Review bombs?

[Khyron]

So I've been following this game for a very long time now, as it's very appealing to me.. but i usually don't buy EA.

So comming back to check it now was a bit of a shock,suddenly the recent reviews are abyssmal.

At first i thought it was released and failed entirely, then i saw it was still EA.. then i figured it had some big update that didn't go very well, but that doesn't seem to be the case either.

What i do see is a very sudden review bombing that looks like it's coordinated because it's too focused to just be at random.

So I ask.. what gives? I still don't see much of a reason to review bomb this game, it seems that the parts that are in EA work fairly well and looks real nice.
So it's been delayed, but that happens quite frequently with EA titles..

[Nasenbaerus]

There is nothing "coordinated". The developer simply is unable to clearly communicate what the status of the development is, there is no roadmap and many broken promises (like the never given roadmap or the "release date") this and how there is never substantial information lead to frustration and anger by some of us. That's it.
Make of it whatever you like.

[Khyron]

I get that, and i respect it as well.
At some point you have to start expecting results from something you've placed money in.

It just seems really strange that it's gone from having pretty good ratings to suddenly being slaughtered.

[djf2d]

Please read those reviews and the discussion boards before posting. They will answer those questions.

[kmekanik]

Originally posted by djf2d:

Please read those reviews and the discussion boards before posting. They will answer those questions.

Agreed.

There are two discussion threads that will illuminate this topic for you perfectly. One is titled "Release Date", and one titled "Eternal Early Access" (disclaimer: I initiated the second one).

[Khyron]

I have read most of that now.

I do understand the concerns and frustrations, but i think this damning of the devs is a little premature.

I've not yet put money in this so I'm not invested in it, and thus don't have a lot of feelings one way or the other.. but given the pandemic and all the crap that's been going on in the world, i'm not quite ready to just write this off.

I must however agree that the lack of information truly is cause for concern.

[Saxton]

I'm not defending the lack of communication in any way - I find it as frustrating as many people. However, since they've entered into a publishing deal with Koch media it's possible that they may not be able to say anything until given the okay by the publisher. If that is the case, it would be good for Koch to know that whatever is causing the delay is creating a bad situation in the reviews.

If that's not the case, well, that's just poor project management. If I didn't update the stakeholders in my job for months at a time, I wouldn't be employed for long.

[Redglyph]

The EA is solid, it's a great game. I wouldn't pay attention to the current review trolling. If anything, that makes it more difficult for them so it's really a stupid thing to do, but people are indeed getting impatient and don't always react in a smart way.

Taking Koch Media as publisher was a good move to finish the game serenely and adding features they would have liked to include in the first place. But working with a partner is more complex than being just alone, they have to coordinate the release and any information about it with the publisher.

I see no reason to worry, on the contrary, but it adds an uncomfortable delay.

[Nasenbaerus]

Originally posted by Redglyph:

The EA is solid, it's a great game.

"Solid". Thanks for the laugh.
Right now Encased is nothing more than a techdemo with broken features (like stealth) and many frustrating bugs and odd things.
It has the potential(!) to be a good game. But as it stands now it simply is extremely risky to invest a single cent into the game!

[djf2d]

Redglyph is a paid shill. A few days ago he released a glowing review on RPGwatch and then went to every review he could to argue why the game is amazing. Just ignore him.

[Manimal]

i remember when it came out as EA, they said that its gonna release over the summer of the same year. Welp that didnt go well

[Fusei]

Yeah I don't have a very good feeling about this game. I can't really feel the vision behind the game. Feels like a wanna be old school fallout without that much for it.

Got some issues with design choices, uncertainty about some game features (is it supposed to be a party-based rpg or more a fallout approach?), weird workflow priorities :
- the overhaul of the prologue was poorly received by the community
- can't recall anyone asking for an overhaul of skills and abilities (especially that late in dev, last dec!!). And the end result isn't that much of an improvement from the original imo.
- voice acting? is it really a mandatory feature in an old-school isometric rpg? Def not a priority for me.
- broken/tedious mechanics like stealth and fatigue haven't been tweaked despite being mentioned many times by the community.
- balance is still all over the place.

As other said, the com is pretty bad. Chronus weekly doesn't cut it, more often than not it feels like filling the void more than anything else. Devs stopped replying on the steam forums for quite a long time, came back saying that they had trouble accessing steam forums or something?
Anyway the lack of transparency, communication and involvement with the community only reminds me of Wolcen's EA (it didn't end up well).

Also progress seems to have slowed down drastically during this last year, don't know if it's cause of the pandemic or people leaving but it's certainly worrying.

It has pretty graphics though... ^^"

Anyway doesn't excuse review bombing but yeah might explain a bit of the resentment.

[djf2d]

Originally posted by Fusei:

Anyway doesn't excuse review bombing but yeah might explain a bit of the resentment.

I was with ya....riiiiight up until here.

Leaving negative reviews on a game that appears abandoned after trying to contact the devs about progress, updates, timelines, etc on EVERY medium they publish for over 5 months and getting nothing back...is not 'bombing'. Thats common sense.

At some point the community at large needs to wake up that just because a dev puts "EA" in front of the title doesn't mean that criticizing them for their own actions is bullying. How else are we supposed to do it? Yell into the void on the discussion boards? (akin to my actions here- heh)

As a side note: EA only means EA when its still being developed. We have no indications here that it is, only a flimsy weekly newsletter with still images a designer could cook up in under an hour.

[Crosaith]

I'm still salty af about them lying about adding romance content to the game. It was one of the reasons why I chose to back it.

If you're gonna lie to customers... don't be surprised when the bad reviews come.

[r-cane]

Originally posted by Saxton:

However, since they've entered into a publishing deal with Koch media it's possible that they may not be able to say anything until given the okay by the publisher.

Maybe, but that's by far the most kickstarter backer and EA payer unfriendly thing there is. It's basicly saying "All thousands of you little fishes have made our project possible, but all of you dont matter as much as the one big fish we got ourself now." It's probably what happened with "The Mandate" back then and whenever I think of the game and the ones responsible for it I get filled with an otherwise unknown amount of anger.

[Darx]

its just a prime example of how to not treat your customers. the game became a joke at this point.