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Nosgoth (Square Enix/Psyonix, Legacy of Kain, F2P) Announcement Trailer

Was it ever concluded whether this (or rather the game this was supposed to be the multiplayer for) was the $16M write-down S-E took in Q1?
 
It's nothing like the LoK games but that is pretty obvious.

Reminds me of a half life mod I use to play that had a similar premise, loads of fun. Looks interesting.
 

Nirolak

Mrgrgr
Where did this impression come from?

Doesn't even come close to L4D in, either, the gameplay, business model, engine, or visual style.

I suspect since this is a thread about a singleplayer series, we're attracting a lot of people who lump almost all multiplayer shooters into the same or similar styles since they don't often play them.

I mean I probably couldn't tell you much about the difference between various car simulators, so if they made Half-Life 3 into a racing simulator I might incorrectly compare it to Forza instead of GT or something.
 

Brogief

Neo Member
Heh, you're telling me. I remember when I saw the game for the first time and yeah, I was pretty skeptical too but it is very fun to play (...but then again, you'll be thinking I would say that anyway).

What I can tell you is that we're being very respectful to the pre-established lore and that Nosgoth is set in a previously unexplored era in the LoK timeline. It takes place during Raziel's fall down the Abyss/Lake of The Dead. When he enters the Abyss, Kain;s Empire is in full swing. When he re-emergfes, it's inm ruins and its clear Kain has been absent for quite some time (as evidenced by his lack of devolution following Nupratros cuerse as evinced by his Lieutenants.

Nosgoth shows you what happened inbetween, not least what happened to the Razielim.


If this is about the three fingered Vampires versus five fingered Vampires. then I can answer that. The Vampires in Nosgoth are still fledglings, albeit powerful ones¸ and thus don’t exhibit the advanced three-finger evinced by Kain and his Lieutenants. Equally, they have yet to mutate and devolve into the more beastly forms seen in Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver as the effects of Nupraptor’s curse have yet to become so pronounced in this period (although the effects are most clearly visible amongst the Razielim, the oldest of all the Clans).

This is why the Vampires (aside from Vorador, but incvluding Kain) have five fingers in Blood Omen and Blod Omen 2.


It’s not so much that the Razielim are still alive as that they have not been comprehensively wiped out yet. On Raziel’s supposed execution, the other Clans fell upon the now leaderless Razielim in power-grab for their territories and influence. This infighting, which took place over a few hundred years, entertained and distracted Kain’s precocious Lieutenants – scant time for an immortal Vampire, but more than enough time for and allowed enough distraction for Humanity to recoup and redevelop into a credible opposing force. Realising that air support would be needed to recapture the lands now lost to Human forces, the remaining Razielim were themselves forcibly recruited by the other Clans so as to help them prevent the Humans advancement. The ultimate state and fate of the Razielim has yet to be revealed.


Raziel isn't around in this era, he's falling down the Abyss.

Okay, page 1 done. Onto page 2.

You should have allowed crystal dynamics to make that single player sequel, because looking at games like DmC and Shadowrun that disrespect the core franchises it would be a failure. unless you manage to fool people with vague marketing like Activision did with Diablo 3 and Bethesda with Dishonored. either way it would be a good idea to cancel this project and put Crystal Dynamics on a LoK sequel.
 

Xater

Member
Sans the whole "This isn't really what Legacy of Kain is about." thing, I think it looks like it could be pretty fun.

We don't have many fast paced deathmatch games anymore.

Why associate the LoK IP with it though? It's not like the people who love hat franchise will look at this and get all excited.
 

Nirolak

Mrgrgr
Was it ever concluded whether this (or rather the game this was supposed to be the multiplayer for) was the $16M write-down S-E took in Q1?

I think it probably is, but I don't think that's what they spent on it.

So Legacy of Kain: Dead Sun was a game in development at Climax for 3 years, and Psyonix was contracted to make a disconnected multiplayer mode for it.

Dead Sun was canceled, and Psyonix's game got a major boost in development time and budget, because Square Enix liked what they were doing.

However, since it was at one point the same project, they seem to have wrote off all the money they spent on the singleplayer (Dead Sun), as none of that is ever shipping.

Why associate the LoK IP with it though? It's not like the people who love hat franchise will look at this and get all excited.

I think it's the circumstance of how it came to be due to Dead Sun.

You will notice they removed "Legacy of Kain" from the official title though, as I think they realized that.

You should have allowed crystal dynamics to make that single player sequel, because looking at games like DmC and Shadowrun that disrespect the core franchises it would be a failure. unless you manage to fool people with vague marketing like Activision did with Diablo 3 and Bethesda with Dishonored. either way it would be a good idea to cancel this project and put Crystal Dynamics on a LoK sequel.

I don't think Square Enix's community managers make high level business decisions.
 

Nokterian

Member
Sans the whole "This isn't really what Legacy of Kain is about." thing, I think it looks like it could be pretty fun.

We don't have many fast paced deathmatch games anymore.

So me as a LoK fan should be excited about this? I don't think so. Loved Soul Reaver and the rest but looking at this was another IP of a franchise that a lot of people who grew up with it buried in F2P game that i am not looking forward to.
 

DeaviL

Banned
Honestly, the saddest thing about this
(disregarding the brutal slaughter of the Legacy of Kain series)
is the unimaginative weapons. A flamethrower, grenade launcher and a crossbow that fires like a machinegun...

Really?
 

marrec

Banned
I think it's the circumstance of how it came to be due to Dead Sun.

You will notice they removed "Legacy of Kain" from the official title though, as I think they realized that.

That's what will make playing this game very hard for me. I'm a huge fan of the LoK series and this will only remind me of what could have been.

It'll be like that magic mirror from Harry Potter, but it only shows you multiplayer shooters of your old favorite single player franchises.

*shudder*

Again, not saying the game itself looks bad, looks like it could be quite fun.
 
You should have allowed crystal dynamics to make that single player sequel, because looking at games like DmC and Shadowrun that disrespect the core franchises it would be a failure. unless you manage to fool people with vague marketing like Activision did with Diablo 3 and Bethesda with Dishonored. either way it would be a good idea to cancel this project and put Crystal Dynamics on a LoK sequel.

I think even Crystal Dynamics can't do a proper LoK anymore. Are the people who worked on Soul Reaver still at CD? Amy Henning, the person who is responsible for this series and who directed all isn't at CD any longer. You just falsely associate today's Crystal Dynamics with the team that made the series years ago.
 

Brogief

Neo Member
I think it probably is, but I don't think that's what they spent on it.

So Legacy of Kain: Dead Sun was a game in development at Climax for 3 years, and Psyonix was contracted to make a disconnected multiplayer mode for it.

Dead Sun was canceled, and Psyonix's game got a major boost in development time and budget, because Square Enix liked what they were doing.

However, since it was at one point the same project, they seem to have wrote off all the money they spent on the singleplayer (Dead Sun), as none of that is ever shipping.



I think it's the circumstance of how it came to be due to Dead Sun.

You will notice they removed "Legacy of Kain" from the official title though, as I think they realized that.



I don't think Square Enix's community managers make high level business decisions.

They don't, nor do I think SE even communicates with them judging by recent actions.
 

Nirolak

Mrgrgr
So me as a LoK fan should be excited about this? I don't think so. Loved Soul Reaver and the rest but looking at this was another IP of a franchise that a lot of people who grew up with it buried in F2P game that i am not looking forward to.
It's like the XCOM FPS right?

People who were big XCOM fans largely didn't want it, but a number of BioShock fans did.
 

deleted

Member
Okay, page 1 done. Onto page 2.

Since you're answering questions - why did you chose to present the game with a map that has nothing in common with the previous LoK games? Why not use a (not even THE) cathedral, temple or some outlandish place that at least looks like LoK?

When you take the risk to alienate an entire fanbase with a title, one would guess that the first impression was rather important to you.
 

Brogief

Neo Member
I think even Crystal Dynamics can't do a proper LoK anymore. Are the people who worked on Soul Reaver still at CD? Amy Henning, the person who is responsible for this series and who directed all isn't at CD any longer. You just falsely associate today's Crystal Dynamics with the team that made the series years ago.

Forgive me since I'm very new to the series, is it a situation similar to Microsoft's Rare Studios?
 

Grief.exe

Member
Since you're answering questions - why did you chose to present the game with a map that has nothing in common with the previous LoK games? Why not use a (not even THE) cathedral, temple or some outlandish place that at least looks like LoK?

When you take the risk to alienate an entire fanbase with a title, one would guess that the first impression was rather important to you.

From the Dead Sun Mamarobotnik thread I believe he said that this game takes place in a completely different part of Nosgoth.
 

Jac_Solar

Member
To be honest I never expected to see something set in this universe at all again (though you could easily make the argument that it's just used as an excuse to pit vampires against humans).

So as far as I'm concerned, something is better than nothing. Give the team a chance.

If a game in a respected IP or series comes out, and it's really bad, newcomers might think that all the games are bad and ignore them -- it might tarnish the general reputation and mindshare. And developers will be extra wary of developing something new for it.
 

Hey man, its cool that you came in and tried to ease the fans' fears and all that but... You're fighting a losing battle bro. I don't consider myself a HUGE LoK fan, but I have played each installment of the series save for the first and enjoyed every minute of it, and this isn't what I want from the series. Theres almost nothing a multiplayer game can give me that I'd want from the LoK universe. The strength of the series were its storytelling, worldbuilding, its puzzles. This game doesn't seem to offer any of that. I just get the feeling you're leveraging the LoK universe, its starved fans, for some quick cash.
 

Servizio

I don't really need a tag, but I figured I'd get one to make people jealous. Is it working?
Reminds me a bit of Dark Messiah's multiplayer, which had quite a diehard community for a long while.

Since the comparison to Gotham City Imposters has already been made, I was under the impression that game had a fairly low player count.
 
Hello GAF, sorry I've kinda been busy with the whole site and social media channel launches today, Going to read through this thread now and answer however many questions as I can. Please bear with me.

Oh and don't forget that we'll be holding a Live Q&A on Monday 25th September via Twutch where you'll be able to ask us your questions directly - full details on the official blog here.

Right, gimme a mo' and I'll have a read of this thread.

I only have a single question. What is your honest answer as to why you folks disabled the like bar, and first had comments be approve only, and then entirely disabled?
 

Monkeythumbz

Communications Manager, nDreams
Hope for what? Even if Nosgoth is a success, then we'd probably get more of this gaudy crap. I'm letting the initial disappointment get the better of me ... yeah maybe it will turn out to be fun.
The decision to make any game is based on a number of factors – the right idea, the right team, the right market conditions all need to be in place to make it happen. The Legacy of Kain franchise is one we are huge fans of and we would genuinely love to bring another narrative experience in that world if all the elements were in place.

If there was something the series had, was beautiful gothic art direction:


Welcome to random ass wood constructions:
You're looking at a rebuilt Human settlement, rather than a Sarafan stronghold at the height of Humanity's grip on Nosgoth. The land of Nosgoth features a variety of architectural types, each of which have changed and shifted over the course of its long and storied timeline. Nosgoth is set in areas that are known to exist but are previously unexplored, which is why they may seem unfamiliar. Equally, Nosgoth is set during a period in which Humans have regained autonomy in certain parts of the land and pose a credible threat to the Vampires, and the architecture represents this cultural setting. Nevertheless, the land is still very much in a state of corruption, as evidenced by the ecological damage visible in each map.

The maps playable in Nosgoth are set in regions referenced in previous games in the series and are known to fans, although they do not contain specific locations players would have visited in the Blood Omen or Soul Reaver games as Kain or Raziel.

I'll consider it if a Simon Templeman announcer pack is available.
Oh gosh, that would be the coolest thing ever! Probably unlikely though, he's too big a deal to just be an announcer and Kain's not around during this era.

Also in that video 'i really like the grenade launcher and flamethrower!'

Fuck that shit..
Um... actually there were flamethrowers and hand cannons in Soul Reaver, found in Zephon's territory.

lmfao - they just disabled comments on the youtube link in the past few minutes. Guess they weren't too keen on cherry picking "Yay" from the waves of "ugh, why this!?".
Actually it's just that with four social media channels on which to interact with the community plus several independent forums (like this one), there's only so many places one CM can be!

Mama Robotnik on suicide watch.
Funnily enough, we brought him in to the office recently for a hands-on with the game. I'll let him share his thoughts about Nosgoth in his own time.

Finally i get the answers how kain could be alive at the end of defiance! Hopefully we find a way to save raziel from his eternal prison or maybe even learn more about the hylden oh man i am sooo excited! The story coud go in soo many directions ....... oh ....online mulitplayer ..... ( ͡°_ʖ ͡°)
Nosgoth is set during the reign of Kain’s Empire, a few hundred years after the opening cut-scene to Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver and a few hundred years more before Raziel emerges from the Abyss (a massive whirlpool in the middle of the Lake of the Dead).

Okay, onto page 3 (...sorry, got distracted by Twitter).
 

Nirolak

Mrgrgr
So to which other IP fans is this targeted, because I can't wrap my head about whis would appeal too.

Anyone who would be interested in something like a 90's/early 2000's shooter (Quake, UT, Savage, Dystopia) that is third person and also has melee.

For more modern games, I could see it appeal to people who bought something like Chivalry or Natural Selection 2, which are basically different takes on that era's version of PC multiplayer game.

I agree it's a complete mismatch for the LoK fanbase.

The Bureau didn't turn out well did it? Hmm no.

No, but they actually managed to move it away from the interests of either group with the post-reveal reboot. It was impressive!
 
Looks great. Two different factions with distinct feelings, f2p, an interesting setting compared to other team deathmatch games.
Fuck it, I'm in. Could be a successful version of Shadowrun Returns. Also it reminded me a bit of Natural Selection for dummies. That's not a bad thing.
 
forgive me, maybe I should be a little more descriptive. Is the modern crystal dynamics using the company name for brand recognition, despite the departure of the original development staff?

I don't know how much of the original staff that was working on Soul Reaver is still at the company. But Amy Henning is gone and she did the directing and writing.
 

Jackben

bitch I'm taking calls.
Yeah this kind of sounds awful and probably rankles a lot of LoK fans but no reason to shoot the messenger. Let's ask him questions he's capable of responding to with substance rather than "why did you disable comments, why didnt crystal dynamics do X Y Z".
 
Come on man, you know why.

Want to see if I get the same bs response I got on their facebook page. There's only so many places a CM can be! A CM doesn't have to moderate youtube comments or a like bar, they're there to get a tone of a video. The only reason you would disable it is if you're aware that the reaction would be overwhelmingly negative and have no confidence in the product, and are afraid that reaction will damage the games success, like it did with something with DmC. Hoping for maybe a more straightforward and honest answer than I got earlier, but hey, its this guys job to do damage control right?
 

Burt

Member
Looks fine to me. Reminds me of that Forge game that came out a while ago, but hopefully they can do better.

And it's perfectly alright for them to disable comments if they know that upset fanboys the world over are just gonna make horrendous comments before they even have any understanding of the game.
 

Lost Fragment

Obsessed with 4chan
Yikes. It's like a parody of what out-of-touch companies do when they try to revive beloved franchises. Can't believe this garbage is real.

Hey Square Enix Guy, y'all should finally do Chrono 3, only it should be a Bejeweled clone.
 

Monkeythumbz

Communications Manager, nDreams
Seems to me like the kind of thing were a suit says "We need a free to play multiplayer game! The DOTA2 is doing really well! What IPs do we have?"
We honestly feel that the Legacy of Kain universe is rich and deep enough to support all kinds of gameplay experience, and we want to introduce it to a wider audience than just fans of single player games.

''Grenade launchers and flamethrowers''

I died a little.
As I mentioned earlier, hand cannons and flamethrowers were present in the first Soul Reaver.

We had a Square-Enix rep talk about this game in a Mama Robotnik thread:

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=594576&page=3&highlight=



Monkey plz...
What? It's the truth!

I don't know what people expected of the title when the majority of the dev team gone, the lead writer gone and Tony Jay dead. I mean shit on SE all you like, but to expect LoK to come back as it once was is a pipedream.
The last LoK game was made a long time ago and the original development teams and talent have all since moved on (or, in Tony Jay's case, sadly passed away). As such there is no talent from those titles directly involved with Nosgoth. With Nosgoth we’re making a different kind of game and so we made sure our development partners were experts in that field, which is why we chose to work with Psyonix.

You won't come back after you did this.
Also, why are you even trying?
Because I really believe in this game and I want it to succeed. I'd like for all of you to give it a chance before slamming it so hard. This isn't too dissimilar to the reaction Blood Omen fans had to the original Soul Reaver, IMHO.

Monkey, I was cautiously optimistic about this before now.

After the trailer though... I mean, I know WHY it was done... but it doesn't help.

It does look fun but I don't know if I would be able to HAVE fun with it, ya know?
Seriously, that's what I thought at first too. But the first time you climb up the side of a building and execute a Savage Pounce with the Reaver before ripping your opponent's face to shreds with your claws, or the first time you immolate a Tyrant with the Alchemist's (totally lore-accurate) flamethrower, those concerns melt away.

I get the concept of the Unreal Championship comparison now. This is more like late 90's/early 2000's shooters, but in third person and with melee abilities.
SEE? Somebody gets that comparison now!! You have no idea how happy you've just made me.

Shit, there's a page 4? Slow down you guys!
 

Whompa

Member
Why Square-Enix? Why?

Why did Psyonix pitch the game to Square Enix and then have Square green light it to become an actual game with their financial support? Because Square probably has information that we don't that says that this will somehow make them money (Or not. I personally think this looks like trash).

Also, It's nice that Square wants this to succeed, but I think they just about missed the mark completely with what people of that fanbase actually want. Makes me think this is really not about the fans and more about current trends and game designs that "work." Shame.
 

marrec

Banned
Yikes. It's like a parody of what out-of-touch companies do when they try to revive beloved franchises. Can't believe this garbage is real.

Hey Square Enix Guy, y'all should finally do Chrono 3, only it should be a Bejeweled clone.

You have to remember that this game was originally developed alongside a single player LoK game that was subsequently canceled.

It's not like Mr. Square-Enix woke up at 2AM one night and said "We need to make a multiplayer shooter out of the LoK franchise!!".
 

FlyinJ

Douchebag. Yes, me.
I think even Crystal Dynamics can't do a proper LoK anymore. Are the people who worked on Soul Reaver still at CD? Amy Henning, the person who is responsible for this series and who directed all isn't at CD any longer. You just falsely associate today's Crystal Dynamics with the team that made the series years ago.

I think there are about 4 people left of the original team of 40+ that worked on Soul Reaver at Crystal these days.

And yeah, without Amy, it's just not worth doing.
 

AHA-Lambda

Member
We honestly feel that the Legacy of Kain universe is rich and deep enough to support all kinds of gameplay experience, and we want to introduce it to a wider audience than just fans of single player games.

Now I have actually died a little.

Plus, I swear those words are almost always a kiss of death for a project.
 
We honestly feel that the Legacy of Kain universe is rich and deep enough to support all kinds of gameplay experience, and we want to introduce it to a wider audience than just fans of single player games.
!

How does one introduce new players to a series in which all the old games of it's original genre, type, and tone, are not available on modern platforms (save for the GOG ports for PC) and that series is no longer being made? It's like saying that King of Fighters Maximum Impact is there to help introduce people to Fatal Fury or Art of Fighting.
 

marrec

Banned
Alright Monkey, I'll check it out. You're infectious optimism has me once again on the cautiously optimistic side.
 

Lost Fragment

Obsessed with 4chan
You have to remember that this game was originally developed alongside a single player LoK game that was subsequently canceled.

It's not like Mr. Square-Enix woke up at 2AM one night and said "We need to make a multiplayer shooter out of the LoK franchise!!".

Yeah that doesn't magically make it a smart decision.
 
You have to remember that this game was originally developed alongside a single player LoK game that was subsequently canceled.

It's not like Mr. Square-Enix woke up at 2AM one night and said "We need to make a multiplayer shooter out of the LoK franchise!!".

No, but considering their pushes into mobile and F2P, it does likely mean that when someone pitched them an F2P multiplayer game, they jumped at it and slapped the IP onto it because hey that DOTA2 money son!
 

Syril

Member
How does one introduce new players to a series in which all the old games of it's original genre, type, and tone, are not available on modern platforms (save for the GOG ports for PC) and that series is no longer being made? It's like saying that King of Fighters Maximum Impact is there to help introduce people to Fatal Fury or Art of Fighting.

That is completely not true. Every game except Blood Omen 1 is available on Steam and GOG, and that one is available on the Playstation Store along with Soul Reaver.
 

Dahbomb

Member
God damn I had to bust out some liquor over this news. Really depressing.

But really I busted out my liquor because I know DMC is next. F2P DMC multiplayer online only developed by a Western studio.... 30FPS.

RUMpHVA.gif
 
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