Game News Cralon is an upcoming Ultima Underworld-inspired dungeon crawler from Bjorn & Jenny Pankratz

[Infinitron]

Tags: Cralon; Pithead Studio

https://store.steampowered.com/app/3440060/Cralon/

You are Cralon the Brave, hunting a demon that is stealing the inhabitants and belongings of a nearby village. But during your pursuit, the creature surprises you and you fall into the shaft of an old mine, trapped in the darkness. A maze of corridors and secrets lay ahead and you must find a way out to avert the threatening doom. But the further you venture into the underworld, the clearer the feeling becomes that something is wrong. With the help of the creatures of the shaft, you face your fears and uncover the secret of the mine.

Key Features

• A huge dungeon with seamless levels and varied environments
• A deep main story with side quests and twists
• Original and bizarre creatures that can be both hostile and friendly
• Fully voiced dialogues with different choices
• Melee and ranged combat
• Items to inspect and collect
• Opportunities to upgrade and improve your character
• Recipes and crafting
• Creepy elements and scary situations
• Hidden puzzles and traps
• Documents and pictures with clues and background information

 

[d1r]

WOW!

Another Unreal Engine marketplace Asset Preview dungeon crawler!

 

[Roguey]

UE5, DOA

 

[Mortmal]

WOW!

Another Unreal Engine marketplace Asset Preview dungeon crawler!

Probably true , but you are ruining all the magic...

 

[thesheeep]

• A deep main story with side quests and twists

Deep, eh? I see what you did there.

Well, good luck to them - at least they are not trying to make another Gothic.

 

[ShaggyMoose]

Can't be worse than Ascendant...

 

[sser]

Darkest cralon in the mine.

 

[mindx2]

Forget the main story! What I want to know is who the heck lights all those torches... right?!

 

[Roguey]

• A deep main story with side quests and twists

Deep, eh? I see what you did there.

Well, good luck to them - at least they are not trying to make another Gothic.

Alkimia Interactive is demonstrating quite well with their latest demo why you can't make a Gothic-like with UE5. Pankratz is smarter for not even trying.

 

[Trojan_generic]

I'm sure all the boomers like me will buy a copy. Whether that really helps the developers to get out of the shaft is another thing.

 

[luj1]

Graphics are overkill and the style is zero (generic). Don't expect good gameplay here.

 

[MrBuzzKill]

Cinematic trailers got me so hyped up in the early 2000s but these days it's like, just show me the gameplay so I can get on with my life

 

[thesheeep]

Alkimia Interactive is demonstrating quite well with their latest demo why you can't make a Gothic-like with UE5.

I know that your taste is generally shit, so this is quite the sales pitch.
The demo was pretty good, really. Much better than expected, especially after their previous one.

Engines don't make or break games - you can do well or do shit with any engine.
Only people with zero clue about software or game development think the engine is the root cause of games working or not working.

 

[thesheeep]

Cinematic trailers got me so hyped up in the early 2000s but these days it's like, just show me the gameplay so I can get on with my life

Same.
But I figure in this case, they simply don't have anything to show yet. Which isn't surprising given how fresh this all still is.
I'm honestly more surprised they announced anything at all at this point. Whatever hype this might generate, I doubt there will be much left in 3-4 years when this would release the earliest.

 

[Morgoth]

It already looks better than Monomyth.

 

[0sacred]

Ultima Underworld is a cursed franchise, spiritual successors always turn out shit

 

[HoboForEternity]

I do have a very soft spot for UW like dungeon crawler. There just isnt enough of them, so regardless of how their last project went, i hope it's just good.

 

[Odoryuk]

 

[Bastardchops]

What's with the name? Cralon? Oh I get it, it's because you'll be cralon around in the mines.

 

[Lord_Potato]

at least they are not trying to make another Gothic.

 

[luj1]

It already looks better than Monomyth.

Its not imporant how it looks but how it plays. Sheep

 

[thesheeep]

at least they are not trying to make another Gothic.

They have clearly forgotten - or never understood - what made the first Gothics work so well and still being played. That much became apparent with Elex II at least. Some of their later games came closer than others, but I do not think especially the Pankratz's are capable of creating a proper Gothic anymore.

So, better to try something else.

 

[Gandalf]

Real time action combat kind of ruins this for me. Not a fan of being jump-scared by some creatures with evil red eyes. I could stomach this error if it was pixel art, but realistic graphics - now that's a recipe for being super-spooked. Also, reminds me of Oblivion - minus most of the stuff, of course. That underground castle looks very Imperial. Other than that, could be a nice game. I like puzzles and traps in the dungeons.

 

[Roguey]

The demo was pretty good, really. Much better than expected, especially after their previous one.

If this is them at their best, I would have hated to see them at their worst.

Engines don't make or break games - you can do well or do shit with any engine.
Only people with zero clue about software or game development think the engine is the root cause of games working or not working.

Exhibit A:

In an interview from 11 months ago, the co-founder of Warhorse Studios, Daniel Vávra, was asked why he chose Cry Engine to power Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 versus something like Unreal Engine. "At the time, nothing else could handle it like this, and to be fair, Unreal couldn't run it even today," Daniel said in February of 2024.

He continued, "I talked with guys who are making The Witcher or from studios that are just trying to make some open-world games on Unreal because there aren't really any open-world games on Unreal. Assassin's Creed, everything like that, is on their own engine."

"CD Projekt just switched to Unreal. Even though, in my opinion, they had a good proprietary engine. I talked to someone whose name I obviously can't say, and I said to him, 'So how about Unreal?' 'Great, we already have pieces done, like some landscapes.' And I said, well, what about the open world? 'Not yet.' When did they announce it? A year or two ago, and it still doesn't work?"

Exhibit B: Avowed

Exhibit C: STALKER 2 being a downgrade from the previous games

 

[thesheeep]

Exhibit A:

In an interview from 11 months ago, the co-founder of Warhorse Studios, Daniel Vávra, was asked why he chose Cry Engine to power Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 versus something like Unreal Engine. "At the time, nothing else could handle it like this, and to be fair, Unreal couldn't run it even today," Daniel said in February of 2024.

He continued, "I talked with guys who are making The Witcher or from studios that are just trying to make some open-world games on Unreal because there aren't really any open-world games on Unreal. Assassin's Creed, everything like that, is on their own engine."

"CD Projekt just switched to Unreal. Even though, in my opinion, they had a good proprietary engine. I talked to someone whose name I obviously can't say, and I said to him, 'So how about Unreal?' 'Great, we already have pieces done, like some landscapes.' And I said, well, what about the open world? 'Not yet.' When did they announce it? A year or two ago, and it still doesn't work?"

Exhibit B: Avowed

Exhibit C: STALKER 2 being a downgrade from the previous games

A: I like Vavra, but he's prone to talking out of his ass about things he's clueless about.
I wouldn't say Unreal engine is the primary choice for open world games, but there are lots of open world UE games out there running fine, more UE4 than 5 of course, but we'll see more of the latter in the coming years no doubt (considering 5+ year dev cycles).
His claim that "nothing else" could have handled their game is nonsense.
His claim that there aren't really any open-world games on Unreal is nonsense.
Is UE the best choice for open world? No idea, but it's been done with it just fine.

B: Avowed? Obviously a truckload of issues, but none related to engine - in the technical department, the game is fine. It's the game design & writing that's trash.

C: The one way Stalker 2 is worse than 1 regarding tech is in the AI. And AI has little to nothing to do with the engine used. It's not like their previous engine had some plug-and-play AI solution.
There are other ways in which it is worse, but that's again regarding design, such as the larger but low-content world.

You really don't have even half a leg to stand on here. Engines don't make games bad - bad devs and/or bad management does.
Well, at least engines that are at least decent, and UE5 definitely is.