Underworld Ascendant Kickstarter

[Melan]

mindx2 of RPGCodex visited Otherside Entertainment and conducted a great, in-depth interview with precisely the kind of questions Looking Glass fans would be asking. Go check it out!

 

And don't forget that there are only 8 days left in the funding campaign. This is the big chance many of us have been waiting for for more than a decade. This could be Looking Glass 2.0.

[Goldwell]

They hit the goal of $600,000!

 

 

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/othersidegames/underworld-ascendant/posts/1149122

 

Infact they are currently sitting at $611,000+ which is great, these guys seem like fantastic developers and deserve the best

 

 

Today we reached our base funding goal of $600,000. What to say…

Humbled.

Honored to have your support.

To be honest, a bit relieved that we did in fact reach this milestone.

Incredibly excited that we can now make the game we have so passionately wanted to make for twenty years, and do it together with you.

[jaxa]

I backed my first kickstarter!

Boy it sure slowed down after $750k.

[Melan]

Here is a new video courtesy of Nekot the Brave:

 

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

 

Rather promising for a pre-alpha - buggy, feature incomplete, but the atmosphere is to die for, and looks like the exploration opportunities will be very generous. I want to play thins game, and I want to make missions for it.

[AluminumHaste]

why aren't they doing Thief spiritual successor... :>(

It's called The Dark Mod......

[Darkness_Falls]

I didn't see any recent discussions about Underworld Ascendant here or at TTLG.com, so figured I'd update this one. I saw they now have pre-alpha gameplay footage of the training level. Cool! And their channel has a few other videos from the past month I have to watch still...

 

Youtube: "Underworld Ascendant Training Level"

 

Here's a link to their news updates page (where I found the video link): https://otherside-e.com/wp/update-crafting-an-immersive-sim-pax-east-more/

 

Although I'm sad this isn't a Thief game or Thief spinoff, which I would far prefer, it does intrigue me. Is awesome to hear Stephen Russell! I never played the game(s) that inspired this (Ultima Underworld?). I plan to buy this game when it comes out because of the emergent gameplay aspects, the setting, etc. Casting magic spells from hands turns me off a little in games (Dishonored, Bioshock, etc.), but it's okay. Not every game can be Thief

 

I wonder if they got Eric Brosius on-board for the ambients/music, too. That'd be amazing

Edited May 7, 2018 by Darkness_Falls

[Oktokolo]

Although I'm sad this isn't a Thief game or Thief spinoff, which I would far prefer, it does intrigue me.

It looks like a similar genre and the gigantous dungeon scenario is easier to optimize. So the final game should be playable with 30 FPS even on my ancient gaming rig.

[chakkman]

Lol. That training level is kind of the antithesis to what games are like nowadays. "I will not hold you hand, try to think." That already deserves a kudos. I never played Ultima Underworld, but, this looks cool. Not quite sure i like the graphical style though, already had objections against it with the screenshots they showed some years ago.

[chakkman]

I wonder if they got Eric Brosius on-board for the ambients/music, too. That'd be amazing

 

Almost sounds like it in the training level. I mean, i don't really know if it's him, but, surely resembles the Thief soundtrack. And soaking arrows!

[chakkman]

It's live now: https://store.steampowered.com/app/692840/Underworld_Ascendant/

 

I'll buy it later. There's talk about it being buggy, but, i will rather take a look myself.

[CarltonTroisi]

Not just buggy. It's a complete disaster, man. None of the promises made to the backers were fulfilled--just take a look around.

 

Classic bait and switch. This is not Looking Glass 2.0, this is... I don't know what it is. Something must have gone terribly wrong.

[demagogue]

Only game on my wishlist with a majority poor rating. That's a shame. I was rooting for it. By this point we can imagine the sort of thing that happened. They fall into development hell & it's better to release a disaster game & get what they can than cut it altogether. It tells you how unlikely they felt like they could fix things in an achievable timeframe.

 

Edit: Or rather it tells you the constraints that small indie teams work under. If it was Rockstar, they just throw money & manhours at it until it works. But a small team can't afford development hell and this happens.

[Diego]

Finding this topic today and reading the first post to the last has been quite disappointing. "oh wow! I didn't know this existed... oh dang"

 

edit: it was just released though. Nowadays it's customary to save money on testing by releasing it half finished and patching it up. I'm not saying this is super great but it is what it is.

Edited November 24, 2018 by Diego

[New Horizon]

Patching bugs, yes, but I believe the problems with UA go far deeper than just bugs.

[chakkman]

Only game on my wishlist with a majority poor rating. That's a shame. I was rooting for it. By this point we can imagine the sort of thing that happened. They fall into development hell & it's better to release a disaster game & get what they can than cut it altogether. It tells you how unlikely they felt like they could fix things in an achievable timeframe.

 

Edit: Or rather it tells you the constraints that small indie teams work under. If it was Rockstar, they just throw money & manhours at it until it works. But a small team can't afford development hell and this happens.

 

Don't write it off just yet. Actually, i didn't find it half bad so far. Only played like 2 hours or so, though. It is buggy, yes, and a couple of times the engine crashed. And, the save system is quite nerve wrecking as well. Apart from that, not bad. Wouldn't want to fully judge it though based on 2 hours of (tutorial) gameplay.

 

But, hey, it's only 25 €, so, kind of a no-brainer really, if you're halfway interested.

[jaxa]

I have the key, but no plans to play it until I get a new computer. By the time that happens they should have fixed most of the bugs.

 

If there are deeper issues, that's too bad. Backing a Kickstarter/Indiegogo campaign is always a risk.

[chakkman]

I have the key, but no plans to play it until I get a new computer. By the time that happens they should have fixed most of the bugs.

 

I don't know how old your computer is, but... Underworld Ascendant runs fine here on Ultra settings, on a Xeon E3-1230 v3, a Geforce GTX 1060, and 16 gigs of Ram. Rather moderate system requirements.

[jaxa]

 

I don't know how old your computer is, but... Underworld Ascendant runs fine here on Ultra settings, on a Xeon E3-1230 v3, a Geforce GTX 1060, and 16 gigs of Ram. Rather moderate system requirements.

 

https://www.notebookcheck.net/AMD-A-Series-A6-3400M-Notebook-Processor.55753.0.html

 

That's in my primary machine (no dedicated GPU, 8 GB of RAM). When I switch to a modern 7nm Ryzen APU, I'll see a crazy performance increase.

Edited November 25, 2018 by jaxa

[chakkman]

Right. I'd wait for that as well then.

[Tarhiel]

Not just buggy. It's a complete disaster, man. None of the promises made to the backers were fulfilled--just take a look around.

 

Classic bait and switch. This is not Looking Glass 2.0, this is... I don't know what it is. Something must have gone terribly wrong.

 

Sadly, I´ve heard the same.

I really hope this is not how System Shock 3 will pan out.

 

Ascendant seems undercooked in all the areas + that non-functioning save system is just... I don´t have time like I used to 10 years ago, so being able to save anywhere is a must, especially in a game like this.

[New Horizon]

System Shock 3 is under development with a different team at Otherside.

[jaxa]

https://steamcommunity.com/games/692840/announcements/detail/1715205666441472450

 

Here are the fixes included in the most recent hotfix 1.03.

• Added "Swimming" (Crouch while in water to sink)
• Walking through shallow water has been improved
• Arrows now function as expected
• More magic runes are now in Aelita's rotation for sale
• Fullscreen exclusive graphics option is now preserved between gameplay sessions
• When the player collects the final Abyssal Key, the gate to the Midnight Forum now opens as expected
• Fixed a rare bug when The Vault of Nyx did not open when the player had all 8 keys
• Saurians are now less chatty
• The secret shortcut to the Vault of Nyx has been sealed
• Infinite loading screen crash for the opening level has been fixed
• Subtitles can be now toggled On or Off (See: Options->Gameplay)
• Graffiti language in-level now changes when the player changes their language settings
• Tuned movement controls for stopping and starting. The controls now respond faster to player input
• Kickstarter backers will receive 8 dire berries instead of 1
• General movement fixes
• Various rare crash fixes

We are still working on adding more updates to the game. Thank you for your patience!

 

 

My take is that they shipped the game without swimming support, Thief: Deadly Shadows style, and even though they've added support, no areas will actually require it.

Edited December 3, 2018 by jaxa

[stumpy]

I'll wait until its been fixed, still going through the mountains of shame, games bought, never played.

[chakkman]

TBH, in the hours i played it, i found it to be pretty dull and lame. Already begins with weapon operation. The arrows fly totally straight, there is no arch, and the physics seem pretty weird in general, for example, it is not very realistic how the objects you throw fly. Also, i don't like to play for hours, and then lose my progress, because the game doesn't save it. Which is a feature, not a bug... the monsters also seem to have very limited vision. They only notice you when you're very near. Another annoyment is that you stop crouching when you climb up somewhere. Talking about climbing up: Frobbing something and climbing up is displayed as if you moved up in an elevator. No player movement at all, except vertically.

 

Anyone who is expecting something groundbreakingly innovative and fun like the original Thief games will probably disappointed. Anyway, it's only 25 €, so, not much lost if so.

Edited December 5, 2018 by chakkman

[jaxa]

https://steamcommunity.com/games/692840/announcements/detail/2797196840743688910