KickStarter Underworld Ascendant is a disaster

[BEvers]

 

[MasterLobar]

OS is taking fake reviews to the next level.

6 minutes of gameplay, received product for free, has not played a second since posting the review on January 14.

https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198836210988/recommended/692840/

 

[unfairlight]

Hard guess if it's just an average idiot or fake review, there. He has 13 games on Steam, after all.

 

[LESS T_T]

OS is taking fake reviews to the next level.

6 minutes of gameplay, received product for free, has not played a second since posting the review on January 14.

https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198836210988/recommended/692840/

Well look at his friend list, friend of "OtherSide_Staff": https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198836210988/friends/

I'd guess it's a review from their friend or colleague.

(Unless this Joe guy is Joe Fielder, the director. That's a different story.)

 

[Infinitron]

Joke's on them, product received for free --> review not taken into account in score average.

 

[MasterLobar]

Hard guess if it's just an average idiot or fake review, there. He has 13 games on Steam, after all.

Just a random dude who got the product for free, has OS staff among his "friends" and wrote only one review ever...

 

[Nyast]

.. only one review ever with 12 minutes of play time, and never played again afterwards ...

Yup, not suspicious at all

 

[Steamboat Willie]

Joke's on them, product received for free --> review not taken into account in score average.

I didn't know this.

 

[MasterLobar]

Unless this Joe guy is Joe Fielder, the director. That's a different story.

Hey Joe, if you're reading this: Is it you?

Perhaps someone who is still on the OS forum could ask him. And also ask in general what they think of this kind of reviews and why their game seems to attract so many of them.

 

[BEvers]

Apparently the post-release support has been financed by money that was earmarked for paid DLC. Have 505 Games lost faith?

 

[Morgoth]

These guys are toast.

 

[MasterLobar]

"the focus continues to be on making things better, not worse"

4 months after they launched it...hard to tell if they are being serious or just trolling their backers at this point.

 

[Nyast]

I mean, they are trying. It's just that the game is beyond saving and their team is pretty much incompetent. With a miracle we might end up with a 4 or 5 / 10 game in a few months.

 

[MasterLobar]

Back to the reviews --- For comparison, real reviews for another (popular) RPG:

https://steamcommunity.com/app/292030/reviews/?browsefilter=toprated&snr=1_5_100010_

Shows how ridiculous these planted fake reviews with less than 1 hour gameplay are.

 

[MasterLobar]

By the way, 505 felt compelled to BS-comment on the obvious fake reviews their game attracts by the dozens:

https://steamcommunity.com/app/692840/discussions/0/1841314700720495889/?ctp=2#c1836811737993909219

OS is destroying 505's reputation as well.

 

[MasterLobar]

The community manager seems to think we are idiots.

And if a company WANTED to inflate their score, they'd have to sink money (at full price now!) into buying people keys just to have them leave a positive review in masses.

https://steamcommunity.com/app/692840/discussions/0/1841314700720495889/?ctp=2#c1843567770211599411

Well, this is where a 75% discount comes in handy, which was granted exactly at the time when the most recent fake reviews started to show up (right after Update 2 which ppl on Steam say broke more than it fixed).

Come on, Sam, you can do better than this!

 

[Infinitron]

By the way, 505 felt compelled to BS-comment on the obvious fake reviews their game attracts by the dozens:

https://steamcommunity.com/app/692840/discussions/0/1841314700720495889/?ctp=2#c1836811737993909219

OS is destroying 505's reputation as well.

You're assuming it's not 505 who are behind this in the first place.

 

[MasterLobar]

Good point, maybe they are, but then again OS is destroying 505's reputation by having made a game so shitty that 505 has to do these cheap dirty tricks.

 

[<3sRichardSimmons]

What reputation? Haven’t they always been a shovelware publisher? It’s not as though they were ever emblematic of quality.

 

[BEvers]

Striking a slightly more optimistic tone now:

 

[Infinitron]

https://forums.otherside-e.com/t/march-19-weekly-update/9987

Morning everyone! It’s been awhile, hasn’t it?

Just to clarify, we are still working on our Update 3, which is primarily focused on bug fixing and polish. Changes such as adding in a notification for quicksaves, fixing the bug where you could save mid-quest and then lose quest progress when reloading, and several other issues are being addressed as we keep our eyes on our Update 4. Update 3 is estimated to release sometime next week, once everyone is back from GDC.

For Update 4, we cannot promise which features will make it in, but I can share that we are strongly interested adding in additional NPCs/creatures/updated combat. Note that our focus on NPCs does not mean dialogue trees. Given the scope of our timeline and budget, we will be looking at ways to flesh out the narrative and world building with what we currently have as efficiently as possible. We’re kicking around a couple of ideas on how to do this without breaking the bank and also making it enjoyable; having fun and meaningful interactions within a game can really change the experience.

And of course, if you haven’t seen it already, the Austin team is busy with System Shock 3 2.

 

[MasterLobar]

Update 4 ist just to trick potential new SS3 publishers into thinking that they are not abandoning the project and throw their published (505) under the bus (which is what they are doing).

It's just window-dressing. Nothing substantial.

I predict: After the console version (contractual obligation for 505) is out, OS Boston is going to be closed as a cost-cutting measure and the UA and SS3 teams are going to be merged to make more progress to be shown to potential publishers.

Won't save the studio, though. They are doomed (see my latest post in the SS3 thready).

 

[JarlFrank]

The community manager seems to think we are idiots.

And if a company WANTED to inflate their score, they'd have to sink money (at full price now!) into buying people keys just to have them leave a positive review in masses.

https://steamcommunity.com/app/692840/discussions/0/1841314700720495889/?ctp=2#c1843567770211599411

Well, this is where a 75% discount comes in handy, which was granted exactly at the time when the most recent fake reviews started to show up (right after Update 2 which ppl on Steam say broke more than it fixed).

Come on, Sam, you can do better than this!

I thought Steam gave the publisher free keys to give out as gifts, review copies, etc?

 

[MasterLobar]

JarlFrank, free products don't go into the overall score, though OS was so incompetent to try to rig the score that way:

OS is taking fake reviews to the next level.

6 minutes of gameplay, received product for free, has not played a second since posting the review on January 14.

https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198836210988/recommended/692840/

 

[Nyast]

Speaking of SS3, NightDive's SS remake got a 20-mins gameplay video and it's just awesome. I couldn't care less about SS3 at this point, I just want the remake.