Gloomwood

[Diego]

Hey! How's everyone doing? 

Found this neat project in development by the dev on twitter, called Gloomwood. I'll let the screenshots speak for themselves:

http://gloomwood.com/press/

The dev's twitter: https://twitter.com/Jollyrogers99 . I'm surprised there isn't a topic about it yet here, because he's most definitely part of the thief community! 

Anyway, I really like it. It's cool to see people embracing dated visuals as if it was by design. It wasn't, we know, but it has its merits besides nostalgia, in my opinion.

[Kurshok]

This is giving me They Hunger flashbacks, I loved that game. I actually have a thread I started but nobody replied to featuring They Hunger's history and how I was searching for more info on Neil Manke's whereabouts. This game looks really good, too. Too bad I'm a console kiddie for the foreseeable future. My laptop broke years back, and I have nobody with the time or experience to help me restart my PC gaming

Edited February 23, 2020 by Kurshok

[freyk]

Why you can link to pictures of this game
And trough yt videos of it in a spoiler.
(see spoiler)

No, i stick with TDM,
because you can mod the heck out of it.

 

 

 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GDq4uZM6Uh0

 

Edited February 23, 2020 by freyk

[Kurshok]

If I ever get a new gaming laptop, I'll have to see to getting Gloomdwood and the Dark Mod installed. What is Gloomwood about, anyways?

[Kurshok]

Tell me more about Gloomwood. What sort of enemies and monsters are in it?

[Diego]

I really don't know much about it. I follow the dev on twitter and that's my source of info. They made DUSK, a FPS inspired by 90s shooters (blood seems to be a specific influence), and Gloomwood seems to be the same but for Thief.

Edited March 28, 2020 by Diego
wrong game name :P

[Hugo Lobo]

Looks like we have a demo now. And a preview.

Bottom of line, its a good homage to T1 and T2, but there are things missing in order to attract the thief community in a sustained way. At the moment there is no pacifist game play (the only option is to kill everything). Also, there is no story, no character building and of course, no mission editor. But then again, this is still a demo and no release date is announced.

 

   

 

[Kurshok]

I hope it has great creature design like the original Thief series!

[Diego]

I just played the demo too. I enjoyed it! I was a little skeptical of the pitch 'thief with a gun' but it was a pretty fun demo. I tried ghosting in the normal difficulty and there is only one point it seems impossible to achieve because every enemy becomes alerted and knows exactly where you are. It's when you get the thingie surrounded by crowmen; the elevator sounds an alarm. Other than that it can be played pretty much like a thief game.

Then I played it on the hardest setting. That really did not feel like playing a thief game at all; too many deadlock guard configurations requiring violence. But resources are so scarce and enemies so overpowered that it didn't really play like a shooter either. Not sure what the appeal there is.

BTW, www.thiefwithguns.com redirects to gloomwood's steam page 

[lowenz]

Basically a love letter to Thief 2 with a "Sir,you're being hunted" ( https://store.steampowered.com/app/242880/Sir_You_Are_Being_Hunted/ ) twist. 

[Shadow]

I am playing the demo too and I like it. It plays a little differently than thief. It's crude and rough around the edges with some clipping errors (I was able to pick up and push a barrel through a solid wall). And it has save points rather than a save anytime feature. I think the world environment looks more like thief than the actual gameplay, but it is pretty similar. It's worth a look.

[Diego]

So, here's my impression. You know how The Dark Project is a great game but it has some roughness to it? Then Metal Age took the basic formula from TDP and tweaked the level design to make it more stealthy, less monsters, less combat etc. I think Gloomwood is offering another 'solution' to TDP's shortcomings. It's doubling down on the horrors and supernatural and just giving Garrett guns.

[peter_spy]

I played the demo as well, but IMO it's very rough around the edges and they didn't go far with any ideas there. 'Ok, so let's have a Thief 2-looking world and SYABH kind of enemies'. Yeah, and?

They basically recreated NewDark look on Unity, which is cool, but the movement itself is very stiff. Enemies are wheezing and their sounds are hardly recognizable from the level ambient, so you can't really hear them / guess their position too well. Stealth is not very far from binary, lightgem is in the bottom right corner (why?). Etc, etc.

It feels either like student project, or a proof of concept, internal demo at best, not a public one.

[Kurshok]

Figured I should post this here since it's made by the same developer, they remade the castle from Super Mario 64 as a Dusk level! 

 

[lowenz]

 

 

Edited January 31, 2022 by lowenz

[SeriousToni]

What kind of game engine is this? It looks almost like original Thief o_O

[Filizitas]

Its Unity.

[datiswous]

I think these games get away with poor graphics under the name "art direction" or "indy".

[Kurshok]

7 hours ago, datiswous said:

I think these games get away with poor graphics under the name "art direction" or "indy".

It's actually a new indie phenomenon called "retraux". People actually like the older-style of graphics, just as some people like older styles of animation like the Rankin-Bass Lord of the Rings movies, or 90s style anime compared to modern. A whole group of game designers who enjoy the way older graphics can induce creepiness decided a while ago to make an annual Haunted Playstation 1 Demodisc yearly.

[Filizitas]

I also realized very early in my carrier that people enjoy games for gameplay/story and experience more.
As long as the game has a certain level of visual prowders, they will gib moneys.
The consumer is they

You could probably release oblivion today, without changing the graphics as long as the game is much more stable.

Just think to yourself: I download a 250gb call of duty game... for 3 days... then i play it 12 hours... and now i am done?
What is quantity vs quality.

Gloomwood can probably be played on an onld washingmachine from the 60s...
Well no its Unity but still... people will enjoy a game that doesnt have any technical issues.

[vozka]

On 2/1/2022 at 2:31 PM, datiswous said:

I think these games get away with poor graphics under the name "art direction" or "indy".

I also think it's a legit esthetic choice, but even if it was like you say - why not? Indie developers have tiny budgets and if this allows them to make games with interesting gameplay, I'm all for it.

But personally I kinda like this style, been very happy with the wave of "boomer shooters". Even though I think that filtering low-res textures is a mistake.

[Anderson]

Coming along nicely. Finally we have more classic-esque games that aren't just Doom and Quake all over the place.

Edited February 2, 2022 by Anderson

[lowenz]

Related

 

https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/new-stealth-rpg-abermore-has-big-thief-meets-dishonored-vibes

[lowenz]

https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/thief-with-guns-stealth-em-up-gloomwood-shoots-into-early-access-in-august

 

 

Does that voice sound familiar? It should.
That's Terri Brosius.

Also known as the voice of Shodan from System Shock and Viktoria from Thief

 

DAMN

 

Edited June 13, 2022 by lowenz

[Nort]

14 minutes ago, lowenz said:

Does that voice sound familiar? It should.

 

That's Terri Brosius.

Also known as the voice of Shodan from System Shock and Viktoria from Thief

DAMN

Well, that rules out sudden throat cancer as a possible cause for why SS3 got sold. I'm happy to hear "Ms. Nightmare Fuel Voice" in any context, but "Thief but with guns" just sounds like a self-defeating concept.