• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Stormgate - The RTS Genre Saved?

Corian33

Member
Played the first 3 missions of the campaign and enjoyed it! They are kinda the tutorial missions of course, but gave me WC3/SC2 vibes as expected. Cutscenes were excellent.

I think the game looks much nicer now, unit designs are more detailed, general look and feel is richer.
 

duyxbox

Neo Member
As the former player who play Starcraft BW at competitive level in my country, and casual Starcraft 2 player, I have not seen a selling point yet, from both macro and micro perspective.
By adding the hero, healing point, etc..., it's more like Warcraft 3 to me, which I do not get into. And the pace of the game is kinda slow to me.
 

amigastar

Member
Yeah, he didn't like it. and he has a point the devs calling it next gen when its clearly not.
This game really gives me a headache, i want it to be good but so far it doesn't look like it.
 
Last edited:

Hudo

Member
Ngl, if Stormgate is the "savior" of RTS, the genre should stay dead.

I do have a pretty bad opinion about Blizzard's StarCraft people but I will not state it here. Otherwise I'll be pissed off for the rest of the day.
 

amigastar

Member
Runs pretty good
Nvidia-DLSS-3-Stormgate-Performance-pcgh.png
 
Last edited:

poppabk

Cheeks Spread for Digital Only Future
Not true at all. It's basic business. RTS games boomed on PC not because there was a market for them that was huge in absolute terms, but that they were an economically viable game genre to make. Many of them were total crap. Some more strategic, some more sim like or managerial, some more like RPGs. What has changed is not the market but the budget a game needs to appear like hot shit in the market. RTS just do not justify that sort of budget, especially since they are hard to adapt to "couch gaming" or simplify so much that anyone with a pulse can play them (actually they did, it's just called tower defence or vampire survivor).
The problem is that it isn't really possible to make an RTS look like hot shit. Massively zoomed out and top(ish) down means that you can only do so much graphics wise. And without that pull you need to do something extra special to stand out from older games.
 

Arsic

Loves his juicy stink trail scent
The problem is that it isn't really possible to make an RTS look like hot shit. Massively zoomed out and top(ish) down means that you can only do so much graphics wise. And without that pull you need to do something extra special to stand out from older games.
People are stuck in such shit mindsets for development of games.

Random idea I came up with in the Uber just now. When you win in a RTS game match how about a quick slow mo replay of the final moments, or a “play of the game” kind of moment, or a small cut scene with a hero unit victory screen plays like overwatch that there can be dozens of.

When you destroy their final base, a quick change to third person happens to show off the chaos from a new view.

Let us customize units with small things that make them our own but don’t take away from easily recognizing what unit it is. Simple shit like what SC2 started to do at the end with unit skins.

Built in weekly tournaments into the client that give avatar rewards and player banners. Make banners and avatars be animated.

UI you can customize that’s also rewarded as you play. Maybe I wanna do a fun neon effect?

Literally millions of other fun ideas we on GAF can cook up within a hour to help take this genre forward to inject cool things into it.

But no… THIS is what we get for backing them with millions and millions of dollars.

Fuck off. They deserve to fail and the studio shut down.
 
The problem is that it isn't really possible to make an RTS look like hot shit. Massively zoomed out and top(ish) down means that you can only do so much graphics wise. And without that pull you need to do something extra special to stand out from older games.
RTS games are hard to monetize post-launch, though. They are not a good fit for GaaS.
 

Wildebeest

Member
The problem is that it isn't really possible to make an RTS look like hot shit. Massively zoomed out and top(ish) down means that you can only do so much graphics wise. And without that pull you need to do something extra special to stand out from older games.
It is true for all type of games that it is getting harder and harder to stand out from even some quite old big budget games. A "competetive" RTS might choose to have some low res and legible graphics style that runs on more hardware, but that is just a practical choice when you look at what Riot games did with Valorant.
 

amigastar

Member
Honestly if this game wouldn't be developed by ex Blizzard employees i would have forgotten about it already.
The only hope i have is it turns out somehow good but it doesn't look very promising.
I've read they got over 40million dollar, where did they spend it? The game looks terribly bland.
 
Last edited:

YuLY

Member
The only hope I have left for the genre is Tempest Rising...if Embracer lets it get released.
 

Arsic

Loves his juicy stink trail scent
Purchased the ultimate edition to try it out.

This game is a spit on the face of everyone who backed it.

No animated avatar portraits during campaign. No effort on lip sync. Poor audio even when you max it out. UI is a disaster… like intern level could’ve done better. The character models in campaign are horrendous… the stiff clay hair, the no mouth movement when they speak, the less than mobile RTS clay character design, etc.

This is the second biggest scam game since star citizen. Escape from Tarkov is less of a rip off than this.

Frost giant should be ashamed.

Edit: pre mission cut scenes have no mouth movement. Just a screen of a ship on a radar.

This isn’t early access this is fucking pre alpha / concept.

To charge a dollar for any of this should be met with legal action against them.

Fucking war crime.
 
Last edited:

Mortisfacio

Member
This was my most hyped RTS on the horizon and the general consensus seems to be that it sucks. Kind of bummed out. I haven't played an RTS that genuinely "hooked" me since SC2, but I'm longing for something to come out and compete with that experience.
 

Arsic

Loves his juicy stink trail scent
This was my most hyped RTS on the horizon and the general consensus seems to be that it sucks. Kind of bummed out. I haven't played an RTS that genuinely "hooked" me since SC2, but I'm longing for something to come out and compete with that experience.
I’m not posting anything yet in terms of gameplay. I’m waiting to discuss that after all campaign missions done, doing some AI matches, and watching some pros play.

If the gameplay is good? Then the game is salvageable through a few patches before 1.0 release.

The things I posted above are slightly excusable IF their focus was the gameplay.

If the gameplay is mid then this is clearly a cash grab.
 
As the former player who play Starcraft BW at competitive level in my country, and casual Starcraft 2 player, I have not seen a selling point yet, from both macro and micro perspective.
By adding the hero, healing point, etc..., it's more like Warcraft 3 to me, which I do not get into. And the pace of the game is kinda slow to me.
Sounds like my kind of game.
 

amigastar

Member
So they've raised about 40 millions dollars, where did the money go? It looks like an absolute budget title.
Man, this game is killing me.
 

Dr. Wilkinson

Gold Member
The problem is that it isn't really possible to make an RTS look like hot shit. Massively zoomed out and top(ish) down means that you can only do so much graphics wise. And without that pull you need to do something extra special to stand out from older games.
This is so not true. SC2 and SC1 both were excellent looking for their time. And with the advancement of graphics since 2010 we can safely say there no excuses left other than it’s just not looking good because they’re not there yet with the production of the game. Either that or something’s not going well.
 
Last edited:

Arsic

Loves his juicy stink trail scent
IGN gave this pile of shit a 7/10.

How? Why?

I’ve spent time with it and it’s a 3/10 at best.

The list is so long:
Ugly looking
Clay hair
No lip syncing
Pre mission is just a static ship grid
In game portraits aren’t animated
Character proportions are horid
UI was made by a crayon eater who loves blocks


Actual PvP I’ve watched of pros on tastelessTV makes the game look boring and busted.

When SC2 early access launched/betas it was fever pitch hype.

I would stay up to 2AM watching pro SC2 matches… but this? You couldn’t pay me to watch it in its current state.

This is the absolute result of these things going wrong:
-Mismangement
-Lack of vision
-Asking people who don’t make games to tell you what game to make (AKA talking to grubby the only fucking retard who likes Warcraft 3 over StarCraft to give the game hero units and dumb ass macro)
-Clearly following a star citizen model to scam fans of the genre.

—-

Fuck this game and fuck frost giant. They should issue refunds to anyone even past the 2 hour playtime on steam.
 
Last edited:

Hudo

Member
IGN gave this pile of shit a 7/10.

How? Why?

I’ve spent time with it and it’s a 3/10 at best.

The list is so long:
Ugly looking
Clay hair
No lip syncing
Pre mission is just a static ship grid
In game portraits aren’t animated
Character proportions are horid
UI was made by a crayon eater who loves blocks


Actual PvP I’ve watched of pros on tastelessTV makes the game look boring and busted.

When SC2 early access launched/betas it was fever pitch hype.

I would stay up to 2AM watching pro SC2 matches… but this? You couldn’t pay me to watch it in its current state.

This is the absolute result of these things going wrong:
-Mismangement
-Lack of vision
-Asking people who don’t make games to tell you what game to make (AKA talking to grubby the only fucking retard who likes Warcraft 3 over StarCraft to give the game hero units and dumb ass macro)
-Clearly following a star citizen model to scam fans of the genre.

—-

Fuck this game and fuck frost giant. They should issue refunds to anyone even past the 2 hour playtime on steam.
They also gave WarCraft 3: Reforged a 7/10. And that piece of fucking trash only deserves a 0/10 for the fucking audacity to not only lie to the consumer (even after release!) but also being the worst remake ever made, downgrading every aspect of the original while also making the original unable to be played and obtained in an official manner.
 

amigastar

Member
They also gave WarCraft 3: Reforged a 7/10. And that piece of fucking trash only deserves a 0/10 for the fucking audacity to not only lie to the consumer (even after release!) but also being the worst remake ever made, downgrading every aspect of the original while also making the original unable to be played and obtained in an official manner.
It still won't get into my head why they screwed up the Reforged remake so much. I mean it could give good money if it would be done properly. I for sure would buy it if it really would be enhanced.
 

Hudo

Member
It still won't get into my head why they screwed up the Reforged remake so much. I mean it could give good money if it would be done properly. I for sure would buy it if it really would be enhanced.
Yeah... it's really sad. I consider WarCraft 3 Blizzard's best game, paving the way for WoW (which I've played religiously until Cataclysm). The shittiest part of this whole thing is that they could've just put the original also back on Battle.net so that people could play that instead. But no.
 

Pegasus Actual

Gold Member
Sorry to quote a couple of ancient posts but...
Also, here’s 4 hours of actual gameplay:


Okay, what the fuck, Husky came back... uploaded one new Bronze League Heroes, re-upped all the old episodes, and then pretty much fucked off again? I'm not okay with that hair though and BLH doesn't need a facecam.
Bullshit Bs GIF by Breaking Bad

The environment graphics look so lame and boring in Stormgate. From ex Blizzard devs i expect more.
Anyways, Ouch:

Bro this dude put up that he played SC2 for 10 years with "peak" rank of Diamond 2? Anyways, ouch.

The RTS genre died because it was never about STRATEGY but about spinning plates faster than your opponent. It should feel more like playing cards or chess than juggling.

It looks like the makers of Stormgate were too close to the genre to realize that.
Not sure if that's why it died, but yes, competitive RTS was APM spam. Most strategy/tactics were very canned. Very little space to play creatively when you're trying to click like a madman. Not necessarily unfun, but very stressful. Always liked Warcraft 3 over Starcraft 2. Fewer units, upkeep costs, slower battles, hero units... just a lot more room to play the game without just losing because you don't have the raw APM of your opponent.

Anyway, as for this actual game... the aesthetic is trash, and it doesn't seem to bring anything that new or interesting to the table, and it doesn't sound like it's a flawless execution of a classic RTS formula. Maybe they can iterate on it and make it good but for now I got no interest.

I guess just like Husky I'm popping my head up into the RTS scene for a quick glance, and then disappearing for another decade.
 

Arsic

Loves his juicy stink trail scent
Sorry to quote a couple of ancient posts but...

Okay, what the fuck, Husky came back... uploaded one new Bronze League Heroes, re-upped all the old episodes, and then pretty much fucked off again? I'm not okay with that hair though and BLH doesn't need a facecam.
Bullshit Bs GIF by Breaking Bad


Bro this dude put up that he played SC2 for 10 years with "peak" rank of Diamond 2? Anyways, ouch.


Not sure if that's why it died, but yes, competitive RTS was APM spam. Most strategy/tactics were very canned. Very little space to play creatively when you're trying to click like a madman. Not necessarily unfun, but very stressful. Always liked Warcraft 3 over Starcraft 2. Fewer units, upkeep costs, slower battles, hero units... just a lot more room to play the game without just losing because you don't have the raw APM of your opponent.

Anyway, as for this actual game... the aesthetic is trash, and it doesn't seem to bring anything that new or interesting to the table, and it doesn't sound like it's a flawless execution of a classic RTS formula. Maybe they can iterate on it and make it good but for now I got no interest.

I guess just like Husky I'm popping my head up into the RTS scene for a quick glance, and then disappearing for another decade.
H to the usky Husky not only looks like hot shit but sounds like it. WTF is this?

The RTS I’m now hyped for is battle aces. Seems the whole rts community is pretty turnt up on that one. It’s different and has a chance to offer something new in a stagnant genre.

I have started to play more of the core game outside of the campaign. Practicing against bots to try out the different races. The game does feel good to play, build, move, etc. In that 1v1 aspect I do see the most potential, but the truth is that this game to be done right needs another 2-3 years in the oven to really take back all this feedback and better it. They also shouldn’t have launched early access for another year.

It’s so hard to break into a success these days and you can call it early access all you want but the second a consumer can try it they will write it off or not. Most will write this off and I don’t see it bouncing back.

It will take a no man’s sky level constant revival to bring it up to par.
 

Men_in_Boxes

Snake Oil Salesman
Not sure if that's why it died, but yes, competitive RTS was APM spam. Most strategy/tactics were very canned. Very little space to play creatively when you're trying to click like a madman. Not necessarily unfun, but very stressful. Always liked Warcraft 3 over Starcraft 2. Fewer units, upkeep costs, slower battles, hero units... just a lot more room to play the game without just losing because you don't have the raw APM of your opponent.

Anyway, as for this actual game... the aesthetic is trash, and it doesn't seem to bring anything that new or interesting to the table, and it doesn't sound like it's a flawless execution of a classic RTS formula. Maybe they can iterate on it and make it good but for now I got no interest.

I guess just like Husky I'm popping my head up into the RTS scene for a quick glance, and then disappearing for another decade.
I would love to ask someone at this studio why they felt moving away from APM focus wasn't a good bet for the RTS genre. It had to be discussed at some point when they were getting the concept for StormGate started.
 

amigastar

Member
Yeah... it's really sad. I consider WarCraft 3 Blizzard's best game, paving the way for WoW (which I've played religiously until Cataclysm). The shittiest part of this whole thing is that they could've just put the original also back on Battle.net so that people could play that instead. But no.
Do you mean Multiplayer because i've started the old WC3 through the Blizzard Launcher today? Singleplayer works.
 
Last edited:

Fbh

Gold Member
Yeah, he didn't like it. and he has a point the devs calling it next gen when its clearly not.
This game really gives me a headache, i want it to be good but so far it doesn't look like it.


Damn I haven't been following the development of this game but that looks awful.
Beyond the boring "not Starcraft" gameplay the visual design is horrible. Ugly maps, ugly models, horrible UI.

If you showed me this and told me it's some low effort Chinese mobile Star craft clone I'd believe it
 

Hudo

Member
Do you mean Multiplayer because i've started the old WC3 through the Blizzard Launcher today? Singleplayer works.
Afaik, what you are playing is still running on the Reforged-version of the game. Unless they have changed it, you cannot officially download the old version off Battle.net/Blizzard. They did this mostly because they want players to sign the new EULA that grants Blizzard rights to everything players are making in the editor.

But hey, maybe they have actually changed that. I don't know. I haven't been looking at that piece of shit for a year now or so.
 

Hudo

Member
What a huge get, Blizz getting that DOTA2 money oh wait :messenger_tears_of_joy:
Yeah, turns out that no one will really bother using the editor when the base game is disappointing. Although, there is at least a pretty ambitious fan-made WarCraft 2 port going on for Reforged.
 

Arsic

Loves his juicy stink trail scent
Not gonna lie, this looks definitely better. Coming in the next update.
YO7_PPKCcNkH2d2DyZgQZX6DkcwQz-IQVpS0d0mK4Lve8zd_SwmuAHJnRHQDZ2nMNiRQbgYHaxRi=s640-rw-nd-v1

Definitely a much needed change, but I can safely say the visuals in game are the least of this game's problems...

I will pray they take another 2-3 years before a true 1.0 release and work on this extensively.
 

Arsic

Loves his juicy stink trail scent
Don't tell me this game would turn out good eventually? :messenger_grinning:
It’s hard to gauge.

The market nowadays is your first hands on is make or break. Early access can be a death sentence because if your first showing is bad then people write the game off.

This game has a lot of work that needs to be done and a limited budget. They will eventually run out of funds.

They also would’ve benefited from just not giving players access for another year so they can tidy up.
 

EDMIX

Writes a lot, says very little
The Amara rework legit gives me hope for this game now…

3dNTogI.jpeg
boooooo bring back the midgets!!!!!!!!!!! lol

I love RTS games, but I haven't really cared about the genre in so long, outside of Company Of Heros 3 and Iron Harvest, I think I'm done with the genre until someone interesting comes out (like Iron Harvest 2) lol

I'm semi-hype for this game.

Only semi.
 

amigastar

Member
It’s hard to gauge.

The market nowadays is your first hands on is make or break. Early access can be a death sentence because if your first showing is bad then people write the game off.

This game has a lot of work that needs to be done and a limited budget. They will eventually run out of funds.

They also would’ve benefited from just not giving players access for another year so they can tidy up.
Eventually yes, but look at Star Citizen, its funded still till today and the game is how long in development? Maybe Frost Giant will be able to get funds for the next few years.
 

Harlock

Member
This game is not giant failure only because is low profile.

Art style, unit movement, combat, balance, economy and other key RTS aspects are bad.

The devs are very arrogant and lack skill. Feels like the C or D team from Blizzard.
 

Shubh_C63

Member
I have been playing so much Starcraft 2 lately just because of this game lol

The devs seems to not know marketing and are only concentrated in making the best game. But they do listen to feedback that is pretty clear.
 

ap_puff

Member


Sums up a lot of thoughts I have about the game right now. There was a lot of potential that the game squandered in favor of... generic.
 
Top Bottom