The theme of this video is "The Banality of Evil" as Snakerer realizes too late that he's embarked on a genocidal crusade because the money is just too damn good to turn down. Coincidentally, this video could also be called "The Banality of Precursors."
@@GreenEyedDazzler Your definition is kind of incomplete. Banal means what you said, but it also carries a connotation that implies a certain amount of tedium as a result of the unoriginality. The phrase "banality of evil" implies, not just that an evil is trite, but that an evil we all know to be wrong can hide in plain sight by being so predictable and boring that you reflexively avoid paying attention to it.
Ok, gonna update this along the review. Mind it, I have played mostly the Russiam version. After observing the footage seems that something got borked on his end and some patches... didn't apply. This can be noticed with the fact that aiming down the sights is way slower than it should be. 1. Having played it in Russian and very briefly in English, I can tell you that the Russian writing is waaaay better than the English one. 2. Jesus Christ wtf did they do to the English version??? I played the original Russian release with a patch with no fan patch and a lot of problems he mentioned aren't there - pressing tab changes from moni map to compass, weight limit perks all work as intended. 3. There ARE other weapons that you need the heavy weapons perk. If I remember right, a living beam weapon needs it as well at 51:20 4. Stealth attacks in stealth mode give you a big damage boost. I could kill the dog things with one shot from a pistol while stealthed. 5. Again, seems your version is fucked because I distinctly remember wanting to buy new blasters so that I could continue to shoot after overheating one. The footage of the race from Skeleton distinctly shows how his weapons were running out of juice. 6. Space travel can also be done with teleporting, which we can see several times as being a third option when he activates Hyperspeed - 1. Hyperspeed 2. Get up from the controls 3. ACTUAL hyperspace instant travel - uses fuel but is essentially teleportation. If I remember it works not just with traveling from system to system. 7. Precursors wasn't finished. Period. The devs themselves said that. They just ran out of time and money. Overambition and being a small company didn't bode well. But they did make something special.
These cutscenes are the funniest things I think I've ever seen. Lost myself when I saw Los Tomatos and when Saul stabbed the CIA guy in the eye like some Joker mockup but man. These are golden.
This trilogy of videos is probably my favorite example of game journalism out there. You take these obscure broken experiences, and give a fair, but honest run down of what playing them would be like. Your boiling point video sold me on the game, and I've still yet to experience anything close to it. I'm convinced you're the best journalist out there for the medium. Some might be funnier, some might have better editing, but these videos are endlessly rewatchable. You are on par with, if not better than Ross Scott. You two keep me sane through 12 hour shifts. Much love from appalachistan. Happy Halloween snake
It's been years and several rewatches later... and I just noticed that the blasters on the space ship actually cool down properly in skeletoms game which makes me think that all of the issues you're experiencing such as the hyperbrake being a hyperdrift is being caused by the game being ran at a higher framerate.
What saddens me most with games like this; I can see the game that could be. Same with the previous two titles, especially Boiling Point. And I wish they could've had the time/resources to really flesh it out properly. And with Precursors, it does have -at least to me- a very cool aesthetic.
I sort of love this series for that, though. Kind of sad that things devolve over the series, but it gives each entry its own identity. Boiling Point feels like what the creators were going for, at least for the most part; a complete and interesting concept that’s clearly worth experiencing. White Gold is a far more broken take on that same structure, but as such is just the most exquisite jank ever. Precursors…is a sorry shell of what Xenus once was and is genuinely sad. All told, Snake’s accounts make me greatly respect Boiling Point and White Gold at least, and I’d be interested in playing those two myself someday.
Oh my, it's finally over. Great review, as always. During your rant about the ending you asked if that abrupt cut & all unused planets are caused by budget constraints... Well, yes, it was the reason. Xenus 1: Boiling Point came out only because of the Atari, the worldwide publisher, who guaranteed the presence on the market outside Russia&CIS region, proper english translation and the majority of funding. So the game was designed with an aim for international market from the beginning. Russobit-M, local russian publisher, handled the Russian VO (which is abysmal in comparison) & PR (promo, previews in magazines, etc.) In case of both Xenus 2 & Precursors there was no that saving straw. Precursors was shown on GDC & E3 in 2006 but no one picked it up back then and Russobit-M had to carry these obviously unprofitable projects to the end. Due to ambitions of Deep Shadows Precursors were split in two parts around 2007-08 with a hope for a relatively quick-made sequel (the same thing happened with S.T.A.L.K.E.R. addons where some cut stuff made a come-back). But... the economic crisis in 2008-09 changed some plans and affected russian & ukrainian gamedev as a whole: there was just no resources to add or adjust anything, only testing and bugfixing. X360 version also didn't survive the cut. A lot of studios either closed its doors or switched to a "casual" market during that time. The latter happened with Deep Shadows (both games came out on retail shelves properly only in Russian & CIS region - there was no way it would turn to a profit or even a zero. Those "engrish" versions on Gamergate released a year later don't count because well... you played them). Deep Shadows actually pitched a prototype of a 4th project, Partisan, - ruclips.net/video/aA4gW7wgmsM/видео.html - after Precursors release but failed to garner an interest.
What I'd be willing to bet happened during development is this game _started_ with a lot of energy and passion, then halfway through the devs just got burned out and wrapped up what they had. That would explain all of the loose plot threads and why the game ends in a scene that tells you there's more shit for you to do.
>thousands of years in the future >personal space travel no issue >havent figured out self sealing tires >using pneumatic rubber tires at all Suspension of disbelief just shattered so hard I cant even recognize the concept.
The Myers family curse. Maybe we can get a paranormal game from there where you are some kind of a ghost hunter and you try to lift the Myers' curse, but accidentally piss off Saul's ghost and his angry, exploding face will haunt you throughout the game.
I'm so fond of your videos about games like that. Being Russian, it's extremely fascinating to see you breaking them down, since I remember games like Xenus and Precursors and many others being hyped up by our local gaming magazines, just to be trashed upon release.
Out of curiosity, was there any hype for Boiling point? Or was it called xenus there? I remember it landing it here, to Finland without anyone saying a single thing about it and it became a sort of a cult hit very quickly. People who wouldn't have loved that clunky ole mess probably never even laid their eyes on it in the first place.
Wow, I'm really surprised that it got a following in Finland. But yeah, it got all kinds of coverage in the gaming press as Xenus: Boiling Point (the part after the colon being in Russian), so that led to some serious hype (at least relatively to other games made on post-Soviet territories). They also made a lot of promises that were popular at the time - like "seamless open world" or "complete freedom of gameplay styles". When it came out, obviously people were a bit put off, and the press wasn't good (mainly people critisized the awful amount of bugs and abysmal performance) but it still got a small following as you've said. After all, they've made a sequel and Precursors, so it had to be somewhat popular.
ProjectiluvOP Honestly, being Russian myself, I don't remember games like Xenus or Precursors getting that much audience or acclaim after release - Xenus was compared a lot with original Far Cry, while Precursors had some comparisons with Space Rangers (an actual Russian cult classic), but after a while, both kinda went away. STALKER was that one FPS RPG that instantly made it big in Russia and Ukraine, way before it acquired a worldwide cult status. I highly recommend Space Rangers, by the way - it's a mix between turn-based strategy, space sim and text adventure, a quite great one at that. It was re-released on Steam not too long ago, and it's one of the more universally beloved Russian video games out there, so it's worth a shot.
i found boiling point back in like 2008 and played it and remember liking it alot. i had alot more patience for games back then but i was really enamored with the vehicles and map and factions. several times i lost a trunk full of loot to a buggy save though
About the Gnows, those Eastern Europeans seem to have a nicknack for buff, overpowered, imposing mutant creatures that leap into you incessantly and in rapid succession to your demise. I guess it gets it up for them, eh.
4:48 I swear almost all old game's problems are solved through Vsync. Assassin's Creed 1 dying when doing leap of faith? turn on Vsync. Lego Batman 1 game rover bot thing not working? Vsync. It's weird.
It's mostly caused by games tying logic to framerate rather than a more objective time measurement that doesn't change. Vsync tends to fix those issues because it locks your framerate. As an example, let's say there's a door that takes 60 frames to open, but it's a *_really_* old game and you have a powerful computer so the game is running at 600 FPS. The door will probably open ten times faster than it should. The game might also get confused and decide to just not open the door at all or the door might just start spinning wildly out of control. It really depends on how the door is programmed, but tying logic to framerate is generally a really bad idea.
@@HyperShadic0 Debatably a bad idea. I mean, it kinda depends on what result you're trying to achieve. Good game? Yeah, bad idea. Entertaining(ly bad) game? Ehhhh, maybe give it a whirl, see what happens. Frustrating game? Tie that baby up to every single thing in the game and watch the metascore burn!
@@vetreas366 laugh in doom eternal high fps glitch. While I somewhat agree that tying your whole game to fps is bad. The fact of the matter is almost every game has something tie to fps. Even when a game is designed to be played at the most extreme frame rates, fps related glitches can still happen anyways. Also counterpoint, fnaf was made to run only at 60 fps yet that game became a runaway success same for hotline Miami or mgs v. Granted these game cannot be run beyond 60 unless you modify them but once you do well I’m pretty sure you know what would happen. And there too many game to count that has issue when playing at a high enough fps even the most profitable game in history gta v has issue when you go high enough The point is while having game that support a seemingly uncap fps is nice just don’t go acting like not having that alone will destroy a game.
@@acmargatroid The universe is not only expanding, but the rate at which it is expanding is accelerating. I guess if the Precursors takes place about 13 billion years in the future, it wouldn't be so far fetched. You could probably expect to see smaller bodies (i.e. the spacecraft) getting ripped apart at that point though. Planets wouldn't be too far behind.
I can guess how HyperBraking happened: the strafing is as fast as it is so that it's useful as a combat dodge, and there either wasn't enough playtesting to reveal that it was way too fast to let the player use it indefinitely, or there was way worse shit that got fixed instead.
All of the voice acting in this game is wonderful, just like with the previous two, but my favourite has to be the man with "Elder" in his name sounding like Aziz Ansari.
Before Starfield, before Elite Dangerous, before No Man Sky, before Star Citizen (get it done) this is it! The closer thing we get the Freelancer sequel. An overlooked spiritual successor to the like of Wing Commander
I don't think jank is necessarily negative, hell, you could call even Deus Ex janky, and that's one of the best games ever. In a way, that itself has more potential, I mean, I would way rather play Gothic than Fallout 4.
Gothic and Deus Ex might appear clunky by todays standards, but only cuz they're old. People who made them couldn't do any better at the time and they didn't know any better. Now, when I look at a game like Elex, that comes out way after the age of Severance and Demons Souls, all I see is laziness and ineptitude. There's no excuse for this German ARPG jank. Even those guys who made Lords of the Fallen have figured things out eventually.
Absolutely, and utterly false, both Deus Ex, and to a smaller extent Gothic, were very clunky at their release. Deus Ex went through so much development it's ridiculous and it shows, the systems are strange, there are bugs everywhere, compare it even to something like the original Half-Life to see the difference. There were technical limitations, of course, and game design has evolved since then, that doesn't mean the mechanics were not janky, and that doesn't even have to be a bad thing. Or for recent release, go look at E.Y.E. Or for an older example of a similar concept, you can take a look at Strife. As with Gothic, maybe I chose a bad example, so Risen then, which has the Gothic 2 combat, and was released in 2010, it's clunky as hell. Elex, while I haven't played it yes, seems to have been an effort on Piranha Bytes' part to innovate(they stuck with Gothic 2 system all the way up until the second Risen,), not just some random bit of incompetence, an attempt to fuse the things like stamina system with their older design philosophies(by all accounts unsuccessful)
Precursors ended so suddenly because at the same time Saul Myers failed to stop the apocalypse on Earth in White Gold, killing everyone in the universe.
Something I noticed while rewatching these: the Xenos games get progressively less complete as time goes on. Boiling point had a reasonably satisfactory ending and didn't leave much in terms of loose ends. White gold stopped just before the ending. And Precursors just... well it barely got out the starting gate.
I love these long form videos you in particular do and you pretty much said why. You cover just whatever you want, games that wouldn't otherwise have gotten such long form videos made about them. I also just happen to like your style and sense of humor. It's not often I can watch an hour and a half long video and actually enjoy it even if I had never played the game it's about. Good stuff.
As far as I know (from an interview they did in Russian) some of the developers from Deep Shadows now have a new team and are making a classical rpg that is actually getting quite good reviews on Steam (even though it's in early access). They seem to be pretty friendly, so I may ask them more about their Deep Shadows days.
Oh, sorry! I got distracted that time with some personal stuff... :( It's called Atom RPG. It's a turn-based role playing game (similar to Fallout 1-2), so I'm not sure if it's your jam. But hey, they seem to be pretty passionate about it :)
I find it fascinating that the Xenus series is what it is. Boiling Point's setting being so grounded and White Gold mostly following its example, are then followed up by what I can only assume is the namesake of the series ("Xenus" just reads sci-fi-ish to me, feels weird tied to the prior two) with just about no actual links to the Saul games within its world. At least, I'm basing this entirely off these videos and probably slightly unreliable memory, so perhaps there's more than I realize! But the only ones I can pick out are things a bit more on the game mechanics/premise side of things (faction systems, gunplay complications like weapon degradation, health mechanics, etc.), and the _giant spiders_ of all things from the latter two games. Were the spiders supposed to be setting something up in White Gold? Broader, are _either_ of those previous games supposed to actually be relevant to the Precursors? *How?* Surely they're part of the same series for a reason beyond the style of their gameplay... Maybe that's a false assumption though. Just feels weird that they'd be completely narratively disconnected.
I have to admit, as a person who had (no) pleasure in playing Precursors in their native language and experiencing all this firsthand with no patches this was a very fascinating review, although also the one that brought back many painful memories.
It definitely is. It seems to be unpatched - easily seen by the fact of how slow his ads is. My old version (russian) definitely had working Perks as well.
Pleased to see you getting around to this so soon after Xenus 2. And having just watched the video in its entirety, I'd say your thoughts on Boiling Point are correct. Boiling Point is a game that, under different circumstances, with some refinement and a hefty pre-release round of bug fixes, could've been a classic. It took an additional two years before another game caught up to it in the form of STALKER, and even that game lacked in some areas when it came out (the lack of a proper faction system, for instance, and also being a bug-addled mess). That aside, the only other similar game that came about was Far Cry 2, in 2008, over a full three years from Boiling Point's release... only to lack the faction system, but having better, more streamlined gunplay. Boiling Point really was a game well ahead of its time. Even now, no game has quite matched up to its wealth of mechanics. You can have cars in Far Cry 2, but they're plentiful and you aren't worried about them, nor do you have to refuel them, and you can't put things in the boot. There's boats, but no flying vehicles. There's factions, but no mechanics really tied to them - everybody's out to shoot you. And, of course, no other game like it reduces the effectiveness of your primary healing items over time, though that isn't the worst thing to have taken away, even if it could be a good mechanic, were it better balanced. I'm rambling now, but I absolutely see why you like Boiling Point so much. It's a game that's not just mechanically unique, it's genuinely charming. Saul Meyers as a character is a hilarious doofus with the character being made so endearing by a genuinely good performance by David Gasman. His personality mingling with the other weirdos of Realia are what really lift the game into its cult status, I think. It's great. It really is like anybody's dad getting the opportunity to play Rambo, but they can't stop behaving like they're someone's dorky dad. Saul's "They call me..." lines are actually some of my favourite lines from any game. Thanks for doing these games. They've always been a curiosity for me, and your videos, with your somewhat dry delivery are particularly great. The Boiling Point video in particular is absolutely one of my favourite videos. I'll personally +1 the Hard Truck: Apocalypse recommendation VASYlisk61 made below. In addition, I'll toss in the Two Worlds games, Devastation (not sure how much you can think to say about it, but it's a good Unreal Engine 2 shooter, so see what you think), and Driver 3.
The faction system in Outer Worlds has the same problem this game has, where pissing off factions has little to no consequences because each faction is limited to a single planet, and after finishing the main mission of that planet you have little reason to ever go back
You're doing gods work with your mission to document the strange and obscure titles and break them down for their own merits and flaws, you definitely are one of the best youtubers out there.
Returning to this on a re-run binge; you mentioned you're not much into space flight games. Neither am I, but I fell in love with Everspace. Its highlight was something I really didn't expect going in - the story. It's perhaps the only 'roguelike' game that manages to justify the mechanic in a way that actually adds to the story, setting and immersion instead of pulling the player out of it.
Thank you for doing this video. I actually liked Precursors the most of the three Xenus games, but mainly because I found easy enough to complete without any grinding. I found a weird glitch, which not everyone on the Steam forums could replicate: when you FIRST get into space, head to ZIRIT immediately. The cargo prices there start off as peanuts, and only after a certain while do they normalise to the same as other in-game prices. Meaning if you head there right away, buy as much as you can carry, you can basically end up with millions and millions of credits. I ended up only doing story missions and skipping all side quests. Also, I sided with the birds on the 2nd planet, and the game threw up some insane glitches. One caused both bird factions to turn against me, forcing a reload, and another randomly activated the cut-scene for the Order where you destroy the birds nest. Again forcing a reload. For some strange reason I ended up completing a story quest for a rival faction which I did not even choose to side with! The story I heard from Wesp5, or one of the other guys d on the Steam forum, is that the publisher of this game had a massive fight with the developer who abandoned the game mid-development, and so the publisher slapped it together quickly in order to make it complete enough to sell. Meaning what we got was sort of a polished up Alpha build. Or so the legend goes! I was never able to verify that story. But would explain the vehicle problem. Different versions of the game, depending on whether you bought the East European boxed version, the first Western digital release, or the later Steam release, either allow or do not allow use of the flying vehicles. Having access to the choppers would have made the minefield planet so much easier!
I think something was seriously borked with your game - looking at Skeletor's gameplay, his blasters overheat properly. I don't know f his perks would work properly, but I have a sniggling suspicion that they would.
Well, it's one of these games, so who knows what caused that. It might be the translation patch messing around with the code, or the game could just play differently on different computers for no goddamn reason, you just don't know with eurojank.
Years late, but my guess is that it might be a framerate/"game running too fast" issue. Remember that Snake disabled vsync to fix the mouse input latency. Maybe Skel kept vsync on, or simply couldn't run the game fast enough to cause any issues. This is completely speculative on my part I admit, but it's the first potential difference between their games I can think of.
I think the part that throws me the hardest about Treece's character is that, for how young he looks, he sounds like a fucking chain smoker in their late forties. I get that voice acting was... kinda low on the list of priorities for this game series, but still, Treece's actor looked at the character and somehow managed to decide, "you know what, grizzled old vet works for this one"?
I just beat this myself, The weight perks worked in the version I used, and the ships guns drained all the way down. There were 2 planets it seems you never visited Moreno (has nothing but spiders and spiderbots, and 1 mission to find a cold fusion reactor to get a keycard to enter the base where Apertov is) and Yarent (Looks like fallout, buncha blown up skyscrapers, didn't explore much but from what I did see the entire planet is inhibited by bandits. You can just go there but there's no quests I ever saw related to it.) To its credit, the engine only crashed once in the entire 20 hours I played.
I went back and explored Yarent....2 buildings have secret underground bases, loaded with pictures of Treece and computers that all have the same messages on them. There were 2 enemy's not seen anywhere else ingame on Yarent called "Cannibal" that looked like a brown sasquatch, i am amazed they bothered to make these models but only put the enemy ingame on this non-plot planet and then to have the nerve to only put 2 of them there. On the plus side none of the raiders on Yarent know how to use those shields that literally every other enemy except animals and imperials can use.
@@smokingone thanks for sharing this. Learning all this is legitimately fascinating AND leaves me wondering, was Yarent a relic from a longer version of the game? Where perhaps some sort of reveal that Treece was being watched would happen.
@@JamesTobiasStewart yea its so weird seeing his face on all the computer screens there and sadly every single computer has the same info as any other computer in the game but it also seems to me like it was meant to flesh out the story but they never had the time to finish it.
@@smokingone Well I mean that would make sense, the story stops just as the central mystery is being set up, which felt like the studio running out of time and money and just stitching what they had together and launching it as is.
I really gotta give this game a chance again. The gameplay sounds awesome. Quirky, but a lot like STALKER. The dialogue felt too confusing at the time though, but it seems like it might be bareable. I didn't know about the V-sync issue too.
I like what you said at the end about your focus on what you review and how you review it. I just found your channel and I enjoy your review style. Your narration is engaging and descriptive so that I'm able to follow along with what's going on while playing a game that doesn't require the sound to be turned up (such as a Diablo style ARPG). Thanks for the content sir! Now to watch your Yakuza series.
Gotta say, didn't expect to go from a video about YIIK to Neuro to this trilogy, but your videos are just too good. Definitely made me want to try Boiling Point and Neuro, even if the latter seems like it'd be a pain to get running.
It's really weird. On the one hand, I love that he doesn't balance out janky audio since you really get a feel for the jank, but I also tend to use long-form reviews to fall asleep and every time I do that I forget this one is in the playlist.
Saul Myers has become one with the cosmos. He is in every living being and he guides those who deserve his wisdom and strength. Basically Saul is a space god. But hey, that's just a theory. a GAYYYYYME THEORY!
Just found your channel and I’m already hooked. I can’t wait to see more of your content, love these long-form videos on obscure (or at least not mainstream) games!
I think that the ships move fast, but because space is so huge, you feel that the ship moves really slow, that is also what happen in other space simulators, the X series, Elite Dangerous and Rebel Galaxy, even at maximum speed and afterburners it seems that it takes an eternity to reach were you want to go, but that is part of the charm in this games.
Revisiting this because of Starfield. The fact we got this experience so many years ago and Starfield managed to only bring a more Polished version of this, is a disgrace. They could easily have done so much more
These are some of my favourite Video-Essays on Videogames on RUclips. On par with the big guys like Joseph Anderson in pretty much every aspect. Good Work, i love what you have been doing these past few years!
“They feature a blend of shooting and driving, and much of the shooting and driving happens because of dialogue with a faction system influencing who you’re driving towards and shooting at” My favourite line from all of your videos
I love these thumbnails and titles, they're so hilarious in a way that only makes sense once you've seen the video, until then they just seem like strange schizophrenic Photoshops.
I don't know how I stumbled on your channel, I think RUclips was pushing your Hunt Down the Freeman review real hard. I love your feature length reviews and your style. Your Xenus reviews are really making my vacation's quiet moments awesome. On top of that your video recommending other channels really opened up my subscription count. Thank you for everything.
Have you considered doing Codename: Outbreak? It was the first game Deep Shadows worked on, they helped GSC Game World (the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. devs) with it and it has similarities to the Xenus trilogy. They also made ArcaniA: Gothic 4 but uh, I dunno if I'd recommend playing that. It's pretty awful and buggy. But then again that'd make for a good video... Unfortunately that was their last "real" game. Since then they've only released a handful of hidden object games and mobile stuff.
What a shame. While I like White Gold's ending (if Saul would've sang the male mercenary equivilent of "i'm tired" from Blazing Saddles, it would've been perfect), but this one ends on a weird and not even a funny note. This sucks.
Just to add to apparent unpredictable glitches- it appears when your friend did the race for you his blasters COULD overheat as the bar DID drain. Perhaps I misheard as I'm struggling to find the moment you mentioned it- but for you the bar refilled faster than it drained. All to say, sounds like the game struggles to remain consistent, that's for sure lol.
17:44 ok but... is it just me, or does this game have some impressively smooth movement animations for the enemies? more specifically at 18:28, when he has to throw his body weight down to stop his momentum, and as he is doing this he already starts the upper body movement to aim up his gun and open fire... that looks so organic and it seems absurdly good for a slav jank... hell for any game of it's day... hell even for a game today that looks really good. Or am I exaggerating?.
I do not know if this is kinda late but they made a game called Venom: Codename outbreak, it's a pretty old game and when I was a child I played it with my cousin non stop lmao. The same with Boiling Point road to hell.
You know, when I played it way back when, I thought that the entire entry shpiel about the hilariously stupid death of protag's father was lifted from Disgaea and there will definitely be a gut punching twist down the line. Except in in Disgaea it turned out that your dad didn't choke to death on a pretzel and turned out to be the ultimate badass who avenged his wife's death, sealed away the legendary devil that was about to end the world *AND* fucking returned after death (albeit temporarily) as a force ghost and subtly guided and protected his son from the shadows when he got old enough to go on a kingmaking journey of his own; while in Precursors this little bit was just the first taste of what entire game would be - setting up something interesting, only for it to go nowhere and be dropped immediately. Such a sad ending for the series. These games were always overambitious, but at least they *tried* before. In Precursors it feels like they just gave up halfway for whatever reason and just slapped the fucker together from bits and pieces to push out on market before closing.
I absolutely love your channel, I only found you a few days ago, watched nearly every single one of your long form videos, and they are brilliant, both the topics and presentation, I love your writing and delivery, and covering these strange, obscure titles is something I absolutely adore watching. I'm delighted you have decided to focus more on that, even though your videos on more mainstream titles are also fantastic, I like the more obscure topics far more. I would like to mention Inquisitor as well, which is an excellent example of a deep, strange, overly ambicious european game, with 10 year development cycle and an incredibly long and involved world and story, discount diablo combat and plot which is both a detective mystery and a fantasy apocalypse. And has one person on forums who keeps trying to help people get it running somehow(for years), since it's unmoddable and unstable beyond belief.
Thanks a lot for the kind comment, I'll look into Inquisitor but I should say I'm not big into Diablo-like games, never really been my cup of tea I'm afraid.
Oh God you did! Even I haven't played Precursors yet) I haven't watch your video, but I expect Precursors being on par with Boiling Point and Better than Xenus 2. Ok, I've watched your video now... I was shocked with the ending.. I'll tell you the brief history of how that game was developed: The publisher had put a lot of pressure on Deep Shadows, they were developing Xenus 2 AND Precursors AT THE SAME FUCKING TIME with the team of like 60 people(!)(many of which left by the end of the development because of the working conditions). And you had a right guess, they were running out of time and money, so they had to push Xenus 2, but since they pushed it they didn't make enough money, so they had to push Precursors too... Roughly 40 people were working on Precursors and 20-25 on Xenus 2. And yeah they were postponing the releases a couple of times but it didn't really work. Boiling Point, on the other hand, were made 30-40 with a relatively good amount of time to spare. I didn't know that Precursors were that bad though. Thanks for the video, have a nice day or night or whatever)
Of course it's not the proper ending, it's an interlude. My thoughts when I finished this game were: "so, when the second part is going to be released?" - not in our timeline and ever dimension
Yeah, that was a weird one to say the least. It's like it was made from 3 parts: 1) Big empty areas and jungles - we want to make a Painkiller clone! That's why our guns don't have clips/magazines and we will repeatedly trap you in arenas/cages to fight mutilated animals. 2) More jungles (tunnel-like this time) and some military bases + unexpected inclusion of plot - we want to make a Half-Life clone as well! That's why we added in-game cutscenes, furries with tesla-guns and science-fiction. 3) Mountains and science facilities + even more plot that assumes that you know what is going on - we... what were we doing, again? Something like Far Cry? Let's add an army of mercenaries, a small metal gear (which you'll kill with 9mm pistol) and a messiah plot, just because we can.
This comment is almost a year old, I know, but there's this other guy by the name of Civvie 11 that did a pretty good 30 minute video on Vivisector.- ruclips.net/video/DDLFCxaxb60/видео.html - It's definitely a unique game, for sure.
Third comment on the same video in the same day: Deep Shadows were not hacks, they were simply very ambitious developers that did not have the budget or talent, so in a way Boiling Point was a happy accident simply because Atari was willing to help them, so they were able to make their dream game. Once DS lost their contract with Atari, they were fully independent and they decided to go ahead with White Gold/(Guilt), a prequel to Boiling Point that was likely intended for consoles, but since they didn't have the money for a good PC game anymore they did not have the cash for a console game. Precursors was likely in the same boat as White Gold/(Guilt), over-ambitious without the money to back them up. In short, they were an honest development house, they were just broke and had to cut so many corners that they ended up with a perfect circle.
That Dude skill, talent, same thing. Also, I said they didn't have enough talent, they had it but not enough to make the projects they wanted with the polish they needed.
The theme of this video is "The Banality of Evil" as Snakerer realizes too late that he's embarked on a genocidal crusade because the money is just too damn good to turn down. Coincidentally, this video could also be called "The Banality of Precursors."
he is a english man through and through.
You keep using that word “banality”, I do not think it means what you think it means.
*banal* adj. trite, or unoriginal
@@GreenEyedDazzler Blame the guy who wrote the book of the same name in the 60's
@@SuperLlama42 You mean Hannah Arendt?
@@GreenEyedDazzler
Your definition is kind of incomplete. Banal means what you said, but it also carries a connotation that implies a certain amount of tedium as a result of the unoriginality.
The phrase "banality of evil" implies, not just that an evil is trite, but that an evil we all know to be wrong can hide in plain sight by being so predictable and boring that you reflexively avoid paying attention to it.
'They are ancient aliens that left a bunch of crap behind'
They took a roadside picnic clearly
oh you git
There will always be people who will want to find their shit, a type of Stalker, if you will.
stop it
Throw that bolt
Ooh that's a hot reference
I love the idea of Tehsnakerer wiping out an entire alien bird species just because their gear is worth some change.
Ok, gonna update this along the review. Mind it, I have played mostly the Russiam version.
After observing the footage seems that something got borked on his end and some patches... didn't apply. This can be noticed with the fact that aiming down the sights is way slower than it should be.
1. Having played it in Russian and very briefly in English, I can tell you that the Russian writing is waaaay better than the English one.
2. Jesus Christ wtf did they do to the English version??? I played the original Russian release with a patch with no fan patch and a lot of problems he mentioned aren't there - pressing tab changes from moni map to compass, weight limit perks all work as intended.
3. There ARE other weapons that you need the heavy weapons perk. If I remember right, a living beam weapon needs it as well at 51:20
4. Stealth attacks in stealth mode give you a big damage boost. I could kill the dog things with one shot from a pistol while stealthed.
5. Again, seems your version is fucked because I distinctly remember wanting to buy new blasters so that I could continue to shoot after overheating one. The footage of the race from Skeleton distinctly shows how his weapons were running out of juice.
6. Space travel can also be done with teleporting, which we can see several times as being a third option when he activates Hyperspeed - 1. Hyperspeed 2. Get up from the controls 3. ACTUAL hyperspace instant travel - uses fuel but is essentially teleportation. If I remember it works not just with traveling from system to system.
7. Precursors wasn't finished. Period. The devs themselves said that. They just ran out of time and money. Overambition and being a small company didn't bode well. But they did make something special.
Very interesting notes.
Now you too can feel what we have to sit through Eng-to-Rus so-called "official" localizations.
As a Spanish fella, I feel for you. Most Spanish translations are terrible
Gonzakoable as a german, i just can say we dont have that problem. All our localizations are amazing.
Gonzakoable How bad?
I don’t even bother with localizations anymore I just leave them in English
@@skrotosd same
These cutscenes are the funniest things I think I've ever seen. Lost myself when I saw Los Tomatos and when Saul stabbed the CIA guy in the eye like some Joker mockup but man. These are golden.
The MC voice actor sounds like a complete fucking idiot. It's amazing how bad it is, it's so bad it almost seems purposely bad.
This trilogy of videos is probably my favorite example of game journalism out there.
You take these obscure broken experiences, and give a fair, but honest run down of what playing them would be like. Your boiling point video sold me on the game, and I've still yet to experience anything close to it.
I'm convinced you're the best journalist out there for the medium. Some might be funnier, some might have better editing, but these videos are endlessly rewatchable.
You are on par with, if not better than Ross Scott.
You two keep me sane through 12 hour shifts.
Much love from appalachistan. Happy Halloween snake
Hey it's Chuck!
@@KingofGermanic Oh my fucking god you're right!
I just want to echo the thoughts C trouble laid out. You're fuckin awesome snakebro and I watch a *lot* of this type of content on the 'tube.
NOT Soul Myers? That's it, the game has failed in every single regard. It is now DR4 tier of shit. I bet the new character hasn't even played DRIV3R.
Ryder... You sherm-head!
It's not a part of main Driver 3 Universe, so it's fine
Don't worry bro, none of this is canon.
It's been years and several rewatches later... and I just noticed that the blasters on the space ship actually cool down properly in skeletoms game which makes me think that all of the issues you're experiencing such as the hyperbrake being a hyperdrift is being caused by the game being ran at a higher framerate.
.... Son of a... thats hilarious!!
What saddens me most with games like this; I can see the game that could be. Same with the previous two titles, especially Boiling Point. And I wish they could've had the time/resources to really flesh it out properly.
And with Precursors, it does have -at least to me- a very cool aesthetic.
I sort of love this series for that, though. Kind of sad that things devolve over the series, but it gives each entry its own identity.
Boiling Point feels like what the creators were going for, at least for the most part; a complete and interesting concept that’s clearly worth experiencing. White Gold is a far more broken take on that same structure, but as such is just the most exquisite jank ever. Precursors…is a sorry shell of what Xenus once was and is genuinely sad. All told, Snake’s accounts make me greatly respect Boiling Point and White Gold at least, and I’d be interested in playing those two myself someday.
"oh shit look at this, that creature is dragging tris" may be my favourite line reading ever, up there with "a DUD?!"
Oh my, it's finally over. Great review, as always.
During your rant about the ending you asked if that abrupt cut & all unused planets are caused by budget constraints...
Well, yes, it was the reason. Xenus 1: Boiling Point came out only because of the Atari, the worldwide publisher, who guaranteed the presence on the market outside Russia&CIS region, proper english translation and the majority of funding. So the game was designed with an aim for international market from the beginning. Russobit-M, local russian publisher, handled the Russian VO (which is abysmal in comparison) & PR (promo, previews in magazines, etc.)
In case of both Xenus 2 & Precursors there was no that saving straw. Precursors was shown on GDC & E3 in 2006 but no one picked it up back then and Russobit-M had to carry these obviously unprofitable projects to the end.
Due to ambitions of Deep Shadows Precursors were split in two parts around 2007-08 with a hope for a relatively quick-made sequel (the same thing happened with S.T.A.L.K.E.R. addons where some cut stuff made a come-back). But... the economic crisis in 2008-09 changed some plans and affected russian & ukrainian gamedev as a whole: there was just no resources to add or adjust anything, only testing and bugfixing. X360 version also didn't survive the cut.
A lot of studios either closed its doors or switched to a "casual" market during that time. The latter happened with Deep Shadows (both games came out on retail shelves properly only in Russian & CIS region - there was no way it would turn to a profit or even a zero. Those "engrish" versions on Gamergate released a year later don't count because well... you played them).
Deep Shadows actually pitched a prototype of a 4th project, Partisan, - ruclips.net/video/aA4gW7wgmsM/видео.html - after Precursors release but failed to garner an interest.
THat's kinda depressing, honestly.
That was an informative read, thank you. Context Cheers!
What I'd be willing to bet happened during development is this game _started_ with a lot of energy and passion, then halfway through the devs just got burned out and wrapped up what they had. That would explain all of the loose plot threads and why the game ends in a scene that tells you there's more shit for you to do.
I think there's a good chance the ending was just sequel bait.
>thousands of years in the future
>personal space travel no issue
>havent figured out self sealing tires
>using pneumatic rubber tires at all
Suspension of disbelief just shattered so hard I cant even recognize the concept.
No no no. You are wrong.
They are SPACE tires that get broken by SPACE bullets.
Hey, what works, works. Forks have been around for thousands of years
5:43
>claims to be a pro gamer boi
>no dedicated porn folder with weird fetishes
You dissapoint me, Snake.
The desktop wallpaper is his weird fetish.
he's got a secret folder full of Saul Myers pin-ups
Changed the icon of the folder for the extra brain growth
I like to think that our MC is one of Saul's descendants, given how much he has to do before getting to the plot.
Plus dying the way Treece's dad does is a really Saul Myers way to go out.
The Myers family curse. Maybe we can get a paranormal game from there where you are some kind of a ghost hunter and you try to lift the Myers' curse, but accidentally piss off Saul's ghost and his angry, exploding face will haunt you throughout the game.
@@Tehsnakerer Mayby the real Saul Mayers are the friends we made along the way?
I'm so fond of your videos about games like that. Being Russian, it's extremely fascinating to see you breaking them down, since I remember games like Xenus and Precursors and many others being hyped up by our local gaming magazines, just to be trashed upon release.
Out of curiosity, was there any hype for Boiling point? Or was it called xenus there?
I remember it landing it here, to Finland without anyone saying a single thing about it and it became a sort of a cult hit very quickly. People who wouldn't have loved that clunky ole mess probably never even laid their eyes on it in the first place.
Wow, I'm really surprised that it got a following in Finland.
But yeah, it got all kinds of coverage in the gaming press as Xenus: Boiling Point (the part after the colon being in Russian), so that led to some serious hype (at least relatively to other games made on post-Soviet territories). They also made a lot of promises that were popular at the time - like "seamless open world" or "complete freedom of gameplay styles". When it came out, obviously people were a bit put off, and the press wasn't good (mainly people critisized the awful amount of bugs and abysmal performance) but it still got a small following as you've said. After all, they've made a sequel and Precursors, so it had to be somewhat popular.
ProjectiluvOP Honestly, being Russian myself, I don't remember games like Xenus or Precursors getting that much audience or acclaim after release - Xenus was compared a lot with original Far Cry, while Precursors had some comparisons with Space Rangers (an actual Russian cult classic), but after a while, both kinda went away. STALKER was that one FPS RPG that instantly made it big in Russia and Ukraine, way before it acquired a worldwide cult status.
I highly recommend Space Rangers, by the way - it's a mix between turn-based strategy, space sim and text adventure, a quite great one at that. It was re-released on Steam not too long ago, and it's one of the more universally beloved Russian video games out there, so it's worth a shot.
You're right, but they were noticed nonetheless, pre- and post-release. But nothing could compare to STALKER in terms of hype, to be sure.
i found boiling point back in like 2008 and played it and remember liking it alot. i had alot more patience for games back then but i was really enamored with the vehicles and map and factions. several times i lost a trunk full of loot to a buggy save though
About the Gnows, those Eastern Europeans seem to have a nicknack for buff, overpowered, imposing mutant creatures that leap into you incessantly and in rapid succession to your demise. I guess it gets it up for them, eh.
Yeah just look at Putin
Treece Myers, great-great-great-great-great Grandson of Saul Myers
4:48 I swear almost all old game's problems are solved through Vsync.
Assassin's Creed 1 dying when doing leap of faith? turn on Vsync.
Lego Batman 1 game rover bot thing not working? Vsync.
It's weird.
It's mostly caused by games tying logic to framerate rather than a more objective time measurement that doesn't change. Vsync tends to fix those issues because it locks your framerate. As an example, let's say there's a door that takes 60 frames to open, but it's a *_really_* old game and you have a powerful computer so the game is running at 600 FPS. The door will probably open ten times faster than it should. The game might also get confused and decide to just not open the door at all or the door might just start spinning wildly out of control. It really depends on how the door is programmed, but tying logic to framerate is generally a really bad idea.
@@HyperShadic0 Debatably a bad idea. I mean, it kinda depends on what result you're trying to achieve. Good game? Yeah, bad idea. Entertaining(ly bad) game? Ehhhh, maybe give it a whirl, see what happens. Frustrating game? Tie that baby up to every single thing in the game and watch the metascore burn!
I remember in the darkness 2 if vsync was off I was unable to go thru a vent to progress. Vsync on, no problem.
@@vetreas366 laugh in doom eternal high fps glitch. While I somewhat agree that tying your whole game to fps is bad. The fact of the matter is almost every game has something tie to fps. Even when a game is designed to be played at the most extreme frame rates, fps related glitches can still happen anyways. Also counterpoint, fnaf was made to run only at 60 fps yet that game became a runaway success same for hotline Miami or mgs v. Granted these game cannot be run beyond 60 unless you modify them but once you do well I’m pretty sure you know what would happen. And there too many game to count that has issue when playing at a high enough fps even the most profitable game in history gta v has issue when you go high enough
The point is while having game that support a seemingly uncap fps is nice just don’t go acting like not having that alone will destroy a game.
“In space everything seems to be repelling each other” The game is so janky it reversed how gravity works.
I mean... There is the whole "the universe is expanding" thing... Maybe I might be giving them too much credit though..
@@acmargatroid The universe is not only expanding, but the rate at which it is expanding is accelerating.
I guess if the Precursors takes place about 13 billion years in the future, it wouldn't be so far fetched. You could probably expect to see smaller bodies (i.e. the spacecraft) getting ripped apart at that point though. Planets wouldn't be too far behind.
I can guess how HyperBraking happened: the strafing is as fast as it is so that it's useful as a combat dodge, and there either wasn't enough playtesting to reveal that it was way too fast to let the player use it indefinitely, or there was way worse shit that got fixed instead.
the voice actors are earraping on a whole nother level
All of the voice acting in this game is wonderful, just like with the previous two, but my favourite has to be the man with "Elder" in his name sounding like Aziz Ansari.
Before Starfield, before Elite Dangerous, before No Man Sky, before Star Citizen (get it done) this is it! The closer thing we get the Freelancer sequel. An overlooked spiritual successor to the like of Wing Commander
They should make a Boiling Point 3, in which #saulisback
Been here since the boiling point video, you've absolutely improved, please continue covering eurojank games!
Please don't insult Bioware like that.
It's really not, but it doesn't deserve the title of jank. They put their hearts into it, and it shows.
Now, ELEX on the other hand...
I don't think jank is necessarily negative, hell, you could call even Deus Ex janky, and that's one of the best games ever.
In a way, that itself has more potential, I mean, I would way rather play Gothic than Fallout 4.
Gothic and Deus Ex might appear clunky by todays standards, but only cuz they're old. People who made them couldn't do any better at the time and they didn't know any better.
Now, when I look at a game like Elex, that comes out way after the age of Severance and Demons Souls, all I see is laziness and ineptitude. There's no excuse for this German ARPG jank. Even those guys who made Lords of the Fallen have figured things out eventually.
Absolutely, and utterly false, both Deus Ex, and to a smaller extent Gothic, were very clunky at their release.
Deus Ex went through so much development it's ridiculous and it shows, the systems are strange, there are bugs everywhere, compare it even to something like the original Half-Life to see the difference. There were technical limitations, of course, and game design has evolved since then, that doesn't mean the mechanics were not janky, and that doesn't even have to be a bad thing.
Or for recent release, go look at E.Y.E. Or for an older example of a similar concept, you can take a look at Strife.
As with Gothic, maybe I chose a bad example, so Risen then, which has the Gothic 2 combat, and was released in 2010, it's clunky as hell.
Elex, while I haven't played it yes, seems to have been an effort on Piranha Bytes' part to innovate(they stuck with Gothic 2 system all the way up until the second Risen,), not just some random bit of incompetence, an attempt to fuse the things like stamina system with their older design philosophies(by all accounts unsuccessful)
Precursors ended so suddenly because at the same time Saul Myers failed to stop the apocalypse on Earth in White Gold, killing everyone in the universe.
Great video, thanks for sharing! I'm leaving a comment to support your channel. Keep up the good work!
Something I noticed while rewatching these: the Xenos games get progressively less complete as time goes on. Boiling point had a reasonably satisfactory ending and didn't leave much in terms of loose ends. White gold stopped just before the ending. And Precursors just... well it barely got out the starting gate.
I’d say this applies to the polish as well as the story.
"Realisation of Laziness" in a different font - *chef's kiss*
"Are you having a fucking laugh right now my man?" is the new "R u having a fucking giggle m8?"
I love these long form videos you in particular do and you pretty much said why. You cover just whatever you want, games that wouldn't otherwise have gotten such long form videos made about them. I also just happen to like your style and sense of humor. It's not often I can watch an hour and a half long video and actually enjoy it even if I had never played the game it's about. Good stuff.
Kok
I went scrolling down looking for this sentiment. I'm glad you said this. Totally agree.
Not liking battlefront space combat? It's a testament to how much I like you that I kept watching. Good video.
Oh no, someone does not share my opinions.
rnc it was a joke my man.
The best part about space combat in battlefront was ignoring it and landing in the enemy hanger. Marines!
Last game I played with space combat was Rogue Squadron on the N64.
Tow cables...
As far as I know (from an interview they did in Russian) some of the developers from Deep Shadows now have a new team and are making a classical rpg that is actually getting quite good reviews on Steam (even though it's in early access). They seem to be pretty friendly, so I may ask them more about their Deep Shadows days.
If that's the case that's fantastic to hear, may I ask what the RPG is and please do ask, there's so few details in English about Deep Shadows.
Hello? Can you tell me what it is.
Oh, sorry! I got distracted that time with some personal stuff... :( It's called Atom RPG. It's a turn-based role playing game (similar to Fallout 1-2), so I'm not sure if it's your jam. But hey, they seem to be pretty passionate about it :)
Thank you kindly, sorry if that came off as pushy.
@@Tehsnakerer Atom RPG is out now! Did you plan on playing it?
>Imagine finding a feature that tedious you're annoyed that it stops you from doing nothing
Nice one.
cutlery made of raw alien insectoid genitalia locked in perma-static hardness is peak worldbuilding
I simply must assume the other is a spoon
I find it fascinating that the Xenus series is what it is. Boiling Point's setting being so grounded and White Gold mostly following its example, are then followed up by what I can only assume is the namesake of the series ("Xenus" just reads sci-fi-ish to me, feels weird tied to the prior two) with just about no actual links to the Saul games within its world. At least, I'm basing this entirely off these videos and probably slightly unreliable memory, so perhaps there's more than I realize! But the only ones I can pick out are things a bit more on the game mechanics/premise side of things (faction systems, gunplay complications like weapon degradation, health mechanics, etc.), and the _giant spiders_ of all things from the latter two games. Were the spiders supposed to be setting something up in White Gold?
Broader, are _either_ of those previous games supposed to actually be relevant to the Precursors? *How?* Surely they're part of the same series for a reason beyond the style of their gameplay... Maybe that's a false assumption though. Just feels weird that they'd be completely narratively disconnected.
I have to admit, as a person who had (no) pleasure in playing Precursors in their native language and experiencing all this firsthand with no patches this was a very fascinating review, although also the one that brought back many painful memories.
I just noticed that when Skelton is playing the race, the laser charge actually goes down, is your copy just really cursed?!
It definitely is. It seems to be unpatched - easily seen by the fact of how slow his ads is.
My old version (russian) definitely had working Perks as well.
26:24 And that's why all the cars, even the civilian cars, have machine guns!
Pleased to see you getting around to this so soon after Xenus 2. And having just watched the video in its entirety, I'd say your thoughts on Boiling Point are correct. Boiling Point is a game that, under different circumstances, with some refinement and a hefty pre-release round of bug fixes, could've been a classic. It took an additional two years before another game caught up to it in the form of STALKER, and even that game lacked in some areas when it came out (the lack of a proper faction system, for instance, and also being a bug-addled mess). That aside, the only other similar game that came about was Far Cry 2, in 2008, over a full three years from Boiling Point's release... only to lack the faction system, but having better, more streamlined gunplay.
Boiling Point really was a game well ahead of its time. Even now, no game has quite matched up to its wealth of mechanics. You can have cars in Far Cry 2, but they're plentiful and you aren't worried about them, nor do you have to refuel them, and you can't put things in the boot. There's boats, but no flying vehicles. There's factions, but no mechanics really tied to them - everybody's out to shoot you. And, of course, no other game like it reduces the effectiveness of your primary healing items over time, though that isn't the worst thing to have taken away, even if it could be a good mechanic, were it better balanced. I'm rambling now, but I absolutely see why you like Boiling Point so much. It's a game that's not just mechanically unique, it's genuinely charming. Saul Meyers as a character is a hilarious doofus with the character being made so endearing by a genuinely good performance by David Gasman. His personality mingling with the other weirdos of Realia are what really lift the game into its cult status, I think. It's great. It really is like anybody's dad getting the opportunity to play Rambo, but they can't stop behaving like they're someone's dorky dad. Saul's "They call me..." lines are actually some of my favourite lines from any game.
Thanks for doing these games. They've always been a curiosity for me, and your videos, with your somewhat dry delivery are particularly great. The Boiling Point video in particular is absolutely one of my favourite videos.
I'll personally +1 the Hard Truck: Apocalypse recommendation VASYlisk61 made below. In addition, I'll toss in the Two Worlds games, Devastation (not sure how much you can think to say about it, but it's a good Unreal Engine 2 shooter, so see what you think), and Driver 3.
Are you Orthodox?
The future in which every planet has its own brand of giant spiders. Sounds like a dream to me!
Tell me you austrailian without telling you australian
The New Mass Defect Game is lookin lookin really really good!
The faction system in Outer Worlds has the same problem this game has, where pissing off factions has little to no consequences because each faction is limited to a single planet, and after finishing the main mission of that planet you have little reason to ever go back
i love that you just had a "Are we the bad guys?" moment.
@blackrave404: that is some kilian shit
You're doing gods work with your mission to document the strange and obscure titles and break them down for their own merits and flaws, you definitely are one of the best youtubers out there.
Returning to this on a re-run binge; you mentioned you're not much into space flight games. Neither am I, but I fell in love with Everspace. Its highlight was something I really didn't expect going in - the story. It's perhaps the only 'roguelike' game that manages to justify the mechanic in a way that actually adds to the story, setting and immersion instead of pulling the player out of it.
"so dis was a empire experiment?"
nailed it, va
Thank you for doing this video.
I actually liked Precursors the most of the three Xenus games, but mainly because I found easy enough to complete without any grinding.
I found a weird glitch, which not everyone on the Steam forums could replicate:
when you FIRST get into space, head to ZIRIT immediately. The cargo prices there start off as peanuts, and only after a certain while do they normalise to the same as other in-game prices. Meaning if you head there right away, buy as much as you can carry, you can basically end up with millions and millions of credits.
I ended up only doing story missions and skipping all side quests.
Also, I sided with the birds on the 2nd planet, and the game threw up some insane glitches. One caused both bird factions to turn against me, forcing a reload, and another randomly activated the cut-scene for the Order where you destroy the birds nest. Again forcing a reload. For some strange reason I ended up completing a story quest for a rival faction which I did not even choose to side with!
The story I heard from Wesp5, or one of the other guys d on the Steam forum, is that the publisher of this game had a massive fight with the developer who abandoned the game mid-development, and so the publisher slapped it together quickly in order to make it complete enough to sell. Meaning what we got was sort of a polished up Alpha build.
Or so the legend goes! I was never able to verify that story.
But would explain the vehicle problem. Different versions of the game, depending on whether you bought the East European boxed version, the first Western digital release, or the later Steam release, either allow or do not allow use of the flying vehicles. Having access to the choppers would have made the minefield planet so much easier!
I think something was seriously borked with your game - looking at Skeletor's gameplay, his blasters overheat properly. I don't know f his perks would work properly, but I have a sniggling suspicion that they would.
Well, it's one of these games, so who knows what caused that. It might be the translation patch messing around with the code, or the game could just play differently on different computers for no goddamn reason, you just don't know with eurojank.
Years late, but my guess is that it might be a framerate/"game running too fast" issue. Remember that Snake disabled vsync to fix the mouse input latency.
Maybe Skel kept vsync on, or simply couldn't run the game fast enough to cause any issues. This is completely speculative on my part I admit, but it's the first potential difference between their games I can think of.
I think the part that throws me the hardest about Treece's character is that, for how young he looks, he sounds like a fucking chain smoker in their late forties. I get that voice acting was... kinda low on the list of priorities for this game series, but still, Treece's actor looked at the character and somehow managed to decide, "you know what, grizzled old vet works for this one"?
I think it’s the same VA as White Gold Saul (the chain smoker VA, not the original British sounding VA).
I find fucking hilarious the way you seemed excited for a mindless grind to progress the story and how disappointed you were that it wasn't needed.
I just beat this myself, The weight perks worked in the version I used, and the ships guns drained all the way down. There were 2 planets it seems you never visited Moreno (has nothing but spiders and spiderbots, and 1 mission to find a cold fusion reactor to get a keycard to enter the base where Apertov is) and Yarent (Looks like fallout, buncha blown up skyscrapers, didn't explore much but from what I did see the entire planet is inhibited by bandits. You can just go there but there's no quests I ever saw related to it.) To its credit, the engine only crashed once in the entire 20 hours I played.
I went back and explored Yarent....2 buildings have secret underground bases, loaded with pictures of Treece and computers that all have the same messages on them. There were 2 enemy's not seen anywhere else ingame on Yarent called "Cannibal" that looked like a brown sasquatch, i am amazed they bothered to make these models but only put the enemy ingame on this non-plot planet and then to have the nerve to only put 2 of them there. On the plus side none of the raiders on Yarent know how to use those shields that literally every other enemy except animals and imperials can use.
@@smokingone thanks for sharing this. Learning all this is legitimately fascinating AND leaves me wondering, was Yarent a relic from a longer version of the game? Where perhaps some sort of reveal that Treece was being watched would happen.
@@JamesTobiasStewart yea its so weird seeing his face on all the computer screens there and sadly every single computer has the same info as any other computer in the game but it also seems to me like it was meant to flesh out the story but they never had the time to finish it.
@@smokingone Well I mean that would make sense, the story stops just as the central mystery is being set up, which felt like the studio running out of time and money and just stitching what they had together and launching it as is.
I interviewed the team behind this game ages before it came out, just after the release of Boiling Point :)
I really gotta give this game a chance again. The gameplay sounds awesome. Quirky, but a lot like STALKER. The dialogue felt too confusing at the time though, but it seems like it might be bareable. I didn't know about the V-sync issue too.
I like what you said at the end about your focus on what you review and how you review it. I just found your channel and I enjoy your review style. Your narration is engaging and descriptive so that I'm able to follow along with what's going on while playing a game that doesn't require the sound to be turned up (such as a Diablo style ARPG). Thanks for the content sir! Now to watch your Yakuza series.
53:38 Conquistador Tehsnakerer in the new world - ca. 1650 A.D.
Gotta say, didn't expect to go from a video about YIIK to Neuro to this trilogy, but your videos are just too good. Definitely made me want to try Boiling Point and Neuro, even if the latter seems like it'd be a pain to get running.
So this will be one of those videos where I'm constantly adjusting the volume, eh?
It's really weird. On the one hand, I love that he doesn't balance out janky audio since you really get a feel for the jank, but I also tend to use long-form reviews to fall asleep and every time I do that I forget this one is in the playlist.
@@CassandraFortuna I just woke up to this one. "Why is my computer yelling?"
Now for the GAAAAAAAAAME THEEEEEEEEEOORY video that over-explains the obviously deep lore that connects these games together. :O
Xenus 2 is a prequel, Xenus 1 takes years after Xenus 2, and in Precusors someone must be related to Saul Myers.
Saul Myers has become one with the cosmos. He is in every living being and he guides those who deserve his wisdom and strength. Basically Saul is a space god.
But hey, that's just a theory. a GAYYYYYME THEORY!
Just found your channel and I’m already hooked. I can’t wait to see more of your content, love these long-form videos on obscure (or at least not mainstream) games!
I think that the ships move fast, but because space is so huge, you feel that the ship moves really slow, that is also what happen in other space simulators, the X series, Elite Dangerous and Rebel Galaxy, even at maximum speed and afterburners it seems that it takes an eternity to reach were you want to go, but that is part of the charm in this games.
Revisiting this because of Starfield. The fact we got this experience so many years ago and Starfield managed to only bring a more Polished version of this, is a disgrace. They could easily have done so much more
This is better than starfield lol, this is more deus ex
"sounds boring." sounds like every space sim i've ever played
A sci-fi protagonist named Crichton? Oh, Creighton...
Is his main antagonist Scorpander?
These are some of my favourite Video-Essays on Videogames on RUclips. On par with the big guys like Joseph Anderson in pretty much every aspect. Good Work, i love what you have been doing these past few years!
white gold: a shouldn't have used the music on the cars
precursors: hold my beer
Long live Wing Commander, king of space shooters! Crap, does that give away my age?
The game audio is way too loud compared to your narration.
*nods deafly*
WHAT?
YES!! I keep having to lower the volume when it plays and then raise it back up when he talks!
My ears hurt
It's also doubled up for some godforsaken reason.
“They feature a blend of shooting and driving, and much of the shooting and driving happens because of dialogue with a faction system influencing who you’re driving towards and shooting at”
My favourite line from all of your videos
I love these thumbnails and titles, they're so hilarious in a way that only makes sense once you've seen the video, until then they just seem like strange schizophrenic Photoshops.
Coming back to this video, Starfield is scarily similar in so many aspects. Especially the space combat.
I don't know how I stumbled on your channel, I think RUclips was pushing your Hunt Down the Freeman review real hard. I love your feature length reviews and your style. Your Xenus reviews are really making my vacation's quiet moments awesome. On top of that your video recommending other channels really opened up my subscription count. Thank you for everything.
No prob, glad you like them
Somehow you got recommended to me and just wanted you to know your content is really chill
Im in this one, HUZZAH
badaboom, badaboom
Have you considered doing Codename: Outbreak? It was the first game Deep Shadows worked on, they helped GSC Game World (the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. devs) with it and it has similarities to the Xenus trilogy.
They also made ArcaniA: Gothic 4 but uh, I dunno if I'd recommend playing that. It's pretty awful and buggy. But then again that'd make for a good video... Unfortunately that was their last "real" game. Since then they've only released a handful of hidden object games and mobile stuff.
What a shame. While I like White Gold's ending (if Saul would've sang the male mercenary equivilent of "i'm tired" from Blazing Saddles, it would've been perfect), but this one ends on a weird and not even a funny note. This sucks.
Pepper Millers White Gold's seemingly abrupt conclusion was at least funny in its delivery. The Precursors just sorta...died.
ninjasolidsnake
Exactly.
I had maybe the physical reaction of shock (and disgust) with a video game ending when I saw that cut to credits. :O
Just to add to apparent unpredictable glitches- it appears when your friend did the race for you his blasters COULD overheat as the bar DID drain.
Perhaps I misheard as I'm struggling to find the moment you mentioned it- but for you the bar refilled faster than it drained.
All to say, sounds like the game struggles to remain consistent, that's for sure lol.
the fact that RUclips gaming recognized this game as Halo: Combat Evolved does not do this game enough justice nor the irony
55:13 "It might not even be carrying anything, keep that in mind as I keep complaining."
17:44 ok but... is it just me, or does this game have some impressively smooth movement animations for the enemies? more specifically at 18:28, when he has to throw his body weight down to stop his momentum, and as he is doing this he already starts the upper body movement to aim up his gun and open fire... that looks so organic and it seems absurdly good for a slav jank... hell for any game of it's day... hell even for a game today that looks really good. Or am I exaggerating?.
I do not know if this is kinda late but they made a game called Venom: Codename outbreak, it's a pretty old game and when I was a child I played it with my cousin non stop lmao. The same with Boiling Point road to hell.
You know, when I played it way back when, I thought that the entire entry shpiel about the hilariously stupid death of protag's father was lifted from Disgaea and there will definitely be a gut punching twist down the line. Except in in Disgaea it turned out that your dad didn't choke to death on a pretzel and turned out to be the ultimate badass who avenged his wife's death, sealed away the legendary devil that was about to end the world *AND* fucking returned after death (albeit temporarily) as a force ghost and subtly guided and protected his son from the shadows when he got old enough to go on a kingmaking journey of his own; while in Precursors this little bit was just the first taste of what entire game would be - setting up something interesting, only for it to go nowhere and be dropped immediately.
Such a sad ending for the series. These games were always overambitious, but at least they *tried* before. In Precursors it feels like they just gave up halfway for whatever reason and just slapped the fucker together from bits and pieces to push out on market before closing.
I absolutely love your channel, I only found you a few days ago, watched nearly every single one of your long form videos, and they are brilliant, both the topics and presentation, I love your writing and delivery, and covering these strange, obscure titles is something I absolutely adore watching.
I'm delighted you have decided to focus more on that, even though your videos on more mainstream titles are also fantastic, I like the more obscure topics far more.
I would like to mention Inquisitor as well, which is an excellent example of a deep, strange, overly ambicious european game, with 10 year development cycle and an incredibly long and involved world and story, discount diablo combat and plot which is both a detective mystery and a fantasy apocalypse. And has one person on forums who keeps trying to help people get it running somehow(for years), since it's unmoddable and unstable beyond belief.
Thanks a lot for the kind comment, I'll look into Inquisitor but I should say I'm not big into Diablo-like games, never really been my cup of tea I'm afraid.
Oh God you did! Even I haven't played Precursors yet) I haven't watch your video, but I expect Precursors being on par with Boiling Point and Better than Xenus 2.
Ok, I've watched your video now... I was shocked with the ending..
I'll tell you the brief history of how that game was developed: The publisher had put a lot of pressure on Deep Shadows, they were developing Xenus 2 AND Precursors AT THE SAME FUCKING TIME with the team of like 60 people(!)(many of which left by the end of the development because of the working conditions). And you had a right guess, they were running out of time and money, so they had to push Xenus 2, but since they pushed it they didn't make enough money, so they had to push Precursors too... Roughly 40 people were working on Precursors and 20-25 on Xenus 2. And yeah they were postponing the releases a couple of times but it didn't really work. Boiling Point, on the other hand, were made 30-40 with a relatively good amount of time to spare. I didn't know that Precursors were that bad though.
Thanks for the video, have a nice day or night or whatever)
the voices being doubled made me think my soundcard was dying
I heard somewhere that Deepshadows, the Xenus devs, are an offshoot of GSC Gameworlds, they're ex Stalker devs.
Of course it's not the proper ending, it's an interlude. My thoughts when I finished this game were: "so, when the second part is going to be released?" - not in our timeline and ever dimension
There's also an old trashy russian FPS called Vivisector: Beast Inside, try it out.
Yeah, that was a weird one to say the least. It's like it was made from 3 parts:
1) Big empty areas and jungles - we want to make a Painkiller clone! That's why our guns don't have clips/magazines and we will repeatedly trap you in arenas/cages to fight mutilated animals.
2) More jungles (tunnel-like this time) and some military bases + unexpected inclusion of plot - we want to make a Half-Life clone as well! That's why we added in-game cutscenes, furries with tesla-guns and science-fiction.
3) Mountains and science facilities + even more plot that assumes that you know what is going on - we... what were we doing, again? Something like Far Cry? Let's add an army of mercenaries, a small metal gear (which you'll kill with 9mm pistol) and a messiah plot, just because we can.
I enjoyed it in a janky way. Would be a good choice for the Snakerer.
That was a Far Cry clone, both were inspired by The Island of Dr Moreau
This comment is almost a year old, I know, but there's this other guy by the name of Civvie 11 that did a pretty good 30 minute video on Vivisector.- ruclips.net/video/DDLFCxaxb60/видео.html - It's definitely a unique game, for sure.
Also see: Kreed.
Just now noticed that in skeleton's video, the blaster actually overheated, guess his entire ship was just bugged.
I love this review.... is the only one with depth about this game
51:50 This gun looks like a cross between Half-Life Opposing Force's Spore Launcher and Shock Roach.
The trilogy is finally complete
Emotion! Ya one of our favorite reviewers. Was introduced some time ago, and not much later, had seen most, if not all your videos! Well done!
God damn this guy is good. Best reviewer in my experience.
Third comment on the same video in the same day: Deep Shadows were not hacks, they were simply very ambitious developers that did not have the budget or talent, so in a way Boiling Point was a happy accident simply because Atari was willing to help them, so they were able to make their dream game. Once DS lost their contract with Atari, they were fully independent and they decided to go ahead with White Gold/(Guilt), a prequel to Boiling Point that was likely intended for consoles, but since they didn't have the money for a good PC game anymore they did not have the cash for a console game. Precursors was likely in the same boat as White Gold/(Guilt), over-ambitious without the money to back them up. In short, they were an honest development house, they were just broke and had to cut so many corners that they ended up with a perfect circle.
no talent? are you on drugs? guys definitely had talent. but lacked in finances, experience, organization and skill
That Dude skill, talent, same thing. Also, I said they didn't have enough talent, they had it but not enough to make the projects they wanted with the polish they needed.
I've just realised the Clatz lightning gun looks like someone just ripped the head off of an Ood
I can't even describe how much I enjoy watching obscure game reviews, good job mate, really enjoyed the length of the video.
this is by far your best episode plz keep doing what your doing