groze: Awww, yes, let the shitstorm begin! :D
I won't lie, I'm more hyped to see this game fail than I am about upcoming games I actually want to play.
So far, reviews seem to be mediocre. Combat is bad (one customer even calls it "Sea of Thieves bad"), the game is shock full of bugs -- some of which carried over from the Early Access days.
I'm a terrible person, I know; I'm really happy to see this project crumble and fail, they have been botching everything ever since they joined with Gearbox and eventually got their asses bought by Microsoft. I love it. <3
CharlesGrey: That's pretty harsh -- for the sake of the devs, and the people who were looking forward to the game, I hope it turned out to be good.
That said, I don't approve of their questionable business shenanigans, either. When you develop a game with the aid of crowd-funding, and rely on the trust of your supporters, you don't do a 180 and sign a deal with a traditional AAA publisher halfway through the development process. I doubt many would have donated to the campaign, knowing that it's a Gearbox or Microsoft production.
And then there's the price tag... Based on what I've heard so far, it just isn't worth that kinda dough. Seems like No Man's Sky all over again. GOG sells various Indie games with AA/ AAA like production values, at much more reasonable price points. ( Hellblade, Legend of Grimrock 2, or the modern Shadow Warrior games, to name a few. )
To top it off: Apparently they're already working on story content available via a "season pass"? So you have to pay even more, to experience the full story. And they threw in some silly pre-order bonus items, just to complete the whole pseudo-AAA nonsense.
I didn't really want to engage in clever conversation about this, as I'm not the most pragmatic person around, and my arguments just end up being logical fallacies. I honestly just want to see this game do poorly, that's all there is to it.
At some point in the past, I was mildly interested in We Happy Few, but Compulsion changed the concept so many times, it got to a point where I wasn't even sure what kind of game it was trying to be, anymore. In Compulsion's defense, they have been very open, indeed, but that doesn't nullify the fact that they outright lied to the people backing their game. Kickstarter backers were funding one thing, then Early Access customers were funding a new thing, and when they signed with Gearbox the game became yet a new thing, that neither Kickstarter or Early Access backers signed up for. Of course, the game has its fans, Compulsion has people who will vouch for them no matter what, but after No Man's Sky I think the vast majority of the gaming community is more aware of stuff like this. And despite the fact I actually liked No Man's Sky a lot on release, and that I think Hello Games has been redeeming themselves with every post-release patch and update, I'm not taking their side for one second: their game was a blunder, a mess and a wake-up call; one that Compulsion and other indie studios should have learned their lessons from, but apparently didn't. The thing is, after No Man's Sky, this kind of move simply won't fly anymore.
Once you start as indie but sign with a big publisher mid way through development, particularly one that gamers hate as much as Gearbox, you're pretty much screwed and spitting in the face of all the people who had been supporting you up until that point. Compulsion has argued that this is far from the truth, it was just means to "make the best possible game they and the fans wanted and deserved". Well... after the first reviews are in, I think it's safe to call BS on that. And I get it, they're shut off from the world, working on their game, their project, they actually think it's great and innovative and probably worth the $60 price of admission. But it isn't. It's procedurally-generated Bioshock with worse writing, three story campaigns (one of which is apparently really bad and forced in) and crafting mechanics. It apparently plays like crap and is overflowing with bugs, with most reviewers stating it should have stayed in Early Access for at least another year. They sold people a vision and a concept (three concepts, actually), and we had to take their word for it, paying AAA money for a game that was going to be released after Witcher 3 -- and Witcher 3 basically set a quality standard that is VERY hard to meet, even when you sign with Gearbox (and get bought by Microsoft) --, when it's pretty clear that their game is worth $40 tops. Not to mention the additional $30 for a Season Pass that, if things go as bad as I expect them to go, has no right to exist, because not that many people are interested in the game, or they will be asking for refunds in the next couple of days.
And this brings me to my last point: hype for the game is dead, and Compulsion is to blame for that. The backlash for the price hike and the signing with Gearbox was so huge that they had to go quiet for a while, after some damage control and some PR talk disguised as "we are being so open with you, guys, we don't deserve this treatment". Which is understandable. But it leads to the game being largely forgotten, and when it resurfaces, people are going to be mad about the same things again, either because they had forgotten about them, or because they are being confronted with this for the first time, despite it being an old issue.
I don't pretend to hide my views behind being "pro-consumer" and as a warning to potential customers, I can see every practical and objective side of this issue, but I'm honestly just motivated by drama and I truly am rooting for this project to fail, because of petty reasons like these dudes shitting on the people who support them TWICE, signing with Gearbox, raising the price from $30 to $60 and then getting bought by Microsoft.
