VandaL Game (2024)

28/10/2022

Humankind, or How I stopped loving and became disillusioned with the game

Lyaden
The blog is dedicated to how I burned out of the game after a recent skating rink. But instead of demolishing the game for the tenth time, I decided to say everything I think about it.

There should have been a "first time" block here, but I'd rather throw on a little of my background. I kind of like 4X strategies, but I don't play them that much. I got hooked on the genre from the fifth part of Civilization, which I played a lot and in different ways, I tried multiplayer only with friends, but I didn't try it against "immortal" bots and so on. From the games of the studio that released Humankind, I played Endless Legend quite a bit, and a little in Endless Space 2 (it turns out 4X in space feels like a different genre). I tried other games of the genre (4 and 6 civets, Stellaris, Old World), did not catch on. Humankind will compare a lot with the listed games.

Tie
Since the first announcements, I've been hyping the game a lot. The information about the key chips painted beautiful pictures in my imagination. It was clear that Humankind would be a development (spoiler: not really) of the ideas of Endless Legend, but with a bias towards the less fantasy and more popular Sid Meier's Civilization series, a kind of "killer civet".

Literary I
Literary I
The first ice rinks did not disappoint, but exceeded all my best expectations. Except for some bugs (yes, oil spawn, I'm talking about you!) the game seemed perfect. I sincerely did not understand the haight to her, especially to the main feature, the change of cultures, the most frequent argument against which sounds like "Well, kapets is like Nilagic, so I was an ancient Chinese, developed into Romans, ended up being Americans in general. The cal game. Not like my beloved Civa, where I destroyed the French with nuclear bombs in the 19th century by the Incas." I was happy about the financial success of the Amplitude studio, they went to it for a long time, and got what they deserved.

In my misunderstanding of the situation, I even went to the Steam reviews. Basically, the arguments against the game were weak, but even positive reviews sometimes warned that the score was a stretch. I didn't take anything out of the reviews, but I remember one interesting point: "the world generator doesn't look like Earth at all, but rather like Auriga." Here I have to agree, there is something alien in the form of continents, even the most unrealistic parameters in the fifth civet give out a landscape more similar to Earth than the standard ones in Humankind. Perhaps since then I began to suspect that something was wrong with the game. And maybe after I started playing it more often.

Chips and other games are coming on the scene
As mentioned above, the change of cultures has become the main trump card of Humankind. I don't recall anything like this in any strategy. Does it sound strange, incomprehensible, incredible? But it feels... quite normal. Not that it would be delightful, and radically changes something, but it is appropriate and worthy.

The game is divided into epochs: Neolithic, Antiquity, Antiquity, the Middle Ages, Early Modern Times, Industrialization, Modernity. You start the game with one unit of nomads, and explore the surrounding lands. A very good find, no need to rush the first city, and there is time to choose its location. To move on to the next era, you need to gain 8 "stars" by increasing the population, building districts, killing units, studying technology, etc. During the transition, you choose a culture, get a unique bonus from it (more food on the rivers, stronger units, etc.), a district and a unit. As well as "ulta", which depends on the type of culture, for example, the militant can instantly summon units from cities/outposts at the cost of the population.

And it seems that you can suddenly change the vector of development according to the situation, which can be useful. The cultures themselves are not directly unique, but quite diverse (not like most of the civilizations in the fifth civ). However, in most cases it all comes down to numbers. I will not say that this part is poorly implemented, it is difficult to come up with very strange and extraordinary things in such a realistic setting. In Endless Legend and Endless Space, I can single out one of the most unique factions: a race of golems that reproduce and are treated with money (do not use food at all); a race of shadows that are not visible on the global map, and who are afraid of technology (they don't get progress points, but they can buy technology for money in the technology tree); a race of beetles who always want to eat and in general are the embodiment of the phrase "Peace Was Never An Option", because they don't have such an option.

Regions of the most popular custom map in the editor. Who will guess what it is - that cookie!
Regions of the most popular custom map in the editor. Who will guess what it is - that cookie!
Next, regions and cities. The world in Humankind and Endless Space is divided into regions of some area, where there may or may not be resources, natural wonders, and so on. There is only one city in one district. I like this balance much more than the expansion of cells in the civet, where "your" resources can go to a smart neighbor. In Humankind, you can also build outposts with any unit. This is still considered your territory when occupied, and you can also buy the extraction of resources in this territory for influence, eliminating the need to build the city of "Upper Zazhopye" just for the sake of uranium mining. Cities do not consist of a single cell, and for its effective operation it is necessary to complete it with districts: agricultural, industrial, commercial, scientific. Also, you can build a unique district for one district, which usually gives good buns, and a harbor (yes, in order to be a sea city, you do not need to be close to the sea, how do you like it, civa 5?). Cities can consist of several districts, which finally turns Humankind into an urban planning simulator. No, really, I like this mechanic the most, a kind of game in the game.

But what are we all about the good? Let's talk about diplomacy! Another feature of Humankind is claims. The neighbor occupied the neighboring territory? Throw him a claim, let him either give it back, or you will receive a bonus to military support. The latter is used to declare a "fair" war, and actually decides who won. Specifically, these things are not bad, except for the moments when for some reason you have claims on the same territory several times. There are also claims of breaking contracts, a sudden attack, you can hijack a territory with your culture or religion. But I promised about the bad, right?

In general, interactions with other civilizations are quite limited: to make claims, to fight, to make peace, a non-aggression pact, to open/close borders, to show maps, to trade resources, to conclude an alliance. All. Interactions in the union are generally ridiculous: a discount on trade in resources, +5% to culture, +5% to science and general logistics. As much as five percent, Carl!!! Moreover, bots often fall for even such super-profitable offers. And logistics during the war is useful, yes. In both Endless Space and Endless Legend, there is a trade in technology, cities (planets), just gold, and there was also a strip with a probability of acceptance. After good diplomacy for the 4X genre, we get such a stub, but with a couple of good ideas. Despite the fact that there is no UN or the like in any Amplitude game at all, a big omission. At this rate, you will miss the prohibition of citrus fruits and crabs.

Hey, give up.. please
Hey, give up.. please
Canvas, instead of the third act
Further, more. Let's talk about such an ephemeral thing as balance. The fact that complexity affects only the quantitative characteristics of AI is, unfortunately, the standard of the industry and this will not surprise anyone, especially in strategies. Once I played at a fast speed and on a difficulty one higher than average. The neighboring AI almost destroyed me at the very beginning, the only thing that saved me was that he only did riders who could not enter the city. I'm afraid to imagine what's going on at the last difficulty, of course I won't check.

But this is not even the main claim. It will be difficult here, and you will have to start with examples of civet. In general, with proper skill, in the fifth part it is not very difficult to make an uber-city, which is the most populated, and builds miracles in 4 moves, gives the most tangible increase in science, culture, and even gold. This, of course, is not very good, but in general it is quite easy to "sit on two chairs" (or more), for example, to make a city or civilization a top in production and science, and rivet fancy units, but not enough, since there is not enough money for maintenance. In Humankind, this is very strange.

Influence. It is used to build outposts (the price progresses with each region), turn an outpost into a city, add a region to a city, adopt public institutions. There are no problems with these options, I have enough for adequate development in any scenario, even without specifically swinging in prestige (yes, by the end of the game there are 10 not accepted institutions, but most of them do not give much). You can also absorb the city for influence. And that's where the weirdness begins. Firstly, the price for this is simply exorbitant, even when choosing a "prestigious" culture (from which there is actually not such a big increase). Secondly, the price is constantly increasing, for each new district, for the population, for buildings, and for the absorbed city and for the city-absorber. An adequate method remains to start production of units only in the two necessary cities, and wait for about one epoch, for the price of about 10 new outposts, 5 public institutions (prices are approximate). As a result, the option is not needed because of its price, it is easier to destroy an unnecessary city by looting the square with your army (yes, this is how it is done, no buttons to destroy the city), build an outpost in the same place, and absorb it, it will come out faster and cheaper in every sense.

28/10/2022

Zimmer
Deus Ex is a flight. A flight in which there were incredible ups and even more incredible downs. And I decided to analyze it in more detail.

"Takeoff" — Deus Ex (2000)
It's 1994.

A man who will achieve his dreams
A man who will achieve his dreams
Warren Spector, inspired by James Bond films and Hollywood blockbusters, dreams of creating a cheerful shooter with stealth elements, but Electronic arts ruins all plans. EA was only interested in "commercially successful" projects, and for this Spector had to do something completely different from what he wanted.

EA logo for that year
EA logo for that year
Later, Warren becomes the producer of the legendary "System Shock".

Soon Spector moves to "Looking Glass Studio", where he is working on "Thief". During its development, Warren could not pass the level because the guards were too strong, and Spector asked that the hero be made more powerful too, but received the answer that then it would break the whole stealth- the main mechanics of the game. After this incident, Warren realizes how important variability is in games. There he also tries to develop his concept of the previously rejected Origin System — "Junction Point". But production could not be started, because the maintenance of the Austin office was very expensive (Spector's team and himself were there). Realizing his guilt due to the refusal to move to the central office in Boston and the owner's persuasion to open a new one in Austin, Spector resigns and disbands the team. By the way, the developments of "Junction Point" greatly helped in the development of "System Shock 2"

But then John Romero, the designer of Wolfenstein 3D, Doom and Quake, bursts into Warren's life.

At that time, he opened his studio "Ion Storm" and signed as many as 6 contracts for game development. By the way, the studio itself was located in the penthouse office, and Romero offered great working conditions. Warren agreed without hesitation, especially since Romero agreed to create an office for him in Austin. Finally Spector started creating a dream game a few years later and "Deus Ex" was gradually born.

The development started in 1997. For the first time (about 6 months), the developers, consisting of 6 people, came up with general information about the game. We decided to choose the setting in the style of cyberpunk, because we wanted to make the world chaotic, gloomy and completely unfriendly, and such a setting was best suited for the game. To make the immersion in the world even stronger, Warren decided to add as many locations as possible, even those that the player could not get into. According to him, this would enhance immersion and add realism to the world. About 200 characters were drawn, and the name was changed from a simple "Shooter" to "Deus ex". Everyone liked it so much that they decided not to change it and not to consider other options. The development team has expanded to 20 people.

Inspiration in the process of creating the project was taken from such films as "Robocop", "Men in Black", "The X-Files" and James Bond films. Among the games sources of inspiration were Half-Life, GoldenEye 007, Fallout and Thief: The Dark Project.

And also these legends
And also these legends
But the main thing that Spector explained to the team is that the user should act with the game and its environment in a way that is interesting to him, not to the developer. As we will see later, this will become the main feature of immersive sim games.

During development, one of Spector's mistakes was the division of the team into two parts, which caused constant conflicts, misunderstandings, and part of the team was dissolved. Also, for a long time, the artists were subordinate to the CEO, although they had to Warren Spector, which is why everyone adhered to the "matrix system" (division into administrative and functional subordination), which did not work in the previous two companies, but Warren was able to convince everyone that it was not effective.

The music was composed by Alexander Brandon, Michael Van Den Bosh and Dan Gardopi and was a mixture of jazz, techno and classic ambient tracks, each of which greatly enhanced the mysterious and harsh atmosphere of the game.

Warren wanted to add something from the real world to connect with him and leave the players food for thought. Conspiracy theories and terrorism were ideal for this. In 1997, all the news channels were talking about the issue of terrorism, every article in the newspaper was about it, it was just enough
look around, and this is reflected in the game. 2052, the world has become much more chaotic and dangerous than it is today. Terrorists acting openly kill innocent people by the thousands, and at this moment those who are trying to take control of everything and those who have been striving for world domination for centuries come out of the shadows - Secret rulers in whose existence only supporters of conspiracy theories believe.

The assassination of John F. Kennedy as an example
The assassination of John F. Kennedy as an example
When choosing an engine, the studio settled on Unreal Engine. He gave out a great picture and had the necessary tools.

In 1999, when it was time to release the game, one important thing was missed — AI. He was so stupid that the game would have been a failure, which is why Harvey Smith had to fix it with incredible speed, and he himself remembers it as a "terrible dream".

Shortly before the release of Deus Ex, Valve founder Gabe Newell tried it out. He said that the skill and augmentation systems don't work and the game is boring. Then the developers called Spector's wife and let her play. She started the introductory mission on the shore, threw the box into the water, swam around it, then tried to interact with the seagull and eventually decided to swim away from there riding on the box. Then she turned around and said, "That was the most fun I've ever played."

And so, in 2000, after 6 months of finishing the game and cutting out a bunch of content from the game, for example, a base on the moon and a mission in Russia, "Deus ex" comes out. It sells very well in Europe and America, gets a lot of fans, awards including the "best PC game", great ratings from critics and players, besides, she could get a film adaptation from Columbia Pictures. As a result, the game was able to bring the immersive sim genre to mind and became a model for the following games with variability.

"The Fall" — Deus Ex: Invisible War
Of course, after the successful first part, the release of the sequel was just a matter of time. Spector entrusted the lead designer of "Deus Ex", Harvey Smith, with the development of the sequel "Deus ex: Invisible War", and he supervised the new part of "Thief" and other projects.

 Harvey Smith - later he will create Arkane studios
Harvey Smith - later he will create Arkane studios
The game was released in 2003 on XBOX and Windows and was a complete failure. Literally one step separated the series from death.

this hood is full screen, it's just no comments
this hood is full screen, it's just no comments
The game was constantly slowing down due to optimization for XBOX, was greatly simplified in all aspects, and somewhere even worse. The role-playing system has dropped a lot in quality, although, even if it wasn't, then the secondary characters can still be counted on the fingers, some were returned from the first part, but the characters were fu**ed up, there were only one additional quest for each level. The combat system suffered greatly: not only is there simply no work with inventory, but everything also occupied one slot (a bar = a shotgun in size, it is logical), besides, all cartridges were universal, which did not allow switching to other weapons when ammunition ran out on the previous one.

And augmentations are such that they rather resemble magic, and this is terrible. Gg has become some kind of not interesting s**t, compared to the one who was the protagonist in the first part. I can only say about the plot that it tells about humanity, which lost the Internet and communications after the "Collapse" event, as a result of which people were divided into several groups and loosely connected states and cities. Well, the cherry on the cake was the lack of music during the missions, just silence and nothing more. But, even despite all the problems of the second part, the franchise gets one of the best reboots in the history of video games after 8 years.

"Rebirth" — Deus Ex: Human Revolution
After the terrible Invisible War, Deus ex had a long lull, but the employees of Ion Storm and Eidos believed and waited for the continuation of the series. And so, in 2007, expectations are interrupted. "Eidos Interactive" is opened by "Eidos Montreal", and its CEO becomes a retired top manager from Ubisoft - Stefan D'astois.

And in order to achieve it, he improves working conditions as much as possible: creates rest rooms, showers, entertainment areas and conference rooms. But this was not enough for the specialist to quit his job and move to another company. Then the ideal solution was the next Deus Ex. The first three employees were from Ubisoft Montreal, they could not resist
working on the "revival" of Deus Ex and got a job at Eidos Montreal.

David Anfossi
David Anfossi
Jean-Francois Dugas
Jean-Francois Dugas
Jonathan Jacques-Belltete.
Jonathan Jacques-Belltete.
The developers perfectly remembered what happened with Invisible War, and thanks to the fact that they had gone through the original Deus Ex several times, they were able to identify the best sides of the game and knew what to avoid when creating.

One of the main decisions of D'astois was that about 75 people worked on the creation of the game, and in any case about 300 people worked at Ubisoft, which caused constant stress and even conflicts.

After the fall of 2007 and rumors that a revival of the franchise is being prepared, Eidos release a teaser of Deus ex 3,.They understood that the three in the title would scare away players, and later called "Deus Ex: Human Revolution", and also make it a prequel. The teaser shows an augmented embryo to the music from the first part, and with it a statement about the opening of the studio and website.

The same teaser

Jacques-Belletet, artistic director of Human Revolution, chose black and gold as the main colors of the game. He associated gold with life, and black with night and the very foundation of cyberpunk. Such a visual will become one of the main features of the subsequent parts and the promo company in particular.

Since the events are now taking place in 2027, this allowed us to greatly change the visual of the game.

28/10/2022

Battle Brothers: Blades of the King, The Beginning

Before doing a review on Battle Brothers, I want to show you what kind of stories this game can create, so without further ado, let's go!

(And yes, why isn't there a review for this game on stopgame yet?!?)

Previously, they, Herbert, Eglid and Wulf, were simple soldiers in the service of a nobleman from the Gaunt family. One of them, or rather Herbert, saved up a lot of crowns in the service, and having gathered his friends, announced that now they are a real squad of mercenaries, they will serve not only nobles, according to their far-fetched code of honor, but those who will be more generous and give a better contract.

They had not been militia for a long time, who were taken into the army without a choice, after ten years of service, you either stayed in the service in order to receive crowns in salary, or handed over equipment and went to all four sides. Our guys paid to leave the equipment, and therefore they had at least something to start with.

They stopped in the city of Daystad, where there were no problems, on the contrary, the city was developing, and therefore there was a lot of work. There were three contracts that Harbert assessed as possible to fulfill. The first contract was to find the ruins of an old citadel, destroyed a long time ago by the Orcs. The second demanded to deliver a parcel to the vizier of one of the southern city-states. The third was that it was necessary to es**rt the caravan through dangerous forests to Erzgrub, a village near the mountains, where stones were cut for many things in the south, tools were running out there, and therefore the caravaneer decided to fill the demand while it was there. Since they paid little for finding the ruins, they did not want to deal with the southerners yet, and the caravan was fed at the expense of the employer, they decided to take a third contract. After shaking hands and taking an advance payment, they set off

Here they are, from left to right, how I love Battle Brothers
Here they are, from left to right, how I love Battle Brothers
But before leaving, two brothers, Arnulf and Adler Gidenheim, followed the squad. The fish almost all died out, and the brothers lived by fishing, and when they found out that there was a job in which they fed you, paid you and equipped you with weapons, and there was a chance to get rich, they went to Herbert to beg them to take them with them. He quickly decided to accept them, a mercenary squad of three people is not respectable, at least five bandits of the first class will not go.

Along the way, many were already starting to go limp. It seemed to them that adventures were about to begin, but for now they were just guarding the cart of some merchants there. In order for the squad not to lose morale and continue to serve well, it was necessary to give them a goal. Herbert decided that a good goal would be to make friends with people and become famous in the common people, receiving not only gifts from good-natured laypeople, but also a discount when shopping! Not as ambitious as it could have been, but it worked! The squad revived and continued on their way.

There were no problems on the way, the squad received a whole thousand crowns, and the merchants went to spread rumors about us as good mercenaries, since the bandits did not dare to attack.

After celebrating a little in the tavern such a jackpot, Herbert bought himself a real chain mail from a local bronnik with the money from the contract, and gave his gambeson to Arnulf. As soon as he showed up in it, he was asked to accompany the caravan to the fishing town of Sandorf. They paid a thousand crowns again, and the captain immediately agreed. Again, there were no problems with the contract, no one attacked along the way, and the customer did not delay payment for a second. But in the most remote town by the sea there was neither a bronnik with a gunsmith, nor a job. Well, I had to go look for a job. Sandorf himself was located not far from the city where the detachment started, Daystad. Remembering that there was a lot of work in it, the squad headed there. Of the new contracts, there was only one. A nobleman was robbed of his family heirloom, a crystal crown. Bandits under the cover of night cut the guard and stole the crown. The purpose of the squad was to follow fresh tracks and pick up the relic. They paid 400 crowns. Acceptable.

To search for freaks, they even gave out a boy, the son of a local forester, who helped to find the bandits. Having missed these with really serious bandits, they went out to the robbers who stole the crown.

When they came out to them, they immediately stood in a fighting stance, ours also lined up in a row and the battle began. Yes, even though there were fewer of us, but we had tactics! Wait until they come up with spears out in front, and chop down the rest with an axe, which we managed! Everyone got a little bit, but there are no fractures or blood loss, which I consider a victory.

The fight was at night. During the rain. My crossbowman hated rain for the rest of his shooting career.
The fight was at night. During the rain. My crossbowman hated rain for the rest of his shooting career.
Having collected not too broken weapons and shields, the squad went to the city, where he received his well-deserved payment. Again, there was no suitable job in it. At the meeting, the squad decided to go north, to the Erzgrub, to buy armor for themselves, since the captain's condition showed that the better the armor, the higher the survival rate, and there was not a scratch on Harbert. On the way, having dropped into the Molburg castle, the detachment bought a chain mail coif and a good shield. All this was taken by the captain again, but now he promised to switch the costs of equipment to the rest of the squad.

Arriving in Erzgrub, the village was found in ruins. The Northern raiders decided that they could have the right to plunder peaceful people. The mercenaries at that time had already sorted out almost all contracts except one. In addition to the raiders, bandits also came to the expanse. They were asked to lime them for 600 crowns. Having agreed and hired a day laborer Bjorn, arming him with a spear and a shield, they set off. The bandits were found in the hills, but not when they were at the top, but when they had already descended. The tactic now was to stand on the hill and fight back from it, preventing the bandits from taking the height.

In this battle, the weather did not interfere with the crossbowman, and did not make the WEATHER (haha... well, laugh for decency) 
In this battle, the weather did not interfere with the crossbowman, and did not make the WEATHER (haha... well, laugh for decency)
Having come to the village, it was even necessary to raise the payment a little, since the elder now had not enough money. But the squad got paid. At that time, many mercenaries had already chosen these places, and therefore decided to go to the far north. There, in the small village of Heberg, robbers roamed the highway, which the caravaneers did not like. They paid 500 crowns.

But only Herbert wanted to ask where exactly to look for them, he found out about the insolence of local bandits. They had established a lair in the forest, and it was necessary to smoke them out of there. So they would at least leave the village alone for a couple of months.

Arriving at the place, Herbert tried to drive them out of these lands with a dialogue, and when it didn't work out, he took up a spear. In this battle, the tactics were the simplest. Wall to wall, which in principle helped to break the enemy. When the enemies had already decided to run, the squad tied them up with a fight and everyone died like flies.

The last coward at death is trying to fight for his life. What a pathetic effort.
The last coward at death is trying to fight for his life. What a pathetic effort.
Arriving in the city, the squad was greeted as idols. They were given drinks and food, and the rest of the day they feasted in a tavern with the locals. The bandits who were defeated by the detachment terrorized the village for more than a year, the authorities did not know about local problems, because on many maps the settlement is not even marked. It is too far from the main territory of the kingdom.

The squad returned with the wooden crown of the head of the bandits, a symbol of the power of a huge gang. And when the Captain was trying on the crown, someone jokingly called the squad the Blades of the King, which then stuck.

Less than a month later, they became famous in the villages, the squad was tipsy and caroused for three days, until someone accidentally burned down the tavern. That's how mercenary units appear in this world.

gry
Well, now I'm happy, because I've finished writing this story. If you want, I can give a sequel, and also really, do a review on Battle Brothers. Otherwise I really have to do it on my own. Goodbye!

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28/10/2022

28/10/2022

28/10/2022

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