[Betrayer] is a game about a lost colony

minor incident

We did not have a Betrayer thread. Now we do.

Betrayer is a very pretty game about a lost colony. You know. Roanoke. Croatoan. Stuff like that. It's available on Steam. Betrayer was developed by Blackpowder Games.

Did I mention it is very pretty and unique looking?

iolo

Hello, Betrayer thread. Does anyone know how long this game is yet?

TychoCelchuuu

Finally a thread! I get jailed and suddenly all the indie games are fucked, it seems.

This is by developers who worked on FEAR and NOLF (among other games) and I think it sort of shows. The stealth and the combat works pretty well, I think, with the exception of the melee + throwing ax controls, which feel super clunky to me because of the delay before you can do both of them. Aside from that things flow pretty well and the stealth is super tense. I dunno how much like the whole Dark Souls style "if you die and can't make it to your corpse you lose your stuff" but I beat the game and money was never really a huge issue so I guess that's not a big deal.

In general I really like this game - it's gorgeous and the atmosphere is so thick you could cut it with a knife. The story's not the most tremendous thing in the world but it's effective and well-written and it certainly made me want to keep playing.

In general the game feels super sparse - the latest Idle Thumbs go so far as to call it unfinished. I don't really mind (and it sort of fits the tone too) but I can totally understand getting fed up with running around looking for clues and not having a ton to do. I think if the combat were like, way more in depth (think FEAR-level combat rather than the really basic combat we've got here) that would probably help out a ton. Like if I could swordfight with conquistadors and stuff and kick them and have really tactile feeling guns and grab a gun from one guy and fire it at another and stuff, that would really be neat. But that's not this game.

Here is a gif.



What's everyone playing this at, color-wise? I had it at black and white the entire time until I reached the "endgame" when I turned on color just to run around looking for clues I had missed and seeing what the world looks like in color. I think it's gorgeous both ways but I prefer black and white since it's just so unique. I think it would be nice if the game found a way to fade between the two: like maybe when you're spotted or when combat gets intense, color fades in, or something. Or as you get closer to a clue. There needs to be a better way to find clues, I think. I'm missing a few and there's no fucking way I'll ever find them.

@Iolo: I beat it in ~7 hours.

Dr. Chaos

If I buy it, I couldn't imagine playing at anything other than black and white. Can't really think of many games that go for that or use it to such a eerie effect as here.

My love of musket rifles is going to be at war with my love for stealth I see.

TychoCelchuuu

Also, this is the best game about American colonies since Jamestown.

Ending spoilers:

So, I didn't find all the clues, so maybe it's spelled out somewhere, but the ending is meant to be super ambiguous, right? It fits the tone of the game super well because it's so depressing and downbeat, but as far as I can tell it never really spells out what she's apologizing for, right? I really like that. The whole game is fairly dream-like and since the whole context of this thing is open to interpretation, I appreciate that the ending is like that too.

Drake

The combat reminds me a lot of SHOGO which kind of makes sense. Everyone keeps harping on FEAR but the guy who made the FEAR combat so special, the AI programmer, doesn't make games anymore. I think he works at MIT. These guys are responsible for a lot of games, FEAR is just one of them and to expect that kind of experience from a fifteen dollar indie game made on a budget is pretty fucking unreasonable. Any way it's pretty clear that they weren't interested in making FEAR again.

I'm having a great time with the game, I think the mechanics are neatly designed and the atmosphere and presentation is wonderful. It doesn't feel unfinished to me at all.

Stolls

I wavered a bit before being talked over the ledge (I blame @Drake and his comparison to STALKER in the Steam thread) but I admit my interest in this game was piqued when I heard some of the Monolith team were behind it. Helloween's FEAR 2 LP got me itching for a replay of FEAR 1, and it was even better than I remembered it. Great gunplay and AI aside, there was quality level design and a few smart design decisions I'd actually forgotten. Having your radio support summarize downloaded intel, for instance, was a nice way to quickly convey background story - adding flavor as the reports became more revealing, but without seriously breaking the flow of gameplay.

Frankly, I appreciate the game all the more now, and as Drake says, that's just one game of theirs (fuck yeah AvP2). Despite having to be talked into Betrayer, I'm actually kind of excited about trying it now. I'll get some impressions in as soon as I can.

Albino Bunny

Man, those large knights take a beating.

I think my favourite bit about the game so far is how unique the combat feels due to the long reload on the guns and the ability to dodge every attack (though enemy rifles seem pretty damn hard to reliably dodge).

Stolls

Right, so the game wound up being a bit more absorbing than intended, and I just ended up marathoning it instead.

Need to digest the experience, a few nitpicks but a lot to like otherwise. Regarding the ending; spoilers, obviously:

given the focus on atmosphere above any specific character, the stinger feels kind of out of place; like it's meant more to jar the player than to work with the mood and theme. Since it's never really established who the player is - or at least I never found anything, and I was pretty thorough - I'm not sure I actually care what happens to him, rendering speculation rather moot.

Likewise for the Woman in Red, who's more central to the story. Refusal to change is a believable trait, but her dialogue felt more expository than actual characterization, and so I'm not sure her (apparent) inability to let go of her sister really means anything. The fact that she's still at Fort Hope in the post-game freeplay, apologizing to the player, feels like part of an unfinished idea.

To be fair, I'm not a fan of last-minute stingers as a rule. Ambiguity is perfect for the setting, but I think something more understated would've worked better.

More detailed thoughts later, but overall I quite liked the game. As I said, it pulled me in a lot more than I thought it would.