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[epmode]

You dare name the two best games ever made in your title, and associate them to that shit art style?
Both SS2 and DE are gritty, grungy, and dark. This looks like playmobile vomit.
Sorry, devs. Fix it please.

I would honestly be ashamed to post something like this in a thread about any game, let alone a thread about a low-budget game that actually does something new with narrative and role playing.

In any case, raise your hands, GAF; How many of you associate Deus Ex and System Shock more with their visual style over the minute to minute gameplay?

 

[Durante]

I would honestly be ashamed to post something like this in a thread about any game, let alone a thread about a low-budget game that actually does something new with narrative and role playing.

Me too.

In any case, raise your hands, GAF; How many of you associate Deus Ex and System Shock more with their visual style over the minute to minute gameplay?

Visuals-wise, I mostly associate them with terrible early 3D. Not that they aren't great games. Like Consortium.

 

[Reese-015]

Spent some more time with it.

Goddayum man this game is hardcore. In a good way. Don't think I've ever played something this 'hard sci-fi' and this lore-driven. Truly in a league of its own with what it tries to achieve.

Not for everyone though. But I'm digging it.

edit: and yes, for the love of god, don't barge into this thread with a "ugh looks liek crap artstyle this must suck" attitude, thus far I'd say this game is truly a gem deserving of all the exposure it can get

edit 2: that said, even though the visuals work a lot better than you may think due to the game's concept, I wouldn't mind seeing someone come up with smart sweetfx settings and/or additional modding to spice up the visuals a bit

 

[HK-47]

The visuals and audio seem pretty lackluster, but the game itself looks pretty cool so I'm sure I can at least look past it. I must admit that the chess theme sort of activated my gag reflex a bit, but I'm hoping that it's just a goofy coat of paint for better writing. Gonna buy tonight, I think.

I really like the idea of a game in a really small, densely detailed area.



Wow I can't believe I'm the only one with good taste?? Am I the only one with good taste???

Does anyone else like this thing I like?

I feel like I'm the only one who appreciated this thing

 

[Reese-015]

Aaaaand Steam just updated it and now my savegame is gone. Well that's not fun.

 

[TheBaronOfNA]

Question: I can use my DS4 to play this game?

 

[epmode]

I don't see controller support listed on the product page.

 

[MasterOfPastures]

I will admit I was carried away by the thread title. I posted before even realizing the game was already out. Foolish rashness. I apologize for my outburst.
The opinions in this thread are interesting. I will check it out for sure now. I still might want to see some sort of evolution of their art style in the next games they make. But the gods know we need more of these games.

 

[MrOogieBoogie]

I don't think that anybody's ever praised SS2 for its visuals. Even in '99, it's visuals were criticized, with monochrome blue-and-grey hallways being "complimented" by ugly, poorly-animated enemy models. No, it's the gameplay and sound design that's remembered, neither of which can be ascertained through a screenshot.

wat

System Shock 2 has amazingly beautiful art style. Its environments have held up extraordinarily well.

 

[Ravensmash]

If I had the money i'd so buy this.

Love the idea of a well realised and extremely detailed environment - especially scifi.

 

[kurahador]

The Developer posted this.
It seems there's a game breaking bug and they'll release a patch by 31st of january.

 

[charsace]

3 years ago this game would have gotten a different reaction than what it is getting now. A more positive one.

 

[WanderingWind]

I'm more than a little disappointed by people who turn down playing an expansive, utterly unique title because "lol graphix suck." Consortium is a wholly unique experience and if you miss it because of the graphics, you have no right to complain about the downfall of gaming or microtransactions.

 

[Zafir]

I don't see controller support listed on the product page.

It does have it but it isn't complete hence no listing. It mostly works with the 360 controller but the right sick doesn't work and the inventory/settings screens seem to require a mouse/kb.

 

[MakeshiftChef]

I really really want to get this game. It looks like it does some really interesting things game play wise. I just can't justify the expense right now. Hopefully I'll be able to get myself a copy of it in the near future. Thanks to the more level-headed among us for posting their impressions of the game so far.

 

[WanderingWind]

One thing Consortium needs is a 'press space bar to skip current dialogue' feature. I'm duly impressed with the voice acting, but I can read infinitely faster than you can speak. Please let me just read the text and move on with my life. The game is 90% dialogue, so this is almost a necessary feature. Without it, I get easily frustrated and have to play in spurts.

Oh, and if you're playing fullscreen on Win 8, do not Windows key back to desktop. It has a good chance of shutting down the game.

 

[IblisGinjo]

The Developer posted this.
It seems there's a game breaking bug and they'll release a patch by 31st of january.

Pretty classy of them to put the notice on the steam store page. I was about to buy it last night but I'll wait to the 31st. Although I really want to play it.

I don't know much about it but it seems to be trying to do something different. A little bit of jank never hurt anybody.

 

[Zafir]

One thing Consortium needs is a 'press space bar to skip current dialogue' feature. I'm duly impressed with the voice acting, but I can read infinitely faster than you can speak. Please let me just read the text and move on with my life. The game is 90% dialogue, so this is almost a necessary feature. Without it, I get easily frustrated and have to play in spurts.

Oh, and if you're playing fullscreen on Win 8, do not Windows key back to desktop. It has a good chance of shutting down the game.

Any pop ups that minimise your game seem to shut it. I personally plugged in my phone to charge it and that shut the game on Windows 8. xD

 

[No Love]

Not bothered by the art style at all as long as the gameplay is good. And the gameplay sounds amazing.

 

[BloodMoney]

As someone who played it when it was new I still remember thinking how good it looked.

Agreed, in 1999 this game was boss (it still is by the way). I've never been more terrified by a game than I was during my first play through of SS2. The graphics, art direction, and audio were all so compelling IMO.

 

[abunai]

Just played a bit. This game manages to look really quite awful at times, yes. But it's really excellent. Buy it, it's a brilliant experience.

 

[TomcatTheLion]

Been following this for a while and also saw some footage on youtube. From what I've seen it looks to be pretty interesting and the conversations (the few that I saw) with characters were excellently done.

It's just a matter of deciding whether to get it now or wait until the 31st.

 

[AHA-Lambda]

You dare name the two best games ever made in your title, and associate them to that shit art style?
Both SS2 and DE are gritty, grungy, and dark. This looks like playmobile vomit.
Sorry, devs. Fix it please.

Come one man, I admit it doesn't look nice but I'm still interested in the, ya know, actual game part of it.

 

[epmode]

Come one man, I admit it doesn't look nice but I'm still interested in the, ya know, actual game part of it.

In what may be the first documented case of an apology on the internet, MasterOfPastures apologized for his post. I still can't believe it. Thread of the Year.

 

[daviyoung]

Just over an hour in and it's very playable indeed. It's really not like a Telltale or Deus Ex/System Shock but it's definitely a role playing game. The character models look like Telltale but that's about it imo.

It's a bit like a game based completely around Fallout's karma and reputation system (especially New Vegas) if it concentrated mostly on dialogue choices.

It's super enjoyable. Seems like there are numerous ways to affect not just individual conversations but also how entire scenarios play out. The options are there, but obviously haven't had a chance to try them out on the first run. Nice little details are in there too, like (optional story spoiler)

Spoiler

Knight 15 asking why I recycled the bible

.

It is, however, pretty damn janky and for some reason really system intensive but it looks fine on the high settings.

 

[TheBaronOfNA]

I don't see controller support listed on the product page.

It does have it but it isn't complete hence no listing. It mostly works with the 360 controller but the right sick doesn't work and the inventory/settings screens seem to require a mouse/kb.

Thanks, I will play with mouse and keyboard, then.

 

[Angelus Errare]

I've never heard anyone ever call the art style of DX and SS2 iconic, the art for both is pretty standard cyberpunk stuff. The gameplay and narrative are the only reasons why I go back to those games.

Difference being both of those games had a cohesive art style that fit the narrative they were going for thus no one really complained about it. The fact people are getting their jimmies rustled because other gamers knocked the art style of this game is hilarious because chances are so high that with enough post history searching those very same people probably shit on actual graphics and/or art style all the time and will dismiss good games based solely on screenshots. But because this is indie, such lines of thinking is just "sad" or some shit. Kill yourselves with that holier than thou BS because ain't a single cat in this thread above shitting on a game if the visual style (whether that be the art or graphics) don't appeal to them.

I'll probably still get the game, but sorry if I find the art off putting as fuck. Honestly it reminds me of Perfect Dark Zero, art style didn't fit the world they built or the story they weaved at all. In fact I'd go a step further and say this game is a great example as to why you need an art director.

 

[lastflowers]

Just over an hour in and it's very playable indeed. It's really not like a Telltale or Deus Ex/System Shock but it's definitely a role playing game. The character models look like Telltale but that's about it imo.

It's a bit like a game based completely around Fallout's karma and reputation system (especially New Vegas) if it concentrated mostly on dialogue choices.

It's super enjoyable. Seems like there are numerous ways to affect not just individual conversations but also how entire scenarios play out. The options are there, but obviously haven't had a chance to try them out on the first run. Nice little details are in there too, like (optional story spoiler)

Spoiler

Knight 15 asking why I recycled the bible

.

It is, however, pretty damn janky and for some reason really system intensive but it looks fine on the high settings.

alright, mmhmm. Alright. I'm sold. Might not get it for a couple of weeks, but it's on my to-do list now.

 

[woo and indeed hoo]

I know I'm in the minority here, but looking at the screenshots, I actually like the look of this game. The models and backgrounds have a clean, stylized "bright future" style that really appeals to me. Between that and the gameplay influences people have mentioned, I'm very interested in this.

Me too; that was exactly the reaction I had when I first saw screenshots for this game. I find its art design refreshingly different from so many games that tend to plough a very narrow art design furrow and it seems rather appropriate for the game design, from what I have read.

 

[vocab]

Ran into a bug where I can't complete one of the side quests. When you can repair the data chips I can't interact with the ones in the crawl space. =/

 

[Reese-015]

Just did the dogfight part. This game is so damn great. And somehow my lost savegame returned so I didn't lose any data.

It's just refreshing to play this kind of sci-fi RPG with so much depth and freedom, even though it takes place in such a small area. Also no stereotypes or cliches thus far, pretty refreshing experience.

If anyone does have a great SweetFX template, do let me know. While I'm not a fan of the art style itself, I don't mind it and I do enjoy very much how the lore incorporates why everything looks the way it does. But I think from that angle things could be even more stylized, the renderer could do some additional interesting things with it. I bet someone could come up with a great SweetFX setting to refine it even more.

 

[lastflowers]

bought it thanks to you lot. Now it's time to play it.

 

[WanderingWind]

Ran into a bug where I can't complete one of the side quests. When you can repair the data chips I can't interact with the ones in the crawl space. =/

You have to move further up. And be sure you have at least 30 chips in inventory

 

[kudoboi]

the game is extremely buggy.

 

[daviyoung]

Ugh, I fucked it up I think.

Spoiler

Can anyone help and let me know where the weapons locker is?

 

[vocab]

You have to move further up. And be sure you have at least 30 chips in inventory

Nothing. I did all the ones in the computer room. There's fried chips in the crawl space that I can physically see, but cannot interact with. I looked up a video of someone doing this, and I cannot fix the ones in the crawl space period.

 

[thehillissilent]

Ugh, I fucked it up I think.

Spoiler

Can anyone help and let me know where the weapons locker is?

When you enter mission control from the steps, turn to the left. It should say unlocked.

 

[Zafir]

Think I'm going to wait before I give it a proper shot, this time I alt tabbed out to do something and it wouldn't let me tab back in. Always seems to be something that happens when I try to play.

 

[GreatestHits]

I think this thread (first page or so especially) shows that average expected level and depth of gameplay lately has become so shitty and shallow, that people don't even get excited about it or expect anything exciting from it anymore. People want a pretty streamlined and predictable experience, they already have expectations of what a game is in their head, its got pretty graphics, choices, blah blah blah

Games like these are part of undoing the sick process of the current state of anti-gaming. Give it a chance. If you can't give it a chance just stay out of the thread. Stuff like this needs a positive buzz because it pushes the medium

 

[Sub_Level]

Argh, even on lowest settings this game chugs and chugs for me. Need a new PC later this year...

 

[daviyoung]

When you enter mission control from the steps, turn to the left. It should say unlocked.

Thanks a lot. Life saver.

 

[szaromir]

Umm, so

Spoiler

after killing Kiril

there's some stupid minigame where I need to protect the plane from missiles. What do I actually need to do? So far I used those non-lethal missiles to shoot down slow moving objects and aimed laser at those fast moving things, but at one point the plane's health or energy just rapidly goes down and the game's over. :/

 

[daviyoung]

Nothing. I did all the ones in the computer room. There's fried chips in the crawl space that I can physically see, but cannot interact with. I looked up a video of someone doing this, and I cannot fix the ones in the crawl space period.

I got the same. This is a game breaker for sure. It's being discussed alongside other bugs here:

http://steamcommunity.com/app/264240/discussions/0/630802343974770683/#c630802344364196682

Umm, so

Spoiler

after killing Kiril

there's some stupid minigame where I need to protect the plane from missiles. What do I actually need to do? So far I used those non-lethal missiles to shoot down slow moving objects and aimed laser at those fast moving things, but at one point the plane's health or energy just rapidly goes down and the game's over. :/

Use the lock-on missile to take out the passive rockets, and the laser to take out the active (red) rockets that are aimed at you. I think the laser uses up ship energy so you're more vulnerable as that recharges. Make sure you use the lock-on (left mouse button) primarily and the laser as backup for those that directly target the ship.

 

[szaromir]

Use the lock-on missile to take out the passive rockets, and the laser to take out the active (red) rockets that are aimed at you. I think the laser uses up ship energy so you're more vulnerable as that recharges. Make sure you use the lock-on (left mouse button) primarily and the laser as backup for those that directly target the ship.

Yeah, I figured out why I was failing it. Thanks anyway.

This game has been so good thus far. If this game is not financially successful enough to warrant a sequel I will forever lose faith in the community that lets the so called "immersive sims" die every single time by nitpicking some minor graphical issues or bugs, only to worship those same games years later.

In short - buy this game if you haven't already. It's fantastic and the asking price is not too high!

 

[Sentenza]

As someone who played it when it was new I still remember thinking how good it looked.

it had a clean style that worked very well in my opinion.
But I still remember both this and Thief being heavily criticized by the Italian gaming press for looking "dated" in terms of tech (and praised for pretty much everything else).

 

[Reese-015]

The more I play it, the more the art style actually grows on me.

Also, the Mass Effect series can really learn something from this game's dialogue depth in terms of choices, how it affects things and how organically things seem to evolve around you. Imagine a Mass Effect game that incorporates dialogues and events the same way Consortium does... Damn that'd be good. And Bioware would be perfectly capable of realizing it. But instead this little indie dev is beating them at what they supposedly do so well.

 

[Dineren]

I've played this for a few hours and I think I'm going to wait until the patch to play anymore. I don't think anything yet has been game breaking (although it is currently telling me my utility energy is full when it is actually empty, which could be if it doesn't correct itself), but it has made it impossible to complete some tasks which will drive me nuts. What I have played up to this point has been great though, the dialogue options and reactions to them are fantastic and exploring the ship has been a lot of fun. I didn't initially like the art style looking at the screenshots, but I think it works great in game. Hopefully the next patch fixes the major problems I've had, I'm really looking forward to playing it again.

Does anyone know yet how long this is? If it's short enough I may try to finish up on this save and just go through it again when the patch is released.

 

[kudoboi]

Apparently the patches will wipe the game saves as well. imo i would have rather liked a FTL ish type of game. the gameplay and mechanics can stay but it should have just been random encounters and random generated stories.

 

[Cirruss]

Oh wow, thanks for this thread, I had no idea this existed. From what I've read about it this sounds awesome and right up my street. Personally I actually like the art style,maybe its a little bit TOO colourful, but I enjoy the simplistic nature of it all.

 

[pa22word]

I would honestly be ashamed to post something like this in a thread about any game, let alone a thread about a low-budget game that actually does something new with narrative and role playing.

Here here.

But this isn't really shocking coming out of Gaf. We saw the same thing happen to the low budgeted Shinobi 3D game on the 3DS that was totally awesome, but no one here game it a chance because "lol it looks bad". It wasn't until the same guys released Volgarr the Viking on steam with a retro 16bit artstyle did these guys get any due at all.

Kind of a shame this board is so utterly superficial, but it is what it is here.