KickStarter Underworld Ascendant is a disaster

[Darth Slaughter]

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.

Seeing these "efforts" to "improve" the game, I have to ask: Why didn't they put the game as an early access? Not that it would make the game better, but it would probably have less negative reviews, and they would extend the benefit of doubt. And probably get more money to actually make significant improvements.

 

[MasterLobar]

Because the plan always was to abandon the game after a few updates and not invest more than absolutely needed to avoid lawsuits.

Had the game been launched as early access, they would have had to actually finish it before launching it properly while all the way people would have been screaming "THIS ISN'T FINISHED YET".

Much more convenient as it is. Throw a few half-baked updates over the fence and walk away.

And for OS, it doesn't really matter because all the money goes to 505 anyway.

 

[MasterLobar]

By the way, for those who don't believe this is all about not getting sued, here is point-by-point how they checked every box to shield themselves from legal claims by making an absolutely-minimum viable product:

https://forums.otherside-e.com/t/how-to-get-my-money-back/9822/2

Now they just have to make a console version and they can show 505 the finger.

 

[Doctor Sbaitso]

Careful not to cross the Celerity precipice.

 

[MasterLobar]

What's that?

 

[Agame]

What's that?

"Oh sweet summer child"

Its when maximum autism meets maximum butthurt within a single human being and creates a glorious abomination ie Celerity and his unholy crusade against Darkest Dungeon.

 

[Alienman]

Every game needs one.

 

[MasterLobar]

My crusade is holy and just.

 

[Zakhad]

They really should have made this an EGS exclusive.

 

[Infinitron]

They really should have made this an EGS exclusive.

The game was released three weeks before the Epic Store launched. It is actually possible that if they'd held out for just a while longer, Epic could have funded another year of development. OS got no luck.

 

[Cael]

They really should have made this an EGS exclusive.

The game was released three weeks before the Epic Store launched. It is actually possible that if they'd held out for just a while longer, Epic could have funded another year of development. OS got no luck.

I prefer to think of it as the rest of the world dodged a bullet.

 

[BEvers]

They're making robust progress; Update 3 is imminent.

 

[MasterLobar]

Happily updating and making new versions for a game no one buys and that's still not running properly 4 months after launch.

The game has a whopping 353 reviews on Steam and is currently getting 1-2 new reviews per week, most negative. And the 75% 30-day positive reviews right after Update 2? Down to 41% again --- pretty much proof these reviews were all fake.

UA isn't a poor seller, it isn't selling *at all*.

But the philosopher kings in the Ivory Tower are still happy:

 

[Glic2000]

Yeah, I've lots of ideas I thought were "good" but when I tried to actually incorporate them into a game, turned out they weren't actually that good, for a variety of reasons.

 

[BEvers]

 

[LESS T_T]

I imagine there are a number of backers of this game at GOG, and some may have played the backer beta.

 

[Cael]

After 60+ pages, I think the title should be changed to "UA is a slow moving trainwreck; we can't look away!!!" :D

 

[Space Nugget]

"Strange criteria" = Quality?

FFS

 

[fantadomat]

Fuck me...

Why is this thread still going on?

 

[Unkillable Cat]

 

[Excommunicator]

But the philosopher kings in the Ivory Tower are still happy:

This sort of thing is such a cop out.

The reason why people can claim "hey great ideas are easy, I have heaps of them!" is because they don't have to prove that they're good ideas. Most of the time they're just not.

For example making your game with no save system is a REALLY BAD IDEA

 

[MasterLobar]

4 months and 2 updates after launch:

Do NOT buy this game - it's TRASH

Couldn't agree more with the professional reviews.

It's a pile of trash and one of the biggest let-downs for a 20 year sequel in well, 20 years. It's so glitchy it's hard to believe. I would die for so reason, constantly. Just bumping a wall in a way they didn't foresee. Insane.

My stash inventory was wiped by the game at least 5 times, countless perks didn't trigger, quests would break 50% of the time having to quit and re-gain them, not to mention how klunky the engine, movement and combat are.

Game also ran like crap on a newly built top of the line system. I run everything else smooth as ice on ultra on a 2k monitor.

There's what, 4 enemies total and and 3 NPCs total? What a joke. 2 are basically stationary, one for skills one for garbage equipment, the other talks to you about quests, barely.

I never even figured out what putting aether cores in that machine did. Seems to have no real effect besides a sound effect. Great design right there!

There's no story-line npcs to talk to, get quests from, etc, just the main one that magically appears one level down each time you finish a main quest.

The game world is about as generic and robotic as you can imagine. There's NO life to it. Here's a maze, spawn in some enemies, and boom, there's each level in a nutshell. I NEVER got factions to work no matter how many faction quests I did.

50% of the spells I created, I never figured out what they did. There's only one ranged offense spell, and it's garbage.

Chests are glitchy as hell, pop up text on items obscures each other's little windows (how hard would this be to fix??? - I'm a principal SE, so, easy!), same text shows 1/2 way off my screen. Talk about amateur coding and design.. Level loading blares sound for a couple seconds every load, and a million other glitches. Those things that take the mana cores around the game, almost all of them were broken and didn't open.

I could go on an on... I agree with all the 1/5 and 1/10 reviews. Frustration and disappointment is all this game truly offers.

Also, my game ended per-maturely when it wasn't supposed to, and then it wiped my saved game away with autosaves, so BOOM, uninstalled. F this♥♥♥♥♥♥

https://steamcommunity.com/app/692840/discussions/0/1848072002761647072/

 

[Sacibengala]

This piece of crap is on gog yet? Fixed? At least playable? Or these suckers are announcing systemshock 3 with this massive stain and nothing will be done about it?

 

[Curratum]

They got turned down from GOG, for obvious reasons. Not fixed. Playable is a stretchy term.

 

[Shadowfang]

Incline of GOG.

I would have loved to see this game as a legitimate successor of Ultima Underworld. I played it for the first time back on 2014 and despite it's age it still left a good impression on me.

Good thing the indie scene left me more games than I have time to play. I have a considerable backlog and can afford to be picky.

Is there anything like this in the making?