Renault on 8/12/2016 at 17:19
Quote Posted by Buccura
it's a damn shame that the game shipped in such a state to begin with. Though, I do wish a developer would come fourth and explain the technical reasons of why they ship in such a state, if the reason isn't because of lack of time to optimize.
Yeah, it's kind of mind boggling. You know the game was extensively tested, and all sorts of problems had to have come up. So what, did they just say "Ah screw it, let's ship!" Seems really irresponsible, and not very smart. The game is currently rated only 68% on Steam (by comparison, Thief 2014 is rated higher!). That can't be good for PR or future sales.
DXMD went through the same thing, so it's possible we're just in an era where devs don't care that much about the PC version, and focus mainly on console sales. Maybe Digi can clarify, but I'm guessing he can't really speak out on such things.
Bucky Seifert on 8/12/2016 at 17:26
Quote Posted by Brethren
Yeah, it's kind of mind boggling. You know the game was extensively tested, and all sorts of problems had to have come up. So what, did they just say "Ah screw it, let's ship!" Seems really irresponsible, and not very smart. The game is currently rated only 68% on Steam (by comparison, Thief 2014 is rated higher!). That can't be good for PR or future sales.
DXMD went through the same thing, so it's possible we're just in an era where devs don't care that much about the PC version, and focus mainly on console sales. Maybe Digi can clarify, but I'm guessing he can't really speak out on such things.
I try to give devs the benefit of the doubt and consider the possibility that trying to optimize for such a complex and diverse platform is extremely difficult, but on the other hand given how historically PC ports can be, I have to also hold the possibility of either the devs not caring, or more likely the publisher not giving enough time. Well, unless you're talking about Infinity Ward, who don't give a shit about PC gamers.
It is funny though that Thief 4 currently has a higher rating. Say what you want about the game, it was at least well optimized.
Edit: Even XCOM 2 had problems at launch, and that was initially a PC exclusive.
Yakoob on 8/12/2016 at 18:37
Quote Posted by Brethren
Yeah, it's kind of mind boggling. You know the game was extensively tested, and all sorts of problems had to have come up. So what, did they just say "Ah screw it, let's ship!" Seems really irresponsible, and not very smart. The game is currently rated only 68% on Steam (by comparison, Thief 2014 is rated higher!). That can't be good for PR or future sales.
DXMD went through the same thing, so it's possible we're just in an era where devs don't care that much about the PC version, and focus mainly on console sales. Maybe Digi can clarify, but I'm guessing he can't really speak out on such things.
Yeeaa plus they know they can fix it later but probably running out of time and budget. As Buccura said, isn't always the devs intention - no one likes shipping buggy games. Plus the advent of Early Access is making it more "socially acceptable."
I'd love to see the next big Triple-A releasing under an Early Access label. Would be an interesting experiment. Well, at least more honest.
Vicarious on 8/12/2016 at 21:16
Just finished it, took me 39h according to Steam (30+ in-game). Thankfully the game has managed to redeem itself as my initial impressions were not very positive but it still managed to have a completely, totally terrible ending. I don't think developers know what a good ending to a game should be anymore. I'll post some detailed impressions later.
Pyrian on 8/12/2016 at 21:43
Heh, so kind of like Dishonored 1 in that respect. Pretty dang good when there isn't plot happening.
Starker on 9/12/2016 at 04:40
Quote Posted by Buccura
It is funny though that Thief 4 currently has a higher rating. Say what you want about the game, it was at least well optimized.
The Thief reboot had problems at launch too. It was pretty clearly rushed out.
Renzatic on 9/12/2016 at 06:44
I couldn't run Thief 4 for crap when it came out.
Though that might be because I tried playing it on my old Opteron 185 with it's blazing fast 4GB DDR1 RAM, and a Geforce 8800GTX.
...man, I miss that big old bastard. That had to be the one computer that gave me the most bang for the bucks I spent on it.
Judith on 9/12/2016 at 11:54
Dammit, looks like I'd have to buy the GTX 1060 for this... ;)
Severian_Silk on 9/12/2016 at 16:32
I rather like the story and most of the characters. Some of Emily's comments make her look like the queen of edgelords though, at least on High Chaos, and Delilah's first scene in the Void was kinda bad. Did all of Dis 2 and Daud's DLC really happen because of a broken pot :cheeky: ?
Vicarious on 10/12/2016 at 10:31
My first impressions of Dishonored 2 were not very positive. One of the most amazing aspects of the original game for me was how perfect the movement was: it was butter smooth, you could climb, the running and jumping felt awesome. So you can imagine that when I launched the tutorial for the sequel I got a little pissed off. Arkane apparently thought it was necessary to add the stupid FoV-increase when you sprint which makes my head hurt (literally). There was also the weirdest thing ever - a wobble effect after you stop moving your view (that also made me dizzy). The jumping (and especially landing) suddenly felt stiff. They had to add the 'climbing animations' which just made the process feel clunky and slow (unlike in the first game, DOOM4 or Shadow Warrior 2). So to me the very foundation of the gameplay was already broken in comparison.
Thankfully the wobble effect is gone and the sprint FoV only lasts until you get out of the Tower (for... some reason). The rest... I got used to. It's still worse than the first game though.
Much like in the predecessor one of the best things about the game is the world itself. It feels rich and detailed, almost every room seems to have a story to tell. It's vivid and believable and I just wish we could see more of it (just look at the map, we've only see two places out of many many more). It's wonderful just being in the world because it's that immersive.
The problem is that the actual plot of the game is really REALLY bad. The very progression seems just about as bland as you can get: Delilah steals the throne from you, to get to her you need to eliminate her allies; so you do that, then you deal with her and it's over. There's nothing interesting, surprising or otherwise unexpeted happening at all. No twists, revelations, sudden changes, nothing. The first game, despite being like that too to some degree, at least had some things to break up the pace.
Arkane decided it was a good idea to make our protagonists voiced this time. I've seen this thing done right, I've seen protagonists there were boring, annoying, funny, cringe-worthy, all sorts of things. But I have to say I don't recall ever playing a game where adding a voice to the hero was so utterly pointless. Based on a full Emily playthrough + the beginning with Corvo it looks like they have absolutely nothing interesting to say about anything. Their comments are so pointless that I feel like we could remove their voices and the game would not suffer from it at all. A voiced protagonist is supposed to say stuff thay adds to his/her personality, not feel like a point on a checklist with no actual idea behind it.
The game actually adds an option to "inspect" certain items and in practice it's, again, pointless. Let's say there's a portrait of someone. You can inspect it and Emily... says their name. That's it. The name that's already written underneath the painting. Am I nitpicking or is this completely unnecessary? Talk about a missed opportunity.
Also a special mention to how bad Corvo's voice is. A typical deep, dark voice of a 'troubled' character. And that's with Stephen Russell on board. Meh.
I've always loved the non-lethal solutions in Dishonored, especially because most of them were really questionable and disturbing. Funny how the game praises you for condemning those people to fates worse than death. :) I could talk about that a lot more but what I really want to say is that unfortunately Dishonored 2 does not reach that level of insanity in that field. There is literally just one target (Jindosh) whose 'non-lethal' solution genuinely made me feel uncomfortable. In case of everyone else it's just... kind of boring. Typical 'alternative' solutions without any questionable themes behind them.
One of the cool things is that many levels have their own unique features. Everyone remembers the Lady Boyle Party where you can wander around peacefully because it's a masquerade ball. Thankfully there are multiple elements like that in Dishonored 2 and that just adds to the variety and makes each mission a little bit more special. This saves the day a little bit considering how stale the actual plot is.
Our base of operations this time is a ship called Dreadful Whale. When I heard about it my initial reaction was that this could offer a lot of possibilities for unique events. Maybe somebody attacks us on an open sea. Or we have to retrieve something from a sunken vessel. Or there's a storm or sea monsters or... something. Unfortunately it's nothing more than an intermission. In fact, it offers FAR LESS than the Hounds Pit Pub, both in terms of space, variety and events. There are only two or three people at most there (what?) and only one of them is a crew member, there's no store or upgrade station (because those only appear during missions), there's almost no exploration, almost no one to talk to, no events taking place... just nothing. In Dishonored you could see what everyone's been up to, there were some things to do. In this game there's none of that.
In terms of gameplay it's still Dishonored. A wonderful open-ended experience with tons of lore, exploration, verticality, many different routes and ways to play it. The Heart is back which is nice, the powers are interesting and there are a couple of cool additions such as drop takedowns or chocking alerted enemies. I only wish the Bonecharm system was different. At one point I stopped paying attention to them at all because they're so boring and tedious to manage. And of course the AI has some weird problems with alertness and detection (like getting all worked up over something that happened a long time ago just because you load a save). I've said it about Mankind Divided but someone should really do some serious work on non-combat AI as soon as possible.
Generally it's a clunkier version of Dishonored 1 with some new cool additions and generally satisfying level design.
The technical side is... I don't think I need to say it. The Void engine is a piece of shit and I hope they never use it again. It looks really nice sometimes (and I mean REALLY nice). And sometimes it doesn't look much better than the first game while still requiring a beast to run it at acceptable framerate. Hey Bethesda, can you let id do all your technical work from now on? They are the only company you have that actually knows how to make good engines.
Overally, I did enjoy the game and I like it a lot more now than after my first couple of hours. The problem is that to me Dishonored was one of the best games ever and an incredibly positive surprise. Dis2 is ok... it's more of the (mostly) the same which is fine for the second game in the franchise. It's not a massive step up and a little bit of a step down in some areas. It's still a game I would recommend in a heartbeat to anyone who likes Thief/DX style of games.
There are more things to discuss but this is already a wall of text so I'll just leave it at that for now.
