.

 

[DawnrazorDCLXVI]

That doesn't look half bad. The psychedelic lighting is refreshing and very LGS, and the graphics, while low-key, are effective. Now what this doesn't show is the meat and potatoes of gameplay and level design - this is obviously one of the big set-piece puzzles they are working on. Granted, the player scrounging for food probably would not make for a showy video.

This.

 

[Infinitron]

http://www.twitch.tv/pcgamer/v/19430953

Paul Neurath and Joe Fielder guest star with some gameplay footage.

http://www.pcgamer.com/the-pc-gamer-show-guest-paul-neurath-far-cry-primal_podcast/



Underworld Ascendant footage starts at 1:19:25.

 

[V_K]

Yeah, that VA could at least say something meaningful, like "Updated my journal" or "You must gather your party before venturing forth".

 

[Aenra]

That VA should say nothing at all. Sound manipulation potential (especially nowadays, with everyone owning .dts capable sound cards) can only go so far if you got a dumb bitch yammering in your ear every few seconds. And sound manipulation is supposed to be one of their trademarks by the way.

edit: 'quiet means ok, noise means watch out/something changed' is not the same with 'quiet usually except when bitch opens her mouth'. The latter causes sound input to stop having a surprise efect. Dulls the effect for nothing (and between you and me, if i was in there on me lonesome, i kinda doubt i'd be talking out loud to myself, might as well hang a sign saying "i'm here"). Allowing the player to anticipate, or to think they can anticipate what they will hear allows for a lot more immersive environments, and moments where the game purposefuly confuses them. Like in System Shock, remember how hearing any a sound other than music scared you? Imagine if it had a narrator saying "this flashlight. You pick up. Now is bright"

Now they did say it was important to them to reach newer/younger audiences retire even more gracefully, but that does not change the fact that if this is to stay..who needs quest marks and compasses or to quit with the irony, the old written hints? Reading? Why. VA for everyone..who needs sound signifying a moment of import, as it used to in their old games. Even in this demo, notice her talking while important things happen, and tell me if said happenings would not have an even greater impact on the player if she had just remained silent

If they want VA, they need but look back on what they did with Thief. More will be less.

 

[Infinitron]

Garrett could get pretty talkative in Thief and Thief 2's first missions. I think it actually changed depending on the difficulty level (he talked more in Easy).

I think the quips in this particular demo are scripted, though. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if this entire scene is overdubbed with fake audio. Wasteland 2's first gameplay demo did the same thing.

 

[Wirdschowerdn]

Movement looks sufficiently clunky enough to pass as a LGS game. Good.

"Coming out end of 2016"

Nope.

 

[Aenra]

Garrett could get pretty talkative in Thief and Thief 2's first missions. I think it actually changed depending on the difficulty level

You are right, he did. But unless i am mistaken, i don't think he ever served as a tutorial, gave out solutions, or that he talked while moments of "tension" were being played out. His voice only helped set the mood and setting (plot-wise), most of which occured before you were dropped in. If i am wrong though, do correct me.

edit: i may be a bit prejudiced, what with my recent PoE VA/text overlapping. Admittedly, handling the timing aspect of it all correctly could alleviate most issues. To be seen.

 

[Infinitron]

You are right, he did. But unless i am mistaken, i don't think he ever served as a tutorial, gave out solutions, or that he talked while moments of "tension" were being played out. His voice only helped set the mood and setting (plot-wise), most of which occured before you were dropped in. If i am wrong though, do correct me.

See for yourself: http://thief.wikia.com/wiki/T2_Sound_Folder:_Garrett

 

[Aenra]

See for yourself: http://thief.wikia.com/wiki/T2_Sound_Folder:_Garrett

hmm..i stand corrected then.