Hey, damnit. I’m just a regular ol’ Qt3 troll. Ok, I was channeling a codex troll.
Hard to tell if there’s actually something there - despite Cleve’s questionable public presence, it’s not out of the realm of possibility that he could have gotten the fundamentals of the experience down - or it’s just fans of a very specific type of RPG experience being starved for anything that qualifies. Kind of like how adventure game fansites have a tendency to review even the most awful trash well or at least moderately because they just want anything that might scratch that itch.
My money is on this being a competent Wizardry clone, complete with cloning the 1990’s PC game experience in toto. If that’s your thing, go for it. I never liked Wizardry or its ilk to begin with, though. i was a Gold Box fan!
This was kind of exactly what I was thinking, though not as lucidly.
Maybe I don’t have quite the same amount of experience of being skeptical about this game, but it seems like the real deal from what I’ve seen of the streams. A turgid, slow-going, antiquated, boring real deal if you ask me, but I guess that’s what some people are clamoring for.
Well, I mean … it’s a game.
If Cleve wasn’t Cleve, this would likely have been lost in the obscurity of the thousands of anonymous titles released on Steam, and it almost certainly wouldn’t have a thread with 1200+ replies, here.
A wizardry like CRPG with this level of ambition absolutely would not go ignored. Of course Cleve’s infamy contributed to the attention the game is getting but it totally would have been on my radar.
According to Cleve he’s sold 1600 copies so far. If true, then a decent piece of change. No doubt more to come.
I certainly can’t speak for everyone, but the ambition of a game doesn’t get me to visit its store page. Marketing does, including word of mouth.
I’m not commenting on the quality of the game - it could be amazeballs. I’ve never played it and I never will. Just saying that Cleve’s personality has essentially been his marketing schtick.
This is definitely a game that would have been discussed at the usual places, like Codex and RPGwatch as well as RPS and such, though without Cleve’s name attached it may have taken a bit longer. If it had turned out there wasn’t a game here I would agree more, but it looks like that’s not the case.
This was my impression after watching some game play stream.
Yes, same. I was watching a stream and frankly it seemed like I never stopped hearing constant clicking.
Honestly, if it just came out without all the infamy I’d have been a lot more likely to be interested. Though maybe not at $40.
I never played Eye of the Beholder 2 and all the Grimoire foolishness has convinced me to buy it. Old school for $10 sounds like a better value than faux old school at $40.
Yep. I’ve spoken to several small indies today who I speak to via email occasionally are not real happy about this “success story”, and almost want to just chuck it in and forget about the whole thing. There are actual games made by decent people who work hard, minus the gaudy, fugly UIs, 20 year dev spans and bat-shit personalities who are struggling to reach 500 sales over months and months who just feel like “fuck it all, what’s the point”. Can’t say i’m not sympathetic to their feelings.
One part of me is ok, thinking “hey, there is a market for creaky oldies on Steam” and that’s a good thing. As my latest game, an old-school RPG itself with a better UI (hey, configurable hotkeys even!) and no crippling bugs out of the gate, just managed to cross the 200 sales barrier and struggled to do so, tempers my joy a bit. Maybe that marketing person I spoke about was right. I almost want to email him and apologize…lol
It’s not just Cleve and his “marketing” though. I watched a couple streams and it clearly is a game with a TON of stuff in it that meets exactly the criteria of its marketing. Even if it’s not 600 hours long, what I see while people play is something unique in 2017. That’s dumb luck or laziness that made it take this long to release it, but there isn’t anything else like it available right now with that much depth and a look that’s passable.
Been watching a few twitch and youtube vids of the game. Looks very promising since its pretty much a spiritual sequel to Wiz 7. I’m actually kind of ‘charmed’ by the music and sound fx, and the game has a somewhat pleasing color scheme to it. It definitely has its own style. I’m still worried if its too buggy to get far into the game.
One man’s depth is another man’s needless minutia, of course. I’m glad that something like this exists though for those who dig it.
I confess I’m kind of astonished that there aren’t any show stopper bugs, say, 30 hours into it that he never encountered. But more power to him, I suppose.
Well, he’s worked 20 years for those 1600 sales. Not yet such a great RoI. ;)