Maybe Too Vague a Question but

[Cyber Moduled]

As much as I love the Dark Engine aesthetic and gameplay mechanics shown off so far, I'm sort of uneasy with how to feel about the overall "structure" of the game if that makes any sense? Stuff like having a gun, a blade cane, and so on definitely gives the impression of it being more than a Thief clone which is fine by me but other things such as the focus on "survival" elements (I know you guys don't mean that in the garbage open world Early Access sense) and Independent Game Expose's open ended objectives (unless I missed it) sort of makes me wonder how it'll overall play.

I dunno, maybe it's just something I have to figure out once the demo is out to try.

[500_pts]

Originally posted by Cyber Moduled:

As much as I love the Dark Engine aesthetic and gameplay mechanics shown off so far, I'm sort of uneasy with how to feel about the overall "structure" of the game if that makes any sense? Stuff like having a gun, a blade cane, and so on definitely gives the impression of it being more than a Thief clone which is fine by me but other things such as the focus on "survival" elements (I know you guys don't mean that in the garbage open world Early Access sense) and Independent Game Expose's open ended objectives (unless I missed it) sort of makes me wonder how it'll overall play.

I dunno, maybe it's just something I have to figure out once the demo is out to try.

"Survival" in the case of Gloomwood is really closer to "Survival Horror". This means incredibly limited resources with which to solve problems and limited ability to save (on some difficulties). This means the player has to pick when to spend resources, and live with the consequences of spending them. The guns also are big sources of noise, which will get you caught quite quickly, meaning it may not always be the best choice to use one as there will be multiple consequences for getting into combat in the final game.

As for the "open ended objectives", I might be able to clear that up a bit. The game has very clear goals and objectives, but we leave it up to the player how to accomplish those objectives, and in some cases, in which order to complete them in.

The demo does not cover the full breadth of mechanics, objective types, weapons, or enemies that will be present in the final game, and offers only a small preview of what is to come. That said, it should give you a better idea of the flow of "survival" aspects, and the way objectives are structured. If you have any further questions, feedback, suggestions, or concerns let us know! We love to talk to the community and would be glad to hear you out, or explain anything you might have questions about!

[Cyber Moduled]

Originally posted by 500_pts:

Originally posted by Cyber Moduled:

As much as I love the Dark Engine aesthetic and gameplay mechanics shown off so far, I'm sort of uneasy with how to feel about the overall "structure" of the game if that makes any sense? Stuff like having a gun, a blade cane, and so on definitely gives the impression of it being more than a Thief clone which is fine by me but other things such as the focus on "survival" elements (I know you guys don't mean that in the garbage open world Early Access sense) and Independent Game Expose's open ended objectives (unless I missed it) sort of makes me wonder how it'll overall play.

I dunno, maybe it's just something I have to figure out once the demo is out to try.

"Survival" in the case of Gloomwood is really closer to "Survival Horror". This means incredibly limited resources with which to solve problems and limited ability to save (on some difficulties). This means the player has to pick when to spend resources, and live with the consequences of spending them. The guns also are big sources of noise, which will get you caught quite quickly, meaning it may not always be the best choice to use one as there will be multiple consequences for getting into combat in the final game.

As for the "open ended objectives", I might be able to clear that up a bit. The game has very clear goals and objectives, but we leave it up to the player how to accomplish those objectives, and in some cases, in which order to complete them in.

The demo does not cover the full breadth of mechanics, objective types, weapons, or enemies that will be present in the final game, and offers only a small preview of what is to come. That said, it should give you a better idea of the flow of "survival" aspects, and the way objectives are structured. If you have any further questions, feedback, suggestions, or concerns let us know! We love to talk to the community and would be glad to hear you out, or explain anything you might have questions about!

I sort of assumed regarding the survival aspects but the details make it sound very good (limited saves are really underutilized in games generally). Open ended objectives in the "immersive sim" way sound very promising as well. Only thing I could ask at this point is the possibility of them functioning like Thief's depending on difficulty (higher difficulty = more/stricter objectives) but regardless, your response definitely cleared some things up so thank you.