So, 4.5 hrs into Shattered: Tales of the Forgotten King.

It's potentially sooooooooooo great. Some absolutely incredible touches, moments, ideas and general presentation. 

I think, assuming covid hasn't fucked it (small french studio, apparently), it could be a great addition. 

Clearly unfinished aspects: 

- it doesn't remember all visual settings or invert camera.
- There's no contrast or brightness options yet (and holy shit would I turn up both if I could)
- Audio and visual cues when you confirm something are missing/flakey.
- interior camera is diabolical. (Only in really small rooms, and they really are few and far between, and the way it handles other areas, I think they just have it a ways down the to do list.)

Potentially the way it's meant to be problems:

- Visual cues around the 2d platform bits are flakey, there's a circle under you, but it seems to disappear all the time.
- you can equip a light, but it kinda feels like it should just be a default, it's like a ghost in Destiny, and you'd just have it on all the time if you could.

- It's failing in how it handles keys etc, doesn't give enough info about what they're called etc. I know Souls is meant to be a little opaque, but when you found a key in that a lot of th time, it had a name that would drop a massive hint, this has left me trying 6+ doors a few times.

- combat is feeling better, but the parry animation and timing is fucking YIKES at the moment.
- A lot of the platforming happens over flat out abysses. So insta death if you miss. The "bonfires" aren't that unfair, and you don't lose all your "souls" on those sorts of deaths, but man, some of them are quite long, and if you miss the last jump on some BS, YIKES. 

It's far less oppressive than a regular souls game, it's got a dark vibe, but it's a bit more emo than death metal.

RPG elements are much less intense than DS, I haven't been able to do any weapon upgrading yet, and there's only 4 things to upgrade with souls: health, damage/str, stamina and magic.

(Really good touch with the 2d platformy bits, especially when the fire is well placed, is you have a permanent option to return to either the main hub or last bonfire used at no cost.)

Anyhoo, it's still around the $30 mark I think, and still deep in EA, but there's a lot of meat there, and I'm gonna keep plugging away because it's got a distinct vibe.

Heads up: Remnant: From The Ashes will be free on the Epic Game Store next week.

Cracking game! Don't miss out.

Lol first proper proper boss was a doddle. Not finished. Big shield Knight dude, but you can just sit on his legs and he swings over you. 

Found some literally unfinished areas too. 

Inbetween though, some brilliant stuff. 

I'll keep folks posted when next update drops.

Some Shattered pics from the new area, which is a lot more zelda/purdy/open...









Hard to give sense of scale, but it's huge, and a lot of those things in the distance are actually accessible. You can drop nearly as far as you want and then jump just before floor to land safely, Destiny style. Means you can traverse some areas really freely and quickly. (Especially with the option to always return to last bonfire.)

Some bits hint at how much detail is yet to be added, but even factoring in more detail, the game runs smooth as silk on high def settings. 

(To add to the EA nature though, has to be mentioned that the sound, particularly the stuff around where footsteps/noise is coming from relative to player is currently as subtle as a sledgehammer. It's either coming from your FUCKING LEFT EAR or FUCKING RIGHT EAR. Jesus.)

Facewon wrote:

Some Shattered pics from the new area, which is a lot more zelda/purdy/open...

Wow, not sure this area counts as EA or whatever comes before Beta. I spent a while searching through it and it's all basically linked up, and there's a few enemies, but it's quite literally half finished. 

This area is basically one of the 4 main areas, but it's massive. It's open world single game massive. The one thing I could test is how they've linked it all up, and that is very cool. In desperate need of more stuff to do and probably a horse or equiv for this area. 

Think I'll leave it for a while now. It's probably 2 major updates away from being something to actually judge. Colour me VERY interested and not unhappy I threw cash their way, regardless of final result.

Yes, as per message, jump in whenever. Quality all round. 

Can run it on high with uncapped fps. Nice.

Don't do it! Code Vein is shite. Trust me. No weight to the character or the combat. Very disappointing.

I bought it for XBone, and tried to like it, but its exactly as i described: the character has no weight, feels like moving fresh air, and the combat has no oomph or clunk or thunk! Its flimsy! 

Even if you ignored all that, the hit detection is way off. No poise. No armoured frames. Knocked out of combos left-right-and-centre.

Press attack and hope the game lets you take priority. Its awful. Sorry.

I found it far too hard solo. Second stage just wiped the floor with me every time. I wonder if they patched it? Never went back to try online but I heard it's way easier...

Horrendous looking game that. Was fairly decent but the ugliness was too much for me to keep on.

Yeah. All jagged metal and weird level design. I found it a messy looking game.

Interesting. I haven't noticed any issues yet and quite enjoying the combat including the targeting limbs you specifically wanted to break of and harvest for your own weapons. Mmm, limbs

Stick with it. Earth is by far the most generic locale. It gets waaaay more interesting and exotic.

Mortal Shell anyone?


Gets a really good write-up on Polygon.

"Mortal Shell becomes great by not being afraid to offer less. It’s refined and elegant in its simplicity, without sacrificing quality, mechanics, or challenge. And that makes Mortal Shell incredible."

Curtis wrote:

I bought it for XBone, and tried to like it, but its exactly as i described: the character has no weight, feels like moving fresh air, and the combat has no oomph or clunk or thunk! Its flimsy!  Even if you ignored all that, the hit detection is way off. No poise. No armoured frames. Knocked out of combos left-right-and-centre. Press attack and hope the game lets you take priority. Its awful. Sorry.

Yeah, was hoping I'd disagree, but have pretty ordinary first impressions.  Early fights didn't do much for me.  The lengthy cutscenes seem out of place in a souls game too.

Also the character creation stuff is just okay.  You can make a good looking anime person, but there's too much hair clipping though hats and stuff like that.  Clothing options seem to be limited to how many superfluous arm belts you would like to wear.