After a successful Kickstarter for a Geneforge remaster, Jeff Vogel has finally announced his next Spiderweb Software game and put up a Steam page for it.
Geneforge 1 – Mutagen is a unique, truly open-ended fantasy adventure in a strange, new world. You are one of the Shapers, wizards with the awesome power to create life. Want a tool, a trap, an army? You summon it into existence. You create mighty beasts, and they totally obey you. Usually.
But now? Your creations want to rebel. Will you crush them? Or help them?
Geneforge 1 – Mutagen offers unmatched freedom in how you play. Use magic or your deadly pets to crush your enemies. Or, use trickery, diplomacy, and stealth to win the game without ever attacking a foe. Choose between a host of rival factions or just destroy everything. Defeat the final boss, or switch sides and join him. Fight alone with blades, missiles, or magic, or create your own army of custom-made mutant monsters.
Geneforge is an epic fantasy adventure with over eighty zones to explore and 50+ hours of gameplay. Choose from dozens of skills, abilities, and pets to reach a vast array of different endings. The coming rebellion will scorch your continent. Who will win? It will be up to you.
I’ve heard great things about the original Geneforge game for almost 20 years, but when I tried to play it I found the original UI etc way too old school for me.
Since then I have played two other Spiderweb games and enjoyed them well enough, Queen’s Wish (2019) and Avadon: The Black Fortress (2011). Apparently the Geneforge series is peak Vogel, so I’m super interested to see how this one pans out.
Yeah, I get it. I loved Spiderweb games back in the day. I just have no desire to play a game that looks like that now. I know Jeff is ok with that and he has reasons for it. Just seems unfortunate to me. Note I’m not criticizing Jeff on this. He’s making exactly what he wants to make. More power to him.
Yeah, I think he’s making a mistake by not investing more in graphics. He can retain the same style with better drawn and more complex and diverse character/environmental graphics. I don’t think his games have ever even looked as good as Ultima VI, which is now 30 years old Even the largely monocolour Ultima V’s graphics seem cleaner and consistent in quality, even though they’re simpler.
The repetition and the “flatness” just makes them seem only marginally better than Ascii art - that’s not fair, of course, but given the availability of artists on freelance pitch sites, you’d think he could get a lot of attractive tile art done cheaply.
I actually like the art style of Jeff’s games. To a guy like me, who cut his teeth on 80’s Atari/Commodore computer games and 90’s NES and PC games it feels like comfort food, like a return to the games I enjoyed as a teen and 20-something (back when I had nearly unlimited time for gaming).
I like how all these indie devs are riding the wave of pixel graphics popularity, making games that look like they could be straight outta 1988 (albeit with modern design elements) and garnering massive praise for them, meanwhile Jeff is making very well designed and written 50+ hour RPGs with deep character development systems and catching flak because they look like games from the 90’s. Whatever.
The graphics in these games function. No, it’s not as pretty as it could be, but if you don’t play them because they’re not up to your standards, well…you’re the one missing out.
I am sure I will pick this up and play it. I enjoyed the remakes he has done with the Avernum series and played most of the way through the Avadons. I never did go back and try a Geneforge game even though I own them, so this will make that much more accessible then the original.
The graphics don’t really bother me and function just fine, but I do admit an upgrade there would make it a little more fresh and inviting. I still enjoy the standard he has enough to play them, although I have to admit each release gets a little less play time than the previous maybe because of it.
I think comparing his artwork to 90s games is giving it too much credit. As Desslock said, even Ultima 6 looked better, never mind Ultima 7.
It sounds like he truly thinks his art looks good, and the flat, uninteresting, lifeless art style is by his direction even when he employs freelancers. Basically an extended case of Programmer Art.
They’re also repeatedly used in a dozen games which is the bigger problem. I would rather play the original Exile if only because to me those even more primitive graphics are completely fresh and new.
To be clear, notwithstanding my comments on graphics preferences, I’ve been a big promoter of Jeff’s games for literally decades now, and often used my magazine columns to highlight them at a time when they weren’t on most people’s radar, let alone getting mainstream gaming publication coverage. So I hope my comments don’t come across as too harsh and dissuade people from checking the games out on their own.
I think overall after playing several Avernums and Geneforges as well as an Avadon, I am just feeling “Spiderweb fatigue”. It’s not just the graphics. I’m sure I would get tired of Baldur’s Gates or Fallouts too if there were a gazillion of them. I totally recommend the games to someone who has never played one before, though.
