Sprawl (Retro FPS) (UE4)

[blackdog]

I just discovered this because the author was on the latest episode of the Quakecast. The project was in fact started on Quake (Darkplaces fork) but after hitting some snags it was posted to UE4. They are doing the same thing of Graven in building the maps in Trenchbroom and importing in UE.

Fascinating that the creator is a musician by trade.

The teaser and two gameplay tests are the footage that exists for the project at the moment

 

[Minos]

Hell yeah, love the Ghost in the Shell vibe 

[blackdog]

Good spotting, he refers to Ghost as one of the main inspirations 

[FMPONE]

Looks repetitive. The weird 2d/3d mix-up artstyle isn't really working for me, either. The song in the first trailer was good though, old skool cool

[ThunderKeil]

41 minutes ago, FMPONE said:

weird 2d/3d mix-up artstyle

What do you mean by that?

I can only imagine it to refer to doom/build-style use of sprites in place of models, and I can't say I spotted any such thing in the videos

Edited March 9, 2021 by ThunderKeil

[FMPONE]

52 minutes ago, ThunderKeil said:

What do you mean by that?

I can only imagine it to refer to doom/build-style use of sprites in place of models, and I can't say I spotted any such thing in the videos

probably not an articulate description on my part. Just not a fan of the art direction, it seems mish-mashy in a bad way

[ThunderKeil]

Hm, no, not sure I can see exactly what you mean

I quite like the visuals, if I had to name anything I don't though - I suppose the viewmodel looks a little incongruous with the rest of it - the textured sheen effect seems out of place with the rest of the game being much more modernly lit

-----------------------------

Gameplay-wise, it looks alright in the first 2 videos, but I'd say the third kind of kills the mood. I guess it's typical of this subgenre, but the ''rhythmic'' quality of the trailers seems like it won't align with the actual gameplay.

The slow-mo effect seems obnoxious and just further kills the pacing

All in all . . . I'll submit to the tone of the room and say it seems like it's lacking something . . . I think the problem is that it's meant to be played at a certain pace, but it doesn't create this pace, and instead just expects the player to build that up by themself. It's meant to be played like you're speedrunning the game, but doesn't make actually *make* the player do so, such as by introducing a timer which can be replenished by killing enemies

I'd suggest giving the player rollerskates or something, force them to keep moving perpetually & introduce some environmental hazards. 

Edited March 11, 2021 by ThunderKeil

[Buddy]

Where's the hook?

[blackdog]

13 hours ago, FMPONE said:

Looks repetitive.

1 hour ago, Buddy said:

Where's the hook?

@Buddy I guess it plays like Q3 but it’s SP(?)… so thought it might interest fans of Dusk & co.

It does look repetitive, but from the podcast I understand it’s just a tech demo atm. Also I think all/most assets are from the Quake version… surely they want to retain the blocky and grainy look but slowly take more advantage of UE4 strengths(?).

I quite like the flow, if they can make it like a shooty Mirror’s Edge could be interesting. If it just focuses on rocket jump (the creator was a rocket jumping “personality”?) then I wouldn’t be interested.

Atm reminds me vaguely of Crackdown but in FPS form, when I played that game I played similarly to this, jumping over buildings and using the stomp on landing was a blast in that game.

[Minos]

On 3/9/2021 at 4:15 AM, Buddy said:

Where's the hook?

The hook is the exploitation of nostalgia and beloved anime franchises.

[dux]

Watched all 3 trailers and

I like that they took the quake 2 shotgun and made it a grenade launcher and included the quake 1 grenade bounce sound. But the rest of it sent me to sleep