One thing this article gets wrong is the usage of REDkit.
To quote from the mod page:
Q: Is it made with redkit?
A: Not really, I spent 2.5+ years on making this mod, there were a bunch of tools which I used, including some ehich I had to write myself (wolvenkit Json converter, many python scripts for processing entities, meshes, generating setup scenes etc). The mod is built in radish system. Redkit was helpful in fixing some animation bugs on last development stages.
So it did help, but this mod probably could have been released without the new mod tools.
I’ll be real with y’all, a 50$ 4 hour tech demo just doesn’t appeal to me, especially in a world where the indie market is absolutely booming with phenomenal titles.
Sure, the first one was nice, but I never felt like I was so impressed by it, that i’d do it again.
Unsurprising. The first game, while novel and interesting, was not a good game. And from what I read, the general consensus is that the actual gameplay of this one is even worse than the first’s. I admired what the first game was trying to do and I even think they did it well, but at the end of the day the majority of people play videogames to have fun.
Regardless, some folks love both games, and I’m happy for them. That being said, it’s a very niche game and I find it odd for Microsoft to have bet so heavily on it to be more popular.
I loved Gothic to death, and 2 is my all-time favorite game, but after having their wrists slit by the publisher with Gothic 3, and everything happening after the release of that, I am not upset it’s over.
The quality of ELEX was miserably bad in every way imaginable, and it only got worse with ELEX2. Risen had great potential with the first game, but completely flopped it with the next two.
For a lack of a better expression, they were a one-trick pony, and rode that wave of success into their eventual grave.
I’m not sure how substantiated these claims are, but i’ve also heard that most of the original team have left years before the shutdown either way, so essentially, what was left of Piranha Byte is just a husk of what used to be
The game pass version was broken for me. Sudden and massive fps drops every few minutes, seems like a memory leak. Had to play Lords of the fallen instead.
Still need to play that. But soooo much to play, and I already got a few games I’m actively playing. And I stopped buying onto backlog when I said I’ll need to improve that spending habit of mine on NY 2015. Heh, actually stuck to one of my NY promises for once. 😅
I agree, but I would strongly emphasize the graphics. This might be the most visually impressive game out there right now, but yea, the gameplay is boring af and the “sense of dread” that the og had is lacking here.
Wasn’t Piranha Bytes not profitable for quite some time?
Their games certainly had a community of fans, but I don’t think those are enough to keep a whole studio afloat.
Just thinking out loud, I did not look at any numbers, but in my head what’s done them in is not producing games that feel good to play. I loved Gothic 3 and Arcania at the time, but I’d choose any other 3rd person RPG that actually has snappy controls over the more modern stuff like Elex and I feel like that’s the mainstream opinion going around.
Yeah, far as I know they also started to struggle with Risen already, as cost started going up for 3D RPGs with open worlds. If you are a niche creator, that’s a problem as your niche cannot be endlessly expanded.
I never tried ELEX or ELEX 2 (kinda should, but eh, bit late now), but they looked fine. Nothing noteworthy, but decent. But the thing is, I have a long long list of just RPGs that I still want to play that are on my backlog, like even Baldur’s Gate 3. And now Dawntrail for FFXIV just released. It’ll be years more before I get around to ELEX. I wish they had gone more something more artsy in style than just generic-3D open SciFi world, as that ages badly. Look at Mass Effect 1 and so on.
It has gotten to the point where if you work for a game studio that gets bought out or sold, might as well get ahead of the game and start looking for a new job before they have the chance to fire you.
Less than a day after I find out from an old article that there was supposed to be a modernized remake of Gothic 1 on the way to be published this year and got all excited. Fucking fantastic 😮💨
I’ll reserve my final judgment until 2nd of August and the THQ Nordic Showcase but the playable teaser they released doesn’t leave me optimistic either.
ign.com
Gorące