Wrack

Carnevil said:

I make no apologies about having an opinion contrary to yours; nor do I make any apologies about expressing that opinion. I genuinely had high hopes for the game, I'm genuinely disappointed in it, and I'm genuinely disappointed in how much praise and sales it's gotten.

I didn't really have any hopes for Borderlands 1 but I got it on sale anyway once because of how highly praised it was. It was basically a big pile of bullshit and I couldn't understand why people liked it. (Made me never interested in Borderlands 2 either)

(especially I like the claims of "FPS and RPG done right"... bullllshit)

at any rate, it probably is a good idea to keep any game-bashing on low for anywhere that looks like official Wrack news. It might be OK for Doomworld and your personal twitter account (dunno if you use a separate one for the game and you or what). Or you can just do something humorously like Devolver's Fork Parker and bash everything -- but I don't quite recommend trying to duplicate that effort :P

I know at least one reporter who read his twitter feed. Carn's complaint made the news in Nofrag, a french website dedicated to first person shooters. The wreck is low then, but yeah, it could be damaging for the reputation toward those who are aware of Wrack's existence.

Carnevil said:

We'll have a demo when the first level represents more of a vertical slice of the finished product. I think that for people who grab the demo, you've only got one shot to impress them so there's no point in rushing that out.

Good point, I'll make sure to share it extensively once you've made it!

chungy said:

at any rate, it probably is a good idea to keep any game-bashing on low for anywhere that looks like official Wrack news. It might be OK for Doomworld and your personal twitter account (dunno if you use a separate one for the game and you or what).

That's pretty much exactly what I've done. All of these tweets have been from my personal Twitter account, not Wrack's Twitter account. See? Separate! :)

But yes, I concur completely with your thoughts on the game. They're both basically $60 chore simulators. (But, as it turns out, people enjoy chores!) I especially agree with your point about them not even doing a good job of making an FPS/RPG hybrid. For instance, the whole spending of skill points is generally pretty ridiculous. They generally give you some passive ability which isn't very interesting (-2% to gun recoil... um, wow.) It's like they combined the worst of FPS's (cover-based gameplay) with the worst of RPG's (chores) to make... well, something super popular apparently.

EDIT: @chungy: I am totally following Fork Parker now. That guy seems to be quite hilarious from what I've read so far! :)

We just put out a juicy new update! This one contains the next level... E1M5!



In addition to that, it's got a new HUD, chain sounds, a new boss, and a lot more. This new boss (while still a bit rough around the edges) is one I like quite a bit. This is the first boss you fight in an open arena where you can really spread your wings and take advantage of your speed. Hope you guys enjoy it.

Details here: http://www.wrackgame.com/forums/showthread.php?606-Update-quot-oct2012-quot-10-16-2012

I hope this comes out on steam soon still eagerly awaiting. I really am dying to play this all I've seen are videos and it looks amazing.

I'm sorry but that screenshot looks really boring. From the description I'm assuming you don't plan to add cover due to the gameplay (I haven't actually bought Wrack so I can't comment on that) but that doesn't mean it shouldn't at least have height variation to look interesting.

Springy said:

I hope this comes out on steam soon still eagerly awaiting. I really am dying to play this all I've seen are videos and it looks amazing.

Contrary to popular belief, Steam is not the only way to buy PC games :P You can get Wrack through the website or through Desura! ... plus, in a week, you'll be able to get it on GamersGate as well! You have many options! :)

But yeah, we're moving up the list on Steam Greenlight. They greenlit about 20 more games, so that puts us near the top 100. If they keep taking around 20 games a month, it shouldn't be too long before we get greenlit. Regardless, your support is needed as always! :)

zap610 said:

I'm sorry but that screenshot looks really boring. From the description I'm assuming you don't plan to add cover due to the gameplay (I haven't actually bought Wrack so I can't comment on that) but that doesn't mean it shouldn't at least have height variation to look interesting.

I agree with zap on this one. The only appeal comes from the textures and smooth lighting, which had alot of hype early on, but there seems to be a lack of the latter. Since it's a big room, there's nothing by bright. Then, the room is a symmetrical copy of a quarter from what I can make of it. A 20 minute job maybe in Doombuilder?

I like the green and orange color combination, but yeah, it's a symmetrical square flat room with nothing to it other than some detail. Not really much for a promotional shot, and doesn't give high hopes that the rest of the level will be better.

What essel said, really nice color combo but the room itself looks like something from Tormentor's old maps.

Isn't that a screenshot from the boss arena of e1m3?

Aside from releasing a free demo, I know this is kind of a long shot, but it would be really cool if you can have the ability to create your own custom music playlist, kind of like in Tekken Tag Tournament 2.

Is Wrack in a good state of full completion (for atleast one of the episodes?) I want to buy it but I don't want to be buying something that's atleast not 75% finished (level-wise.)

Is the full version of Wrack out yet?

Well, the next update is going to be pretty huge. We'll have the next level, E1M6 (which has a new texture set), along with cutscenes, finalized menu and loading screen graphics, some pretty big overhauling of the E1M4/5 textures, and a lot more. That'll bring the total to 6 of the 9 levels being complete, with the rest to come shortly thereafter since the rest will use the same texture set as E1M6 (or other existing textures). It's starting to get really close.

The other two episodes are extra DLC - sort of like Final Doom is to Doom 2. There will be all sorts of new music, cutscene art, monsters, weapons, etc. which will go into them, so it'll be no small undertaking we can do easily.

Okay,thanks!

Just looked at the latest trailer, and it looks sweeeet! There better be some awesome boss battles. =D

Obsidian said:

Just looked at the latest trailer, and it looks sweeeet! There better be some awesome boss battles. =D

Absolutely! The game at its essence is sort of a Doom/Contra type hybrid. Satisfying boss battles are something I felt FPS games largely lacked, so I'm trying to do them the way I think they should be done. So far, so good! :)

I think the Metroid Prime series are the only FPS games that have you beat on platformer-style boss battles. Strange how they never really took off in the genre.

Dragonsbrethren said:

I think the Metroid Prime series are the only FPS games that have you beat on platformer-style boss battles. Strange how they never really took off in the genre.

Probably because Metroid Prime was the only series that did first-person platforming well.

Go watch some Quake 3 defrag vids and educate yourself.

We've sadly had to keep the platforming to a bare minimum since a lot of people have had trouble with it. In the latest version, there are even switches to do stuff like extend bridges. We're still keeping all the other elements from platformer games, though: bosses, heavily themed and varied levels, level hazards (mostly of the "don't leave the ground" variety, like crushing walls), etc.

caco_killer said:

Probably because Metroid Prime was the only series that did first-person platforming well.

No better than anything else. Really the only thing they had that most other FPSes don't is a double jump that allows you to correct your mistakes in mid air. I think they're the only ones that really tried, so of course they're the only ones that succeeded. Same with making the boss fights actually interactive, rather that "shoot this big dude with more HP than normal" or "QTE's are interactive, right?"

Carnevil said:

We've sadly had to keep the platforming to a bare minimum since a lot of people have had trouble with it.

Give Kain some Space Jump Boots.

kristus said:

Go watch some Quake 3 defrag vids and educate yourself.

I don't think that Q3's platforming really translate well. They are rather crude, to say the least, at least for something that may grace a console one day.

Like I already said, go watch some defrag and educate yourself. Also, fuck consoles. They have nothing positive to offer FPS.

This does look very cool!!

If this is to come out on Steam I shall pick it up :)

YAY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=mPfLXVj88PM#t=21s

A singleplayer fps with walljumping would be kickass imo.

You got Mirrors Edge. Doesn't that have Wall Jumping? Other than that I think mostly of Warsow, which got it but doesn't have any SP campaign.

Dragonsbrethren said:

No better than anything else. Really the only thing they had that most other FPSes don't is a double jump that allows you to correct your mistakes in mid air. I think they're the only ones that really tried, so of course they're the only ones that succeeded. Same with making the boss fights actually interactive, rather that "shoot this big dude with more HP than normal" or "QTE's are interactive, right?"

Well, there's also early-PS1 platformer Jumping Flash! - although there, it's compensated with both a triple jump and having the camera automatically look downward at a certain point during your jump (not sure if that only happens when you double-jump, or if it happens when you start a downward descent). Wouldn't really call it a FPS, though you can shoot from your first-person perspective if you want to.

kristus said:

You got Mirrors Edge. Doesn't that have Wall Jumping?

It definitely does, and it's quite satisfying. I've heard that the shooting leaves a lot to be desired, however.

I recently purchased Wrack and played through it because, eh... why not? So I booted it up, chose the hardest difficulty (because why not) and was immediately greeted with some sexy cell-shaded goodness and a pretty interesting environment (the cityscape in the background). And that's where the good ended.

E1M1: A pretty bland series of hallways that were extremely copy and pasted, filled enemies that could barely put up a fight against my onslaught of death, and finally against a boss that simply stood there and let me take off a good 3/4ths of his health before even bothering to counterattack. A couple of cool outdoor scenes that use the cityscape setting, but overall kind of a letdown in terms of a starting level. (I did like the teaching through gameplay style of the level though, where you encountered something in a controlled environment then had to apply it in a more complex environment.)

E1M2: Another boring near-entirely symmetrical layout with minimal usage of the engine's 3d capabilities, against boring enemies that can barely fight back.

E1M3: Same as the last except with an end boss, who couldn't hit me with 90% of his attacks as they'd just run into the raised "railing" around me and explode harmlessly. Also multiple periods of just sitting there and letting me pelt him with fire.

E1M4: See E1M2

E1M5: Starting the map I though, "Oh cool, there are some neat traps that are actually harmful, and alternate paths," then two rooms later we were back to symmetrical-snoozefest-land culminating in another hilariously easy boss.

Overall, I'd say Wrack is pretty bad honestly. The style looks great and the controls are nice, fluid, and movement is quick and precise but the gameplay and level design completely fail. The cool outdoor cityscape setting of the first level is abandoned for corridor crawls, the 3d capabilities of the engine are used like once or twice, and enemies are borderline harmless. I'd say there is a good game somewhere in it waiting to come out, but in its current state it's basically a tech demo and nothing more. A tech demo that costs 10 dollars.