The Ashes 2063, DMW, and Afterglow gaming and Q & A thread

Lucas9 said:
I used the GZDoom source port. It improves the resolution, and it has neat visual features if you are into them.
I definitely enjoyed them! And this was the first time I played them, mind you (as a kid I remember my brother playing Doom from time to time). Certain levels are worse than others. It just shows that in an FPS arguably the most important thing is level design.
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The Doom games are 70% off on GoG now so I purchased them. I probably played Doom 1 for the first time when I was nine and later bought a box with all three of them (1, 2 and final). I haven't played the Doom games for over a decade now so it could be fun. I did play Doom 2016 but not Eternal.
 
Proletären said:
What's on your mind?
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Various bullshit such as reoccurring frustrations, but also a lot lot of things that I want to do such as my Fallout Texas project, my friend's project, various random ideas, these interviews with Fallout mod teams, a review article for Gamefaqs about Bionic Commando Rearmed 2.
 
I thought this bit in their article was interesting:

One day maybe we'll clean up the complete series and throw it up on Steam for a few bucks, but that day is far in the future if it comes at all.
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I think I will just wait for that day and play the best version of Ashes.
 
I finished these games not too long ago.

They were brilliant, but all around the best part about them was the soundtrack. I can't overstate enough how fucking good that soundtrack is - and this is coming from a guy who usually turns the music off when playing FPS's.

But the game itself is just as good. Loved the atmosphere, enjoyed the little bit of narrative story telling the second episode did, and levels like the submarine anomaly were great. I really liked how the open world elements were handled, the "hub" areas weren't a chore to explore and it made looking for scrap more meaningful considering you had a town you could visit after nearly every mission. The one little thing I didn't enjoy was the fact that you had to sometimes get a key, and be forced to backtrack to another area to collect a secret. An area that was already entirely explored and empty by the time you came back, that's just a small nitpick though - and I worked around it by just noclipping through to the secret instead of spending time doing a pointless loop-back.

I even played Dead Man Walking which I thought I was going to hate but surprisingly, it wasn't bad! Well put together.

I definitely think he should put this on Steam. Everybody else making GZDoom games have, and half of those arguably aren't good enough to warrant a price tag. Ashes is a different beast altogether, and once you really get into the game you completely forget you're playing a Doom mod. Honestly feels more like a Build Engine game. If he could get a popular YouTuber to review it, like MandaloreGaming for example, I'm positive it would absolutely blow up and give him the funding he would need to push out a third episode with even more features and content.

That aside, I really hope he makes the third episode. There are still cliffhangers. Who was the other AI Athena was talking about? What did they mean when they said the US launched nukes on itself, why? Who and what are the Empire? What happened to Erebus and the rest of the mutant horde that didn't get hit by the nukes? What the actual fuck were those things in the botanical garden? What kind of weapon did the US Navy use on that Soviet submarine, and how is it tied into the apocalypse? Just what did the US (almost) unleash upon the world, that the only way they thought they could stop it was by launching a full nuclear strike on their own country?
 
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Another well done adventure within one of my current favourite game universe.

- As spin-off goes, it got a way bigger scale than dead man walking, but compared with the main entries, it felt a bit weaker.
- The ending felt rushed and underwhelming. Like a lot.
- The portrait+voice, while good on paper, does a bit of disservice to the game, as it reminds us that the team couldn't afford professionnal actors and great recording conditions. Some of the characters shine, like the general, but for many other, i feels like a mod, while the rest of the content doesn't. I hope this features get toned down later on.
- The settlements felt a bit bare. They could have benefited from a bit more devellopement time. But it kind of fit with the overall pace of this campaign. There is a sense of urgency here. Those ten guys have a focus and cannot spend too much ressources on every step. It would take a lot of scraps to feed them all. They need to avoid waste. Those settlements aren't sanctuaries, but short trade stops for those guys.
- Not usually commenting on weapons, but i loved the crowbow and the flamethrower here.
- I liked most of the new enemies. They offer more threat diversity, rather than simply complementing existing crews. I also liked that they didn't felt the need to reuse every enemies from previous episodes. Their absence here could make their return better.
- It seems that they also increased the number of unique bosses. I liked that there is often a way out, when the game drop you a boss, or an huge crowd. I don't think my character would have survived without those. And the last battle was true pain because of the lack of retreat points.
- The journey was quite interesting overall, although i would have preferred they didn't add portrait+voices for most of the characters, and i found the endingndisapointing. There are nice twists, here and there, good environmental storytelling, sometime terrifying atmosphere. Engaging writing and masterfull map designs. I am amazed that they keep showing new map concepts after so many levels already.
- Missing the bike a bit, but it makes sense as it's not the same character.
 
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