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[FireFly]

I just finished it my first play through. This is probably the most non "video-gamey", video game I've played.

It kind of feels like going to work. You get given lots of little tasks to do, which force you to interact with people, and then you have an opportunity to ask them questions, and them to question you - while you try to respond in a way that will get them to like you. It's so refreshingly mundane, because video games are all about saving the world and events of galactic significance. And this is just going on a plane to Ireland with a bunch of people you don't know. Which means when crazy shit does happen, it feels significant.

I find it strange that there is a "template" for this sort of game, yet almost no other examples exist. A small indie team just decides to go ahead and create the holy grail of a branching, reactive story, and everyone just ignores it; and it's back to waiting for the next cover based shooter.

 

[epmode]

I'm waiting for that big patch before continuing my game but I'm thinking a new thread may be in order when it's released. There are a ton of people on GAF who are into Obsidian-style interactive narrative. They'd love this game if they only knew about it.

 

[boltz]

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.

I'm not suprised either, but because it's just human nature to be appealed to by good looking things and turned off by the opposite. I mean I love eating sushi now, but I used to never touch it because it looked like mushy, gelatinous fish, then I tried it and changed my mind about it.

When you have so many other gaming/food choices, it's not that hard to pass up on some of them, which is why presentation/graphics can be such a big difference maker in getting an audience for your product.

 

[nkarafo]

• Engage with a cast of over 20 people with an innovative and life like conversation system with over 4,000 lines of fully voiced dialogue. OR... don't engage with them at all and choose to never speak a word!

• Dive into a world with well over 150,000 words of back-story and lore, where everything you read, see, speak, or hear relates to the story and characters, and everything is there for a reason.

• The story unfolds based largely on your actions. You may use diplomacy and talk your way through the entire game - never shooting anyone! OR, decide to use deadly or non-lethal force.

• Forge lasting relationships with the crew of ZENLIL, and alter the course of the story through your actions. Your choices will change your play experience, and subsequent playthroughs offer the chance to make different decisions and see all new outcomes.

None of these features sound similar to anything in System Shock 2 which was mostly a solitary, survival horror experience.

 

[Serra]

Im waiting for the patch or a sale to buy this thing but GAF impressions have sold me.

Honestly, I think the OP made a big mistake in bringing up Deus Ex and System Shock 2 in the thread tittle. It just invites random people here to shit on the game. And it does not even sound similar to those games.

 

[WanderingWind]

Im waiting for the patch or a sale to buy this thing but GAF impressions have sold me.

Honestly, I think the OP made a big mistake in bringing up Deus Ex and System Shock 2 in the thread tittle. It just invites random people here to shit on the game. And it does not even sound similar to those games.

It's very much like Deus Ex meets Star Trek. Nothing like System Shock though.

 

[Durante]

I'm waiting for that big patch before continuing my game but I'm thinking a new thread may be in order when it's released. There are a ton of people on GAF who are into Obsidian-style interactive narrative. They'd love this game if they only knew about it.

Yeah, I'm also waiting for the big patch, since I hate losing saves. We need to make some more noise about the game once that is released.

 

[Shingro]

If you can interact with other people, it's no SS2

I see a distinct lack of unbreakable glass between me and them

 

[Kurtofan]

So this is like a combat-optional Alpha Protocol? Where do I sign up?

 

[szaromir]

It's very much like Deus Ex meets Star Trek. Nothing like System Shock though.

It's probably the most similar to The Last Express and Alpha Protocol of all things. But it's fair to say Consortium is its own beast.

 

[foxtrot3d]

The artstyle is indeed horrid but color me interested in a Deus Ex meets Star Trek Sci-Fi Space RPG.

 

[Moobabe]

We were pretty positive about it too - it's on my wishlist but man... tempting me to break my new year's resolution -.-

 

[Dakota47]

Got this game as a gift yesterday. It's wonky and clearly made by a small team that may have set its ambitions a bit too high, but as a whole it works and it's intriguing to play. A recent patch supposedly fixed a lot of problems, but there is still jank. Subtitles for example don't work as intended (lots of double text, it doesn't fade away) and the options could be more extensive (I can only change the master volume, not separate channels like voice-acting and ambient noise). It has character though and the idea of the game is interesting enough to keep playing.

 

[More_Badass]

40% on Steam and updated to the "Master Edition"

Polished and improved combat gameplay, greatly optimized and bug fixed, greatly polished choreography, and much more. All backers at the $10 (gimme the game) + level and everyone who owns the game will get this version for free.

 

[Mister_Bubbles]

Thanks for the heads-up - bought!

 

[Gvaz]

Bought this at PAX Prime after eyeing it for a while now for $10. Game owns.

got some weird fucking shadows though.

 

[Mister_Bubbles]

I just started the game yesterday - really enjoying it so far; this kind of thing is right up my alley. You do feel like an actual participant in the lives of the ship's crew.

And yeah, Gvaz, I noticed that - wasn't sure if it was supposed to be something actually wrong with the ship' lighting system / your 'connection' glitching or an actual error with the game, heh.

 

[Mister_Bubbles]

Plot Spoilers and a question:

Spoiler

I didn't manage to figure out who the traitor was in time. I feel like such an idiot I was thinking it was either the bloke from Global Ops or Knight 25's brother! Then the game has kinda broken for me, as I don't have a functional weapon on my person and punching the body-armoured traitor is not proving useful in taking them down.

Does anyone know if it's possible to negotiate your way out of that stand-off? I've tried a load of options but it always ends in them opening fire.

Edit: Never mind, I loaded an earlier save, sat down at the info terminal, and did some god damn detective work. Figured it out!

I think having that info terminal as a massive text log dump is a heavy-handed way of doing it, but there is some really good writing in there. And it is legitimately exciting to find intriguing subjects that you can actually cross reference and search for more information about. It feels like Fez in the sense of peeling back layers of a mystery.

The 'Search for Curiosity' logs were great.

 

[Conezays]

Has this gone on sale at all? Tempted to grab this at $20 regardless.

 

[Mr. Tibbs]

Interdimensional Game are gearing up for another crowd funding campaign next year.

"CONSORTIUM: The Tower Prophecy" takes place on December 21st, 2042 in the heart of downtown London, England. The experience will start aboard ZENLIL, but most of the action will take place in a futuristic skyscraper called "The Churchill Tower".

Civilian hostages have been taken by terrorists with a dubious agenda, and Bishop Six (YOU) has been tasked with skydiving in from ZENLIL above the clouds and rescuing the terrorists. Sounds straightforward, right? As you will soon realize, NOTHING is quite what it seems about this mission..

https://www.facebook.com/CONSORTIUM.GAME
https://twitter.com/iDGi_1

We are at the beginning of a new journey. A journey that, if carefully planned and executed, will ultimately lead to Game Two of the iDGi-1 Trilogy being produced with the same level of creative freedom that we had with the first game. "CONSORTIUM: The Tower Prophecy" will take the experience to the Churchill Tower, a massive skyscraper built directly on top of the River Thames in London. It will be a stand-alone experience that will not require the first game to fully enjoy. However, if you DID play the first game, all of your universe statistics, decisions and inventory will carry over and heavily influence how Game Two plays out.

We would like to invite you onto this journey. Starting a new franchise from scratch without any real marketing support to speak of (yet) is a daunting task. CONSORTIUM continues to sell and make new fans, and due to its heavy reliance on story and characters, it is a game that could continue to sell for years, BUT it has yet to break out. We know there are hundreds of thousands of sci-fi story loving gamers that would love CONSORTIUM, but reaching them is turning out to be extremely difficult.

We want to speed this process up as much as possible. Our intention is to launch a large crowdfunding campaign in 2015 to raise the needed production capital for The Tower Prophecy, but we won't be launching it until *a minimum* 2000 people have committed to showing up on Day One of the campaign to give us a powerful start. As of writing this, there are almost 600 of you on this list, which is a nice start, but that number needs to grow to be much larger.

 

[Nillansan]

I picked up Consortium when it was released on Steam, I haven't given it a spin yet, but the holidays should provide me with plenty of time to sink my teeth into it.

If I like it, I might back their campaign. Thank you for posting this and reminding me that I have Consortium in my backlog.

 

[AHA-Lambda]

oh hell yes

 

[Gvaz]

[Excitement Intensifies]

 

[epmode]

Well, I'm excited! Someone made a new thread, even!

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=953926

 

[Amir0x]

I think I will play this next on my list, I purchased it a while ago but never got to it. I'm in the mood now.

 

[Sinatar]

Civilian hostages have been taken by terrorists with a dubious agenda, and Bishop Six (YOU) has been tasked with skydiving in from ZENLIL above the clouds and rescuing the terrorists.

Why would you rescue terrorists?

 

[Mister_Bubbles]

Excellent, I hope this encourages more people to play Consortium; it was criminally overlooked.

 

[GreatBird]

Hey folks we released a gameplay teaser trailer today...

Also a brand new website update for the game.

Happy to answer questions you may have here!

 

[epmode]

Happy to answer questions you may have here!

Just how awesome is your game?

 

[playXray]

Hey folks we released a gameplay teaser trailer today...

I thought this was already out - has it moved out of beta or something like that?

 

[epmode]

I thought this was already out - has it moved out of beta or something like that?

The first game is already out. That trailer is for the upcoming sequel. It will also have a crowdfunding campaign.

In related news, Consortium is pretty great.

 

[playXray]

The first game is already out. That trailer is for the upcoming sequel. It will also have a crowdfunding campaign.

OMG that sounds cool! I really must get around to playing the original one after hearing all the feedback.

 

[GreatBird]

We've changed the name of the game, and released a new teaser trailer...

https://youtu.be/PWTWJYXZvq8

We're coming back to Kickstarter on January 18th!

 

[4jjiyoon]

is it a new game or a remake of the first?

 

[Dennis]

I just realized I bought this game but never even fired it up.

 

[The Silver]

I actually like the art style, story driven to the point where I don't have to fire a gun sounds good, definitely gonna check this out.

Spoiler

Pretty dissapointed in gaf from reading that 1st page.

 

[Big Nikus]

Civilian hostages have been taken by terrorists with a dubious agenda, and Bishop Six (YOU) has been tasked with skydiving in from ZENLIL above the clouds and rescuing the terrorists.

Why would you rescue terrorists?

Damn these civilians. They must have an even more dubious agenda.

 

[loganclaws]

It's very much like Deus Ex meets Star Trek. Nothing like System Shock though.

To me Deus Ex and SS2 are both immersive sims that share the same underlying mechanics (First person with rpg elements, inventory, lore, multiple approaches/solutions, etc...) but aim for different experiences. Looking forward to the Consortium sequel.

 

[Muskieratboi]

pff, Screw it, Reinstalling the first game, Source Engine and all.

 

[Moon_frogger]

Im waiting for the patch or a sale to buy this thing but GAF impressions have sold me.

Honestly, I think the OP made a big mistake in bringing up Deus Ex and System Shock 2 in the thread tittle. It just invites random people here to shit on the game. And it does not even sound similar to those games.

It really is amazing in so many ways.....but don't get it just because you love deus ex and system shock. It has zero in common with those games other than a high level of player agency. A staggering, ridiculous level of agency in fact. It's more akin to something like Jordan Mechner's the last express, with everything unfolding in real time. Deus ex and system shock are absolutely nothing like that, even remotely.

 

[GreatBird]

is it a new game or a remake of the first?

A brand new game that is both standalone and a direct sequel to the first game.

 

[EastOfEden]

We've changed the name of the game, and released a new teaser trailer...

https://youtu.be/PWTWJYXZvq8

We're coming back to Kickstarter on January 18th!

Fantastic!

First game was very intriguing, hopefully this gets funded.

 

[szaromir]

We've changed the name of the game, and released a new teaser trailer...

https://youtu.be/PWTWJYXZvq8

We're coming back to Kickstarter on January 18th!

Aw yisssss, my body and wallet are ready.

 

[More_Badass]

It really is amazing in so many ways.....but don't get it just because you love deus ex and system shock. It has zero in common with those games other than a high level of player agency. A staggering, ridiculous level of agency in fact. It's more akin to something like Jordan Mechner's the last express, with everything unfolding in real time. Deus ex and system shock are absolutely nothing like that, even remotely.

Is that what makes it complex?

This comment in another thread intrigued me:

Playing Consortium now and it is crazy overwhelming for such an enclosed place.

 

[daviyoung]

Looking forward to the sequel. Got hit with the game breaking bug on Consortium which meant you had to restart the game and never picked it back after that. What I played was great though.

 

[Balthuk]

Bought Consortium on the steam sale (90% off) , due to this thread. Will try it and report back, thanks for the recommendation.

 

[a very cute dog]

Just snagged it from the Steam sale, but I think it's bugged out when I start a new game-- my vision is totally obscured and I can't really do anything. This isn't part of the gameplay, right... ?

edit: Eh, just a resolution issue. Looking forward to giving this a go.

 

[Dick Justice]

So is the game poorly optimized due to the low budget or something? Looks like a Telltale game, and yet I get noticeable frame drops during certain moments (e.g. Meeting Angelov for the first time), as well as GPU usage occasionally dropping low, resulting in further FPS dips. Running at 1080p, with everything set to high/very high. Have a 770 2GB, i7 4770K, Windows 7 and 16GB RAM.

 

[Deleted member 30609]

This thread is old, but thanks for the heads up! It's less than $2 on Steam right now, so I'm going to play it later today.

edit: damn, Windows only. I really need to build a new gaming PC.

 

[Dick Justice]

More people should play this. Game is awesome. Played through it a second time, and had an almost entirely different experience with the choices I made.