By John Walker on February 9th, 2012 at 3:51 pm.
I love the phrase “single-player co-op”. That’s because I’m a misanthrope, and other people ruin everything. But it’s how Reset describes itself, as spotted by IGM. In fact, it’s a single-player co-op first-person puzzle game, exclusive to PC. That’s the genre I was waiting for! And by crikey, it sounds fascinating.
So how does that work then? Well, it seems it’s an extremely elaborate version of that masterful idea that I first saw from NekoGames’ Cursor*10. You can, they say, travel back in time to interact without yourself, solving puzzles with your own help. Yes yes yes – I want this, now please.
It’s from a Finnish two-person indie team, Theory Interactive, and they’ve announced it this very day. Along with what they call “four unedited real time screenshots”. Whether that means they’re in-game seems unlikely – they look like stills from a pre-render to me. But they’re stunning. Take a look:
It’s described as having a strong emphasis on story and atmosphere, indicating they’re aiming for a more esoteric angle, rather than something mainstream. Any more details are yet to be revealed, and we’re chasing them to find out more.
09/02/2012 at 15:56 Suits says:
Now all that’s left is Soft Reset
09/02/2012 at 15:59 Inigo says:
And then the 3 bears came back and Goldilocks suffered a disk boot failure.
09/02/2012 at 16:10 Hoaxfish says:
This boot is too cold said baby bear
09/02/2012 at 16:14 Suits says:
Try blowing in the disk drive mother bear said
09/02/2012 at 18:55 Droopy The Dog says:
And after a hard day’s troubleshooting goldibot relaxed and shut down in baby bear’s mini-ITX case.
09/02/2012 at 22:53 ThinkAndGrowWitcher says:
“Look who’s been Guru-meditating in my bed!” cried Baby Bear.
09/02/2012 at 15:58 Tusque D'Ivoire says:
that’s a very sad robot.
09/02/2012 at 16:25 Priestman says:
I also read it John and, if I am not mistaken, you’re making this game even more complicated than the developers propose:
“travel back in time to interact without yourself,”
WITHOUT YOURSELF?! 0_0
*faints*
09/02/2012 at 15:58 Brun says:
Are those gameplay shots? If so this looks absolutely gorgeous.
09/02/2012 at 15:59 John Walker says:
I live in this fantasy world where people read the words I so lovingly craft, and I don’t cry as often.
09/02/2012 at 16:01 Unaco says:
Don’t worry John… I read it.
@Brun,
From the article itself…
“Along with what they call “four unedited real time screenshots”. Whether that means they’re in-game seems unlikely – they look like stills from a pre-render to me.”
I think I would agree.
09/02/2012 at 16:02 InternetBatman says:
Eh, you get paid either way. I’m a horrible speed reader, so I do miss bits and pieces of the article. Maybe you should make the entire thing red so people will notice.
09/02/2012 at 16:02 Suits says:
Don’t shed a tear for me please
09/02/2012 at 16:02 ResonanceCascade says:
Yeah, but “real time” and “pre-rendered” are usually a bit in opposition (unless you want to get really nit picky and pedantic, as I’m sure someone out there does).
If they aren’t in-game, then the devs are being kinda misleading.
09/02/2012 at 16:08 Hoaxfish says:
In the future, we will enjoy the works of Shakespeare by watching a streamed video of someone turning the pages quite fast
09/02/2012 at 16:10 Brun says:
I skimmed, I’m ashamed to admit.
That said, this looks great.
09/02/2012 at 17:15 Toasticus says:
I understand the skepticism guys, but “real time” specifically means NOT pre-rendered. The work on display here is certainly within the capabilities of a modern PC to show during gameplay, as you say. The main reasons most games don’t have graphics to this level are the scope of the projects, the fact that they aren’t made specifically for PC, and the amount of different stuff they need to have on the screen at once.
To put it more simply, if a single lonely robot is the only character model you ever have on screen, he can be as detailed as all the dozen or so soldier characters you would have in a standard shooty game all put together. Regardless, this looks and sounds fantastic, I’m definitely intrigued!
09/02/2012 at 17:55 aDemandingPersona says:
@Toasticus If you really think that fun game play consists of a camera panning around a cool robot looking thing, I pity you. Also, the developers are Finnish so it is possible they didn’t take all the implications that the term “real time” in English could have.
Just a thought.
09/02/2012 at 18:24 Toasticus says:
“real time” is a common and specific term among graphics professionals. I can understand it being unclear to a member of the enthusiast press, but it’s not the kind of phrase that could get lost in translation.
Also, don’t be a dick. I never said anything about what my concept of fun is, and if it’s a puzzle game then it might actually be able to get away with just the one character model of the robot just fine.
09/02/2012 at 19:00 CptPlanet says:
Guys, if this is real time then this is how the game looks. Simple as. I’m not sure if John understands what real time means and what pre-rendered means. Toasticus said it perfectly. Real time and pre-rendered screenshots are mutually exclusive.
09/02/2012 at 19:02 Monkey says:
Maybe they meant, real time as opposed to fake time, implying that when these screens were taken it was actually A time that existed at that point. Rather than some fake time that never existed and never will.
Thats exactly what they meant
09/02/2012 at 21:01 Grygus says:
Maybe John knows what real-time means but the marketing people do not. Seems at least as likely.
09/02/2012 at 16:00 ResonanceCascade says:
Sounds like something right up my alley. Looks like it didn’t skimp on the pretties, either.
I just hope it allows me to make some insane Rube Goldberg machines via temporal tampering.
09/02/2012 at 16:02 Teronfel says:
“four unedited real time screenshots” What the hell does this mean? I guess they are not real gameplay screens.
09/02/2012 at 16:06 Hoaxfish says:
someone pressed printscreen while playing the game?
09/02/2012 at 16:07 Nevard says:
These still images display on your computer in real time
09/02/2012 at 17:34 Toasticus says:
“real time” basically just means “not pre-rendered”. It’s worth using as opposed to “gameplay” in some places because you couldn’t quite rightly describe a screenshot from an in-engine cinematic (such as one showing your customized Shepherd model in ME) as “gameplay,” even though it isn’t pre-rendered either.
09/02/2012 at 16:06 Unaco says:
Will be interesting to see how these Time Travel mechanics work. I’m sure I spent an afternoon discussing and figuring out the implications of Achron with some others once. That was interesting by itself… shame about the game though.
09/02/2012 at 16:09 asshibbitty says:
Look like stills from an overcompessed prerendered video to me. pardon the redundancy.
09/02/2012 at 16:23 RagingLion says:
YES PLEASE! The aesthetic looks lovely and the type of game is right up my street too.
09/02/2012 at 16:49 Nixitur says:
Oh, look, that sounds EXACTLY like Prometheus. It’s a good game, but it hurts my brain.
09/02/2012 at 21:11 rapchee says:
yay i didnt have to write it, now i use the characters on a useless comment, although it also expresses that i knew about the mod before, so perhaps it is no so useless after all.
09/02/2012 at 21:19 Muzman says:
Ah there it is. I thought this sounded like a mod from way back. I thought it might have been the same people even.
Anyway, they say it’s a Sundance movie. There’s only really one Sundance movie they’re talking about.
I was watching Primer just the other day too. I was thinking someone clever could make an interesting game out of that, but I was thinking more along the lines of Every Day the Same Dream initially.
I wonder if strange and terrible things will happen seemingly out of nowhere because of what you (or a version of you) will do later on.
09/02/2012 at 23:24 LionsPhil says:
It does rather sound like Promethius. Unfortunately, Promethius kind of showed all the ways in which the concept is deeply flawed and not fun in first-person, like it being very unclear when and what you’re influencing at any given time in any given run.
09/02/2012 at 17:04 Eddy9000 says:
The screenshots gave me a full on robo-chubby.
09/02/2012 at 17:23 Ross Angus says:
Indeed: it’s high time we had a robot depression simulator.
No, really. I want this game, anti-depressants and all.
09/02/2012 at 17:27 Zeewolf says:
Frankly I don’t understand why the screenshots wouldn’t be in-game. I mean, obviously the UI and stuff seems to be taken out, but nobody would present “four unedited real time screenshots” and actually mean four pre-rendered screenshots. Pre-rendered is the opposite of real time.
09/02/2012 at 18:12 Tyrone Slothrop. says:
Yes, if those screenshots are in-game then… ahem; WOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOW.
09/02/2012 at 19:33 wylie says:
“strong emphasis on story and atmosphere”
They had me at that.
09/02/2012 at 19:55 Skabooga says:
Really, it is just one guy who went back in time to help himself make a computer game.
09/02/2012 at 21:02 Grygus says:
I am you from the future coming back to say that your/my post is fantastic. I love us.
09/02/2012 at 20:02 LTK says:
The other day I was playing a game on Gaikai, and I wondered if there were any games that had high-end graphics, but didn’t rely as much on a quick response time. Such a game could benefit from cloud gaming without suffering from the drawbacks of longer latencies. Could this be that game?
09/02/2012 at 20:59 Srekel says:
That’s basically the exact same game mechanic behind a game I made a while back :) It’s shown in the first part of this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJW1CvV10xU
Would anyone be interested in playing it?
09/02/2012 at 22:56 MadMatty says:
that could well be ingame as of the current graphix card techonology- hell you´d even see that in Section 8 : Predjudice or Serious Sam 3 . couple of fx filters in hires, running unreal 3 engine – no biggie
10/02/2012 at 00:02 binster says:
I know this is a PC gaming only site, but for those of you who also own a PS3 the Ratchet and Clank title “A Crack In Time” has lots of really good puzzles using just this mechanic (i.e. the Cursor*10 mechanic). It’s also brills.
So yeah, PS3 and PC owners, give it a whirl!
10/02/2012 at 06:04 GreatGreyBeast says:
Beautiful, ambitious, genre-bending pc-only puzzle game from two dudes in Finland. This is probably the last we’ll ever see of it.
10/02/2012 at 10:56 standardman says:
Does that mechanic mean I could make time travelling me hug myself until I feel better? In the game, I mean.
10/02/2012 at 11:39 Bryggz says:
I once thought I got laid in real-time, then I found out it was pre-rendered. Totally different things, man.
26/04/2012 at 08:52 Cognitect says:
The debut trailer is out. From the video description: “Everything you see in the trailer is straight from the in-game engine, no up-ressed textures, geometry or effects. What you see is what you will get. Except hopefully a little bit better since we’re not even in alpha yet.”
26/04/2012 at 18:15 Tei says:
Impresive art and tech. Lets hope the gameplay follows, and we have a very interesting game.