Steam Deals and Digital Sales

SoM was one of my favorite games from that year, just because the gameplay was so fun. I didn't care about the branding, hadn't played any AC games, and LOVED the combat from Batman games, soooo it pretty much hit all the right marks for me. I pre-ordered it + Season pass and it was worth it to me.

Even calling it LotR fanfiction is a bit generous, they may has well have left out any actual references to Middle-Earth and it would have been hard to tell the difference. It was Batman's Creed: Orcs and it's one of the best examples of gameplay over story in my game library.

Vandyn_sl said:

7 Days to Die, anyone own/play it? Worth $10?

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I haven't played since 6/2014, but it looks like a completely different game now. It was kind of shit when I first played it (apparently I only made it 14 minutes). Let me know if you buy it and it's worthwhile.

hodj_sl said:

Subnautica

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I'm normally the last person to ask this question but.... do they have any plans for co-op/MP? I don't think I've ever heard of the game before today, but it does look interesting.

Sulrn_sl said:

You don't get the ability to dominate/brand until one of the last missions on the second map. I'd say that's pretty fucked up.

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How is "brand" a core feature?

Like I said, SoM is extremely repetitive once you start unlocking most of the more powerful powers. There is absolutely no denying that. And from a story aspect, it's very shallow. But, the gameplay isverysolid and at $10 it's money that is well spent. At the price of a fucking coffee? That's a no-brainer.

I completely agree that the nemesis system iswayoverblown in its "coolness"/uniqueness factor. Just the little snippets I heard from this site and others that were raving about it, my expectations were high as well. When I finally experienced it in game, I had a very.."Ok, that's kinda cool, but that's it?" sort of reaction to it. It was vastly overrated.

The crux of my argument is that the game is atleasta 6, being completely objective about its features. It may gain 1-3 points based on subjective matters, but it's definitely at least a "slightly above average" game. So, for $10, it'll easily give you your money's worth.

I have a hard time reconciling:

Amzin_sl said:

It was Batman's Creed: Orcs andit's one of the best examples of gameplay over storyin my game library.

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with

Amzin_sl said:

I didn't care about the branding,hadn't played any AC games, andLOVED the combat from Batmangames

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So, shallow/tutorial level game play + 1-button parry-to-win combat = Gameplay > Story victory? That's an ultra-low bar to overcome - like make sure the ant's don't trip low and a case study for why bigger devs don't need to try hard to make "good" games because once you get big enough market share there's so many of you it all washes out.

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Kirun_sl said:

How is "brand" a core feature?

The crux of my argument is that the game is atleasta 6, being completely objective about its features. It may gain 1-3 points based on subjective matters, but it's definitely at least a "slightly above average" game.

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The game was 'sold' by devs on two features: Nemesis and Branding. The game was literally built around these two features, so yes, branding would be a core feature. Most of the pre-release promos show off nemesis or the "endless" amount of options given to you by the branding system to find your way through the game.

At no point did I say the game was not a '6' (or better) or worth '$10' (or more). I said it was badly designed and it was - I played through it and never will again even though I enjoyed myself because it's not a good-enough game for a second play through - that's bad design.

Vorph_sl said:

I'm normally the last person to ask this question but.... do they have any plans for co-op/MP? I don't think I've ever heard of the game before today, but it does look interesting.

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Yeah, I'm interested in this as well, but a single-player survival game is a giant ball of.."WTF is the point?" to me.

Sulrn_sl said:

I have a hard time reconciling:


with




So, shallow/tutorial level game play + 1-button parry-to-win combat = Gameplay > Story victory? That's an ultra-low bar to overcome - like make sure the ant's don't trip low and a case study for why bigger devs don't need to try hard to make "good" games because once you get big enough market share there's so many of you it all washes out.

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You can beat almost any 3rd-person action game with 2 buttons if that's what you want to do, it's always been a dumb argument. You have tons of options outside of that and several missions where that won't get you through anyway PLUS a bunch of warlords who are immune to that. Branding was itself incredibly shallow and I don't even buy the fact that it's a "core mechanic", I think I used it maybe a handful of times except for the Bright Lord DLC where it was super duper hyper important because of the changes in that DLC. I am unsure what gameplay you had in yours, but I had a ton of combat mechanics in mine and plenty of ways to approach every encounter and if Parrying got you through all of it then you didn't play the same game I did and you don't play games for fun the same way I do.

Edit: To clarify, you probably CAN do the bulk of combat with just parry + counter, just like you could do that in Dark Souls, or DMC, or Assassin's Creed, or all of the Batman games. But that's your choice. You can also use your bow, knives, shadow powers, stealth, mounts, traps, environment, etc.

People have shown you can go through almost any game using just 1 or 2 moves over and over again, that doesn't make the game shallow, that makes how YOU play the game shallow. Some people enjoy that, I don't, so I use all the options available to me and enjoy the game that way. SoM had tons of options and was very dynamic.

Kirun_sl said:

Yeah, I'm interested in this as well, but a single-player survival game is a giant ball of.."WTF is the point?" to me.

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It also plays off of how the Ocean is a big bag of mystery for a lot of people. Being able to explore a bunch of biomes under the sea is a big thing for some people. Out of all the copy-cats that have derived from it - it seems to be the best of the bunch.

SoM was very fun for me, but not something I'd go back and play again. I didn't ever get into the Batman games for some reason, although I should, especially with the remasters coming.

I had a lot of fun outside the story, after I had gotten most of my powers. I'd run into an Orc base, and ring their bell, and then see how long I could survive. I'd usually end up dying eventually, after making a mistake too many times, but it was really fun being such a bad ass!

Julys Monthly has some good stuff:Humble Monthly Bundle

hodj_sl said:

Its not a randomly generated world or a game where the goal is to compete with others to build shit.

Its you against the environment.

Think "Castaway"meets"The Martian".

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Oh, I get the idea perfectly fine on what it is trying to portray. I just don't really feel there is much point to that sort of environment/gameplay in a single-player world.

Selling SoM as sandbox would be similar to putting FF7/8 in the genre. Having elements of an open world != sandbox.