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NaissanceE | Lost and alone in a dark, brutalist metropolis

More_Badass said:
This was the part that I turned up the gamma to complete, was just getting frustrated
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This was the part?! It's not so bad, was like an extension of the first "follow the light platforming" that is a gif in the OP. I personally really like the multitasking of breathing and platforming, makes for a unique challenge.

Atomski said:
Yeah this made me think of Mirrors Edge as well, only thing missing is running on walls.
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You should check out Lemma, it's pretty much indie Mirror's Edge down to the manual rolls, rebound off wall, and other moves.
 
Messofanego said:
This was the part?! It's not so bad, was like an extension of the first "follow the light platforming" that is a gif in the OP. I personally really like the multitasking of breathing and platforming, makes for a unique challenge.



You should check out Lemma, it's pretty much indie Mirror's Edge down to the manual rolls, rebound off wall, and other moves.
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Couldn't get the rhythm down of breathing and jumping and keeping up with the orb. And to think I'm usually fine with fast paced platformers like Super Meat Boy, Stealth Bastard, etc.
 
I didnt have a problem with chasing the orb either. Think I got it on the 3rd try. Breathing took a bit to get use to but I kinda got it down before the chase part.
 
Someone forgot to give me a serious vertigo warning for Going Down!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qPbY2ieVgT8&feature=youtu.be
i0sPo3QTLPXVh.gif
 
Ok never heard of this until today, and the videos and gifs are blowing my mind, I think I'll be buying this tonight.

One question, is there any sort of plot?
 
More_Badass said:
Couldn't get the rhythm down of breathing and jumping and keeping up with the orb. And to think I'm usually fine with fast paced platformers like Super Meat Boy, Stealth Bastard, etc.
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Just breath when she sounds like she is out of breath.
Nymphae said:
Ok never heard of this until today, and the videos and gifs are blowing my mind, I think I'll be buying this tonight.

One question, is there any sort of plot?
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Not that I can tell. Though I have only played 2hrs so far.
 
So I purchased this yesterday and am I just blind, or is there no invert mouse option?

I like the atmosphere of this game and the few minutes of exploring that I did. But I've played games with an inverted y-axis my whole life and am having a lot trouble trying adjust. It makes it difficult for me to enjoy the game.
 
BentMyWookiee said:
So I purchased this yesterday and am I just blind, or is there no invert mouse option?

I like the atmosphere of this game and the few minutes of exploring that I did. But I've played games with an inverted y-axis my whole life and am having a lot trouble trying adjust. It makes it difficult for me to enjoy the game.
Click to expand...

AFAIK there is no in-game option for such a thing. Might be an Unreal Engine .ini tweak somewhere?

Nymphae said:
Ah bummer, this looks really interesting but I'm not so sure I want to grab it if there is no plot line.
Click to expand...

Think of it like an art film, whatever is going on isn't going to be told straight up.
 
I can only imagine this with Oculus Rift. I wonder if the developer could be convinced to try to port it, since there is a version of UDK with Oculus support.

I still haven't played since I couldn't figure out the following sort of stuff and wasted time on it:
1. Is there any way to force anti-aliasing in the nVidia control panel? I don't want FXAA or MLAA if possible.
2. Is there any way to disable film grain?
3. Is there any way to disable the walking ants/flickering effect when the camera moves, on an edge?
4. Are any of the UDK config files stored outside of the game directory? Normally games make a copy of those and store them in your Documents directory or something, but in this case I only found the normal .ini files in the Steam game folder.


Minor technical obsessions aside (I like, and long, for an ultra clean art style), this is one of the first games in what feels like a while where I clicked the game in the Steam store, and almost immediately put it on my wishlist and then into my cart.

Like, the screenshots ALONE almost immediately made me get it.
 
Played about 10 minutes, last night, and I was amazed.
Then Titanfall happened.
I'll come back, in full immersion, after beta expiring date!
 
1024x575.resizedimage
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7 hours in
Yeah, 7 hours and I finally reached Breath Compression. I guess me, first person platforming, and keyboard/mouse controls don't mix well.

But I'm still absolutely loving this game. It does something very well, that I've usually only experienced in sprawling open world games and it's the feeling of seeing something interesting in the distance and then after 10, 15, 20 minutes of traveling, turning the corner and seeing that landmark before you. NaissanceE accomplishes that so well, enticing the player with weird and intriguing architecture and structures far away and then later, you exit a corridor and you're there.

It's a great feeling, that makes the game seem less like a linear adventure and more a journey where you're discovering the path. You never feel pushed or pulled in a direction, the game never takes control of your camera to direct you or tell you to head that way or in this direction. It's masterful in that aspect, subtly driving the player forward not through objective markers or compass arrows but with cues in the environment and the reward of exploration and discovery.

Now while the game is linear, it's certainly not tight corridors. Many areas have surprised with how open they are, and all have been interesting to explore and just be in. Beside the exploration aspect, the gameplay seems to favor more platforming over puzzles, with a few light based puzzles and several challenging platforming areas.
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The atmosphere is cool, but they REALLY should have had an option for a little cursor in the middle of the screen like Mirror's Edge. Not only might that help people with motion sickness, but without a focus indicator, and without any feet to see, it can be really hard for me to find out when I should actually jump, and what direction I am actually moving in. I keep having repeated deaths and the checkpoint is irritatingly further back than I would like. :P
 
Also, there are some checkpoints that should REALLY be closer together. I've probably spent half an hour or more on a single jumpins section because platforms are really slow, I apparently have to wait on platforms, and since I have no idea where I'm going, I don't even know if my slow route that always results in me getting killed is correct. :P And then there's a loading hitch every single time I die and the level gets reset.
 
Game looks great, but after reading the reviews on steam I'm afriad I'll wait for a few updates before buying it. Seems to have alot of issues with the difficulty curves and not enough checkpoints which apparently makes the game frustrating.

Do you guys agree?
 
Kayo-kun said:
Game looks great, but after reading the reviews on steam I'm afriad I'll wait for a few updates before buying it. Seems to have alot of issues with the difficulty curves and not enough checkpoints which apparently makes the game frustrating.

Do you guys agree?
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I agree about the checkpoints, but the challenge and difficulty is not something I'd consider a negative
 
Nasreddin said:
This game is brutal and punishing like hell. Not what I exoected at all. :-/
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Kayo-kun said:
Game looks great, but after reading the reviews on steam I'm afriad I'll wait for a few updates before buying it. Seems to have alot of issues with the difficulty curves and not enough checkpoints which apparently makes the game frustrating.

Do you guys agree?
Click to expand...

Yeah, the first 6 hours or so were pretty much fine, with a few annoying parts. THEN there were parts that took me like 2 hours (I may be bad at numbers but it felt like forever), you basically couldn't see ANYTHING in parts, there were crazy seizure-inducing light-flashing effects, and so on. It felt like the developer thought well, we've made a decent game, now let's just do every crazy thing with shaders that we can.

A couple of times at checkpoints were really irritating. The worst is when you have to wait on really slow platforms or run a long way before you can even get to the part that you needed the checkpoint for.

I may be wrong because I've kind of thought the game was about to end twice already, but I think I finally got to the very final scene...only to discover the checkpoint is before a huge, slow, cutscene. I'll maybe try it again tonight, but come on, game.


Good so far: When the game sticks to brutalist, lonely architecture, it is cool to see and explore. The vertigo-inducing scale is really creative and enormous.

Bad so far: I couldn't find any way to get awesome graphic quality. You're basically stuck with the grain to hide color banding, some parts have effects out the wazoo that make things way more difficult than they would otherwise be, and if I tried to go above 2x2SS anti-aliasing, I couldn't stay at 60 fps even on what I consider a decent computer. There have been bad checkpoints as mentioned. Without a crosshair like Mirror's Edge to focus on, AND without any visible body/feet, it can be really obnoxious to know when to jump or where you are standing.

SPOILERS about places where the game trolls you (which might save someone 10-15 minutes, but also mentions one of the areas like 8 hours into the game):
* The place where it says the wrong way and then just exits the game was kind of funny.
* The place where if you go up or down the stairs one story, you get locked in an infinite staircase was sort of funny, but irritating. You can't even kill yourself so you HAVE to reload. Also if you're OCD like me you may spend 10 minutes in there wondering if there's some pattern to miss.
* I'm almost convinced there are some areas, pretty big ones in some places, that have absolutely no purpose other than looking at them. Maybe that is the point, but there was one room where you have to go through some big corridors to get there, but there's nothing in the room but big pits and a ditch you can't cross. There was also a giant ladder down to nowhere in another spot. Maybe the developer(s) were afraid you would jump down and get stuck, but given stuff like the infinite staircase I don't really feel that's a concern of theirs. :P Then there was the entire desert, the place that plays music, the building showing the white animated dot doing things...but apparently the only thing you have to do to leave the desert is (another spoiler below):

Extra extra spoiler about that later area, continued from first spoiler:
Jump off the edge. It looked like the sign was showing three other things you could do in other places, but I'm not sure if I did any of them besides the edge-jumping. Or maybe some of those were later on, considering what appears to be a boss fight had the same symbols as one of the signs.
 
That part with
infinite staircase
, you don't have to reload. If you stop and just wait, the door to the next area will open.
 
More_Badass said:
That part with
infinite staircase
, you don't have to reload. If you stop and just wait, the door to the next area will open.
Click to expand...
Are you serious? Spoilers about that:
How long do you have to wait? I thought I sat around for a while to try that too, after a friend suggested that. I probably didn't wait more than a minute though, if so. And furthermore I'm almost certain I got to the next area WITHOUT going through there so maybe there are multiple solutions.

That entire save point is named "DumbChoice", which also made me think it was intentional.
 
Blizzard said:
Are you serious? Spoilers about that:
How long do you have to wait? I thought I sat around for a while to try that too, after a friend suggested that. I probably didn't wait more than a minute though, if so. And furthermore I'm almost certain I got to the next area WITHOUT going through there so maybe there are multiple solutions.

That entire save point is named "DumbChoice", which also made me think it was intentional.
Click to expand...
I was running up the stairs for like five minutes, started running back down, and then when I stopped again and waited, there was a flash of light and then the door leading to the next area was open. Not sure how long I waited, maybe a minute or two
 
I decided to remove the grain to see how it looked, but they're DEFINITELY using that to hide the awful banding in teh game. So I'm using SweetFX to put some back in.

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I'm currently stuck right now in the game. I'll have to post some screenshots of where Im at to see if anyone can help me. But I'm not at my desktop at the moment.
 
I'm currently stuck on what I imagine to be the final scene of the game.

Not exaggerating: I timed it, and there is a 120-second cutscene before it. As far as I can tell, there is NO WAY to skip it, and after you go through it, it is very non-obvious what to do, so you die in 20 seconds, then wait 120 seconds again for the cutscene to play.

Am I missing something completely, or is this not good design? :( The game even lest you skip through the UDK logo, and I think skipping that is rare and appreciated, yet forces you to sit through things like this. At least you can alt tab for 2 minutes.

Can someone please give me a hint about that final scene?
 
Blizzard said:
I'm currently stuck on what I imagine to be the final scene of the game.

Not exaggerating: I timed it, and there is a 120-second cutscene before it. As far as I can tell, there is NO WAY to skip it, and after you go through it, it is very non-obvious what to do, so you die in 20 seconds, then wait 120 seconds again for the cutscene to play.

Am I missing something completely, or is this not good design? :( The game even lest you skip through the UDK logo, and I think skipping that is rare and appreciated, yet forces you to sit through things like this. At least you can alt tab for 2 minutes.

Can someone please give me a hint about that final scene?
Click to expand...

don't go towards the light
 
CheesecakeRecipe said:
don't go towards the light
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Thanks. I had already tried that, but apparently:
I ran the wrong direction and didn't see the floor?

120 seconds of idle time was crazy for that though, and then the section after that crazy jumps in the 120-180 second range. Two or three times in a row I think I got to the 190-second point, then couldn't see anything and died.

I finally put the gamma up to 3 and got past it, but I still think checkpoints could have been improved in the game. Also, SUPER ULTRA FINAL ENDING SPOILERS:
It is the words "The Beginning", then the main menu screen. No credits, no alternate endings, nothing else as far as I know. If anyone knows anything else please let me know. :P


Overall thoughts: It probably took me 7-8 hours. There may be secrets, and I'd like to hear about them, but I don't know if I found any. The enormous scale of surreal architecture is great to explore.

The downsides are that you can't see your feet, you don't have a cursor to aim where you are jumping, the checkpoints are SUPER annoying in places (the 2-minute cutscene just mentioned for example), and there was maybe 1-2 hours that I think could be cut completely. This section mostly consists of crazy shader effects where the difficulty comes of not being able to see anything.

There was another interesting normal section in a couple of cool environments, and then a final really annoying sequence with crappy checkpoints (and jumps you apparently can't complete if your computer isn't running near the full 60 fps rate since the Steam discussion forums mention that the wind physics are broken with lower framerate, fun times!). There is literally no ending, nor even any credits as far as I can tell, since the game kicks you back to the main menu.

I would say maybe 6.5/10. The art and exploration were great and I imagine would be awesome with the Oculus Rift. On the flip side, the horrible sections with flashing lights, or crazy shaders, or near complete darkness, would be even WORSE. I would probably not recommend it at $20, maybe $10 unless you absolutely love the architecture.
 
Overdoziz said:
I'm having horrendous screen tearing issues and turning V-Sync on doesn't seem to help. Anyone know a fix?
Click to expand...
I played with vsync off ingame, D3DOverrider providing vsync and triple buffering.

I don't remember the ingame vsync being broken though, so I'm not sure. I assume you don't have anything odd with dual monitors, primary settings, driver control panel overrides, etc.?

Also bear in mind there seems to be some sort of weird temporal effect that leaves ghost images, but that's not tearing.
 
Overdoziz said:
I'm having horrendous screen tearing issues and turning V-Sync on doesn't seem to help. Anyone know a fix?
Click to expand...

Try and change MaxSmoothedFrameRate=62 to your refresh rate in BaseEngine.ini under Steam\SteamApps\common\NaissanceE\Engine\Config
 
Played through the beginning portion of the game (~45min) and yeah, it's interesting. I definitely want to keep going, though not for gameplay reasons. Atmosphere is really well done, the architectural design is remarkable, and the way you're thrusted into the narrative is rather intriguing.

That said, were it not for these assets, I'd probably be (more) sour on the experience. First person platforming is a hard thing to pull off and, frankly, I'm not convinced NaissancE manages to do it. I found it tolerable, at the most. The lack of a jumping reticle has been mentioned. The other complaint for me is the framerate. The game has slight keyboard and mouse lag which shouldn't really be there. Maybe I need to mess around with the settings, but there's no reason this should be lagging (unless the lighting is that resource intensive?). It not only messes up my timing, it also makes the game really disorienting at spots (when it's most certainly not deliberate).

I'll see it to the end, but thinking about the jumping puzzles and chase sequences makes me shudder a bit. Not every game can be as mechanically refined as Mirror's Edge, I guess.
 
daydreaming said:
Played through the beginning portion of the game (~45min) and yeah, it's interesting. I definitely want to keep going, though not for gameplay reasons. Atmosphere is really well done, the architectural design is remarkable, and the way you're thrusted into the narrative is rather intriguing.

That said, were it not for these assets, I'd probably be (more) sour on the experience. First person platforming is a hard thing to pull off and, frankly, I'm not convinced NaissancE manages to do it. I found it tolerable, at the most. The lack of a jumping reticle has been mentioned. The other complaint for me is the framerate. The game has slight keyboard and mouse lag which shouldn't really be there. Maybe I need to mess around with the settings, but there's no reason this should be lagging (unless the lighting is that resource intensive?). It not only messes up my timing, it also makes the game really disorienting at spots (when it's most certainly not deliberate).

I'll see it to the end, but thinking about the jumping puzzles and chase sequences makes me shudder a bit. Not every game can be as mechanically refined as Mirror's Edge, I guess.
Click to expand...
The platforming gets MUCH more irritating later on, be prepared.

There is a mouse smoothing setting in options which you probably want to turn off. Other than that, maybe try D3DOverrider for vsync + triple buffering, turn off ingame vsync, and run Fraps to make sure you are at 60 fps.

If you are not at 60 fps, not only may things be laggy, but the physics in certain sections are apparently actually broken where you can't complete jumps or whatnot.
 
15 minutes and I feel sick... I suffered in the very first platforming beacuse I kept missing the jump and falling, so I missed the light and couldn´t find the way. Once I got over it and I'm a zone with bright lights and dark shadows, and some stairs that lead to nowhere.

The setting looks incredible and I REALLY wanted to play this but I feel completely dizzy of not finding my way. Maybe it wasn't a good idea to buy this :(
 
Acosta said:
15 minutes and I feel sick... I suffered in the very first platforming beacuse I kept missing the jump and falling, so I missed the light and couldn´t find the way.

the seeting looks incredible and I REALLY wanted to play this but I feel completely dizzy of not finding my way. Maybe I wasn't a good idea to buy this :(
Click to expand...
Seems like the game is pretty immersive then. You're probably feeling the same as the character
 
Acosta said:
15 minutes and I feel sick... I suffered in the very first platforming beacuse I kept missing the jump and falling, so I missed the light and couldn´t find the way. Once I got over it and I'm a zone with bright lights and dark shadows, and some stairs that lead to nowhere.

The setting looks incredible and I REALLY wanted to play this but I feel completely dizzy of not finding my way. Maybe it wasn't a good idea to buy this :(
Click to expand...
Make sure you don't play in a dark (real life) room.

Are you sensitive to flashing lights? There is a serious seizure risk section later on in the game, I think multiple Steam reviews mention it.

If you are feeling dizzy with vertigo, that gets a lot worse too in the "Going Down" or whatever level, so the game may not be for you. Don't overdo it!
 
Blizzard said:
Make sure you don't play in a dark (real life) room.

Are you sensitive to flashing lights? There is a serious seizure risk section later on in the game, I think multiple Steam reviews mention it.

If you are feeling dizzy with vertigo, that gets a lot worse too in the "Going Down" or whatever level, so the game may not be for you. Don't overdo it!
Click to expand...

Thanks, I think I'm not not, the only times I get sick playing videogames is when I'm like stuck in a FPS and I don't know how to get out, it must be that.

I have tried to rest and do another 15 minus, I have progressed a bit but now I'm in some part with spheres opening and closing walls, so I'm stuck again.

I guess It´ll try to play in short spans, yes...

More_Badass said:
Seems like the game is pretty immersive then. You're probably feeling the same as the character
Click to expand...

Ha, I don't think I wanna play this with Oculus :P (or maybe, the setting is something else).
 
New patch/update
http://steamcommunity.com/games/265690/announcements/detail/1858037134473148431
Also called "less frustration, more pleasure" patch, it should improve the NaissanceE experience, especially on the platform and action sequences. Indeed many additional checkpoints in Act 2 "Going Down" and Act 3 "Breath Compression" will make these sections much less frustrating. However the feeling of fragility and danger should stay intact, the player still needs to observe the environment and to act carefully.

The patch also contains a lot of others improvements,
Click to expand...
 
Bought it and started playing it yesterday, currently at the beginning of 'going down'. I'm a fan of megastructures and so far I really like it, I'm impressed by how I almost feel physically sick by some bits of the scenery.

This game with oculus could be a killer.

A nice surprise so far, a little rough around the edges but it may really interest those who love the Portal games. And fans of megastructures/weird architecture :)

Chairmanchuck said:
To anyone who played it and read the Manga Blame!

Does the game feature a similar structure like the megastructure from Blame!?
Click to expand...

Some parallels, yes.
Do keep in mind it's less dark, less dirty. And there are no killer androids with a positron gun so far (but giant architect/builders bugs...).
The first level is abstract and spatially closed, but later levels seems to be taken straight out of Blame. Have you seen the trailer with the 'city' ?
 
I finished playing through this a little bit ago. I was going to wait until the next time I had my PC hooked up in my living room but following Double Fine's Amnesia Fortnight game, Mnemonic, had gotten me into the mood to play it since the aesthetics seem similar.

Anyway, it took me three and a half hours to finish it. I didn't do as much exploring as I normally do in these kind of games because I was so caught up in the mystery of the world and kept moving forward to see it all resolved. It's weird, because I usually spend a lot of time exploring and taking in the ambience when I play a game like this but something about this game made me want to see how it all ends. I am definitely going to go through it again and take my time when I do.

I don't really have any complaints. The puzzles were easy but that's not a big deal. The final area was a bit silly and felt out of place but it's not a big enough issue to consider it a complaint. Overall, I greatly enjoyed it and can tell it will be one of my favorite games of 2014.
 
Dog Problems said:
I finished playing through this a little bit ago. I was going to wait until the next time I had my PC hooked up in my living room but following Double Fine's Amnesia Fortnight game, Mnemonic, had gotten me into the mood to play it since the aesthetics seem similar.

Anyway, it took me three and a half hours to finish it. I didn't do as much exploring as I normally do in these kind of games because I was so caught up in the mystery of the world and kept moving forward to see it all resolved. It's weird, because I usually spend a lot of time exploring and taking in the ambience when I play a game like this but something about this game made me want to see how it all ends. I am definitely going to go through it again and take my time when I do.

I don't really have any complaints. The puzzles were easy but that's not a big deal. The final area was a bit silly and felt out of place but it's not a big enough issue to consider it a complaint. Overall, I greatly enjoyed it and can tell it will be one of my favorite games of 2014.
Click to expand...
I guess this goes to show how different levels of player skill can affect game length. I think it took me 7-8 hours to finish, literally double your time, because I kept failing jumps so much.
 
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