Wrath: Aeon of Ruin "Formerly "3DRealms is working on a new game""
#151 Posted 09 March 2019 - 01:06 AM
https://www.dsogamin...meplay-footage/
Are we witnessing the birth of Fred's next great marketing trick? I'm not sure that the "look how sexist Bombshell was!" article needed a successor.
#152 Posted 09 March 2019 - 02:00 AM
This post has been edited by Avoozl: 09 March 2019 - 02:00 AM
#153 Posted 09 March 2019 - 02:17 AM
#154 Posted 09 March 2019 - 02:24 AM
Zaxx, on 09 March 2019 - 02:17 AM, said:
#155 Posted 09 March 2019 - 02:31 AM
#156 Posted 09 March 2019 - 03:05 AM
You don't have to be stupid, just slightly uneducated but on top of all that stuff this joke feels like something that would be possible if they wasted dev resources on it, you can absolutely downgrade the game to a level where it would chug along on a Voodoo2 while looking like ass. It's not as out of the realm of possibility as something like "Wrath coming to NES!" would be and if you don't know shit about Darkplaces but have a wide perspective of what the retro gaming scene can do these days then there is a pretty high chance that you will take it seriously.
This post has been edited by Zaxx: 09 March 2019 - 03:12 AM
#157 Posted 09 March 2019 - 05:08 AM
#158 Posted 09 March 2019 - 05:10 AM
ReaperAA, on 08 March 2019 - 10:39 AM, said:
I agree! DUSK left me a bit disappointed and I suspect it had much to do with David Szymanski trying too hard to make a retro shooter in a modern engine, including making it deliberately broken and ugly-looking. With Ion Maiden and WRATH, however, I feel like the developers are doing the opposite by making the best out of an aging engine.
This post has been edited by johnnythewolf: 09 March 2019 - 05:13 AM
#159 Posted 09 March 2019 - 05:54 AM
#160 Posted 09 March 2019 - 06:16 AM
NightFright, on 09 March 2019 - 05:08 AM, said:
Only if someone will tell them about it.
#161 Posted 09 March 2019 - 06:49 AM
Personally I hope we get a polished shooter here with which the devs are 100% satisfied, just like players, ofc. I am not worried about the length of the game as long as the levels look great, weapons feel right and monsters are fun to fight against. Not expecting a retro revolution, just a more solid experience than others delivered with e.g. Dusk or Project Warlock.
This post has been edited by NightFright: 09 March 2019 - 06:51 AM
#162 Posted 09 March 2019 - 07:30 AM
#163 Posted 09 March 2019 - 08:23 AM
This post has been edited by johnnythewolf: 09 March 2019 - 08:26 AM
#164 Posted 09 March 2019 - 10:36 AM
I love the items that add some additional depth to the gameplay too: you have chunks of meat you can cook on fire (similar to how ROTT did it back in the day) for some HP and soap one shots enemies (even bosses) because why not? My favorites are those weird green crystals you can break near a bunch of enemies to trigger infighting, it's not only super fun in some situations but it also makes infighting a nice little part of gameplay instead of it just being a curiosity like how it was in Doom most of the time. Really infighting is just a wonderful thing, more games should have it.
Another great idea: strafe jumping! DUSK uses a wonderful simplified version of strafe jumping where simply strafing while jumping will increase your speed with a lot of air control too. That means that you don't have to learn stuff like this to have some advanced movement in your single player FPS:
I love Quake's strafe jumping mechanic because it has a wonderful amount of depth to it but really the fact that you have to spend hours to learn it on a basic level is not good for a single player game. DUSK solves this, you don't have to learn it at all, it just works and moving around the map with it is fun as hell.
Level design: it's wonderful, mate! Sure, you won't find many levels that could be considered a great new achievement in level design but the whole experience as a whole is still awesome fro one reason: it tells a story. You start out on absolutely standard maps and that gradually gets transformed into something crazy and abstract. It's a journey and with the added bits and pieces of "lore" you can find or rather deduce it all adds up into this great sense of progression where at the end you really feel like that you got to something dark and ancient under that little town called Dusk. It like getting lost in the woods of Twin Peaks after spending a nice night at the Great Northern Hotel.
On top of all this you get great atmosphere, a surprisingly excellent soundtrack from Andrew Hulshult (it's a really cool mix of dark, melancholic ambience and metal), awesome sound design and to top it all off the last boss is voiced by an FPS legend. It's a wonderful little game.
This post has been edited by Zaxx: 09 March 2019 - 10:36 AM
#165 Posted 09 March 2019 - 12:02 PM
#166 Posted 09 March 2019 - 01:18 PM
Zaxx, on 09 March 2019 - 10:36 AM, said:
"Surprisingly"? You did not like his previous work?
Anyway, I do not disagree with your arguments about DUSK, but I feel the game's true potential get too few occasions to really shine: my favourite level in the entire game is E3M1 for the way it actively encouraged the player to experiment with the Sword and the Crossbow, two weapons that I just do not see the point of using when I have access to the full arsenal. In a game like Quake, every weapon has its use, but in DUSK, I tend to just stick to the Super Shotgun, the Hunting Rifle and occasionally the Mortar and the Riveteer, and I almost never bother with the rest.
As a STALKER fan, Episode 1 technically has my favourite atmosphere, but it is so boringly easy that there is just no tension to it. Also, it features some particularly badly-designed levels, like E1M5 with its cheap-ass final ambush and the absurdly small and cramped E1M6 that ends with a fight so short it does a great disservice to the Andrew Hulshult track accompanying it. I can only hope that the existing episodes get improved and expanded upon with the modding tools and that future expansions ramp up the difficulty significantly so to incentivise the full use of the arsenal.
As for now, though, the game feels to me more like an overlong tech demo sprinkled with the occasional amusing gimmicks and nods to classic games.
This post has been edited by johnnythewolf: 09 March 2019 - 01:26 PM
#167 Posted 09 March 2019 - 02:26 PM
johnnythewolf, on 09 March 2019 - 01:18 PM, said:
I did but for me before DUSK he was the cool dude who makes cool metal music, after DUSK I was like "wow, this guy is an amazing composer". I really like his other stuff too but to me the DUSK OST is on another level, can't wait to hear his work for Wrath.
Quote
But that's just because the other weapons are more straightforward. The crossbow is amazing on additional playthroughs where you already have an idea about the enemy placements and you can mess around a lot with the sword too even if that wouldn't be your first choice for the job. You don't need a "forced" stealth section to use the sword, you just have to be a bit creative.
I do agree on that Episode 1 is weaker in level design than the rest of the game, I just feel that it has a purpose. The difficulty is a bit lacking too in the sense that there aren't any ballbreaking parts (well, maybe the map with the enemy waves near the end) but overall I think it was just right. My guess is that they will add an additional difficulty later down the line because there were enough complaints about that... but you know, there's always the mode where every enemy can one shot you.
#168 Posted 09 March 2019 - 03:40 PM
This post has been edited by MusicallyInspired: 09 March 2019 - 03:40 PM
#169 Posted 09 March 2019 - 04:03 PM
Shit, the man is building atmosphere now like crazy:
I'm pretty sure Wrath's music is going to be LIT.
#170 Posted 09 March 2019 - 06:54 PM
I still love FPS combat, Doom 2016 did a great job reinvigorating that, but for these indie games and mods etc level design and exploration are by far my reason for playing. Dusk is cool, I'm still on episode 2, but I like how the enemies are indeed pretty slow for the most part, makes the combat feel more like just a bonus to keep you entertained. Not that I don't like challenge, but I just find too much combat can be boring for this kind of game, where I mostly want to see what's next and solve the level progression. It seems atmosphere is a big part of Wrath.
That's part of what's so unique about these classic FPS games we like, so much of them doesn't involve shooting, it's about exploration and unique maps with some light puzzles aspects. So that's what I hope keeps me engaged in Wrath.
#172 Posted 10 March 2019 - 06:55 AM
PsychoGoatee, on 09 March 2019 - 06:54 PM, said:
You know what those slow zombies reminded me of? those emaciated humanoid monsters from REKKR that only have a close-range attack but drop ammo for your bow and are often better handled with the fists or the axe.
But the walking animation of the zombies could use some tweaking, at least to the Quake zombie style.
The areas shown in the video are very well designed though, at least visually. It's a pity they removed the old videos showing the prototype where everything was still sprites because it was pretty awesome too.
#173 Posted 10 March 2019 - 07:47 AM
PsychoGoatee, on 09 March 2019 - 06:54 PM, said:
Even if you're playing on Evil difficulty, the game's nightmare mode they are not really an issue since the latest patch. The game had this weird problem with charging enemies where they just ran at you in a fairly large number without you having anything with a high enough DPS to counter that. So they slowed them down which was a good workaround but fighting them was still tedious. Now what they did is they buffed the Axe so that it has a higher firing rate + if an enemy is close enough the axe will suck it towards you for a fast, damaging attack. That works really-really well, melee is a lot more fun now and you can finish off those fast bastards very quickly.
As for the combat focus yeah, the game is focused around combat but the level design gets fairly complex really quick so there is a lot to explore + if you like wandering around the maps looking for secrets you've missed some way will always appear that lets you backtrack and explore even if the last area of the map happens to be a closed off space.
This post has been edited by Zaxx: 10 March 2019 - 07:48 AM
#174 Posted 10 March 2019 - 09:18 AM
Zaxx, on 08 March 2019 - 02:17 PM, said:
That's staying a bit TOO true to the 3DR legacy.
#175 Posted 10 March 2019 - 05:09 PM
Trailer was too short and fast for me, I had a bit another feelings playing this game.
#176 Posted 10 March 2019 - 05:22 PM
#177 Posted 10 March 2019 - 07:24 PM
johnnythewolf, on 10 March 2019 - 05:22 PM, said:
The announcement said a "taste" was coming Q3 this year. It's also in their FAQ on Steam https://steamcommuni...85838066712893/
#178 Posted 10 March 2019 - 07:44 PM
Sure, I know that I can make my own choices so I won't buy Wrath until the actual release date but I just feel that this whole early access schtick is kinda ruining the first impression to some people. Guess the point is to save money on QA?
This post has been edited by Zaxx: 10 March 2019 - 07:45 PM
#179 Posted 10 March 2019 - 07:52 PM
Zaxx, on 10 March 2019 - 07:44 PM, said:
It's not really "QA" if it's only a very small portion of the game (in Ion Maiden's case) though.
#180 Posted 10 March 2019 - 08:04 PM
Of course for IM there is the "we promised something to people who bought Bombshell so we had to deliver a tiny bit of the full game early" reasoning (even though that could have been done differently too) but I have no idea why 3DR is doing the same thing with Wrath. Even for sales it doesn't have much of an effect, after release DUSK sold more in its first week than during the whole early access period so you really can't "cash in" early.
This post has been edited by Zaxx: 10 March 2019 - 08:05 PM