Game News Age of Decadence Released on Steam Early Access

[Vault Dweller]

Vault Dweller Here's the page you need to watch: http://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/age-of-decadence

How are the sales by the way?

846 copies sold, $21k

1,494 demo downloads, 78 sales from the demo, conversion rate 5.2% (gotta be the lowest record)

 

[Humanity has risen!]

He makes some good points in the second part of that review, it's not necessarily very pleasant to be constantly confronted to binary choices in order to progress to further along the way, to then inevitably be confronted with a situation requiring a skill that you don't have, and to be practically guaranteed to die because of this.

Nobody drops these situations on you.

For example:

"Ten hours in and I get to my third issue with this game; it pushes me to choose certain skills in order to progress, then throws me a curveball by making me rely on skills I dropped in order to get to the point I am at. An example in point – walking around the streets of the starting city I have my money stolen by a street urchin because I failed a streetsmart skillcheck. I reloaded a save point and dropped some points in streetsmart so the next time she appeared, I was onto her and could prevent her from taking my cash, only to end up in a close quarters fight with three armed thugs. I didn’t have the skills I needed to survive because…I had put them into streetsmart instead. Trial and error is no way to have an RPG run. It just frustrates players and hiding behind a ‘this game is tough’ tagline doesn’t make up for poor game design."

So, he was robbed. It happens. He reloaded and decided to put some points into Streetwise to catch the thief. He did. Then he implies that he somehow got into a fight with 3 thugs, which isn't the case. He was given a choice. He decided to go get his money, as if they are just lying somewhere on a table, waiting for him.

Nobody might "drop" these situations on you, and in that case he could have just fled. But sooner or later you have to accept to enter into a lot of such situations in order to have hope to progress, which means many such failures because you didn't know beforehand that the daring move you were ultimately forced to attempt required skill X, or skill X at a specific level later along the way. There doesn't seem to be a way to progress little by little, rather you must triumph over a lot of seemingly extremely low odds/unpredictable situations against which you're almost guaranteed to be ill-equipped at many points.

In Fallout or Arcanum, in order to become a better character, you at least had quite a few lower risk situations that allowed you to progress, which you could approach slowly and progressively through expansive environments, without throwing you in constant do-or-die, choose your own adventure dialogue trees, or having you ambushed in tiny environments with enemies that virtually always make mincemeat out of you, and requiring having many specific get out of jail for free cards at your disposal. At this point it starts looking more like a choreography than a videogame.

 

[a cut of domestic sheep prime]

Yeah, I have to admit that the difficulty mods were too much for me. Not all of them, mind you, but there were some that kicked the snot out of me almost to the point to were it felt like the game was cheating. That one for BG2 rogues had a really nasty fight in it. (Granted, I'm to the point to where I solo most BG2 games or at least only have one or two party members. BG1 is no fun unless I solo.)

edit:

Vault Dweller Here's the page you need to watch: http://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/age-of-decadence

How are the sales by the way?

846 copies sold, $21k

1,494 demo downloads, 78 sales from the demo, conversion rate 5.2% (gotta be the lowest record)

Hmm. It does seem a tad petite. Maybe it's scaring them off. May want to take down that particular creative for retooling so you can get more next gen purchasers.

Actually, I almost admire this reviewer for sticking with it this long. Probably the only reason he did so was because he payed for it though.

 

[Vault Dweller]

Hmm. It does seem a tad petite.

Hardcore RPGs rarely (as in never) sell well, so we certainly didn't expect to take the world by storm.

 

[hiver]

Well ive recently watched a review on youtube where the guy went into combat without weapons in his hands and then quit because "there was no way of hitting the enemies".
At least this guy tried.

hmm.. tried and died achievement, eh?

 

[a cut of domestic sheep prime]

There need to be many such steam achievements methinks... "Made it past the first quest before giving up" - if they stop playing for a few days etc.

 

[Infinitron]

Hmm. It does seem a tad petite.

Hardcore RPGs rarely (as in never) sell well, so we certainly didn't expect to take the world by storm.

Meh, don't whine, people barely even know the game is out.

You'll have more visibility on a sale, and when the game gets its final release.

 

[Vault Dweller]

Nobody might "drop" these situations on you, and in that case he could have just fled. But sooner or later you have to accept to enter into a lot of such situations in order to have hope to progress, which means many such failures because you didn't know beforehand that the daring move you were ultimately forced to attempt required skill X, or skill X at a specific level later along the way.

Not quite.

It's clear when you're about to walk into something and you are very rarely forced to fight. Ergo, if your character isn't a tough fighter who can handle 2-3 guys, don't go into a thieves' den expecting to get your money back, don't go with Miltiades (you get 3(!) warnings there), etc. There are plenty of things to do, but you won't be swimming in skill points.

There doesn't seem to be a way to progress little by little, rather you must accomplish a lot of seemingly extremely low odds/unpredictable situations against which you're almost guaranteed to be ill-equipped at many points.

They become predictable if turn the auto-pilot mode off and start using your head.

In Fallout or Arcanum...

... which were very easy games.

 

[a cut of domestic sheep prime]

Vince has a point, but I think the game can actually do quite decently. I was doing game advertising for a while and one of the best headlines for sites like Facebook is "Can you beat level 1?". Granted that was for free app RPGs, but I think the premise of issuing a challenge should still work on most male gamers at least. And AOD is quite a challenge for most ppl today.

 

[Vault Dweller]

Hmm. It does seem a tad petite.

Hardcore RPGs rarely (as in never) sell well, so we certainly didn't expect to take the world by storm.

Meh, don't whine, people barely even know the game is out.

I don't. Do you think I expected or hoped that it would sell 10k copies on day 1? I think it's doing fine for a hardcore RPG and we don't need a lot to stay in business.

 

[Infinitron]

Skyway wept:

 

[a cut of domestic sheep prime]

Where are you? It's only $15 for me.

 

[Clockwork Knight]

This is my favorite part:

My first issue with the game (and there are many thus far) lies in the descriptor. Why bill a game as a ‘low magic , post-apocalyptic fantasy world, inspired by the fall of the Roman empire’ when there isno magic and the the definition of post-apocalyptic has been stretched to mean ‘post-war’? By that definition Prague in 1918 would fall under the same category of ‘low magic, post-apocalyptic’ and I doubt many people would rush to play a game set then and there. At this stage in game development and marketing, especially given the strength of titles such as Fallout, , Rage, and Last of Us, terms like ‘post-apocalyptic’ carry with them a weight of expectation. To label a game such, and not deliver, is a disservice to customers and misrepresents the title.

VAULT DWELLER YOU LIAR

WHERE'S MY ELLEN PAGE WAIFU

I would...

edit:

This all occurs through a dialogue window that reads like a ‘Choose your own adventure’ book, and this is the crux of the problem. The narrative of the game is too rigid and relies too much on set criteria being met before players are able to succeed.

Holy shit. A casual gamer spotting a glaring flaw in a game. What's the world coming to these days...

Keep in mind this is the sort of person you are defending.

Any game that soaks up 9+ hours of my time and has me progressing no further than the first two introductory missions...

 

[AstroZombie]

VD, any reason this isn't showing up in the "New Releases" tab?

 

[Infinitron]

VD, any reason this isn't showing up in the "New Releases" tab?

http://www.rpgcodex.net/forums/inde...-steam-early-access.87845/page-2#post-2960664

 

[AstroZombie]

VD, any reason this isn't showing up in the "New Releases" tab?

http://www.rpgcodex.net/forums/inde...-steam-early-access.87845/page-2#post-2960664

That's some fucking bullshit since BG2 EE and X Rebirth are on that tab.

Thanks for the answer

 

[Saduj]

As soon as Brian Fargo tweeted ‘So, the awesome Fallout-inspired RPG Age of Decadence in now on Steam early access’ I jumped online and bought the game sight unseen. It’s been since Skyrim that I’ve played a decent RPG and I’ve been looking for something to keep me busy until Wasteland 2, Mad Max, or WildStar, but having spent a good day and a half on the game so far and progressed not much at all, I’m thinking I may have to just wait a little bit longer.

Mad Max doesn't look like my thing but I too am very much looking forward to Wasteland 2. So what is this is "WildStar"?





Actually, I agree with this guy's main criticism, only on a much smaller scale. I'd be surprised if anyone plays AoD without reloading quite often but if you're worried about losing a few coins, you're not really getting it....

 

[Infinitron]

Saduj WildStar? Why, that's Tim Cain's MMO, of course! http://massively.joystiq.com/2011/1...rector-tim-cain-joins-obsidian-entertainment/

 

[FeelTheRads]

It’s been since Skyrim

Long time since this classic, man. Ah, the memories.

but having spent a good day and a half on the game so far and progressed not much at all, I’m thinking I may have to just wait a little bit longer.

I progress slowly -> game is shit

Time really is relative, seeing how it definitely passes differently for popamolers.

WildStar? Why, that's Tim Cain's MMO, of course!

I hope you don't mean the Tim Cain that worked on Fallout.

 

[Vault Dweller]

It’s been since Skyrim

Long time since this classic, man. Ah, the memories.

 

[Saduj]

Saduj WildStar? Why, that's Tim Cain's MMO, of course! http://massively.joystiq.com/2011/1...rector-tim-cain-joins-obsidian-entertainment/

Awesum! Kickass! EPIC! Xtreme! Player Housing!

With all due respect to Mr. Cain, I'd rather be arrested in Deming, New Mexico than play this.

 

[serch]

Finally got this through steam. Sorry I'm pretty stupid, so Gog and Steam consume all my mental resources. I'd never remember a third e-store. Still I managed to win that tavern fight of the arena demo with several builds though

 

[Kingston]

VD, all the years you've spent working on this game were worth it for the (lulzy) comments/reviews alone.

... and the jewgold, should you amass enough of it.

 

[AstroZombie]

Bought it through Iron Tower's website because Steam/My bank is being stupid, I hope you guys get a bigger cut from BMT

 

[Vault Dweller]

Thanks!