I think that this game will stand or fall flat depending on 3 things:
- the quality of the story Hello Games manages to craft within this procedurally created universe.
- The quality of the endless permutations. Do they go further then just sticking feathers onto an elefant and changing its hue?
- Will planets remain the same if you leave them and come back to them, will there be a sense of loaction. This is the difference between the server knowing what type of rocks are present on what planet and knowing the exact location of each rock.
The 3rd point in particular seems like something MS should be shouting about, the power of the cloud and all, but here we are seeing this game emerge on PS4.
Apparently your goal is to get to the center of the universe. To get there you'll need to upgrade your craft and gear. So I'm guessing a lot of the mechanics will lean on randomised loot. I'm also guessing that there will be multiple rings that make up the universe that will require specific gear to be able to traverse. So when you reach a new area, a circle closer to the center, some story bits will play out, revealing something new to you. It's the only way that I could see a story properly working in a randomised universe. Basically everyone will see the same big story, but locations and encounters will be different for everyone. It'll probably revolve around some ancient civilization too since a) it always does b) that doesn't require some NPC race that would have to be specifically designed, going in against the concept of the game.
There will be lots of combat, crazy alien monsters, space combat, etc. I assume lots of random generated missions, lets hope they are good.
robio said:I still don't get what you do in this game. I understand that there are unlimited planets to visit but what do you do when you. Do you help develop the planets or do you just blow them up? I just did not quite get what the point of the game was. The scale of it seemed very impressive but it really did not look like much fun.
Yeah, talk about massive scale and it doesn't matter how shallow your game actually sounds.
Foolz said:Yeah, talk about massive scale and it doesn't matter how shallow your game actually sounds.
Nailed it. This has been the impression that was made on me. They keep talking about how the in-game universe expands forever. It's the bigger universe ever. And yet.... nothing in the universe looks at all interesting.
I have heard they are keeping the actual game concept under wraps until closer to release. From several sites.
As it stands I think the premise is to make good on the Mass Effect "Go to any planet and explore" promise + wing commander.
As to what the game actually is, I am as uninformed as anyone. I personally, --- wait for it -- am hoping that it is a diplomacy game, ala the episode of star Trek: The Next Generation when Cpt. Picard interacts withsmoe who does not speak his language (Shaka! When the walls fell!).
This was the most relevant research material I could find on the subject.
aspro said:As to what the game actually is, I am as uninformed as anyone. I personally, --- wait for it -- am hoping that it is a diplomacy game, ala the episode of star Trek: The Next Generation when Cpt. Picard interacts withsmoe who does not speak his language (Shaka! When the walls fell!).
I find that to be highly unlikely, as it would require sentient species (or would have to become something like Eve online), which would be neigh on impossible to produce ad infinium. There was a link to a video posted here a couple of days ago that shed some light on what to expect. Which I then summarized in my 2nd reply. The 'get to the center bit' is basically a nice way to ensure everyone has a similar, rather linear experience regardless of where they start off, while I think planets will just be places you visit in search for loot.
SupremeAC said:aspro said:As to what the game actually is, I am as uninformed as anyone. I personally, --- wait for it -- am hoping that it is a diplomacy game, ala the episode of star Trek: The Next Generation when Cpt. Picard interacts withsmoe who does not speak his language (Shaka! When the walls fell!).
I find that to be highly unlikely...
Hey one can hope. Dream. Yeah I have seen the same stuff that you revealed. It will liekly be a very hollow concept that will never live up to the hype, but if it can capture a sense of exploration that will be enough for many (not for me).
They are (trying to) make the next Minecraft, not a 8-16 hour contained experience, which for those of us of a certain age is just nt realistic anymore.
I wonder how Hello Games sees their game themselves. It seems that to them, the world generating is just a tool to make a game they could otherwise never hope to accomplish with such a small staff. I do feel that they could create both the next big thing and a contained experience in one go however. They could easily set a main storyline within this huge universe, with exploring the vastness of space being a sidequest. From what I understand, the fact that it is an online game is rather irrelevant. Chances of you meeting someone on a frequent basis seem very slim. They could have done the exact same thing in a single player only campaign. It just makes for a much cooler punchline to be able to say that it's one big universe, and I can imagine that it wasn't much extra work for them to go this extra mile.
I think the big whoop about this game is being able to land on a planet, then take off back into space seamlessly. But I was a little baffled as to why this was lauded. Free Radical did this with SW BF3 that was cancelled. And really all you have to do is fly upwards to the sky then cover the screen in clouds for a few moments before the environment streams into place and vice versa.
I shall search and search and search the far ends of the galaxy in a neverending quest to find a planet with creatures whose penii matches the grandeur of my own...
...after 2.5 minutes of flight I will end up in Mexico...
"Well that was a short trip..."
phantom_leo said:I shall search and search and search the far ends of the galaxy in a neverending quest to find a planet with creatures whose penii matches the grandeur of my own...
...after 2.5 minutes of flight I will end up in Mexico...
"Well that was a short trip..."
I was listening to a podcast, and the search for penises is exactly where the discussion went after two seconds.
If it turns out the game is about a trip to the centre of the galaxy where the divine penis resides, then I'm sold.
After hearing about it endlessly I was finally able to watch some gaem footage.
I was not expecting PS2 graphics at all, I was thinking it was going t be way more primitive. Very impressed.
I was eager to buy it before, now it is looking actually interesting.