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[Mr.Phoenix]

I am beginning to think that a LOT of these publishers/developers... simply have no idea what they are doing and are also tone-deaf in addition to that.

I would think that by now, every developer or publisher, with over 4 decades of references, would know exactly what would make for a good or great game. But every year, I get shocked all over again by how clueless they all seem to be.

Its really telling, and sad... that you can legitimately say, that for every great game made, there would be like 10 duds around it. Its almost as if regardless of all the great games that have already been made that they can pull inspiration from, regardless of all the release hurdles, performance/presentation hiccups and landmines that have come before and they should be able to avoid, a lot of these devs/publishers keep making the same fucking mistakes.

Tone deaf and incompetent.

 

[Gandih42]

It's really sad to see new IPs flop as hard as this one. Even though it looks really generic, at least it was some form of new 'original' thing.

I haven't played it so this is complete armchairing, but I imagine the same game could've been made for much less money if the cinematics, graphics, and celebrities were tuned down a bit.

Give the game a bit more of a unique identity story and art style wise and they might have a AA banger.

I beat Evil West over the weekend and even though it didn't set the world on fire, it didn't seem like a loss to Flying Wild Hog. The game is extremely tight in it's scope and vision, and looks really good in spite of a clearly much smaller budget. You can clearly feel where they cut corners (awkward transitions between cutscenes and levels, rough assets in the background, very few real boss fights etc.) but it doesn't drag the game down because it has style and the fundamentals work.

 

[Moses85]

Was it Worth it?

 

[Doom85]

Pretty sure releasing it right in the middle of a bunch of anticipated releases did it no favors.

 

[Don Carlo]

40 mil for marketing? What marketing?

Ayy exactly

 

[Roberts]

My initial impressions were quite positive but now that I have played the game for what seems like 10 hours, all its flaws become very visible. Yes, the writing is terrible - typical hero's journey crap mixed with Marvel-type banter and flaccid jokes. But that is not even the biggest problem - I love the discovery aspect of Metroidvanias, but something about the level design (or maybe art direction too) kills most of the intrigue and enjoyment of trying to open new areas and stuff. That said, there are a few things I enjoy about and I'm still thinking of rushing through the main story before calling it quits.

 

[phaedrus]

Woof.. 125M! I'm not seeing that in the game visuals & art direction at all.

I mean look at this map (from a post in the OT) was this the best the designers could come up with?

It's just so off-the-shelf, like the CAD softwares I use at work

 

[Team Andromeda]

Love the game, so sad to see it not sell well and the usual EA and we don't buy games hate mob knock the game on social.

 

[gtabro]

About the name someone mentioned - this + the very little I've heard about it (did someone pocket most of the 40 mil?) made me think it's about Greek mythology and related to Immortals: Fenyx Rising. Also for some reason I keep remembering it as "Immortals of Avenum"

 

[Perrott]

So EA just gave these morons (because only a fool would think that Call of Duty + magic is a good concept to begin with) $125M for them to make their uninspired singleplayer new IP that EA was never going to profit from per the terms of their EA Originals contracts (all profit goes to the development studio)...

... but six years ago they couldn't be bothered to let UNCHARTED creator Amy Hennig and Visceral Games spend half that in order to finish their STAR WARS game?

ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

 

[Ozriel]

100+ employees making a game in California for 4.5 years…Salaries is how you get to that figure.

 

[SNPlayen]

I think bad names would impact massive amounts of sales. Unless you have a really good name you kind of need to stick to something generic

 

[Guilty_AI]

I smell money laundering

 

[xrnzaaas]

100+ employees making a game in California for 4.5 years…Salaries is how you get to that figure.

That's something you should think about when planning the budget for the game. Maybe outsorce some stuff or share some work with a separate studio from some third world country.

Or, an even better idea, go smaller with a project that's not a sequel or isn't based on a book/movie/popculture IP.

 

[newtypepilot]

I wouldn't be surprised at all if EA wanted this to fail. They can use it as justification to further double down on live service and mtx nonsense. 125m is really nothing to EA when you consider how much they make from their gambling aka sports games. And since it's an original IP, they can easily sweep it under the rug and it won't upset the license holders.

 

[ReBurn]

40 mil for marketing? What marketing?

Somewhere there's a yacht named Immortals of Aveum

 

[RZero]

With a budget this large, japanese devs manage to make at least 10 awesome games.

Maybe western devs should start cutting costs; not wasting money hiring "diversity and empathy" companies like Sweet Baby Inc. and not paying for retarded "benefits" like knitting classes may be a good start.

 

[Deerock71]

It is a remarkably colorful, yet mediocre game. I'm glad I got it during a pricing error, so I could enjoy it at near rental prices.

 

[StreetsofBeige]

I am beginning to think that a LOT of these publishers/developers... simply have no idea what they are doing and are also tone-deaf in addition to that.

I would think that by now, every developer or publisher, with over 4 decades of references, would know exactly what would make for a good or great game. But every year, I get shocked all over again by how clueless they all seem to be.

Its really telling, and sad... that you can legitimately say, that for every great game made, there would be like 10 duds around it. Its almost as if regardless of all the great games that have already been made that they can pull inspiration from, regardless of all the release hurdles, performance/presentation hiccups and landmines that have come before and they should be able to avoid, a lot of these devs/publishers keep making the same fucking mistakes.

Tone deaf and incompetent.

Personally, I think the vast majority of games are made from the heart with zero research or core feedback from gamers. The studios just make what they think is cool and hope it sells.

I’d bet any money Nabisco puts in more research dollars into figuring out whether a new cookie should have cranberries or raisins in it than studios making a game costing a ton of money over 5 years.

 

[StreetsofBeige]

Isn’t this very case an evidence of the opposite - that in such a dysfunctional industry you can get $125 mln for a debut project in a super competitive genre?

Tech and pharma companies are two industries which somehow companies always seem to have bottomless pockets.

No budget ever seems too high.

 

[simpatico]

The best thing is comparing it to Amid Evil. Game was made by a few guys in their spare time. Same exact pitch as Immortals. Probably cost 5% as much to make. Guarantee it’s sold far more copies.

 

[Muffdraul]

I'd start with the title. Personally I had less than zero interest in a game called "Immortals of [random name]." I could pull a better title out of a dead dog's ass. I never paid the least bit of attention to any preview I ever came across, though I don't recall ever coming across any.

At some point I saw a random gameplay video that looked great. I had no idea what the game was, but it turned out to be this. I went out of my way to look at more videos and I thought it looked really pretty and probably quite fun. I bought it digitally on my Xbox SX.

That was months ago. I finally played it last weekend. For like half an hour. The opening of the game is the most dreadfully boring slog I've ever been through. I never even got through the intro section, I was so bored I just turned it off an went back to replaying FFVII Remake for the third time, though I know there's no way I'll finish it before Rebirth. It's not all that unusual for me to think a game intro is boring, but for an intro to be so boring that I can't even finish it and get to the beginning of the actual proper game, THAT is very unusual for me.

All this to say, there was no marketing to speak of, and based on what little I played it's not hard to see why there was no buzz or word of mouth hype after it came out.

 

[Chuck Berry]

Woof.. 125M! I'm not seeing that in the game visuals & art direction at all.

I mean look at this map (from a post in the OT) was this the best the designers could come up with?

It's just so off-the-shelf, like the CAD softwares I use at work

That's the introductory area. Like the first minute of the game. The level maps have much more going on design wise after the fucking intro. Nice try though

 

[rkofan87]

wtf and that is what come of it wow sad.

 

[BennyBlanco]

The best thing is comparing it to Amid Evil. Game was made by a few guys in their spare time. Same exact pitch as Immortals. Probably cost 5% as much to make. Guarantee it’s sold far more copies.

I loved Amid Evil but isn’t that using the Duke Nukem engine? Lol not really a fair comparison.

 

[Kings Field]

Playing through it now and halfway through. A solid 7/10 so far but man that framerate is horrendous.

 

[simpatico]

I loved Amid Evil but isn’t that using the Duke Nukem engine? Lol not really a fair comparison.

Why not? They're both action FPS magic games. I think you can even make the argument that Amid Evil is more pleasing to the eye. Lets go way overboard with this estimate and say Amid Evil cost $1,000,000 to make (4 man team). Why does it take $124,000,000 to upgrade the textures, model complexity and ambient occlusion?





Amid Evil has an Andrew Hulshult soundtrack too btw.

 

[Mr. Mean]

I’m sure all the wrong lessons will be learned from this

 

[StreetsofBeige]

At the 4:45 mark the character fights that thin statue monster.

I've never seen a trailer where the character shoots so much random spellcasting shit at a monster ever. It'd be like a Doom boss fight and the guy goes through all 10 weapons to kill it.

 

[simpatico]

At the 4:45 mark the character fights that thin statue monster.

I've never seen a trailer where the character shoots so much random spellcasting shit at a monster ever. It'd be like a Doom boss fight and the guy goes through all 10 weapons to kill it.

Can I get visual damage feedback on a boss for $125,000,000?

 

[Wildebeest]

Shame, with all that budget, they couldn't afford to hire level designers or people who could make weapons that look satisfying to use.

 

[Lumpyoatmeal]

I’m sure all the wrong lessons will be learned from this

The lesson is that a $125 million is not enough for today's AAA game especially for a non-first party.

 

[Crispy Gamer]

I sense a future where more games are shadow dropped if marketing is that expensive

 

[Guilty_AI]

I loved Amid Evil but isn’t that using the Duke Nukem engine? Lol not really a fair comparison.

It also uses Unreal Engine

 

[Kaleinc]

If they skipped marketing - could have made 40 million.

 

[Wildebeest]

I sense a future where more games are shadow dropped if marketing is that expensive

You don't understand how much money you need for the cocaine to decide it is a good idea to spend six figure sums to pay streamers to play your game for two hours while looking bored.

 

[BennyBlanco]

 

[Morrie’s wig shop]

This whole we need 10s of millions for marketing…… and then you see no marketing. I don’t get it.

Where are all the hack investigative journalist at? Where the fuck are you pussies at? Where’s all the lame soft body insiders that sit around all day trying to find leaks and keep the rumor mill spinning while typing away at their devices. These are the things that need to be talked about.
Leak the papers that show how and where the money goes (who’s pocket)!

 

[winjer]

LOL. That shelf space is more valuable than the game it's using it.

 

[Hudo]

Two Worlds II

Lmao.