Black Geyser: Couriers of Darkness

[xzar_monty]

After some considerable delay, this game is now available on early access. Anyone tried it yet? Looks both promising and low-profile to me. I'm intrigued.

Edited August 31, 2021 by xzar_monty

[Melusina]

it's bad.

[xzar_monty]

Why, how?

[melkathi]

This is the only feedback here on the forum so far:

https://forums.obsidian.net/topic/123208-what-are-you-playing-now-living-the-game-life/?do=findComment&comment=2284575

[xzar_monty]

Thanks for that! Not much feedback, but it doesn't look too promising, I have to say.

[kanisatha]

I think you guys are far too eager to dismiss. May be also a heavy dose of unreasonably high expectations. This is not a AAA game, nor even a AA game. It is a very low-budget game specifically meant to recreate the IE games feel and experience. So they even *intentionally* have made the game look like those games from 20 years ago. If that's not your thing, fine. Perfectly reasonable. But that doesn't make it a bad game.

I myself have not yet played it because I don't play betas or EA games as a rule. But I backed its KS, at a somewhat high cost, and have followed its development very closely. And I'm quite satisfied with it. It's my second most anticipated game right now, only behind P:WotR.

[Hurlshort]

It sounds like the complaint are more about bugs and performance than it not being a AAA title. I mean, there are loads of indie games that are popular around here. Heck, I just dropped another chunk of hours into Underrail. 

Hopefully it will get worked out during EA. 

[xzar_monty]

Low-budget games that try to capture the feel of the IE games are perfectly fine with me. But the performance and bug issues I've read about don't sound too good. Yes, I know it's early release.

[HoonDing]

better than Barrels Gate 3 tbh

[Melusina]

This feels like BG1 made with exact same resources like BG - or at least with skills of BG1 developer. Baldur's Gate is fine game - for something 25-30 years old, this isn't up the standard brand new. I'm not talking about graphics, or budget - it feels more depressed than skillful.

[xzar_monty]

The extremely low budget made me slightly suspicious, but I thought that maybe the writing was superb, or something. I'll check it out once the full game is out, but I'm not having my hopes up as of now...

[InsaneCommander]

I'm looking forward to this one. I checked some videos on Youtube and it looks good enough to me, but maybe it's just nostalgia from BG.

It seems that so far there are only about 20 hours of gameplay available and plenty of things to fix, including explaining how each part of the mechanics work. Mages so far are terrible because the spells don't scale, but the devs already replied on Steam saying they will address it. Summoning, however, works really well.

Maybe I'll play a little bit of it, if I don't get pulled by WotR trying some builds despite it probably being buggy as hell after launch.

[xzar_monty]

WotR is going to be a "buy now, play next year" release, trust me on this. I *am* going to buy it on Sept. 2nd, but heck, it ain't gonna be playable for quite some time.

Okay, let's say "worth playing" instead of "playable".

Edited August 31, 2021 by xzar_monty

[InsaneCommander]

30 minutes ago, xzar_monty said:

WotR is going to be a "buy now, play next year" release, trust me on this. I *am* going to buy it on Sept. 2nd, but heck, it ain't gonna be playable for quite some time.

Okay, let's say "worth playing" instead of "playable".

I have no doubt of that. But I still would like to play a little and try some of the new classes, for all the good it does in just a few hours of gameplay.

[the_dog_days]

It's a good game but still clearly in early access. There are some design decisions I wouldn't make (like limiting classes by race and equipment by class) but so far there's been nothing terrible that the devs haven't already put on the list of things to improve.

Edited August 31, 2021 by the_dog_days

[xzar_monty]

12 hours ago, InsaneCommander said:

I have no doubt of that. But I still would like to play a little and try some of the new classes, for all the good it does in just a few hours of gameplay.

I know what you mean. I'm almost the opposite, though. My main interest is in the story, so I want it to work when I start playing, and I don't want to get to know story stuff before my playthrough. I trust I'm familiar enough with the system (although I may turn out to be wrong, of course).

[kanisatha]

18 hours ago, xzar_monty said:

WotR is going to be a "buy now, play next year" release

This is true for me for every single game I play. Well, maybe not a whole year but at least around 6 months. I guess it's just a different mindset I have compared with most other gamers. I DON'T expect any game to be bug-free or performance issues free at launch, and I am completely okay with that. The people who must play a game at release can be used as guinea pigs to my benefit.

[xzar_monty]

The situation is seriously messed up, but I don't think there's any realistic chance of it changing. There's no way a computer game should be able to be full of functional problems when it becomes available for purchase, but that's become the industry norm.

[Theonlygarby]

I played a bit of it.  The character models are awful, not just low budget, but real ugly.  That's not what stopped me from playing though.  They don't explain how things work very well at all.  stats/systems and such

 

the intro to the game instantly took me out of it.  It always annoys me when a game gives you a backstory that doesn't logically make sense for certain classes.  You are essentially a ward to a Duke or something.  Very quickly you are no longer a ward, and some crone takes you in.  It happens so quick I dont know why they even bothered with the first part.

 

I'll give it another go, and I won't refund it, because you can tell they put a lot of effort into it...  I can be turned off of a game very quickly if the story bothers me, and that seems to have happened here

Edited September 2, 2021 by Theonlygarby

[the_dog_days]

Been playing for awhile with just short of a full party. Aside from a couple of quibbles and bugs, I'm loving it. Skipped on Pathfinder 'cause I'm sure both games are a year plus away from their real release.

[xzar_monty]

On 9/2/2021 at 10:04 PM, the_dog_days said:

Been playing for awhile with just short of a full party. Aside from a couple of quibbles and bugs, I'm loving it. Skipped on Pathfinder 'cause I'm sure both games are a year plus away from their real release.

What's a full party in this game, by the way? The fairly traditional six?

[the_dog_days]

55 minutes ago, xzar_monty said:

What's a full party in this game, by the way? The fairly traditional six?

Five.

[Melusina]

I don't think models are ugly, but animations could do some work. Also character creation models are weird, but in game, if you hold still, it looks OK.

I agree it has some potentials, but it delivers same experience as BG1 that made sense in late 90s, but not today, in 20s of 21st century.

 

God it's already twenties today? I feel awfully old.

[InsaneCommander]

Scalable font is in. Maybe I should give it a test now.

Scalable font... I'm feeling old too.

[xzar_monty]

This one is coming out today. It will be interesting to see whether it amounts to anything good and worthwhile. I very much hope so.