Sign in to follow this  
Henke

Kickstarters

Recommended Posts

You folks back any Kickstarter projects? How have they worked out? I was playing the Early Access version of one of my latest backed projects, Consortium: The Tower, this weekend and figured it was time I took stock of my investments and see how this whole thing has turned out.

 

Giana Sisters

Backed: 2012 | Status: Fully released | Contentment level: :tdown:

Released very quickly, perhaps even on schedule, which is unusual for KS projects. It was a robust platformer, but kinda soulless and I couldn't be bothered playing very far.

 

Distance

Backed: 2012 | Status: Fully released | Contentment level: :tup:

Backed this arcade racer purely because of how much enjoyment I'd gotten out of it's free prequel Nitronic Rush, and Distance certainly lived up. Finally came out of EA this September.

 

LA Game Space Bundle

Backed: 2012 | Status: Partially released | Contentment level: :tmeh:

We got a pile of half-finished experiments out of this, but there were a few gems in there. It's a shame VideoheroeS never turned into a full-fledged release, it had real potential.

 

Sui Generis

Backed: 2012 | Status: Early Access | Contentment level: :tup:

This morphed into a spin-off-prequel called Exanima, which is still in Early Access. I've had a lot of fun with it though and I love seeing how it develops.

 

Spintires

Backed: 2013 | Status: Fully released | Contentment level: :tup:

This is my favourite KS project. Yes, the development has been bumpy, with frequent clashes between the developer and the publisher, but those things are in the past. This is head and shoulders above any other offroading game out there, and with the game's latest incarnation Spintires:Mudrunner at new home Focus Interactive, there's nothing but blue skies and muddy dirtroads ahead! :)

 

KÔNA

Backed: 2014 | Status: Fully released | Contentment level: :tmeh:

An interesting first person mystery that came to an abrupt halt when the development time and budget ran out. They call it a "full release" but, eh.

 

Convoy

Backed: 2014 | Status: Fully released | Contentment level: :tmeh:

A Mad Max-style FTL-alike. It was alright.

 

STRAFE

Backed: 2015 | Status: Fully released | Contentment level: :tup:

Roguelite FPS that was a lot of fun.

 

Wildfire

Backed: 2015 | Status: In Development | Contentment level: :confused:

This 2D stealth platformer seems like it gets more and more ambitious with each new backer email. I guess I'll wait and see.

 

Consortium: The Tower

Backed: 2016 | Status: Early Access | Contentment level: :tmeh:

I backed this super-ambitious Immersive Sim on Fig after the KS failed. I just played the Early Access version and it swings wildly between very impressive and polished to dull and half-baked. I don't know where this is gonna go, but I'm glued to my seat watching the development.

 

The Good Life

Backed: 2018 | Status: In Development | Contentment level: :confused:

I enjoyed the demo of Swery's new game and I look forward to seeing how it turns out.

 

OVERALL VERDICT: Interesting mediocrities with a few bright spots!

 

Tell me of your backed projects! Have you gotten your money's worth?

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Interesting that you were disappointed in Giana Sisters: Twisted Dreams. I hadn't backed the Kickstarter, but bought the game sometime afterwards, and I thought it was a terrific platformer. Very nice-looking, demanding and with a unique level-changing-on-the-fly hook. I guess my question would be; what did you expect of it beyond what it already delivered?

 

The only games I've backed are Broken Age and Psychonauts 2. (The relative difficulty of paying without a credit card made it a hassle, so I only backed things I desperately wanted to play.) Broken Age was a bit of a disappointment, I'd say. I had been expected more of a traditional, perhaps more hardcore adventure game. The first half was a tad too light for me (though I really like the world they built there). The second one featured a few interesting puzzles, but the story didn't hold up towards the end. At the time, I was playing a lot of Daedalic adventure games (Chains of Satinav, Deponia) and those really scratched that adventuring itch.

 

Psychonauts 2 is, of course, a ways off. I don't expect it until well into 2019 or 2020. Which isn't bad, at that point it'll feel like I'm getting a free game (it's been, what, three years since I paid for it?) and I'd rather have them work for another few years on it to ensure it lives up to one of my favorite 3D platformers ever.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

RE: Giana Sisters. It's just one of those games (like Uncharted 4 or Horizon Zero Dawn) where I really can't fault the game on any level, it just left me cold and disinterested. :mellow:

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I have to say I backed the Broken Age kickstarter and got much more out of the documentary they made than the actual game. I didn't even get around to playing the game!

Over the course of the documentary I became a huge Double-Fine fan and enjoyed hearing from their whole team.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I played a bit of Broken Age when it was in PS+, but it didn't do much for me. :|

 

In general I get the sense that backing projects by legendary devs usually turn out to be a disappointment. See: Star Citizen, Godus, Mighty No. 9, Underworld Ascendant, everything by Double Fine. Shenmue 3 is probably headed that way too.

 

My personal rules for what to back:

-There has to be a playable demo or at least convincing in-game footage. Flowery descriptions and concept art ain't gonna cut it.

-Only back projects which might have a hard time meeting the target. No point backing these super-popular projects that fly past their target in a few days. It's safer to just wait for release and reviews on those.

-I only back at the basic "digital download" level, because I'm not just backing so the dev can "follow their dreams", I expect to actually see a return for my investment in the form of a finished game.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I'll spare you the full list of 85.

 

Loved:

 

 - Night In The Woods (Love it GOTY ALL YEARS)

 - Broken Age

 - Idle Thumbs Video Game Podcast

 - FTL: Faster Than Light

 - Shadowrun Returns

 - Gauntlet of Fools (card game)

 - To Be Or Not To Be: That Is The Adventure (Hamlet as CYOA book)

 - SPORTSFRIENDS featuring Johann Sebastian Joust

 - Faëria - Strategy Card Game

 - Halcyon 6: Starbase Commander

 - SUPERHOT

 

Meh:  (either just Not For Me, or flawed)

 

 - Battle Worlds: Kronos - Turn-based strategy revisited

 - HEX MMO Trading Card Game

 - Double Fine's MASSIVE CHALICE

 - Satellite Reign

 - Darkest Dungeon by Red Hook Studios

 - Armello - Bringing Tabletop Adventures to Life

 - Chaos Reborn

 - Banner Saga

 - Hyper Light Drifter

 - The Flame in the Flood

 - BATTLETECH

 - For The King

 - Regalia - Of Men And Monarchs

 - SUPERHOT The Card Game

 

Bleh:

 - WARMACHINE: TACTICS

 - Kingdom Come: Deliverance (devs outed themselves as massive assholes after the campaign ended)

 

Don't know yet (not out or I haven't started it):

 - Star Citizen

 - Path of Exile

 - Torment: Numenera

 - The Bards Tale IV

 

 

Man, I'm getting tired just looking at this. WTB time

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

The only one that I really regret is Last Life (May 2014). Double Fine pulled out in late 2015 (information which was only shared with backers in August 2017), and it's struggled along. The creator is now proposing to shift focus to a new multiplayer sudoku game, which would theoretically raise funds and allow him to complete a cut-back version of the Kickstarted game. All a bit of a mess and I don't see it happening - although I've not been on there hectoring him and demanding a refund or anything.

 

There are a few I got carried away and backed that weren't for me in the end - e.g. The Flame and the Flood and Massive Chalice. Those are as much cautionary tales for me as Last Life - I've learned not to get swept up. I don't have that urge to be on board first thing, or reserve loads of exclusive fan swag. I've continued to back occasional book and comic projects, where it's usually a matter of the creators covering production costs and I can expect have something in my hands quite soon...but games are too much of a gamble.

 

Very excited about Psychonauts 2, but I did not back it - it was always going to smash the target, and it'll be a day one perch for me when it's ready. Also, as promised, the video updates are on Youtube (do backers get extra ones?)

 

I think I'm just waiting on:

Guard Duty (March 2017) - fantasy/sci-fi comedy point & click adventure, out early next year. I know the guy behind it and it's shaping up nicely.

Jenny LeClue (August 2014) - out quite soon I think. Although it's been a long development and my interest has waned a little over 4 years, they've been very diligent with the updates and seem to know what they're doing.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I backed Broken Age and Psychonauts 2. The latter seems to be trotting along nicely (Simon: I don't think we're getting any extra vids, but that's fine by me - the BA backer community always voted overwhelmingly to share everything with the public) , and I was extremely pleased with the former. As mentioned, the documentary on its own was worth the money, along with a great community experience, and we got a new Tim Schafer adventure game as well! Yes it was pretty easy, but then so was Full Throttle; BA was gorgeous and full of Tim's usual excellent writing (even if the ending was a bit rougher than his previous high standard).

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

The released games I've backed are Wasteland 2, Shadowrun Returns, and Pillars of Eternity, all quite fine (the former two got bonus/deluxe/director's cut/whatever editions for free). The unreleased games I've backed are Star Citizen, Tangiers, and the Pathologic sequel/remake. Star Citizen seems to be chugging alone quite fine. There's no way it'll ever pull off half of what it's aiming for, but you could get a fine game with just a quarter of what it's aiming for. Pathologic seems to be doing fine too. Tangiers is mostly one guy who seems to have had all sorts of life issues and it's seemed dead many times, but then sometimes an update pops out, and anyways every single thing from the campaign to the latest update always looks fantastic. So although I have my suspicions about it ever coming out, if it ever does come out maybe it'll be neat!

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
On 11/23/2018 at 9:39 PM, osmosisch said:

I'll spare you the full list of 85.

 

Damn osmosisch, that's a lot of games!

 

I've played several of those. Actually had a lot of fun with Satellite Reign and Hyper Light Drifter as well.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
7 hours ago, Henke said:

 

Damn osmosisch, that's a lot of games!

 

I've played several of those. Actually had a lot of fun with Satellite Reign and Hyper Light Drifter as well.

I would have probably had a lot more fun with those games if I hadn't already had so many that anything that doesn't super-grab me just gets snowed under. Oh well.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Oh hey, this is fun, I tend to have backed more music, shows, and art books on Kickstarter at this point, so I'm assuming this is over the video games only.


I'm gonna use your formatting Henke.

 

Broken Age

Backed: 2012 | Status: Fully released | Contentment level:  :tup:

The wait on this was kind of painful, because I went with the physical rewards and the game was well released on so many platforms and various boxed versions for I think at least two years before Kickstarter backers got their goods. It got to the point where I went on their forums just to leave an angry message, but then I just felt bad about it after. So I didn't really start any part of Broken Age until getting the box, which is generally my excuse on dealing with backlog. Broken Age was a little drier and darker than what I expected out of a Tim Schafer game, but overall I enjoyed it. I guess I feel like the big issue is the art style and animation weren't really my thing. Not into the whole Bagel art even though I know people love it. However writing and story was great and it was nice to play some puzzles in the latter half that I felt all had their shit together. I went through the game without cheating once, and I'd say usually I cheat 2-3 times on average per adventure game. Tim Schafer again has proven to me he has a very intuitive way of designing games.

 

And that documentary, holy shit. Three discs crammed full of great video, multiple hour long or more episodes, commentary, asides, and all kinds of extras. I left feeling for everyone there and involved with the project and wished so bad somehow I worked at Double Fine. I got a lot of mileage out of that thing, gotta be reaching 50-60 hours or more... possibly.

 

I sort of wish there was a boxset for all of the Devs Play stuff as well from DF's Youtube channel.

 

Party of Sin

Backed: 2012 | Status: Fully released | Contentment level:  :tdown:

I think I got into a little bit of Kickstarter fury there at the beginning and randomly gave $15 to this game. Doubt anyone has ever heard of it. I liked the concept art and gameplay idea, but on execution it ended up pretty crap and clunky. They sure did deliver fast though! I don't know if it was the team's fault, it seriously felt like a game some people in a game developer college program put together and that this was their final project. I suspect the team didn't necessarily mesh or know eachother that well. I could be wrong though. Oh well no big deal, it was only $15.

 

Leisure Suit Larry Reloaded

Backed: 2012 | Status: Fully released | Contentment level:  :tdown:

Christ was this some garbage, which was a surprise to no one. I was originally mildly excited because Al Lowe was involved, but then that creep Paul Trowe at Replay Games was acting like a fool everywhere, a seriously unhinged individual. Replay didn't even need to exist, they did nothing in terms of design, they just coordinated the outsource game development company with the writers. I guess he proved his worth with an underage sex scandal and is a registered sex offender now. He's still trolling around Austin right now doing who the hell knows what.

 

The actual game itself, everything was literally awful except for the backgrounds. Characters and animations were pisspoor. The drawings felt awkward and amateurish and people moved in a very stilted way. The voice acting was shit, except for Jan Rabsen I suppose. The narrator was grating as fuck. And they even failed at drawing any of the women in any attractive fashion. There was some nice portraits in some of the old Larry VGA games, but this time it seemed like someone's fetish Deviant Art where every woman was stacked with unnatural balloon tits. It wishes so hard it was Leisure Suit Larry 7, but there's no way it could ever be. That game had some great animation talent, voice acting, design, and writing.

 

Also it turns out Al Lowe pretty much wasn't involved with this whole fucking thing anyway and quietly ran away as soon as Paul Trowe started acting like a creep. He admitted on an AMA that actually Josh Mandel did all the new writing, and it shows. I know Josh Mandel is sort of a celebrity with some adventure game players, especially at Adventuregamers.com where he has posted in the forums, but I despise his writing. I played more than enough of his work in the '90s to experience how he just writes the shit out of everything to the point of exhaustion and sees what sticks. So everything he does tends to be paired with extremely long winded descriptions of things that might have a few vaguely funny elements in there that seem to just go nowhere. I much prefer things to be closer to LucasArts games where descriptions and dialogue tend to be short and snappy but memorable.

 

Beyond that, Josh Mandel was is here at his worst, turning everything about the original Larry games where it was mostly about just what a creepy, pathetic, loser Larry is and just turned everything into lurid raunchy descriptions that this time seemed to be very angry at women, spending a lot of time poking fun at feminism. Also tons of descriptions of prostitution, sex toys, gay jokes, racism, and just was plain ol' meanspirited but not in a fun way, if that is even possible. Plus I have no idea why there was such a high amount of bestiality jokes.

 

After this, I thought maybe Leisure Suit Larry was actually always this bad and so I ended up replaying the whole series shortly after. And I still like them a lot. Al Lowe was much better at throwing dirty jokes out there with a good natured element, plus the guy could be short and snappy, and some of the more questionable things in the earlier games seemed more to be a product of the '80s. LSL5 and 7 were still as great as I remembered. The VGA remake of 1 is far superior to this drivel.  Larry 6 kind of had some crap I didn't enjoy though, but that's another rant. So redeemed I suppose? At least in my eyes. Puzzles were still mostly bad among all the games though, but that's Sierra in general I feel.

 

I also gave Freddy Pharkas another shot and the game was also still as enjoyable as when I was a kid. A lot of it filled with Josh Mandel's obvious wordiness but it was rather balanced and I found it unobstrusive. Seems like there were still too many bestiality jokes, can't imagine what Josh Mandel's hang ups were with this. But otherwise Mandel's pretty subdued in this game, maybe he got worse as he got older? Or maybe it was that on this game it appears he and Al Lowe were truly working together instead of Al Lowe pissing off the way he did with Larry Reloaded.

 

The Banner Saga

Backed: 2012 | Status: Fully released | Contentment level:  :tmeh:

I don't know, I was more excited for this game just because of the art and animation rather than the gameplay. On delivery, I found the game far too wordy and confusing, plus I didn't feel like it needed branching narrative paths since the gameplay was already confusing enough for me, so I gave up pretty earlier on. I think the problem was I just backed a style of game that wasn't for me. Glad everyone else loved it and the team had a major success to get two sequels though.

 

Jane Jensen's Moebius, Gabriel Knight Remake, and some kind of Bulldog iOS storybook

Backed: 2012 | Status: Fully released | Contentment level:  :tdown:

I don't actually know what the fuck this was, but I guess I got a bunch of games for "free" that I didn't even bargain for. I never bothered playing Moebius because everyone said it was terrible and for some reason very misogynistic upon release. The graphics were pretty bad and I heard the puzzles were worse. So I was pretty disenchanted. Then I got a Gabriel Knight 1 remake in the mail, and it was this amateurish 2.5D with new voice actors. This didn't need to exist, it was such a pointless endeavor. Not sure what to say about that bulldog storybook. Seemed like it was aimed at old people who enjoyed overly drawn awkward photoreal art. Also I decided I was done with ever playing a Jane Jensen game ever again.

 

The saving grace of this Kickstarter is I put in $100 and then resold everything I got in the mail on ebay for about $160-170. Profit I guess?

 

Spaceventure

Backed: 2012 | Status: Fully released | Contentment level: ? (if ever released probably :tdown:)

I don't know what to feel about this Kickstarter, but I'm not at all angry. I think I'm just sad. The Space Quest series meant a lot to me in middle school where I tended to just tuck myself in my room and play adventure games in the dark trying not to think of other kids bullying me or how lonely I was. I had played almost all of the LucasArts games at a younger age and was just trying to get whatever lesser known adventure games I could buy with lawnmower money.

 

Space Quest was among the best I played at that time and I replayed them so many times. It was nice to see Scott Murphy and Mark Crow back together. Concept art looked good, people seemed to be having a swell time replaying the old games on streams and waxing nostalgic with other Sierra developers stopping in. I remember reading a few interviews with Scott Murphy over the last few decades. After Sierra died he seemed like he had been having such a hard time and never reentered game development. I was really hoping this would be something he could do to make himself handy as a writer/designer again. I guess a year or so into it, Scott quietly disappeared from the project because his mom got cancer and subsequently died and then they announced that Scott himself had prostate cancer a few months back and he needed a fundraiser to pay for the medical costs. It was $10,000 which for US medical care and having cancer, is probably an extremely low estimate. Guy will probably be in debt the rest of his life. There's some angry backers here, one even suggested in the comments that Scott Murphy made this up for getting more money for the game.

 

Anyway, I'm sure everyone on this game is working for free at this point probably outside of their day jobs. Yet even six years later, long overdue, updates still get squeezed out with visible progress. They recently recorded all of the big name professional voice actors and I have no idea how they were able to afford these people at this point, unless they firmly put a significant amount of that money aside to spend on them. I'm deeply saddened that Gary Owens died before this game was finished. I replayed the Space Quest series this year as well just to try to feel a little happier and I wasn't disappointed. I think I laughed more than ever at Gary Owens' line reads on SQ4 and 6 than ever before.

 

Otherwise, I am pretty sure this will be a crap looking game with maybe passable design and great voice acting and possibly great writing. The 3D models and animations are really bad. I don't think anyone working on this game has any clue what they are doing. But my heart still goes out to them. I want to see this game get done, even if it's past mediocre, just so everyone can feel accomplished.

 

Project Fedora

Backed: 2012 | Status: Fully released | Contentment level: ? (probably :tup:)

I still haven't played this! I feel really bad about it. It seems so good, I just gotta put in the time, which since it's on PC, I always forget. I get the feeling I'll love it. I've always loved me some Tex Murphy. Gave my dad a copy of the game, he loved it, it's the only thing we've ever pretty much agreed on. Everyone who backed it seems to be satisfied. Chris Jones doesn't seem to have aged much. I think there's even a new one starting soon.

 

Shovel Knight

Backed: 2013 | Status: Fully released | Contentment level:  :tup:

I backed this and played a few levels in and then realized they kept making new content and updates and rereleasing them as patches or retail sets for various platforms, that I have completely lost track of which is the best set with the most exclusives. Everything I've played has been great though. I have the art book and it's very lovely. The developers have been super nice and generous to everyone. So I think the final Switch retail/boxed release is chock full of all the good stuff? I put it on hold until the developers decide that they are finished. But everyone loves Shovel Knight so I'll probably love it too when I finally complete it. No idea how this team got by so far with all of this free DLC. I hope their next game is great!

 

Armikrog

Backed: 2013 | Status: Fully released | Contentment level: :tdown:

I didn't even play it. I waited and waited for my boxed release, which it seemed like for a second there that no one was ever going to get their physical rewards and they took the money and ran. There was barely any updates after the game was finished. According to reviews and friends, it was a buggy poorly designed mess, and even the graphics which were the major selling point were glitchy as hell. Supposedly most of this was never patched. They made a stretch goal to make an exclusive WiiU version of the game with different functions. of course the game was just released the same as anywhere else. The package I backed at didn't have any extra rewards than the tier below it, so I was screwed at a $35 difference.

 

In the meantime after between all that waiting, Trump was elected and Doug TenNapel I guess found it safe to go back to his ways of being a bigoted piece of shit, if that had ever even softened in the first place. After he purposefully misgendered the woman who wrote a Kotaku article criticizing the design of Earthworm Jim (of which he wasn't even a fucking designer!) I decided I was done with this petty manchild. So with great sadness I resold all TenNapel merchandise I ever owned for a few hundred on ebay, then resold the Armikrog box straight to ebay the second it came in the mail when it finally came. I  probably made a $20 profit when all was said and done. I'm just angry and sad but I should have dropped TenNapel from the list of creators I follow decades ago when I started understanding why TenNapel was an asshole in the first place. Fuck tolerance of people like this honestly, it's not a different point of view, it's just hate. I'm too old for this shit.

 

Thimbleweed Park

Backed: 2014 | Status: Fully released | Contentment level: :tup:

This is installed and I mean to get to it. People on Idlethumbs forums here didn't seem to enjoy it, but I have friends who did and I suppose the fans on the Kickstarter were satisfied. I'm giving this a thumbs up because I got 60 mini podcasts with Ron Gilbert and Gary Winnick talking about game development and design and other things in life. I already have enjoyed those enough as it is.

 

Starr Mazer

Backed: 2015 | Status: Fully released | Contentment level: :tdown:

This was a mistake. I don't think this game will ever come out. And if it does it'll probably be an hour long. This is the only game where I have actually asked the developers for a refund multiple times. It looked promising at first, great art and animation as well as novel gameplay ideas, but then all of the updates seems to have just been the developers playing other games on Twitch for very long periods of time for over a year. No major game progress shown. Then there was a bunch of lawsuit drama with the composer who seemed to have become unhinged. Before that she transitioned and so when this lawsuit came out, a bunch of Gamergate people tacked on to this drama and of course made a bunch of long winded transphobic Youtube videos about it and got that shock value ad money. Yuck. I guess the developers couldn't control this? but I hate how their excuse for no work on this project done for a year was because of this lawsuit over music. Why on earth would that mean don't work on the game? Sometime in the middle of all of this, they lost their whole art team, so then what's the point of me even backing the game then if it's not going to look as advertised?

 

The backers got upset at no progress in the comments and then the developers promised monthly updates. That went on for about 5 months and I went from being soured on the new inferior art to surprised and excited once they stepped up their game on the last update and the art was shaping out to be great. Then I guess the team has disappeared again, no updates. So they didn't really learn anything from this in the end. At this point I could really still use that refund.

 

Psychonauts 2

Backed: 2017| Status: Fully released | Contentment level: ?

I was never a huge fan of Psychonauts in terms of the characters and universe, but the levels were great. I imagine the same will be true here but with much more refined mechanics than before if that alpha video release is something to go by. I get the feeling this won't be out until 2021-2022. So until then...

 

Oddworld Artbook

Backed: 2018 | Status: Fully released | Contentment level: :tup:

This isn't really a game but you get digital versions of all of the Oddworld games for free. I have an older Oddworld artbook and I love the shit out of it. I have seen new previews of this artbook and it seems to be chock full of even more great making of art. Plus I just love Oddworld. I can't imagine being disappointed when the book finally comes out, as it's a pretty low stakes Kickstarter.

 

So I guess my video game Kickstarter experience has been overall more negative than positive. I've had pretty much 100% positive experiences with all of the other mediums I have put money in to Kickstarter though.

 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Good write-ups, syntheticgerbil!

 

I played the Larry games up until 7(that's the one on a boat, right?) but I get the impression they've dropped in quality since. Not much desire to revisit the series as it'd probably just remind me of my awkward teenage self. :P

 

Did Project Fedora eventually turn into "Tesla Effect"? That's the only Tex Murphy game I've ever played. I liked it!

 

And yeah Shovel Knight was great, but the Plague Knight DLC was too difficult for me to bother with.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Oh, if the Tex Murphy kickstarter became Tesla Effect, I played it too, and liked it quite a bit! Like Henke, it was my first Tex Murphy game, and I loved its weird idiosyncracies. (And terrrrible gameplay.)

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Hah, yeah Larry 7 was on the boat. I never bothered with any past that one, post Sierra. They all looked so awful, like they shouldn't have existed. They also dialed up the raunchiness by a significant amount from what I've read.

 

Glad to hear there's another two who love the new Tex Murphy! I should really get on it. New Years resolution! It's funny to hear the gameplay is terrible, Rodi. I know it's the same old, but it seemed so innovative back when Under a Killing Moon came out, even though I am pretty sure the 3D scenes ran at like 10 fps at best on our computer. It's yet another thing that only that series can get away with.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

You'll all be pleased to know a new Larry game just came out last month
 

 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Hmm, I saw that a few months ago and loved the art, but figured it'd be bad with a bunch of alt-right/Gamergate type "humor," considering there was a "safe space invaders" in one screenshot. Seemed like a beacon of what to expect to me. But just now I read a few reviews and they mostly say it's pretty good and oddly respectful towards women, well as much as Larry could be. Then because of the time travel concept there's a contrast of perspective at the end and Larry learns how women are treated in contrast to the '80s according to the Adventure Gamers review? I also looked at the credits, since I kind of had a hunch because of the way they were drawn, and it appears the art team seems comprised of mostly women. Also much of the team seems to have worked at Daedalic before. I'm so confused. Maybe I'll give it a shot. It appears Jan Rabson is voicing the character, and that trailer you posted Ben was made before his lines were recorded. I wonder if Neil Ross as the narrator from Larry 6 and 7 is back.. Gameplay videos seem to have no narrator whatsoever. Much like Gary Owes in Space Quest he plays the role as an antagonistic narrator, a big part of what makes these games enjoyable for me. Reloaded had some guy who tried his best but it was grating.

 

That title though, what the fuck is "Wet Dreams Don't Die?" Exactly what is that riffing on there? The Robin Williams movie What Dreams May Come?

 

I'm almost certain it's probably a better game than that Reloaded mess in every way. These people didn't even need a Kickstarter!

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Yeah, I have no appetite for that kind of humor. Dicknanigans.

 

Tex Murphy Tesla Effect's gameplay was just kind of odd, I guess! You had these 3D levels to explore and find stuff in, but it was all vaguely empty and ugly. The best part is all the FMV NPCs and the way they're over-acted. "HIYA MUYPH!" And figuring out how the story arcs could branch. It had a half-decent story  too, though shoot me if I can remember a third of it at this point.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
55 minutes ago, syntheticgerbil said:

That title though, what the fuck is "Wet Dreams Don't Die?" Exactly what is that riffing on there?

 

Probably Swery's D4: Dark Dreams Don't Die, which is a pretty weird and obscure thing to be riffing on. :/

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
Sign in to follow this