Part of the context is that most of those sales are probably to China, and that despite the big global numbers, it’s probably not not the same level of success in the Western world as the steam sales imply.
Part of the context is that game sales have never meant a game is actually good.
But part of that context is that it’s the first real effort from China at a real AAA, single player game, and the differences in government and culture are part of the conversation.
And part of the context is that China is a huge, largely untapped market for AAA single player games, and publishers are going to notice that and push games to do some of the things other media have done to be more palatable to that market (most think to the detriment of quality by western standards).
I’m not hyper interested in the game (I’d probably try a demo), but it’s being talked about because it actually affects the gaming industry.
People would still be talking about it if it were a flop, nonetheless this game has sold almost 2.5 million copies on Steam alone, far from being a flop.
I got in today, got to play a few matches. It was pretty fun, I’m not huge on MOBA’s but I’m not entirely against them. I liked games like Sanctum and Sanctum 2 (this isn’t really like those, since those are tower defenses) but it’s got the same vibe going. Turning a familiar genre and adapting it into a different perspective. The characters I’ve played have been interesting, I haven’t loved them all but it seems like a decently well rounded cast. There’s some really good gameplay moments in there though with some of the character abilities. Playing slow and methodically has been working out well for me.
Interested to see what will change. It’s a bit chaotic right now, in some good ways and in some difficult to see ways. I have noticed a couple of the same characters in every game, can’t tell if it’s out of interest or if people knowing they are very strong. I like it though so far, it’s pretty easy to get the opponent tilted if in a single lane. Steal their soul points, push them with damage just enough to annoy them, punish when they start making mistakes
I absolutely get where you’re coming from, but to be fair Team Fortress is basically a hero shooter as well, except that there can be multiples of the same “hero” on the battlefield at the same time. Or - and I’m genuinely asking because I haven’t played “hero shooters” in that long - am I missing a core distinction of hero shooters?
I was thinking something more in line with a narrative story-based shooter like half life. TF2 and other competitive shooter arena games were never really my thing.
TF2 is a class based team deathmatch FPS. One class, one character.
In hero shooters you have multiple characters with different abilities that make them distinct from each other, yet all can conform to a certain class type and role.
Specially since apparently it has some of the most toxic mechanics I hate from MOBAS (last hit, creep denial) and another that I just hate (itemization ) after playing MOBAS that did away with it, and actually felt much more fun to play (Dawngate and Heroes of the Storm).
And I’m not under NDA. I have signed no contracts, made no verbal agreements; I haven’t even clicked through a EULA. This message does pop up when I launch Deadlock, but I didn’t click OK; instead, I hit the Escape key and watched it disappear.
I’m not a lawyer but I sure hope the writer of this checked with a lawyer before posting because that does not sound right.
Edit: Thank you Vodulas for pointing out this update appended to the article.
Update, August 12th: Turns out Valve was not fine with me trying Deadlock with friends; I’ve been banned from matchmaking! Oh well. Please feel free to make fun of me in the comments!
I’ll have to see if I’ve got a copy of an NDA I signed for play testing but that’s what I would have thought. It would be provisional on your participation not on an agreement like old school EULAs. As someone else pointed out it seems to be in closed beta or some form of early access, so maybe Valve won’t care and it won’t come back on them.
At best they ignore it. At worst, they never invite the user to test anything again. I doubt they’d issue an account ban for that. Not even sure if they can straight up ban you from the platform anyway and lock you out of your games entirely; pretty sure the bans are limited to VAC secured servers for online play and the array of community features like posting on the forums.
Didn’t we reach a point where EULAs are non-enforcable? Or is that just in the EU? But regardless, Valve can just ban you and good luck doing anything about it.
Looks like anyone who has access can invite their steam friends, so I guess it’s like closed beta? Seems weird to have something soft-launch with zero announcements. The design also looks very rudimentary. Im
It's a closed alpha test claiming everything is placeholder content and could/will change while they flesh out the design, hence why they don't want you to share anything.
There is no NDA to sign or anything though, only this pop up warning. Valve can't sue you for sharing details of the game but they absolutely can remove you from the play testing and/or ban you from ever playing it again for this.
And yet the Kex engine still doesn’t offer QoL improvements like multiple quick saves, auto saves, and control configuration is very limited, especially for mods/games that offer extra controls like jumping or inventories. No free mouse look or free aim.
Cross multi-player is neat but it was running kind of janky when I tried it. There’s also a pretty severe bug that enemies forget what state they were in after you load a save (they default back to idle). I don’t think that was an original bug, other ports (and pretty sure this one prior to this update) don’t have that bug.
I get that Doom at this point is more community platform than game, but other ports make clearer their intent at either upgrades-and-options (gzdoom) or attempting to stick close to the original (chocolate, eternity). I don’t think the Kex port makes clear it’s position on this. Controller support, cross-multiplayer, and some graphical options (like the weapon icons) make it seem like a QoL port but then things like no freelook make it seem like it wants to also be traditional.
Edit:
I feel like I’ve only talked about the engine a few times now. The new episode, Legacy of Rust, is excellent and a worthwhile addition to the core game. New enemies slot in well, new weapons are fun, and mainly the levels are just gorgeous and extremely hard. I muddled through episode 1 on UV but episode 2 stomped my face in right out of the gate. They weren’t playing on this one. Lots of nice touches too like brand new inter-mission screens, some new and expanded texture work, and the architecture is just really stunning. Some of meanest archvile placement since Plutonia as well. I really can’t recommend the new missions enough, though I might see if they’ll run in GZD, haha.
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