Putting the 'role' back in role-playing games since 2002.
Donate to Codex
Good Old Games
  • Welcome to rpgcodex.net, a site dedicated to discussing computer based role-playing games in a free and open fashion. We're less strict than other forums, but please refer to the rules.

    "This message is awaiting moderator approval": All new users must pass through our moderation queue before they will be able to post normally. Until your account has "passed" your posts will only be visible to yourself (and moderators) until they are approved. Give us a week to get around to approving / deleting / ignoring your mundane opinion on crap before hassling us about it. Once you have passed the moderation period (think of it as a test), you will be able to post normally, just like all the other retards.

Editorial RPG Codex Report: Gamescom 2015 - SpellForce 3, ELEX, D:OS EE, The Guild 3, Daedalic and more

Infinitron

I post news
Staff Member
Joined
Jan 28, 2011
Messages
97,107
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: AER; Amplitude Studios; Anuman Interactive; Artefacts Studio; Bounty Train; Chaos Chronicles; Corbie Games; Daedalic Entertainment; Demons Age; Divinity: Original Sin; Dungeon of Naheulbeuk; ELEX; Endless Space 2; Forgotten Key; Funatics Software; Gamescom 2015; GolemLabs; Grimlore Games; Larian Studios; Mandragora; Microids; Nordic Games; Pendulo Studios; Peter Ohlmann; Piranha Bytes; Silence: The Whispered World 2; Skyhill; Spellforce 3; Swen Vincke; Syberia 3; The ABC Murders; The Guild 3; Valhalla Hills; Yesterday Origins

The lion's share of the latest chapter of Bubbles' celebrated Gamescom chronicle is dedicated to Grimlore Games' SpellForce 3, the latest installment in the semi-obscure German RTS/RPG series, and an interview with its technical director, Codexer and former Chaos Chronicles lead Peter "Hobgoblin42" Ohlmann. Indeed, at one point it was supposed to be its own article. However, Bubbles decided that he had enough room left (and also that he wanted to get this shit over with already) and so he plumbed the depths of his Gamescom experience to give you, dear reader, our most extensive Gamescom writeup yet.

And I do mean "plumbed the depths". Starting from decent games such as Larian Studios' Divinity: Original Sin Enhanced Edition and Amplitude Studios' Endless Space 2, Bubbles worked his way through Piranha Bytes' ELEX, GolemLabs' The Guild 3, all the way down into the piles of shovelware from publishers Anuman Interactive and Daedalic Entertainment. But it's within Daedalic itself that he discovered the true heart of darkness, in a game called Silence: The Whispered World 2, sequel to 2009's The Whispered World. I quote:

“You know this from the cinema.”

“There's no inventory; we want to make something simpler this time.”

“There will be puzzles, but they will be easy and streamlined.”

“It's trial without error; you can't do anything 'wrong'.”

“Experience the story!”

“Not everybody will like this.”


Silence is the sequel of The Whispered World, a charming little point and click adventure from a time when Daedalic were still capable of producing good and complex games on a small budget. And they didn't just make good games then, they also made them quickly: Chains of Satinav, a fine, well-crafted game with an impeccable sense of atmosphere, was released in June 2012, and its sequel Memoria came out just 14 months later in August 2013. Memoria had good gameplay and a great story; it's one of my favourite adventure games of all time. As recently as 2013, Daedalic seemed to be doing everything right. And then, they changed. It's hard to shake the feeling that something horrible and traumatic must have happened to these people, warping their company philosophy into something unrecognisable. Is this what going mainstream looks like? Daedalic is certainly not suffering from a lack of funding: Uli proudly declared that Silence was the developer's “biggest project to date”, having already spent four years in development and needing at least another half year to come out just right. For comparison: Broken Age took roughly three years to develop. Book of Unwritten Tales 2 took two and a half years and was 20 hours long. Four and a half years is an utterly absurd amount of development time for an adventure game from a large studio, especially from one that used to pride itself on quickly and cheaply producing very good games just two short years ago.

Where have all the money and effort gone? Into “the most beautiful trailer we've ever made at Daedalic... at least so far!” And into the in-game graphics, of course. Uli was not shy to point out how stunningly gorgeous the game was in every aspect of its existence: it was “on a whole different level of quality from [their] previous games, really detailed,” with “fantastic looking” 3D backgrounds (more precisely, projection mapped 2D images) “offering the perfect scenery to capture the characters and their emotions” by means of “emotional close-ups,” “fast cuts,” and “unique hand crafted animations,” with “seamless transitions between cutscenes and in-game scenes.” Of course the story will also be “so, so complex”, but this complexity is only made possible because the game just looks so damn gorgeous. With these brain meltingly beautiful graphics, Daedalic can emotionally engage the player on a whole new level, and truly immerse them in the action. All distracting and disruptive elements – otherwise referred to as "gameplay" – have been filed down to a minimum.
Read the full article: RPG Codex Report: Gamescom 2015 - SpellForce 3, ELEX, D:OS EE, The Guild 3, Daedalic, and more
 
Weasel
Joined
Dec 14, 2012
Messages
1,865,661
Looking forward to another good read....

Bubbles worked his way through Piranha Bytes' ELEX, GolemLabs' The Guild 3, all the way down into the piles of shovelware from publishers Anuman Interactive and Daedalic Entertainment. But it's within Daedalic itself that he discovered the true heart of darkness, in a game called Silence: The Whispered World 2, sequel to 2009's The Whispered World.

... but probably best to sink a few whiskys first.
 
Self-Ejected

Bubbles

I'm forever blowing
Joined
Aug 7, 2013
Messages
7,817
Daedalic is not completely fucked, is it? I mean, The Devil's Men looks decent.

From the Whispered World thread, but I'm quoting it here to avoid double posting. The Devil's Men was shown at last year's Gamescom, but this year they only made an announcement:

As well as re-announcing Ken Follett's The Pillars of the Earth, Daedalic have taken to Gamescom to confirm that they'll be releasing their PC and Mac adventure The Devil's Men on Xbox One.

The Devil's Men is a point and click adventure starring 20-year-old Adelaide Spektor, the estranged daughter of detective Karol Spektor. She lives in a small seaside town that has recently seen a spate of murders that all trace back to one place - the exhibition grounds. After being a witness at the murder of one of her father's friends, she sets out to find Karol and get to the bottom of things.

There's no word on when The Devil's Men will make the jump to Xbox One, but it's on the way and we'll look to get more information for you just as soon as we can.

http://www.purexbox.com/news/2015/08/gamescom_2015_the_devils_men_confirmed_for_xbox_one

The original release date was early 2015. Now it's listed as "TBA." Make of that what you will.
 
Last edited:

evdk

comrade troglodyte :M
Patron
Joined
Mar 31, 2004
Messages
11,292
Location
Corona regni Bohemiae
Codex 2012 Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
bEE8dCI.gif
 

Jaesun

Fabulous Ex-Moderator
Patron
Joined
May 14, 2004
Messages
37,236
Location
Seattle, WA USA
MCA
Goodbye Daedalic, I guess we got a few good adventure games from you. :salute:

I see that new Publisher that owns you now is doing a bang up job to your company. Oh well.
 
Self-Ejected

Bubbles

I'm forever blowing
Joined
Aug 7, 2013
Messages
7,817
Goodbye Daedalic, I guess we got a few good adventure games from you. :salute:

I see that new Publisher that owns you now is doing a bang up job to your company. Oh well.

Bastei Lübbe is now a majority owner, but not the publisher. I'm cautious about attributing these changes to any single factor; this kind of screw-up takes a concerted effort.
 

Lhynn

Arcane
Joined
Aug 28, 2013
Messages
9,816
Good read again. I found the guild 2 fairly pointless, but i didnt think it was a bad tech demo, buggy as it was. If they are willing to develop most of its ideas the guild 3 could end up good, or at least a fun time waster.

Btw, theres a typo on the second or third paragraph of the ELEX stuff, a wouzld or something along those lines.
 

twincast

Learned
Patron
In My Safe Space
Joined
Feb 10, 2013
Messages
232
You know what pisses me off the most? That Amazon stubbornly refuses to let me cancel my Silence preorder.
Of course I had recognised it as a popamole garbage sequel raping the setting of a perfect little one-off story with the first announcement, but a while ago Amazon had a no-books coupon where you had to go above a certain amount of euro-pesos, and I couldn't think of anything else to sufficiently raise my order of another game, and hey, at least it's pretty.
It was only afterwards that I found out that not only is the game set in a world that's supposed to be gone after the comatose boy in whose head it had existed woke up and has a Spot providing help, but that (the Spot in this game is most probably the very same as the one in the original and) Sadwick himself also appears. What the fuck? Then what was the point of him accepting reality in the first place?
I'd be open to turning The Whispered World into an anthology series in which everyone has their own world of Silence in their traumatized little head, but pretty much a straight-up sequel that retcons the shit out of the original and turns it's story inconsequential? Rarely have I been this disgusted with the very concept behind a sequel (the execution sucks more often than not, of course, but rare are sequels of works of which there couldn't logically be any of worth at all). I can only think of Ewoks 2 as a similar case (and that one has at least it arguably being a better movie than its predecessor--but nevertheless a terrible sequel--going for it, which Silence has less of a chance of achieving than a snowball in hell).
 
Last edited:

Darth Roxor

Royal Dongsmith
Staff Member
Joined
May 29, 2008
Messages
1,878,376
Location
Djibouti
I could maybe care a little about Silence being shit if The Whispered World wasn't terrible in the first place.
 

twincast

Learned
Patron
In My Safe Space
Joined
Feb 10, 2013
Messages
232
Bastei Lübbe is now a majority owner, but not the publisher. I'm cautious about attributing these changes to any single factor; this kind of screw-up takes a concerted effort.
Most importantly, I distinctly remember Silence going full-on decline years before that.

I could maybe care a little about Silence being shit if The Whispered World wasn't terrible in the first place.
It isn't quite a masterpiece, but it's still a nice little rough gem and the best non-indie adventure game we'd gotten in ages till then.
 

Parsifarka

Arcane
Joined
Dec 31, 2014
Messages
1,022
Location
Potato field
What they're perpetrating with Silence is criminal and should be punished. That word they love so much... stagnation, that's what they're committed to now. Decline keeps growing and swallowing.
 
Self-Ejected

Bubbles

I'm forever blowing
Joined
Aug 7, 2013
Messages
7,817
I could maybe care a little about Silence being shit if The Whispered World wasn't terrible in the first place.

I'm about to ragequit The Whispered World.

The puzzle design is so fucking obtuse I have to spend half the time with a walkthrough opened, and each time I check the solutions I shake my head in disbelief. Also, the story seems completely uninteresting and definitely not enough to warrant suffering through those puzzles

BUT HEY, PRETTY GRAPHIX I GUESS

Sounds like Silence should be right up your alley then :M
 

twincast

Learned
Patron
In My Safe Space
Joined
Feb 10, 2013
Messages
232
So after actually reading the whole thing: They renamed the boy (formerly known as Noah, I firmly believe) Sadwick? What cruel parent would name their kid such?
I guess making the protagonist the same as in the first game (and clearly spelling it out so for everyone despite the fact that Sadwick clearly wasn't his real name in that one) would make the resurgence of (the world) Silence somewhat less ludicrous, but the whole point of the original game was that it wasn't real, whereas I'm pretty sure it's still supposed to be a different plane of existence in this one (unless they've rewritten that part of the story as well, that is).
 
Self-Ejected

Bubbles

I'm forever blowing
Joined
Aug 7, 2013
Messages
7,817
I think the boy is still named Noah in the real world (based on recent press releases), but the presenter called him "Sadwick" during the presentation. Maybe they just prefer that name...


Yeah, that's what I'd like to do to shovelware as well.
 

Zeriel

Arcane
Joined
Jun 17, 2012
Messages
13,347
That Guild presentation. Oh, man. I knew it would be bad, but still. Bubbles, your writing is impeccable, but all the Gamescom stuff about franchises I once had an interest in are breaking my heart.
 

kazgar

Arcane
Joined
Apr 23, 2008
Messages
2,164
Location
Upside Down
Thanks for all the hard work Bubbles

Sounds like skyhill is more aiming towards the Binding of Isaac market then the ToME market, and thus may hold up better in comparison. (Don't think i'll get to the demo anytime soon though)
 

pippin

Guest
I'm actively ignoring Silence since they said they were going full 3d with it. I'm still somewhat interested in their other games though. But yeah, WW was never the best series they had.
Spellforce 3 reminded me I have the first one in my Steam account, might try it sometime.
 

Q

Augur
Patron
Joined
Oct 18, 2006
Messages
199
Codex 2014 PC RPG Website of the Year, 2015 Codex 2016 - The Age of Grimoire Torment: Tides of Numenera Divinity: Original Sin 2
Bubbles said:
maybe our resident Risen 2 and 3 fans will feel differently
Risen 3 was not that bad for me. I'm personally looking forward to elex.
 

Bumvelcrow

Somewhat interesting
Patron
Dumbfuck
Joined
Nov 17, 2012
Messages
1,867,060
Location
Over the hills and far away
Codex 2013 Codex 2014 Make the Codex Great Again! Strap Yourselves In
Well, that was depressing. Not even Swen's ever-present smile could stop me descending into melancholic contemplation. :cry: RIP Daedelic, apparently. ELEX seemed to have a whiff of Numenera about it. I was never a fan of the Gothics, even before they turned to shit, so it's probably not for me.

Excellent read, Bubbles, as ever, and for this:

If, on the other hand, you prefer your games to have some measure of actual gameplay, then you should stay the hell away and punish these miserable hacks for trying to peddle their overproduced trash to the adventure gamer audience.

...you get an extra-sumptuous brofist.
 

Grotesque

±¼ ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Patron
Vatnik
Joined
Apr 16, 2012
Messages
8,968
Divinity: Original Sin Divinity: Original Sin 2
I was never a fan of the Gothics
You're broken.

I remember playing Spellforce and having a ton of fun with it.
So I guess I'll read the section about Spellforce 3
 

As an Amazon Associate, rpgcodex.net earns from qualifying purchases.
Back
Top Bottom