Sulphur on 6/9/2017 at 06:17
Is apparently a video game where you're a miniature person travelling through corridors of flesh and rusted metal in some gross biohacker's body circa 2027.
[video=youtube;gug_0mNhg4k]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gug_0mNhg4k[/video]
Obvious Giger influences aside, it does look like something that has the capacity to be truly alien. The gun is a neat touch, all gooey and squiggling when you take it apart to reload. And that opening shows they've probably spent a worrying amount of time getting the perfect translucency to the fatty agglomerations on that striated flesh. Hurray for sub-surface scattering! The gameplay, meanwhile, looks like bog-standard shooting and keyhunts, but it's understandable given the question of how to make a game look and seem alien whilst not making the player feel perpetually lost.
Having said that, I think they should at some point take the game all the way through to its nightmarish implications and throw off common gameplay conceits, build their own rules.
*Have the option to let the fleshgun mould itself to you, then make your health its ammunition?
*Why have locked doors when you can have ganglia-based connections and circuitry to track down and manipulate?
*Can't we talk to or at least squelch back at the monsters?
qolelis on 6/9/2017 at 09:08
Mmm, yeah, Scorn, I wrote about that in the hypethread a while ago: it's on my "ooh, I like the style, but don't know about the gameplay" list. If you like the art style, I can recommend checking out some of Beksinski's work. Anyway, if they dare let the gameplay match the looks, I'd try it out, but if it turns out to just be "DooM with fancy art", then I'll remain curious, but will probably end up watching someone else play it.
Jeshibu on 6/9/2017 at 10:39
It'd be cool if they adopted the Quake 4 style of upgrades: mutilations that nonetheless improve your ability to survive. Like hard flat parasitic beings that anchor deep into your skin to act as armor plating, or the Videodrome gun.
Thirith on 6/9/2017 at 12:20
Yeah, I also had to think of eXistenZ. I have to say that other than the old-school alien I've kinda tired of H.R. Giger after liking his stuff a lot as a teenager, so if anything it's the more Cronenbergy side of this that'd intrigue me.
Sulphur on 6/9/2017 at 12:23
Videodrome had a gun that disappeared early on in the protagonist's body and then reappeared (hint: not from where you'd guess) as some pretty messed up symbolism; its final form was a sort of fleshy extension of the guy's hand. I haven't seen eXistenZ, so I guess I should remedy that myself.
Jesh: I think they're already on track for Quake 4-style squicky stuff. Not too worried about their ability to do that, but I'd like for the gameplay to parallel the weirdness whilst maintaining internal cohesion.
Oh, and qolelis: Beksinski, huh? I took a look and yeah, at least half of this is inspired by his stuff. Quite a... body of work he had there.
Thirith on 7/9/2017 at 12:53
Quote Posted by Sulphur
I haven't seen eXistenZ, so I guess I should remedy that myself.
I saw it at the cinema back when it came out and wasn't too impressed; it had some cool ideas but what I thought to be a comment on video games fell flat for me. It felt like someone talking about a medium that he had no clue about. I should really rewatch it at some point to see if there's more there than I originally thought, which may well be the case.
demagogue on 7/9/2017 at 13:21
Re: eXistenZ, it's an obvious hook for a movie that was going to get made one way or another, and it's just the first that that really made the cut. It was kind of ham-handed with it, but it at least nominally checks the boxes it's supposed to. Since I dig conceptual movies, I actually liked it.
It's just a wonder a game hasn't used the same hook ... AFAIK. One needs to.
And FWIW, the vibe I got from that video was a mix of Alien with the Body of the Many from SS2 (and a little Rage for the level design). SS2 was of course better for having the more open map. I like the art design and aesthetic anyway.