By Craig Pearson on February 14th, 2012 at 12:55 pm.
I’m not sure where indie developers are getting their temerity from, but 2Dawn’s Ravaged is slotting into the space that Hawken occupies: ridiculously attractive online shooters that look like they’ve been made on a massive budget. Ravaged has touches of a post-apocalyptic Battlefield to it: vehicular combat across really big maps. From the ground to the sky, there’s a lot to admire: the vehicle handling looks fun and complex, and I want to fire those guns right now. I also like a developer willing to keep a Steam Friends notification in their video. It’s a moment that speaks to the gamer in all of us.
Here’s a peek at the Gyrocopter, a difficult to handle but versatile chopper.
And what it’ll be like skipping across sand-dunes and abandoned ships in the trike.
It’s out early 2012, via Steam and other, yet-to-be-confirmed, places. You can pre-order for early beta access, but that’s not yet started.
14/02/2012 at 13:00 WhatKateDoes says:
Riddick’s starting to look like he’s getting on a bit eh?
14/02/2012 at 14:10 Blackcompany says:
I lol’d.
14/02/2012 at 22:30 mervine says:
He’s still kicking ass tho!
14/02/2012 at 13:06 Inigo says:
Spah’s sappin’ mah statue.
14/02/2012 at 19:51 quincunx says:
That’s what I was was thinking!
14/02/2012 at 13:10 mikmanner says:
Wow, this looks like what Rage should have been.
14/02/2012 at 14:38 Squire says:
I heartily agree, even if this game turns out to literally just be those 3 vehicles driving around the desert in TDM it looks to be a better game than Rage, regardless of it being SP/MP.
When an indie studio puts out those graphics, after id was working on Rage for 7 years it really makes them look like a bunch wahlies [pronounced wah-lee-s]. They were so close to the project that they thought unique art for every surface/object was sensible in a game basically set in a DESERT.
If it had been an huge urban area, like a city, I could understand the benefit of an infinite variety of detail [Prey 2] but its kind of stupid to expect a player/players brain to notice 70 different designed sand patterns as they zoom by in a buggy. They won’t, so its a pointless waste of time when the Trike video has non-fading graphics and looks better imo, the shaders on the car and the physics of the wheels even looks better than Rage.
This game looks really fun, Rage was a smelly poobag.
14/02/2012 at 16:46 stupid_mcgee says:
In all fairness, iD was also making an entire engine during those 7 years, not just a game. I do agree that RAGE was rather lackluster.
14/02/2012 at 18:29 Hoaxfish says:
Hopefully they do something with the Rage engine in their next game, so it was worth it… especially since they’re no longer licensing their engines to other people.
14/02/2012 at 19:30 subshell001 says:
Doom 4 is using the RAGE engine, and is also being developed by true iD veterans. I believe the content for RAGE was made by a newer, separate team.
15/02/2012 at 10:52 sneetch says:
What happened with the mega-textures in their engine? Did they sort out the issues with pop-up?
16/02/2012 at 12:51 NYMinuteMan says:
I still have to finish Rage. Although the shooting was nice and the characters and the first settlements were absolutely amazing, it was so awfully mediocre. It was neither shooter, nor racing game, nor rpg. Quake3 was the last id game I truely cared about. I still would love a proper Fallout with that new engine.
14/02/2012 at 13:11 roryok says:
Looking forward to this! SP mode?
14/02/2012 at 13:46 Alien426 says:
‘Fraid their Indie DB page says only “Multiplayer”.
14/02/2012 at 22:43 Zeewolf says:
Damn. Still tempted, though.
14/02/2012 at 13:13 Echo says:
They’ve done a really good job with the sounds! Lots of games have obvious clicks where engine sounds loop and sound like they just change the pitch as you accelerate, but that trike video has excellent engine sounds that reflect what the trike is actually doing.
…I think I might have sound effect OCD.
14/02/2012 at 13:33 Drayk says:
I have to second this. I am usually not very focused on sounds in games, except when they are awful, or like in this case, brilliant.
I just saw the footage and asked myself: “Wow it really sounds like a real engine, how did they do that ?
The game is surprisngly good looking too, i hope it won’t be as blend (?) as Rage.
14/02/2012 at 13:38 Kollega says:
I think the word you were looking for is “bland”, compadre.
14/02/2012 at 13:58 Drayk says:
<– English isn't this guy's native language…
Yeah, Bland, thanks… should have googled it.
14/02/2012 at 14:02 Kollega says:
I understood that English must not be your native language (neither it is mine), so i thought a bit on how to put it so that you wouldn’t be offended. Dosen’t look like i succeeded too well, but… eh. That happens.
14/02/2012 at 14:13 Drayk says:
Sigh… communication.
No no, you did not offend me at all… I just wanted to explain that i am not as familiar with english as i would love to… so that I did not look too stupid… ATEOTD, it looks like I made a fool of myself.
My thanks are honest to the bone.
14/02/2012 at 16:56 Urthman says:
The important thing is that Drayk was right that the engine sounds in this game are outstanding.
14/02/2012 at 13:35 Orija says:
It’s the closed beta that’s scheduled for early 2012, as per their site.
14/02/2012 at 13:37 Derppy says:
Damn, this has potential.
Please include a setting where the players actually die from bullets, rather than take 5 bullets to the chest and keep sprinting and shooting ;)
14/02/2012 at 13:39 Rob Lang says:
Finally, a helicopter candidate that handles a bit like the choppers from Battlefield Vietnam.
14/02/2012 at 18:09 JarinArenos says:
If this controls anything like the helis from the old Battlefield 1942 Modern Warfare package, I will be a happy man. I was always so very disappointed that all the “mainstream” games turned helicopters into… basically flying carpets. no skill to fly, and come to a dead hover if you let go of the controls.
Give me a helicopter that tries to kill you by flipping over on takeoff! :D
20/02/2012 at 18:01 Phasma Felis says:
Hell to the yes.
You know the first remote-control heli mission in GTA: Vice City? The one with realistic controls that (I’m told) had everyone eating their controllers in frustration? I beat it on my first try, and liked it so much that I reloaded and beat it again.
I don’t usually play multiplayer games, but I just might play this.
14/02/2012 at 13:39 Kollega says:
Hey guys! I also wanna make a ridiculously attractive indie online shooter that looks like it’s been made on a massive budget! I’ve got an idea and all that jazz!
14/02/2012 at 13:42 Kdansky says:
I’m still waiting for a game that actually manages to get the basic premise correctly: Post-apocalypse should look like a jungle, not a desert.
14/02/2012 at 13:47 westyfield says:
Care to explain why it would look like a jungle?
14/02/2012 at 13:52 Blackcompany says:
Because without humans to cut them down, plants and trees would eventually conquer much of the known world. Not saying the Sahara desert suddenly becomes a green, fertile paradise but the area around New York City’s Ellis Island ain’t exactly going to end up looking like the aforementioned wasteland, either.
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For more on this see the excellent console game ‘Enslaved.’ They really nailed the feel of a post-human world where nature had begun to take over once more.
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But then too, I think desertscapes might be easier on the budget than overgrown jungles with their naturally moving tress, ambient sound and immersive wildlife.
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But I do agree with the OP. Would love a game that gets the nature-restored theme right.
14/02/2012 at 14:04 Drayk says:
I really love Enslaved despite it’s flaws…the voice acting was stellar.
Too bad they abandoned this new IP.
14/02/2012 at 14:08 Blackcompany says:
I don’t think I could get behind a sequel to Enslaved. Would be like a sequel to Bastion. Both games were complete – and phenomenal – on their own.
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Now, other games in that same “universe” I could very much get behind. Struggles elsewhere in Enslaved’s world would be worthy the visit. Ditto for Bastion. Take us elsewhere in that ravaged world, with a new story and new protagonist. Sure you can tie things together in the narrative, no problem.
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But direct sequels to these games would just be…tacking on, really.
14/02/2012 at 14:21 Drayk says:
I still haven’t finish Bastion so i can’t tell. But for Enslaved I feel that there are things left to discover. And I think that those characters are really strong and could be used to tell another story, maybe some journey to find a new place for mankind. I really liked the animalistic nature of Pigsy and Monkey, it felt like something i never saw before.
But you’re right the setting is more promissing than the characters.
14/02/2012 at 14:21 LuNatic says:
Widespread poison and radioactive fallout from any plausible apocalyptic event would likely kill off any large life-forms. I expect the world would be covered in mould and algae if anything.
14/02/2012 at 14:26 westyfield says:
But it would take years to get things to the worldwide jungle stage, right? Wouldn’t it look like a desert wasteland in the meantime?
14/02/2012 at 16:58 Urthman says:
LuNatic is right. The idea is usually that some terrible catastrophe has changed the climate or killed off most of the vegetation or something.
14/02/2012 at 18:34 Hoaxfish says:
I wouldn’t mind a snowy apocalypse, nuclear winter, etc. Get a bit of it with Metro, but it’s not very fluffy.
20/02/2012 at 18:03 Phasma Felis says:
Well, no, it depends entirely on what kind of apocalypse and how long it’s been.
Also, I imagine it would be hard to make a wide-open vehicle shooter work in the jungle.
14/02/2012 at 13:43 CKScientist says:
I like the racing video.
They should make a no guns mode. I’d enjoy playing it just as a racing game.
14/02/2012 at 13:49 Blackcompany says:
Got my hopes up and my heart racing with this one.
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Post-apocalyptic setting? check.
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FPS with vehicles? Check.
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Excellent sound and solid graphics? Check.
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Strong single player campaign with at least some semblance of a narrative? Che…maybe not.
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Just another competitive, multiplayer FPS.
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Pass.
14/02/2012 at 18:38 Hoaxfish says:
Yea, it’s a bit of a shame when games are exclusively multiplayer… As soon as the playerbase dies off so does the game’s value.
15/02/2012 at 08:25 Prime says:
The dying art of AI opposition. [sigh] Sorry, quad-core processor; apparently you’re just for making stuff look shiny.
14/02/2012 at 13:51 Sirico says:
“Lighting needs to be rebuilt” Hello UDK we meet again?
14/02/2012 at 14:05 jjujubird says:
Has potential, attention to detail seemed good
14/02/2012 at 14:12 Etherealsteel says:
I’m liking this, first it was Hawken, now this game… thank goodness for Indie Developers, otherwise we just get the same old rewashed remakes of popular games.
14/02/2012 at 14:54 Lev Astov says:
That gyrocopter was in no way a gyrocopter; it was a helicopter, and I love it.
Definitely getting this. Thanks for the heads up, RPS!
15/02/2012 at 21:29 Rugged Malone says:
I thought the same thing! That’s no gyro. Still cool, but.
14/02/2012 at 15:12 2late2die says:
Wow, this looks really good. I may have to check it out.
14/02/2012 at 15:12 TwwIX says:
I am glad to see more Indie developers jumping into the FPS market. The market is over saturated with too many cookie cutter military shooters these days. Games like BRINK and Battlefield 3 have been nothing but big disappointments and a waste of money to me.
14/02/2012 at 15:21 Stevostin says:
This is HOT.
14/02/2012 at 17:04 Brise Bonbons says:
This looks amazing. Now for The Rant:
Unfortunately while this looks amazing, it also looks like another MP game which will launch to decent sales and a rapidly evaporating player base. Eventually leaving it with one full server and five with one player each. Meaning you can’t actually play it. Well, you can sit on a server with one other guy playing hide and seek, or spam refresh the server list trying to get into that one server that’s still alive (and is probably across an ocean from you).
While I dislike the implementation in pretty much all F2P games, I’m beginning to feel that it’s the only sensible way to go if you’re developing a non-franchise MP game. Even more so if any of the following are true: Maps/games are large (10+ players), you are trying to inject skill or novel mechanics into anything, your game has higher-end graphics that some people won’t be able to run, or your game has a rough learning curve.
I’ve bought so many promising multiplayer games, indie or not, only to have them effectively become steam library bookends due to vanishing populations. Honestly I’d be more likely to drop $30-45 for an “unlock EveryDamnThing” option in an F2P game than I would be to spend $10-15 on an amazing looking indie title that will only be playable for a month (which equates to a few hours of actual playtime).
I hate feeling that way, but I just can’t deal with having more games in my steam library that sit there, unplayable, reminding me of how amazing they could be if people just played them.
EDIT: Since they’re taking pre-orders, I assume they are not doing F2P. If they later announce the game will be F2P, then obviously my rant is not relevant here, though still something I wanted off my chest.
14/02/2012 at 17:05 fallingmagpie says:
That looks top quality fun.
Looks like they’re at one extreme of the indie spectrum – former employees of big studios (worked on Battlefield and Frontlines, according to their website), who picked up a decent chunk of venture capital money based on their experience.
Let’s hope they don’t get bought by any of the big boys, then eh?
14/02/2012 at 20:42 Tams80 says:
So if you can fly a helicopter in Battlefield you’re sorted?
14/02/2012 at 22:37 Raiyan 1.0 says:
Technically speaking, is it a gyrocopter if the rotors are powered instead of propellers?
Edit: Never mind, the engine appears to be powering two boosters.
15/02/2012 at 02:18 zhanlinp says:
http://0597.in/?276
15/02/2012 at 07:35 Iskariot says:
Looks like a game I would want to play.
But I don’t do online.
In general online games tend to wither away to fast, to be worth my money and my time.
I would love to play this as a single player action rpg.