Hotfoot's Kickstarter Roundup

[Hotfoot]

Okay, so with the advent of Kickstarter, I've grown hopeful about seeing the return of some of my favorite types of games. In this case, largely isometric party-based RPGs, but still. Here is the breakdown.

Wasteland 2: It's no surprise that I enjoy me some good post-apocalyptic action here and there, and since I never really got into the original Fallout games, a successor of their inspiration seemed like a good enough deal to me. This one I was the most cautious for, due to it being the first Kickstarter I donated to, and I wasn't entirely sure if it would work out. So far, so good, the gameplay videos look like it's going to go well, though people are complaining a bit about the dialog system.

Xenonauts: I threw down on this before the XCOM: Enemy Unknown game was even really a sure thing, but then I did play a demo of it before throwing down. I was pretty cautious with this one as well, but so far of all the games I've backed, it's the only one that's given me any actual game to play. Sure, the demo was an alpha, and right now it's in beta test, but fuck man, I can actually play the full game, bugs or not. I intend to do a let's play or AARP series when the game hits full release. XCOM Enemy Unknown was fun, but this is old school shit right here.

Shadowrun Returns: I threw down pretty heavy for this one, and if you're surprised, it's because it's FUCKING CYBERPUNK. Yes, there's magic in there, yes there are ogres and elves, fine, fuck it, I don't care, it's party-based Cyberpunk. I'm going to fucking town on this shit. As the recent gameplay video shows, it looks like it's coming along nicely. Interesting note, by the way, they raised a total of around 1.8 million, of which, after rewards and other such shenanigans, left them with around 1.2 million with which to make the game. Still no real ETA on when it's out, but it's getting there. The art style looks good, and the combat, from what I've seen, looks straightforward and challenging, what with AI doing things like throwing fucking grenades, something which pissed me off in XCOM because it made me realize that I was being an idiot. In other words, GOOD AI.

Conquest: Vitrium Uprising: This one breaks my heart. I tried, I really did, to make this one happen. I loved the original game, it was some of the best space combat this side of Homeworld. Every time I launch Sins of a Solar Empire, I long to be playing a newer version of Conquest: Frontier Wars, the best game I never paid for (legally, thanks to mail-in rebates). But, sadly, this one failed, as did a later Kickstarter for another game series I wanted to see a new version of but couldn't bear to put a pledge down for when I saw how little motion it was getting (and how lackluster the pitch video was). I was beginning to feel the Kickstarter high ebb here.

Project Eternity: Obsidian has made some of the games I've wanted to love unreservedly but can't, for a number of reasons. They also made Planescape: Torment, for you haters, so fuck off. But Alpha Protocol, Fallout: New Vegas, KOTOR 2, Neverwinter Nights 2, among others, were all great, if flawed titles. I blame the fact that for a while, they were following in Bioware's footsteps, and as a "secondary" development house, often were left picking up the crumbs of Bioware's leftover funding to try and cash in, but never reigned in their ambition, despite having less funding and control over their products. Still, a return to isometric RPGs? A low-cost high concept game with little to no publisher oversight? That could be the difference between awesome and might be awesome. Or might be awesome and suck, we'll see. Currently not yet ready for gameplay videos, we're not likely to see this one until 2014. Still, here's hoping it goes well. This one I went with a reasonable amount on, backed by my enthusiasm from their previous titles.

Indiegogo Interlude: Starship Corporation: Okay, this one I don't have much excuse for beyond it being a space game and me loving designing things in 4X games. It's looking good, well detailed, but the demo is very limited and still sort of buggy. Still, this is one I couldn't help but poke at. Indiegogo, it should be noted, does not do the "you don't pay if the minimum isn't met" thing Kickstarter does, so this is the only one I've funded over there, and it was past the goal anyway when I did. I'd really like to see the parts where the ships go on missions, but I'll have to wait for a new test version I'm sure.

Okay, and now, the big one.

Star Citizen/Squadron 42: Fuck me. Okay, full disclosure, I went heavy on this one. I thought I went heavy on Shadowrun, but no, I doubled down on that shit for this game. So did thousands of others. To date they have raised over EIGHT. MILLION. DOLLARS. Look, I love me my space sims. I have an X52 that is gathering dust apart from when I reinstall Freespace Open or a handful of games that offer Joystick support, and even then, sometimes it's not worth it. This game is being developed WITH THIS JOYSTICK. It is in the cockpits of the ships. It is free-roaming space action the likes of which we have never fully seen. Not the tiered bullshit of Freelancer, not the glorious but buggy and singleplayer only I-War 2: Edge of Chaos, not the top-down turned-based mini-game laden realm of Space Rangers, and not the unforgiving heart of darkness that is EVE Online. This is a game where you can get your friends together in a squadron or on board the same ship and rampage across the galaxy against the computer or other players. Want to go online and pit your wits against others? Cool. Want to just chill and be space barons against the cold hard AI-driven universe? Done. I will be getting a new computer in large part for this game. It will run like butter on release with all the options cranked to maximum. Marcao will be chained to the specifications for this game with a laptop with every website on it loaded to specs for hardware to run it.

If this game ends up sucking, there will be no place on Earth that will be safe. I will use the god made machine crafted in Marcao's forge to bring ruination upon the planet. Using its unholy powers I will summon into being elder beings the likes of which would drive all that even hear of them to despair and madness. When the culling of the world is not yet complete, I will bring Chris Roberts before the results of his abject failure and make him drink in the suffering of all he has wrought, and he will stand vigil for future civilizations as a warning, undying and ever suffering.

Just so we're clear.

That said, we've seen some in-game footage and some very limited gameplay of the thing so far, but it's still a ways out and again, we're not likely to see this one until 2014 at the earliest.

Now, on to a sticky subject, the games I didn't back. You may have noticed that I've griped here before about 4X games, and how all of the ones that have come out in recent years have found new and fascinating ways of sucking. To date, I have yet to find a 4X game I've had more fun with than Space Empires 4.

I don't need to tell you how sad that is. Most of you gave up after Masters of Orion 2.

But there's been at least a half dozen 4X games on Kickstarter alone. Why haven't I donated to them?

Here's the short version: They're likely to suck too.

No, really. They might be awesome, but they also might suck ass. I don't know what it is about this genre, but the last good games in the genre were made at the turn of the millennium. There is not a one right now that I can look at and say, "Oh, man, that's a good game." I can't even deign most of the modern ones as GOOD. Not looking for greatness here, just mediocrity. Now, granted, there's a few I've not tried because in order to play them with all the features turned on, I'd have to pay nearly $200, which is ludicrous for a game I might enjoy.

What would make me utterly over the moon would be a game that combined the best parts of Total War, Homeworld, and Space Empires/MOO/Rebellion. Massive fleets duking it out in grand battles over three dimensions. Formations of smaller ships engaging, breaking, reforming, calling in reinforcements, troop ships slipping in between the zones of conflict to hot drop special forces to soften the planet up for invasion or disable planetary defenses, ground combat that you could control in ways that were fun and interesting, espionage and diplomacy that matter and feel organic (I know, hard to do with AI, but let me dream).

Or, you know, at the very least SPACE EMPIRES 4 with the ability to play the thing at modern resolutions without it looking like a fucking postage stamp. And, you know, maybe with some hexes. Love me some hexes.

To date, none of the existing titles or even kickstarters have managed that. Not a one. I mean, I'd love the above example actually fucking happening, but I'm willing to settle for a rehash of older shit with a shine and polish. If you all find something where the pitch video doesn't make me grind my teeth, do let me know.

Bonus mention by the way to FTL, a Kickstarter game that I didn't pledge to, but bought on release. It's fun, if a fairly simple Roguelike game, and hard as balls.

[B4UTRUST]

Looks like Hotfoot and I backed a few of the same games. Not really all that surprising. I admit I went in heavy for Shadowrun. I blame the fact they kept offering more and more awesome shit at higher levels of backing... I had to stop myself at $175...

I also tend to buy in on a lot of PnP RPGs (The Parsec, Metamorphosis Alpha, Interface Zero, etc). So far I think out of the 10 projects I've backed that have successfully funded I've gotten my rewards from 2 of them? Maybe three. Takes awhile on some of this stuff but it seems worth it.