[Mr. Tibbs]

Spoiler

That badass chaingun tease after the boss fight was so mean! Q3 feels like forever away. The shareware-esque splash screen was a really nice touch.

[PsychoGoatee]

Just got this, exciting week around here! Will rock the preview campaign soon! From the trailer the voice sounds good, and I like the itneractive toilet that was posted, legit.

[Micky C]

MusicallyInspired, on 02 March 2018 - 03:11 PM, said:

I recorded some gameplay last night. Here's 30 minutes worth of edited footage. I missed 14 secrets in the first areas. And I felt like I found a lot of them. I love that it feels like there's so much content to discover and that there's still more to come for the same content later!

Nice commentary, it helps relive the amazement of discovering new features for the first time. Speaking of which, I had no idea you could use the grates to move them, I've just been breaking them this whole time It's like the game is more interactive on a regular basis than DNF.

[Forge]

Forge, on 28 February 2018 - 02:05 PM, said:

Didn't notice if it could be set, but it'd be nice to have the baton on a quick-fire button as well as having it bound to the the weapon 1 slot. I want to smack chairs and stuff out of my way real quick without having to switch weapons.

[Micky C]

Quote

Didn't notice if it could be set, but it'd be nice to have the baton on a quick-fire button as well as having it bound to the the weapon 1 slot. I want to smack chairs and stuff out of my way real quick without having to switch weapons.

I'm sure people all over the internet have requested it pretty much immediately. But then again the baton's electrical ability makes it pretty OP as a quick kick-styled weapon since it stuns enemies. I suppose the charge could be reserved for its dedicated slot usage.

[TerminX]

Quick melee has been talked about but nothing has been decided yet. However, you can press use to open vents without breaking them!

[enderandrew]

Trooper Dan, on 02 March 2018 - 12:33 PM, said:

Her face is exactly the same.

Other than the eyes, nose and mouth having different shapes.

[Forge]

TerminX, on 02 March 2018 - 03:57 PM, said:

However, you can press use to open vents without breaking them!

True.
But like I said, I want to smack chairs out of my way - as well as bash trashcans and other various breakable objects.

The destructible objects is one of the main reasons to have a quick-kick / quick-attack.
(Combat too, when up close & personal, but to a lesser extent of a reason.)

An 'uncharged' baton would do nicely. Less work to modify what you have instead of making a new graphic w/sequence.

Just an opinion.
If it doesn't get implemented, oh well.

[MusicallyInspired]

enderandrew, on 02 March 2018 - 04:05 PM, said:

Other than the eyes, nose and mouth having different shapes.

The main reason I don't think they look alike, honestly, is that I don't think that actress is particularly attractive while Shelly is certainly moreso.

[HulkNukem]

TerminX, on 02 March 2018 - 03:57 PM, said:

Quick melee has been talked about but nothing has been decided yet. However, you can press use to open vents without breaking them!

Well sunnofabitch, that would've saved me a lot of time earlier

[PsychoGoatee]

MusicallyInspired, on 02 March 2018 - 04:56 PM, said:

The main reason I don't think they look alike, honestly, is that I don't think that actress is particularly attractive while Shelly is certainly moreso.

On this actress versus animated character thing, I have Cool World on my shelf, a very highbrow film that tackles this issue candidly.

[Hendricks266]

If you need a new wallpaper, the key art is available in the press kit, and here is the menu background: http://voidpoint.com...u_wallpaper.png

[Danukem]

I have just started the second level and I'm very much enjoying the game so far. The art and level design are great, gameplay is solid. But I love to nitpick so I'll mention a few things before I forget:

-The EDuke32 keyboard setup is a pain in the butt to use. I notice this a lot because I'm left-handed, so I pretty much have to re-assign every single function before I play a game. There are two things that stand out as especially annoying. First, the setup comes with some keys already assigned in the right column (alternative key), and these often interfere with my desired layout, so I have to re-assign both columns. Second, it's very finicky and mysterious about where you need to click to initiate re-assignment in some cases. Do we really need to allow 2 different keyboard keys assigned to the same function? A lot of modern games don't have that. But beyond what I've mentioned, imo the gui of the keyboard setup needs to be completely overhauled.

-I wish that EDuke32 had better gamepad support. I would love to be able to plug in a xbox 360 controller and for it to just work with a sensible default layout etc. There are lots of console-centric gamers out there who do own PCs who would be more likely to play this and EDuke32 in general with better gamepad support (I know this would be a big hit in my household).

-As for Ion Maiden itself, so far it is great, as I said. I do wish that the meatier enemies (I'm thinking specifically of the guys with the red hoods who can take a lot of shots) had a stagger animation. I wouldn't even mind if they had I-frames, as long as they stumbled back after a big hit so that my weapons still felt powerful against them. I think it would be cool even if weaker enemies had stagger animations -- although this would probably require giving them more HP, because right now they die before they would even have a chance of getting stunned.

-I turned the music off after about 10 minutes because it got repetitive and then I really notice the soundscape. I like how there are different sound for just about everything but I think it's a bit excessive, or maybe certain sounds need to be changed. In particular, when I'm walking around there are a lot of crunchy little sounds such as when you bump into a chair or kick a skull. Sometimes I think I'm picking up ammo or armor shards when actually I'm just bumping into stuff.

[Bruno Mattei]

I bought it and then refunded after I completed the incredibly short preview. I beat it in an hour, discovered roughly half the secrets in each level, and died only twice on normal difficulty.

Level design in level's 2 and 3 is fine but a little cryptic. It can trick you to looping back to the start of the level.

There's too many secrets that don't amount to much. It would be cool if some of the secrets lead to secret levels and shit. In the first level when I jumped up those beams I was thinking "Oh man, there must be something big up here!" And it was just armor. Who cares?

The weapons are really plain and desperately need an alt fire. The bomb is alright but it doesn't have splash damage and I don't like the homing ability it has. The homing makes it feel like it takes no finesse to use unlike the pipe bombs or dynamite in Duke 3D and Blood respectively.

Everything else was good but it has nothing on Dusk.

[Forge]

Trooper Dan, on 02 March 2018 - 08:56 PM, said:

But I love to nitpick

-The EDuke32 keyboard setup is a pain in the butt to use. I notice this a lot because I'm left-handed, so I pretty much have to re-assign every single function before I play a game.

I'm right handed and pretty much have to reassign all the keys. In both columns.

Trooper Dan, on 02 March 2018 - 08:56 PM, said:

Do we really need to allow 2 different keyboard keys assigned to the same function?

yes

because

also maybe some day i'll be using a laptop with no mouse and refuse to use that friggin touch-pad thingy

you never know

could happen.

[Forge]

Bruno Mattei, on 02 March 2018 - 08:56 PM, said:

I bought it and then refunded after I completed the incredibly short preview.

Is this how you get more friends than me?

fml

[Player Lin]

Forge, on 02 March 2018 - 09:54 PM, said:

yes

because

also maybe some day i'll be using a laptop with no mouse and refuse to use that friggin touch-pad thingy

you never know

could happen.

I think it's always be nice idea to bind two key for a function, because you never knows when you need it, more (multiple) options more better.

I also reassigned some keys like crouch key from CTRL to ALT or something else, because CTRL+SHIFT or CTRL+SPACE will toggle my Chinese IME and for most of games just BAD idea, black screens, lost of controls, game goes like apeshit etc. until disable the IME, so it's normal if you want rebind the key, as the default may not totally suit everyone.

[Micky C]

Bruno Mattei, on 02 March 2018 - 08:56 PM, said:

I bought it and then refunded after I completed the incredibly short preview.

So you don't want the full version, which you would have gotten for free if you didn't refund?

Bruno Mattei, on 02 March 2018 - 08:56 PM, said:

The weapons are really plain and desperately need an alt fire. The bomb is alright but it doesn't have splash damage and I don't like the homing ability it has. The homing makes it feel like it takes no finesse to use unlike the pipe bombs or dynamite in Duke 3D and Blood respectively.

The weapons will be getting an alt-fire in the final version.

Also, if you throw the bombs directly onto enemies you can use finesse. They only home-in when they're on the ground.

[Bruno Mattei]

Micky C, on 02 March 2018 - 11:24 PM, said:

So you don't want the full version, which you would have gotten for free if you didn't refund?

I just wasn't that impressed with it.

[OpenMaw]

Micky C, on 02 March 2018 - 11:24 PM, said:

So you don't want the full version, which you would have gotten for free if you didn't refund

Well, that's more or less what you're paying for. The preview campaign is the incentive to toss money out for the full version, right?

Bruno Mattei, on 02 March 2018 - 08:56 PM, said:

I bought it and then refunded after I completed the incredibly short preview. I beat it in an hour, discovered roughly half the secrets in each level, and died only twice on normal difficulty.

It's essentially a demo, yeah. By all accounts you're not buying the demo, you're buying the game, and getting the demo as a bonus for putting cash down sooner rather than later.

Bruno Mattei, on 02 March 2018 - 08:56 PM, said:

Level design in level's 2 and 3 is fine but a little cryptic. It can trick you to looping back to the start of the level.

There's too many secrets that don't amount to much. It would be cool if some of the secrets lead to secret levels and shit. In the first level when I jumped up those beams I was thinking "Oh man, there must be something big up here!" And it was just armor. Who cares?

Are you referring to the ladder secret outside? I mean, to be fair you got

Spoiler

A Duke Nukem "Cops are pigs" and a Portal "cake is a lie" and Companion cube reference in there.

I will somewhat agree on the secrets though. I mean, it's nice there are so many of them and some of them are very obscurely placed, but I do think there might be something to be said for slightly less, but more impactful ones. I really liked the placement of a secret at the start of the final map, with the developer message. That was sweet, and really reminded me of what I missed in old school shooters.

Bruno Mattei, on 02 March 2018 - 08:56 PM, said:

The weapons are really plain and desperately need an alt fire. The bomb is alright but it doesn't have splash damage and I don't like the homing ability it has. The homing makes it feel like it takes no finesse to use unlike the pipe bombs or dynamite in Duke 3D and Blood respectively.

I honestly think alt-fire stuff is a little over-rated. I mean, yeah, it's cool if you can come up with a function that's going to be useful(being able to fire both barrels or individually with the shotgun in Blood), but often times it leads to a lot of gimmicky shit(The Tommy Gun's "spray" feature.) What we have in Bombshell's preview campaign is akin to the Duke Nukem 3D Shareware. You're getting the basics. All the high-concept and heavy-hitting equipment is clearly being saved for the full game. Just think, you didn't get the Shrinker, trip mines, devastator, or Freezethrower in the shareware of Duke3D.

The bombs seemed to work just fine for me when I wanted to produce carnage. Indeed they became a massive force-multiplyer whenever dealing with a squad of baddies.

My only real complaint against the weapons is that I think the SMG report could use a more high end chattery sound like out of an 80s action movie. Pistol, shotgun, and SMG all have roughly the same kind of a lower end oomph, but the result is they sound a little samey. I get why though it keeps them all uniform in their presentation and it's very clear that Voidpoint/3D Realms have worked to keep the presentation and tone focused here.

[Danukem]

Bruno Mattei, on 03 March 2018 - 12:08 AM, said:

I just wasn't that impressed with it.

That's fine, but you listed some criticisms of stuff all of which could change in the full version, and then you noted that "everything else was good". Reading your review, it seemed like it delivered for you what could reasonably be expected of an early access game at this point. The problem is, when you announce that you got a refund, it makes it sound like you bought it under false pretenses. It sounds like you bought it planning to get a refund unless it was the most amazing game ever -- essentially you abused your right to a refund by setting the bar unreasonably high. Naturally, people around here who want to support EDuke32 won't take kindly to that.

[MetHy]

Micky C, on 02 March 2018 - 02:21 PM, said:

Btw, is it just me or does the "Ion Maiden" text not stand out much from the background, which makes it hard to read when scrolling through a list of small images, possibly affecting number of sales to a small degree. Perhaps a small orange trim around the letters would help it stand out in this case.

Damn, you got a point here. I had to look twice to even see the game and I know what the image looks like.

[OpenMaw]

My suggestion there would be to increase the amount of orange present on the "ION MAIDEN" portion of the banner. Orange against blue would stand out better.

[Bruno Mattei]

Commando Nukem, on 03 March 2018 - 12:19 AM, said:

A Duke Nukem "Cops are pigs" and a Portal "cake is a lie" and Companion cube reference in there.

Then I really didn't miss anything.

Trooper Dan, on 03 March 2018 - 12:20 AM, said:

That's fine, but you listed some criticisms of stuff all of which could change in the full version, and then you noted that "everything else was good". Reading your review, it seemed like it delivered for you what could reasonably be expected of an early access game at this point. The problem is, when you announce that you got a refund, it makes it sound like you bought it under false pretenses. It sounds like you bought it planning to get a refund unless it was the most amazing game ever -- essentially you abused your right to a refund by setting the bar unreasonably high. Naturally, people around here who want to support EDuke32 won't take kindly to that.

By the same token nothing could change when the full game is out. Same thing happened with Wrack; everyone thought it was going to be this big thing but nope.

Dusk on the other hand really impressed me and I thought the devs deserved my money after knocking me off my ass with the first campaign. And the 2nd campaign that they released on Christmas was equally amazing.

Side note: Amid Evil also looks absolutely amazing.

Ion Maiden needs more polish. More varied enemy types, deaths, and weapons. The revolver is horribly generic. The sub machine gun is even more generic. The shotgun looks cool but operates just like any other shotgun and lacks the "oomph" that a shotgun needs.

[Micky C]

Bruno Mattei, on 03 March 2018 - 05:30 AM, said:

By the same token nothing could change when the full game is out.

Except at least one of your big criticisms has clearly been stated as 'fixed' in the full release. Plus its still early access, so by definition it will undergo further polish. I also hear that the full game will be original levels, with this preview being a largely independent campaign. Not sure how it'll tie in though.

Sounds like the game simply isn't for you, which is fine. Everyone has their own tastes and priorities in what they look for in a game. From what I've seen of Dusk, the level design in IM is superior in a few aspects. While you might not like the type of complexity IM has gone for, there are definitely people out there who look for specifically this kind of thing. Similarly, some people enjoy exploring and hunting for well-hidden secrets. For those who don't, they can simply ignore it. IM also focuses more on interactivity. As others have said, there's a lot of fun discovering what you can actually do (especially in such an old engine), and this ties in nicely with the exploration and secrets aspects. By contrast, Dusk is a much more combat-focused game, with other components taking more of a back seat. Some people also like looking at highly detailed levels which could in a way be considered a form of art. Dusk's levels are pretty minimalistic, and not for artistic motivation.

In terms of level design, there's good complexity and bad complexity. My first time playing Shadow Warrior was a frustrating experience, as nearly every level I'd have the feeling that I've explored the entire map (perhaps going back through it multiple times) without making progress or knowing what to do. This was not the case here; there was always some place left to explore. I was momentarily stuck in one of the traps where you have to go under water, however that wasn't too bad since by the nature of the trap I knew the solution wasn't far away. Something IM also gets right as opposed to Shadow Warrior is that there's considerable gameplay time towards getting keycards. Let me explain by a comparison; in SW the levels were generally completely open, with the keycards essentially being in locked rooms within the open space. There was typically little-to-no gameplay between unlocking the room with the keycard and getting the keycard, before moving onto the next locked room and repeating the cycle. In Duke 3D and IM, there'd be large sections opened up by keycards. Seems like a no-brainer but SW managed to mess that up in many cases.

Personally I think the Portal secret was fantastic, I wish I'd discovered it myself instead of seeing it in a video. However I agree with you that the armour you get after jumping across the girders was a bit disappointing. I'd originally thought that it was part of the main level progression since it seemed like such an obvious place to go, and had a bit of effort behind getting to it. Still, I'd prefer it have these kinds of small branches to explore than the alternative.

[Zaxx]

Forge, on 02 March 2018 - 04:10 PM, said:

But like I said, I want to smack chairs out of my way - as well as bash trashcans and other various breakable objects.

Instead of mostly pointless fanservice with a quickpunch or a quickkick I'd rather see a more useful feature. Sure, it was fun to smash grates in Duke 3D with the mighty foot but apart from that it's a pointless, useless feature and on top of that nowadays those kinds of quick melee attacks are identified as features from modern FPS games. That could rub people who don't remember Duke 3D as vividly as we do the wrong way.

Also the stun baton is just more fun and useful as a melee weapon, it's a unique little touch like the katana in the original Shadow Warrior. Want to be able to break grates and objects faster? Then I suggest two things:

- Quicker weapon switching overall. Weapon switching is a bit on the slower side so this would benefit the overall gameplay and we'd be able to switch to the baton faster.
- The baton could have a secondary feature, for example that if you double tap 1 instead of just switching to the weapon Shelly will instantly attack with it.

Not adding another button to the control layout for a basically redundant feature also has other benefits. For example some of us really like to use those buttons next to WASD to map some weapons to them. E is use and R is reload now, that's enough. For example when I play Blood the first thing I do is I put the dynamite to Q and since Ion Maiden is relying on that same mechanic with the bowling bombs I do the same here. It's a lot easier to press than reaching all the way to 6 and I'd have that bowling bomb hotkey on Q instead of some boring quick kick.

And as for a more useful feature the way I see it a lot of the secrets rely on pushing objects like chairs and trash cans around so Shelly should really pick those up with the use button and carry them to make things faster. You know, like in Half-Life 2.

Edit: And on a side note now that I mentioned secrets: I like the idea of the increased fall damage but it seems like it doesn't really work with Ion Maiden's level design. Basically now it punishes the player for exploration since getting to some secret areas require some platforming so if you fall you can lose a large chunk of your health. The bottom line: fall damage should still be a thing but it should be a bit lower.

[axl]

Zaxx, on 03 March 2018 - 06:13 AM, said:

Instead of mostly pointless fanservice with a quickpunch or a quickkick I'd rather see a more useful feature. Sure, it was fun to smash grates in Duke 3D with the mighty foot but apart from that it's a pointless, useless feature and on top of that nowadays those kinds of quick melee attacks are identified as features from modern FPS games. That could rub people who don't remember Duke 3D as vividly as we do the wrong way.

The quick mighty foot is far from pointless and useless in Duke Nukem 3D. It can really make a difference on the higher difficulties: it's a lot faster to use the quick-kick feature at frozen enemies than to wait for the "automatic" kick, it can help preserve ammo while not losing time switching weapons and can be really helpful in close quarters so that you can shoot and kick at the same time.

Zaxx, on 03 March 2018 - 06:13 AM, said:

And as for a more useful feature the way I see it a lot of the secrets rely on pushing objects like chairs and trash cans around so Shelly should really pick those up with the use button and carry them to make things faster. You know, like in Half-Life 2.

Hmmmm... I disagree here... picking up objects wouldn't fit the old-school approach of Ion Maiden in my opinion.

[Mark]

After watching Musically Inspired's walkthrough video he was really struggling with pushing an object to where he needed it. "Carrying" would have been better.

Although, maybe MI is a spaz and nobody else had trouble pushing things.

[Zaxx]

Mark., on 03 March 2018 - 07:00 AM, said:

After watching Musically Inspired's walkthrough video he was really struggling with pushing an object to where he needed it. "Carrying" would have been better.

Although, maybe MI is a spaz and nobody else had trouble pushing things.

It's very easy to "slide to the side" while you're pushing things and objects can also get stuck in the environment.

[HulkNukem]

axl, on 03 March 2018 - 06:56 AM, said:

Hmmmm... I disagree here... picking up objects wouldn't fit the old-school approach of Ion Maiden in my opinion.

To be fair, neither are physic objects.