They ran out of time/funding and were forced to release, so they threw the last levels together (god damn sewers). If you had invested in stealth, you could ghost past the many levels easily, otherwise it was a combat slog. I remember a lot of people not finishing the game due to that.
#2 sounds like a car crash happening and while I’d like to be pleasantly surprised, I’m feeling extremely negative about one of my most anticipated games in years.
I think you’re right. Guess I need to play the game again to be sure! It’s absolutely one of my favorite games despite the combat.
#2 has definitely moved from a day 1 purchase to a wait and see for me. I think it will be a mess at launch, but I hope I am wrong.
The thing that keeps me somewhat optimistic is the stuff they’ve shown us IN ENGINE so far. I mean, I know, marketing and promos and such, but the tone looks good and they’ve already got the abilities defined and (seemingly) the core mechanics in place. I feel like they’re far enough along in development that the loss of even some GREAT people shouldn’t totally derail the whole project.
Or at least, that’s what I want to believe.
I’m concerned over the possibility of a repeat of history. . .1h of the game is solid and then it drops off very noticeably.
Oh I’m well aware how possible that is. But what a glorious hour that could be!
Replaying the first half of a game numerous times with different characters to experience the fantastic writing and character options. Hmmm, sounds familiar.
In a way, a proper and true sequel, then. ;)
The studio’s made a couple of narrative hires:
Unfortunately I’ve never played any of the games I can find on their credits list on IMDB so these hires don’t impact my hopefulness one way or the other.
Ghost of Tsushima people liked, but was it for writing? And all I know about ME:Andromeda was that people seemed very angry at it.
Oh well; I’m just hopeful that since they both mentioned they’re excited for their future projects without emphasizing Vampire, it might mean the narrative is fairly locked in and doesn’t need a ton of work. I’m still pessimistic but at least these announcements didn’t make me more so.
Why is that? I’d rather they release a finished game then rush it out the door with some hackery brought about by new hires.
I mean, I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt but if its…this game just needs to get shitted out now. No thanks.
I wasn’t implying that I hoped they rush the final stretch of production to get it out the door, but rather hoping the new hires will stick to the initial design that Mitsoda and co pitched and have spent the better part of four years developing. It’s what Jordan Mychal Lemos tweet said he’ll be helping Hardsuit do.
The CEO of Paradox doesn’t think Bloodlines II will ship in the first half of 2021, which is a little concerning for a game that was supposed to ship in Q1 this year.
That is pretty much every game for me. I never finish anything.
Well, I have the wherewithal to know I couldn’t care less what a CEO thinks.
I want to know what the game’s director thinks. Furthermore, I’ll even settle for the QA lead over the fucking CEO.
Really, at this point, my main concern would be “is this thing a total clusterfuck, or does it have a snowball’s chance of being even modestly good?”
I’m pretty sure the CEO has a pretty good idea if the project isn’t expected to ship in the first half of the year, reported by the game director and producer. I’m not really sure I follow.
Ah yiss, it might ship this quarter. You too speak the language of fiscal years?
I dunno, with all the shit that’s gone down with this game lately…if delaying it until the second half of next year will help them iron out some wrinkles, I’m for it.
I was so excited when they announced this game. Had no idea the journey would be filled with such drama.
Apparently developing a game in this universe is destined to be fraught with difficulty. It is a pretty ambitious concept.
Based on Assassin’s Creed, Mass Effect Andromeda, Dragon Age Inquisition, and whatever that new-ish Microsoft game was (Distant Worlds maybe?), most game developers don’t understand that what people like about open world style games is not “collect 8 rat pelts for me” quests. So I go into these kind of games assuming they will be beautiful but ultimately unfulfilling.
Even the original Bloodlines declined in quality extremely rapidly past the first act, though I imagine it is because they ran out of time/money.
Every once in awhile we luck into a Witcher 3 or Skyrim but they really are the exceptions and not the rule.