Topic: Introducing 'OVERLOAD'

[tueidj]

I'm not. I reckon a large portion of the DU kickstarter was funded by Star Citizen fanboys. And let's not forget about the STFU fans that were around before it became Descent.

I'm still a bit suspicious about Interplay's involvement, they wouldn't just hand over the rights to the name without a fat paycheck in return... and if they had the money to buy those rights, why not hang onto it and reduce the kickstarter target?

It's definitely surprising to see the lack of interest in this compared to D:U, considering Mike and Matt making a new Descent game is basically the equivalent of John Carmack and John Romero announcing they're making a new Doom/Quake game.

[Scyphi]

It's like what I was saying before; interest between DU and Overload is divided, and they're both going to have to compete for attention now.

[tueidj]

In case anyone is still sitting on the fence about backing this project: backers will be given early access to a playable demo this coming weekend (with everyone else getting it Monday, so if you're broke you'll just have to be patient).

[Scyphi]

Which reminded me; I still hadn't backed it yet.  Shame on me.

Never fear, though, I have now rectified this.

Looking forward to this playable demo...but I am getting increasingly worried. They've only gotten to roughly a third of their goal, and donations have slowed to a crawl, to the point I have to wonder if they aren't going to make it.

I somehow doubt that's going to stop the project altogether; you don't just get the band back together and not at least try to see it through, thick or thin...but surely it'll greatly hinder it.

[tueidj]

They've already said it will get done regardless of the kickstarter result, just that the quality of content may suffer with less cash. If I had to guess I'd say they mean the type of content that Interplay was originally responsible for - the sound effects, the music, the movie sequences etc.

[Scyphi]

So played their little demo. Here's a brief run-through for those that haven't yet.

It's a beautiful, beautiful game already. Plays exactly like Descent. Feels exactly like Descent. Looks exactly like Descent. It's literally like D1 with modern graphics, with a dash of D2 thrown in. Controls are the usual Descent controls, with the defaults being the new popular WASD set up, but the controls are easy to customize (which DU's aren't, being more technical) and uses the same straightforward D1 approach.

Has no map, so you kind of have to navigate blindly and from memory, but the levels given aren't too terribly complex.

Also has something DU (IMO) sorely lacks: flares. These, however, are little balls of light you can bounce around, and are actually really cool, especially with the lighting effects.

There's also a headlight. Like a proper headlight that actually works like you'd expect it to. Not the overpowered thing D2 used, or the neat but insufficient thing D3 used. This headlight actually sufficiently lights your way without being too much.

Did not find an energy center or a like equivalent anywhere when I expected there to be at least one, but the robots naturally drop both energy and shields (referred to as armor here, but they're totally shield orbs) you can pick up.

There were three kinds of bots to interact with. Once you figure out their manner of behavior, they aren't too difficult, but I wouldn't say they're pushovers either, and they're dangerous if you let them gang up on you. The laser bots I found especially difficult as they have impeccable aim.

The game does use the deformed cubes architecture of course, but it's detailed enough you almost forget it at times, especially in the cavern areas. And yet there were times were it was still quite apparent, and always gave me a strong nostalgic feel. Like I said, feels and looks like Descent.

And there were other little callbacks to previous Descent games. Like I said before, one of the bots reminds me very much of a D2 PEST bot, and it behaves largely the same. The levels have various trademark designs to them commonly seen in a lot of Descent levels, with a degree of symmetry to them. There are secret areas for you to find hidden behind cleverly disguised, but not too hard to see secret doors. Exits out of the levels are these portals that, while blue colored, remind me very much of the D2 secret exit portals. Object is to destroy the reactor and then head for the exit, but apparently NOT on every level (not that there were many). And destroying the reactor results in the classic "self destruct sequence activated" announcement, rerecorded with a new, techy-sounding voice, but it's verbatim, word for word, the same. No countdown clock, though, but I assume there's still a time limit of some sort.

And the textures are pretty much remastered versions from D1 too. I admit that I geeked out a little when I noticed the floor of the room I was in was using that diamond tile texture pattern I know so well from D1-D2.

There were three gameplay "modes" demoed. One was a sort of practice level meant to give new players a chance to get a feel for the game and to practice flying, but there are still bots in it, so it plays much like a regular level. Next mode was the normal gameplay mode titled "destroy the reactor" and is pretty self-explanatory. Basically routine Descent level objectives. Third was a challenge mode that I didn't try (want to play with the settings a bit more first because I had a little lag) but I assume would be the same levels with the difficulty upped.

The game flashes brief explanatory messages to explain key elements of the game, and how it works, but they're fairly limited and not too obtrusive, and genuinely helpful from time to time as it teaches you what to look for. They do not repeat themselves either, so I would imagine that, assuming they make it into the final game, they would be gone after only a level or two.

No cockpit and HUD was bare bones simplistic to the point it's a little too easy to ignore, but I fully expect it's just a placeholder until something more final is finished.

Suffered no crashes and found no obvious bugs.

In short, being a demo, it wasn't very long, but I had a blast playing it anyway and I think it demonstrated the game well. Hopefully this will do as Revival hopes and stirs a few more people to donate to the kickstarter.

[tueidj]

My connection isn't good enough to download it
Were there hostages (or cryo-tubes or whatever) ?

[Scyphi]

Not in this go-around. I assume they either haven't been added to the game yet, or are planned to feature in future levels.

I realized I didn't talk much about the weapons. That's okay seeing Revival's posted a vid demoing all of them already, and I didn't really mess around with them that much, sticking largely with the basic lasers. But there was a good number to play around with, and no two quite the same. They aren't all reinventions of classic Descent weapons either, as there are a couple that are notably unique. But you still had the usual types; lasers, projectile based weapon, a sniping weapon, dumbfire missiles, homing missiles...And there WAS an equivalent to a fusion cannon included...but I didn't use it much. Because of the slight lag I was facing (I think I just had the graphics up higher than my computer could quite handle though) it made it a little hard to aim the thing.

[edaciousx]

I'm a little worried that it's not going to hit the $300k kick start requirement...

[tueidj]

I wouldn't worry. If you watch the kickstarter's main page there is money constantly trickling in right now, and that's only going to grow over the next few days.

[edaciousx]

yea but it still needs 140k more to go. it raised barely 160k in 25 days...

[Kaiaatzl]

It's true it could go either way at this point, but still...
I can't watch!

[-<WillyP>-]

It does seem like a long way to go, but kickstarters tend to kick in at the last minute.


And, just played the demo for a bit on keyboard+mouse...   WOW!!! I am very impressed. Need to dust off my joystick now.

[Ionized]

I've been playing the teaser and it's awesome. Just up'ed my pledge, I really do hope they make it. There is currently issues with the teasor not playing nice with some joysticks, Sidewinder 3D and Precision Pros in particular. Apparently this is a known problem in Unity.

I'm keen to see SolC succeed as well but given that the KS for Overload has been abit slow, I worry about their chances of securing funding.

[Xeme]

The Overload playable teaser is available! Go download it! http://playoverload.com/playable-teaser/

Please give some thought to supporting the kickstarter.

If you are unable to pledge, please at least support via social media. Thanks again!
Facebook
Twitter (#playoverload)
Youtube

Sorry if this is out of context, I could not keep up with the thread at work! =)