WH40K: Inquisitor – Martyr - New game announced

[WarriorFish]

If the game were like Bioware's you'd have two choices: "save entire planet" and "sacrifice everyone to Khorne"... no thanks. Now if we're talking in the style of The Witcher that I could get behind. Let us scurry around covering the galaxy in greys and living out "the ends justify the means" and more. That's the Inquisition game we need and deserve.

[Volt]

Dark Heresy computer game, Mass Effect style. Hhhhnnngggg! But I think that this one will follow a linear plot without much freedom of choice.

Err, did you read the release? It opens up into a sandbox game once the main campaign is finished.

[Frater Cornelius]

 

Dark Heresy computer game, Mass Effect style. Hhhhnnngggg! But I think that this one will follow a linear plot without much freedom of choice.

Err, did you read the release? It opens up into a sandbox game once the main campaign is finished.

 

 

Must've missed that part. Oh well, I will just lean back and see then ;)

[Stormborn]

 

I suppose one of the big tickboxes for me would be if I can design the appearance and choose the name of the player character for myself.

And if the Witcher series has taught me anything, it's that I'm significantly happier with games that don't allow for custom names and appearance as it allows for a more finely crafted experience in terms of story. Is this true 100% of the time? Of course not, but it certainly helps aim the devs on a sharper focus.

 

 

Much as I love the Witcher series, it just doesn't compare with Fallout or TES.  WIthout including the main story and various side stories I logged over 2,000 hours into Skyrim from release date unitl March 2013 and the number for Oblivion, Fallout 3 and Fallout NV are just as big and Oblivion is really Bugthesda's last proper RPG.  I've been playing video games for 33 years and in my experience nothing compares to then for enjoyment, balance, longevity, story or lore to Bugthesda's finest. 

 

The best thing GW could do is get Bugthesda to develop a sandbox RPG for them (admitedly it will die a lot until it's fully patched and then it will stilll will).  My second choice of developer would be Bioware but they have to have 85 possible romance options in the game along with a party system full of  2 or 3 characters you like but theirs skills don't synergise so you can only ever take 1 of them in your party, 4 or so characters who are so bland you forget there in the game and 6 or so characters you can't stand but you have too have at least 2 of them in your party at anyone time as their skills or prescence is essential and of coures the infinite moral choices none of which have any effect on the game or its ending and you will be forced to play pay to win multiplayer to gain access to the more palatable endings (that being saif if you don't play the last 30  mintutes of Mass Effect 3 its an awesome games.

 

I know nothing of Martyr's developers I'm hoping as was the case with CD Projekt Red (The Witcher) and 4A Games (Metro 2023) that they come up with a decent original title which they can develop. 

 

Just thought Metro 2023 would make a good starting point for an under-hive FPS its already full of cults, mutants toxic hazards and hand built firearms, must check for a 40K mod.

[Lucien Eilam]

The best thing GW could do is get Bugthesda to develop a sandbox RPG for them

 

That's not how it works. GW aren't commissioning any of these developers to do anything. Developers who are interested in using GW's IP pitch to them for a licence, then pay them royalties. GW check that the company isn't likely to tarnish the brand, ensure they aren't misusing the IP during development, and collect a cheque at the end.

 

Increasingly, AAA developers don't want anything to do with licensed IP. The cost and risk of developing a major game are bad enough without giving a percentage up to anyone else. THQ were desperately trying to establish their own properties when they went under.

 

Forget about studios like Bethesda and Bioware. They have their own very popular, well-established, and much more lucrative IP to work with.

[Marshal Rohr]

This universe deserves a story that only the heavy hitters can provide. Third rate studios actually damage the universe by turning people off with bad story lines. Granted I stopped playing the Witcher because I found it tedious, but played mass effect multiple times, but studios like that can still draw and audience.

[Jareddm]

 

 

I suppose one of the big tickboxes for me would be if I can design the appearance and choose the name of the player character for myself.

And if the Witcher series has taught me anything, it's that I'm significantly happier with games that don't allow for custom names and appearance as it allows for a more finely crafted experience in terms of story. Is this true 100% of the time? Of course not, but it certainly helps aim the devs on a sharper focus.

 

 

Much as I love the Witcher series, it just doesn't compare with Fallout or TES.  WIthout including the main story and various side stories I logged over 2,000 hours into Skyrim from release date unitl March 2013 and the number for Oblivion, Fallout 3 and Fallout NV are just as big and Oblivion is really Bugthesda's last proper RPG.  I've been playing video games for 33 years and in my experience nothing compares to then for enjoyment, balance, longevity, story or lore to Bugthesda's finest. 

Good god, Skyrim is the absolute last thing I would want this game to be like.  Far too large with nowhere near enough to fill it.  Talk about a game that I stopped caring about...

[Stormborn]

@Jareddm - Horses for courses, personally I loved Skyrim but I'm not proposing that a 40K game should try to echo Skyrim's scale or style other than being free roam and not being forced to follow a set story and single player.  The Metro series with its dark and eerie tunnels and ruined buildings seems a better setting for 40K, if that could married to a decent character creation system (Fallout or TES spring to mind) and fun combat I'd be very happy.  Something set in a hive city or section of one with access to the spire and under hive so you have a variety of environments and locations.

 

@Lucien Eliam - Beth and Boiware have picked up stuff that's not there IP before some successfully and some not so.  GW's real problem is that by licensing so much tat they don't do their IP any favours.  Look at Batman until Rocksteady got involved Batman games were on the whole awful and Star Wars and Lord of the Rings have had similar problems lots of titles most of them dire. 

 

My fingers are crossed for Martyr, the right game could improve 40K's profile and profit.

[Lucien Eilam]

Beth and Boiware have picked up stuff that's not there IP before some successfully and some not so.

Which syllable of "increasingly" is giving you trouble? Bethesda's last licensed game was 7 years ago. That's an eternity in the video game industry. BioWare's was 4 years ago, and they only went for that because they'd just been bought out so they could risk an MMO, and it was the Star Wars licence. You know what 40k really, really isn't? Anywhere near as well known and popular as Star Wars.

[Stormborn]

Calm yourself down I was simply responding to a post you made not calling your wife names.

 

My point was that GW might want to consider reducing shovelling out tat and concenetrate on a decent IP.  Quality rather than quantity.

[WarriorFish]

Civil discourse is the best kind, I see no reason to needlessly get confrontational over what appears to be two points that aren't counter to each other. Please keep within the spirit and rules of the B&C and let's not see a good topic wasted.

[Brother Heinrich]

Not to continually bring up Space Marine and Relic (we all appreciated what they did for the series), but seriously, this trailer still gives me goosebumps. 

 

 

That's how you introduce this damn universe. Heavy Bolters, Chainswords, Carnage, and sorrowful awesome music that evokes the Grim Gothic nature of the setting.

[Marshal Reinhard]

Not to continually bring up Space Marine and Relic (we all appreciated what they did for the series), but seriously, this trailer still gives me goosebumps. 

That's how you introduce this damn universe. Heavy Bolters, Chainswords, Carnage, and sorrowful awesome music that evokes the Grim Gothic nature of the setting.

 

I always preferred the one from 2009, I think it was, the one that began with "Humanity has always looked skywards for it's true path"

 

But to try and avoid derailing the topic further. I'm cautiously optimistic. I'm hoping SEGA will get relic back on track with their 40k games eventually, because they had an amazing track record in my opinion. In the mean time I'm not at at all against this latest trend of 40k games popping up everywhere. While games such as storm of vengeance are unfortunate, there's also a chance that we might get a real gem in our hands eventually. Maybe this game will be it, we don't know yet.

[Son of Carnelian]

We must be open to the idea of someone other than a AAA-game studio making a good Warhammer game, because that's all that's on the horizon. Automatically discounting the efforts of smaller studios will only result in lower sales for those games and thus forever lock us out of returning to the AAA scene again. 

 

I suggest everyone here check out Regicide. It shows so real promise and captures the brutality of the universe quite well. 

[Firepower]

This universe deserves a story that only the heavy hitters can provide. Third rate studios actually damage the universe by turning people off with bad story lines. Granted I stopped playing the Witcher because I found it tedious, but played mass effect multiple times, but studios like that can still draw and audience.

 

One could argue that heavy hitter studios become heavy hitter studios by starting as wee little studios that wrote good stories and made good games.

[Ishagu]

Thing is, this game could be a gem.

 

Some great little games have appeared in places no one expects them. We don't know anything at the moment so no point in being negative.

[Firepower]

Thing is, this game could be a gem.

 

Some great little games have appeared in places no one expects them. We don't know anything at the moment so no point in being negative.

 

Just watched an interesting video talking about Half Life 3 effectively being on life support in the studio, in no small part because of internet gamer hate.  Because these charming souls will whinge, rage, threaten devs, and in one case call in bomb threats on their planes, for putting out games that do not meet often impossible levels of expectation and demands, Valve decided that it had no real motive to releasing HL3 (and thanks to Steam, had no need of the potential revenue either).  They look at the Mass Effect 3 fallout as the most conclusive evidence.

 

The source from Valve used an amazing analogy, but thanks to its crude nature, it can't be uttered here.  :lol:

 

So, imagine a big studio with a reputation to uphold looking at the Warhammer IP, then looking at the online communities that already exist centered around that IP.  Why in the raging hells would they want to even touch it, when the IP is already plagued by bottomless wells of vitriol and obscenity over even the most insignificant of perceived failures?

 

The Warhammer universe may deserve a big developer, but the fans don't.  Much of this thread alone is proof enough.

[Arkangilos]

Exactly, it's rather sad.

 

And also, to go with what Firepower said earlier, all AAA companies started small.

[Ishagu]

Firepower has it nailed.

People expect so much from everything relating to this hobby, and are quick to anger.

It must be tough to work for GW, some of the online hate must be soul crushing...

[Brother Heinrich]

Idk, while some of the hate id definitely unwarranted, the bar has been set by other games developers. I won't be an apologist and say, "hey, you did your best, so here's a good rating!" for a game that doesn't deserve it. The realm of entertainment is a cutthroat venue. You don't get points for trying your best but falling short of the competition, you get bought out or file for bankruptcy. It's not hard to look at what formulas work, what things please fans, and do the majority of those things. The key is innovation curbed by the desires of your largest target consumer group.

 

Basically, in the game of games, you win or you die. No sympathy. 

[Arkangilos]

Idk, while some of the hate id definitely unwarranted, the bar has been set by other games developers. I won't be an apologist and say, "hey, you did your best, so here's a good rating!" for a game that doesn't deserve it. The realm of entertainment is a cutthroat venue. You don't get points for trying your best but falling short of the competition, you get bought out or file for bankruptcy. It's not hard to look at what formulas work, what things please fans, and do the majority of those things. The key is innovation curbed by the desires of your largest target consumer group.

 

Basically, in the game of games, you win or you die. No sympathy. 

 

Nobody is saying to give them points for trying. We are saying don't condemn them before YOU try it. That there is no point in going, "Not interested, not done by a major company" or "This is going to suck."

 

 

And I've seen some games released by smaller companies that have been better than AAA titles. 

[Firepower]

I'm also saying that fans, especially of pre-existing franchises, set unrealistically high bars.  More importantly, the fallout when those bars are not met is drastically disproportionate to whatever failings might exist.  For instance, from earlier in this very thread 'I just saw a cinematic trailer of a game that hasn't been made yet, and the low quality voice acting is indisputable evidence that the game will be garbage.'  Such a minuscule, unimportant detail with no actual bearing on the final product, creating a drastic condemnation, and that's par for the course.

 

When a studio makes its own IP, the game can get away with much more, because there isn't anyone waiting to rush to the internet with a tanker truck full of piss and vinegar the moment someone pronounces Roboute differently than they do, or because the aquilla on a torn pillow case in a bed in a single hab block on the third level had 5 feathers instead of 6 on one of its wings.  Of course, they are under much more scrutiny if and when their own IP becomes famous, and that same group of piddling malcontents gets their hooks in, but until then the studio has a chance to focus on important things like tight controls, solid mapping, and innovative skills rather than focusing half their efforts on placating the people who hate their product before it's even made.

 

No, developers shouldn't get a free pass just because it's Warhammer, or just because they tried really hard.  But the petty vim that you can see flying around the online Warhammer community before a potential video game is even introduced is more than enough to scare actual big name studios away from the IP, and it's ominously indicative of the reaction this or any other Warhammer video game is going to receive, regardless of quality.  Many people would only be satisfied if the game came with a free 50 ton pile of gold, and some would still rage like rabid mandrills because there isn't any whip cream on the gold.  Studios are all too aware of those mandrills, because they're louder than anyone else, and that gives them some sway over how the end product sells.

 

It's unrealistic standards and over reactions like that which poison the well.  Be happy for a good Warhammer game, and don't go spitting in the studio's eyes if it's not the greatest game of all time.  Or at the very least, wait until there's more information about the game than a paragraph and a cinematic trailer before grabbing the pitchforks and napalm.

 

Realistic expectations and reasonable evaluations. It's not a matter of sympathy.  It's a matter of not wanting everything when we're entitled to nothing.

[MajorNese]

Playtested the game today at GamesCom. Just a short level, not big enough to conclusively judge the quality. My brother tried both the Van Helsing game and Inquisitor, said it was pretty much the same technical base.

 

In the one demo level, you play only the inquisitor. Standard loadout was bolt pistol (needs to reload like in shooters, unlimited ammo) and sword, after a few enemies you find a plasma gun (overheats in area damage ability, becomes unusable until cooled down). Standard attacks were mapped to left/right mouse, additional abilites (aimed shot, suppressing fire) on the numbers, and one button to change between the two weapon sets. Enemies were several digitalized cultist models, corrupted servo skulls and (as boss) a heavily corrupted nurgle ogryn. Seemed good and bug-free so far, but who knows how good or bad the entire game will be.

[Charlo]

Enjoy some screens people:

 

Hidden Content

[Ishagu]

And it looks great! Very true to the lore.