henke on 1/10/2023 at 08:12
Realms Deep 2023 happened last night and this thing got unveiled.
[video=youtube;cpVB-52enLA]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cpVB-52enLA[/video]
Looks very by-the-numbers indie immsim, but could be good?
Sulphur on 20/10/2023 at 07:07
It's impressive that they've basically recreated the entirety of Thief's systems in Unity to a ridiculously granular level, and somehow managed to make it look worse.
henke on 20/10/2023 at 07:36
I think it looks fine. Maybe the art assets aren't quite as good as the original Thief, but c'mon, it's made by one guy.
Sulphur on 20/10/2023 at 07:54
I do appreciate the level of detail on recreating the gameplay, feel, and the sound design. I'm just not seeing much to differentiate it from Thief, and I've seen FMs from one guy that look better; though admittedly that's a question of where the bulk of your effort is being spent, and in what proportion, and obviously most of the effort isn't in the visuals here. I guess if you wanted a time loop mechanic and different UI decor, making your own game makes sense instead of an FM. But as is, it looks like a cover band version of Thief. And that's fine, more power to him if that's what he wants.
I think It would be nice, though, if there's more to it than mostly replicating a game from 25 years ago.
Komag on 20/10/2023 at 19:13
Definitely impressive technically, and kudos to someone for actually doing it, but yeah, the ugly factor in this case really does hamper my enthusiasm.
Renault on 20/10/2023 at 20:37
I think at least most Thief fans won't have a problem with this. They're not visual snobs. If there's more thiefy gaming to be had with a new story and new levels they've never played, who would say no? As far as the author goes, he's trying to make a Thief clone and he's accomplished that - no harm in that. Sure, he could just make FMs, but he's not going to make any money doing that. I think games like Gloomwood and Filcher have shown us there's still market for similar games to Thief.
And it's not like when a new Hitman or Dishonored game comes out, the attitude is "nah, been there, done that."
Starker on 20/10/2023 at 22:15
Hell, I had no problem with the Minecraft-like graphics of Eldritch, even. If it means more immersive sims, bring it on!
Sulphur on 21/10/2023 at 02:09
Quote Posted by Brethren
As far as the author goes, he's trying to make a Thief clone and he's accomplished that - no harm in that. Sure, he could just make FMs, but he's not going to make any money doing that. I think games like Gloomwood and Filcher have shown us there's still market for similar games to Thief.
Gloomwood and Filcher, at least, take the Thief formula and design something a little outside of the normal Thief experience, filtered through the authors' different influences. This one is Thief right down to the object highlights. Which, you know, is a bit more than wearing your influence on your sleeve. Part of it is I don't think Thief's interface was
great; it was functional if not very pretty, and if you can do better now, you should.
Note that I've not said anywhere that this is bad, only that in making such a slavish recreation, it seems to be a missed opportunity for the author to let their voice stand out more.
Quote:
And it's not like when a new Hitman or Dishonored game comes out, the attitude is "nah, been there, done that."
Dishonored and Hitman have the benefit of being influenced by immersive sims, not being clones of a game that's over two decades old. And it's not like there was no mechanical evolution between DH 1 and 2 (though Death of the Outsider was decried exactly for being more of the same). And by Hitman 3, people have been damning it with faint praise as an 'expansion pack' for Hitman - again, this doesn't mean Hitman 3 is bad. It just means there's limits to what you can do with the same gameplay mechanics for sequels.
samIamsad on 21/10/2023 at 03:39
Well, Atom RPG also looks suspiciously close to its inspiration, which is the original Fallouts. It's still also not a bad game on its own. So who knows.
I think in the bigger picture alongside to Monomyth, the news is that even one man teams can now release such games. Or rather, consider releasing them -- most of the indies aren't released yet. As this RPS article also points out.
(
https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/indie-gaming-is-on-the-verge-of-an-immersive-sim-eruption)
It's been about time, and not merely because of the news more recent surrounding Arkane, in particular the Austin branch (Btw. WolfEye Studios more recent have moved into their first ever office space in Austin TX -- bets accepted that more former Arkane employees will sign up there?)
Why? Because there's arguably just one philosophy of design that's been as big time f*cked by the markets as Immersive Sims, and that is RPGs proper. At least Immersive Sims had Arkane going strong -- RPGs up to BG3 hadn't seen a big budget release in like ~15 years. And that's only if you still count Dragon Age:Origins into the mix, in itself a heavily "streamlined" and simplified blockbuster version of Baldur's Gate. That left a massively void. And it was partly exploited already via crowdfunding in the early 2010s.
Granted, there are also few major RPG studios and publishers left. Origin? Dead. Interplay? Dead. Sir-Tech? Dead. New World Computing, Troika, SSI? Same. It's only those that very quickly adopted to the new markets by offering every increasing different experiences than before that survived. Even Bethesda almost collapsed prior to Morrowind. Meanwhile games like Witcher 3 play suspiciously close to just about any major action adventure out there. RPGs have always had indies, hello Jeff Vogel. Now Immersive Sims are catching up.
As an aside, RPGs and Immersive Sims are linked heavily. Both try to offer experiences emulating the freedom and agency offered at a pen&paper session, just via different means. Which may be a coincidence in that both are historically struggling this much to keep up with the biggest blockbusting games out there. Or rather, it may not. Who knows. (
http://web.archive.org/web/19980224020118/www.lglass.com/p_info/dark/manifesto.html)