As was foretold, we've added advertisements to the forums! If you have questions, or if you encounter any bugs, please visit this thread: https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/240191/forum-advertisement-faq-and-reports-thread/
Options

[Receiver] A cyberpunk Roguelike-like FPS

DrakeDrake Edgelord TrashBelow the ecliptic plane.Registered User regular
edited September 2012 in Games and Technology
I'm lazy, so I'm going to copy/paste what I wrote about this in the Greenlight thread. I'm not sure how much traffic that thread is getting these days and I think this game deserves it's own thread anyway. Don't worry, I've spruced this up a bit with some videos, cleaned up the text and added a bit more information. I'm not that lazy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NmqterXyc-w&feature=relmfu

So I've been playing this game Receiver the last few days. It's really something else. It's a FPS with some roguelike qualities and the most detailed handgun mechanics I've ever seen in any game. You start out somewhere inside a complex of modern industrial buildings within a city. You will have one of three firearms, a Glock 17 with a full-auto fire select switch, a Smith & Wesson Model 10 Revolver, or a Colt 1911. Each one of these firearms has their strengths and weaknesses which comes down to stopping power and ease of use. The Glock 17 has the least stopping power for instance but groups shots very well and has a high ammo capacity. Every part on each weapon is fully modeled and interactive. You can even spin the cylinder on the revolver, though there is no real reason to do so. Your weapon starts in a random state. You will have to determine how much ammo you have, how much is loaded in the gun, whether or not a round is chambered or if the safety is on, and more. You will have to check your weapon manually. This means pulling back the slide halfway on one of the automatics and looking into the chamber, or swinging the cylinder out from the frame of the revolver. Or ejecting your magazine and visually confirming how much ammunition is loaded into it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GCThInmzjXw&feature=player_embedded

Once you have your weapon in a satisfactory state, you must explore your surroundings. You will be searching for more ammo, flashlights, and audio cassettes. The last of these are your goals, the tapes contain information about your weapon, your situation and the enemies you face. The story that I've uncovered so far is like some kind of schizophrenic nightmare from Philip K Dick, I was surprised at the tension these tapes add to the atmosphere. There are eleven of these tapes scattered about this complex and you will have to comb the entire place to locate them. This will not be easy though, as there are two types of enemies you'll face. Stationary gun turrets and flying tazer drones. Both enemies are quite lethal, able to take you out in one hit. Tactics and situational awareness are key. Both enemies make great use of visual and audio cues to clue you in on their locations and status. When one of these murderous devices detects you it will sound a loud beep for instance. They also emit light which you can use to determine their facing or if they are currently aiming at your location. All enemies have various components that can be destroyed by shooting the component. Destroy an enemies battery pack and it ceases to function. Take out the motor and it can't track your movement, but will still attack if you enter it's field of fire. Earlier while I was playing I shot out a Tazer Drone's camera. This hovering enemy started flying erratically around the doorway that I'd used to ambush it, firing off its tazer non-stop. It was still an effective threat that was blocking my progress, so I had to expend more ammo on a target that was difficult to track and hit.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-XyvgqXwZs&feature=relmfu

As for the roguelike qualities I mentioned, you have permadeath, the randomized state of your weapon and gear at your start, and the entire complex is created procedurally from pre-constructed set pieces and then populated with furniture, items, lighting and enemies. All of these mechanics come together to make a very intense experience, where death can come quickly and most likely often. If you die, the game rerolls the level and your start, wipes the progress you've made on collecting tapes and you start from scratch again. There is a restart key you can use if you don't like the start you're given. This is quite the amazing indie experiment, especially considering that it came out of a seven day competition for FPS development. There's more good ideas in this thing than an APC loaded with AAA blockbuster manshoots. Be warned though, it's currently not well optimized. Some users have reported bad performance. Optimization is on the way though, as well as more features. For five bucks you may want to take a chance if this sounds like it may be your thing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KGFlU4jftZQ&feature=relmfu

TL;DR: An amazing indie experiment in procedurally generated atmospheric cyberpunk ultra-gunporn First Person Shooting and urban exploration. Hit the Greenlight page, watch some vids and vote this thing up. Once again, performance is problematic on some PCs. Optimizations are on the way, as well as more content.

Drake on
«1

Posts

  • Options
    TychoCelchuuuTychoCelchuuu PIGEON Registered User regular
    I own this already because I have Overgrowth preordered because I preordered Natural Selection 2 (whew) but I haven't even been playing it because they keep adding stuff to it so I figure I'll just wait until it's even more awesome. I've watched all the videos they've put out though and it all seems pretty awesome. I like the aesthetic and I love the central premise of the game, the sort of gun detail porn thing they have going on.

  • Options
    DrakeDrake Edgelord Trash Below the ecliptic plane.Registered User regular
    The mechanics and gameplay are already pretty solid. You should give it a go Tycho.

    More people need to play this thing.

  • Options
    TychoCelchuuuTychoCelchuuu PIGEON Registered User regular
    Eh I have a lot of games on my plate and this will only get better over time. I am a patient man.

  • Options
    DrakeDrake Edgelord Trash Below the ecliptic plane.Registered User regular
    Sure take your time. It'll be better for it when you get around to it, like you say.

    As it is at the moment I can't play anything else. It hits so many of my favorite design principles, from the realism of the firearms to well thought out systems interactions. This thing just keeps revealing more depth as I peel back the layers. The subsystem damage modeling on the Kill-Bots really makes for some interesting moments. I'll put a few experiences down in a spoiler if people want to save these kinds of little emergent surprises for themselves.
    In one session tonight I scout out a turret bot sitting up on a platform. I can't get a good angle of fire on it from the doorway so I drop my aim and sprint over to some cover for a better position to take it out. I go into my regular routine of peeking out to trigger it's engage mode, it beeps, which is my signal to duck back into cover. As it leaves engage mode, it makes a softer chirp and returns to it's turning observation mode, which gives me a window to pop out of cover and squeeze off a few rounds from my Model 10. I hear the satisfying sounds of impact on the turret as I duck back into cover. I heard a system give off its telltale sound of frying electronics so I know I've done some damage. I peek back out to assess the situation and it gives its engage mode beep and opens fire immediately, trained directly on my position. This kind of fast response is unusual behavior and it takes me a moment to realize that I had damaged its motor just as it had drawn a bead on my location. I'm pinned and I've learned it's not really smart to throw you limited ammo away taking potshots. My only way out was to drop my stance so I could run to another position. This sounds easy enough but without having been able to scout the rest of the room I couldn't be sure that I wouldn't run straight into another enemies killzone. Luckily I manage to get another position safely and finish off the turret.

    In a later session I had a Tazer Drone drop down almost directly in my face from a position over a door. I panic and reflex fire, pretty sure that this thing has got my number. Amazingly I survive its attack but it's buzzing around me like mad as I backpedal around trying to get away. It takes me a moment to realize that I shot its tazer unit, disarming it. I still had to kill it as it was a major distraction to say the least, killing my situational awareness and generally harshing my vibe. I ended up spending five more precious rounds to take it out.

  • Options
    GutterkisserGutterkisser Registered User regular
    Colour me interested, although with my current backlog I'm happy to let this one marinate a little longer - gets my thumbs up in Greenlight though.

  • Options
    XaviarXaviar Registered User regular
    Hm.. So far I think I like it. Though I strongly dislike the revolver. I can't make it past 1 or 2 tapes though, and I'm lucky if I get that far..

  • Options
    DrovekDrovek Registered User regular
    This somehow interests me.

    Guess $5 isn't that bad to try this out. Will they add multiplayer later on? It's the sort of game that would benefit from something like 4 players matches, maybe it's just me.

    steam_sig.png( < . . .
  • Options
    Big ClassyBig Classy Registered User regular
    I'm Gonna order this tonight and maybe to the moon too.

  • Options
    DrakeDrake Edgelord Trash Below the ecliptic plane.Registered User regular
    Drovek wrote: »
    This somehow interests me.

    Guess $5 isn't that bad to try this out. Will they add multiplayer later on? It's the sort of game that would benefit from something like 4 players matches, maybe it's just me.

    I found this TODO list and it implies multiplayer is at least a possibility that they are considering.

    I'll put the whole list down here in a spoiler too.
    Easy:
    - fix chamber-check round eject at low framerates
    - fix wobbling gun at low framerates
    - fix possible inaccurate gun mechanics
    --- can slide move with safety on?
    - randomize falling damage?
    - indicator that cheat code is needed for slow motion
    - indicator on screen that cheat code has been used
    - investigate jump-higher-by-crouching, possibly add to help
    - add "stop aiming to run" to help
    - problem dropping two mags in the same place?
    - inventory markers
    - spawn empty mags on ground
    - fix taser sound falloff
    - "night vision" light? (small blue point light that follows camera)
    JoShadow: http://forums.wolfire.com/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=15610#p167485

    Medium:
    - in-game help shows remapped keys

    Hard:
    - background loading of new tiles
    - occlusion culling
    - new guns (maybe H&K USP Tactical, Beretta M9, Colt Detective Special?)

    Really hard:
    - Multiplayer?

    Control ideas:
    http://forums.wolfire.com/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=15610&start=45#p167548

    RC6:
    + added flashlight
    + added S&W Model 10 revolver
    + added Glock 17 with auto mod
    + added option to bring guns closer to eye
    + added a small chance to disable robots with non-vital hits

    RC5:
    + fix sight picture for 1911 (sights should be level)
    Options screen:
    + mouse sensitivity slider
    + mouse invert toggle
    + music/sfx/voice volume options
    + gun aim leeway options
    + brightness option
    + option for hold/toggle crouch

    RC4:
    + fix non-colliding floor in room 6
    + respawn button ( if stuck )
    + make hover bots louder?
    + fix problem running with gun holstered but aimed
    + disable gun/bullet/mag shadows
    + framerate cap?
    + make mouse cursor disappear when tabbing back into game
    + remove round from magazine (for combining etc)
    + menu correctly fades to black on start

  • Options
    Gandalf_the_CrazedGandalf_the_Crazed Vigilo ConfidoRegistered User regular
    What's the download size on this thing?

    PEUsig_zps56da03ec.jpg
  • Options
    TychoCelchuuuTychoCelchuuu PIGEON Registered User regular
    73.4 megabytez.

  • Options
    Gandalf_the_CrazedGandalf_the_Crazed Vigilo ConfidoRegistered User regular
    73.4 megabytez.

    Excellent, this is entirely workable on my connection.

    Will be giving this a shot tonight -- need things to distract me until XCOM.

    PEUsig_zps56da03ec.jpg
  • Options
    DrovekDrovek Registered User regular
    I hate the flyer bots, they can move at stupid speeds.

    Also: I'm loving the revolver; basically the fact that I can reload it without the whole "remove magazine, put down gun, refill magazine, put up gun, load magazine."

    steam_sig.png( < . . .
  • Options
    DrakeDrake Edgelord Trash Below the ecliptic plane.Registered User regular
    Yeah. Tazer Drones are assholes.

    "Man, I've got plenty of ammo, a spare maglite and I've absorbed five tapes. I am an unstoppable BADASSZZZTtTtTtTt"

    Thank god they are so fragile. Most hits will at least take out a subsystem if not outright killing it. But if you drop your awareness for just a moment, if you fail to scout out an area properly, that sumbitch will be there.

  • Options
    IvanIssacsIvanIssacs Skull Leader SDF-1Registered User regular
    Me and Snot were talking about this.

    WHO'S THE SADISTIC FUCK THAT PUTS A FUCKING KILLTURRET IN THE FUCKING BATHROOM? I MEAN HONESTLY.

  • Options
    DrovekDrovek Registered User regular
    Some people value their privacy a lot...

    steam_sig.png( < . . .
  • Options
    DrakeDrake Edgelord Trash Below the ecliptic plane.Registered User regular
    Plus you never know when some cultist weirdo with a handgun and a cassette player is going to come along and steal the ammunition out of your bathroom sink.

  • Options
    LalaboxLalabox Registered User regular
    But there's never any ammo there anyway.

  • Options
    Gandalf_the_CrazedGandalf_the_Crazed Vigilo ConfidoRegistered User regular
    Gods I am so awful at this game.

    PEUsig_zps56da03ec.jpg
  • Options
    ZetxZetx 🐧 Registered User regular
    I hate fall damage. D:

    76561197966849367.png
  • Options
    IvanIssacsIvanIssacs Skull Leader SDF-1Registered User regular
    edited September 2012
    That feeling you get when you sprint past 4 turrets and a bunch of drones only to fall to your death in next room.

    That feeling you get when you start a new game and your revolver has 5 rounds. 4 of them are empty casings

    That feeling you get when you start a new game with the 1911, 3 clips and a flashlight. The only downside being 3 bullets.

    IvanIssacs on
  • Options
    Gandalf_the_CrazedGandalf_the_Crazed Vigilo ConfidoRegistered User regular
    Is there a good way of mapping the building in your head? Some sort of mental trick people are using?

    Because while it's fun just moving from room to room, I feel like finding all the tapes will probably require a slightly more methodical approach.

    PEUsig_zps56da03ec.jpg
  • Options
    DrovekDrovek Registered User regular
    IvanIssacs wrote: »
    That feeling you get when you sprint past 4 turrets and a bunch of drones only to fall to your death in next room.

    That feeling you get when you start a new game and your revolver has 5 rounds. 4 of them are empty casings

    That feeling you get when you start a new game with the 1911, 3 clips and a flashlight. The only downside being 3 bullets.

    That feeling when you get the Glock and 3 magazines, mostly over half-full.
    And you round the corner into flying-bot-death.

    steam_sig.png( < . . .
  • Options
    LalaboxLalabox Registered User regular
    I'm not good enough nor do I have the patience to get good enough to really play this properly. That said, I have a great time playing russian roulette with the revolver against drones. Only it's a 1 in 6 chance to (maybe) live, rather than 1 in 6 to die.

  • Options
    XaviarXaviar Registered User regular
    Drovek wrote: »
    IvanIssacs wrote: »
    That feeling you get when you sprint past 4 turrets and a bunch of drones only to fall to your death in next room.

    That feeling you get when you start a new game and your revolver has 5 rounds. 4 of them are empty casings

    That feeling you get when you start a new game with the 1911, 3 clips and a flashlight. The only downside being 3 bullets.

    That feeling when you get the Glock and 3 magazines, mostly over half-full.
    And you round the corner into flying-bot-death.Try to inch forward on a ledge to see if there are any killbots down there, only to accidentally run screaming to your death-splat

    That's the one. That's the one that gets me.

  • Options
    DrakeDrake Edgelord Trash Below the ecliptic plane.Registered User regular
    Yeah, if you need to tap a key to inch around use a strafe key.

    Also, if you don't like your start, get stuck, or want to play with a particular gun you can hold down the L key to restart the game.

    Also, I'm dreaming about this game now. It's not really a big surprise, I've had a recurring dream about wandering around in environments much like this for pretty much as long as I can remember. But now the dream is populated with Kill-Bots.

    So far my record is five tapes. Once I hit five tapes that's the signal for a tazer drone to attach himself to the back of my head.

  • Options
    EVOLEVOL Registered User regular
    Amazing, a FPS roguelike is something I wanted for a long time.

    I doubt I'd be able to play it till November though. I think it's been like 2 months since I played a game on the PC?

  • Options
    JaramrJaramr Registered User regular
    This game is amazing, despite me being so bad at it.

    Recently I was fighting one of those drones with a glock, and I ran out of ammo in my magazine. I did however, have bullets to put into the magazine, so what followed was me running around in circles with the drone buzzing by my face while I fumbled with my gun for a solid 5 seconds.

    And then, when I was done, the drone flew away. It flew away. It wasn't even what killed me, I rounded the corner into a killturret. But shit, the thought of that drone waiting in some corner to latch onto my skull when I walked in was terrifying.

    steam_sig.png
  • Options
    DrakeDrake Edgelord Trash Below the ecliptic plane.Registered User regular
    This is seriously one of the more tactical FPS I've played. If you are having trouble progressing (beyond the usual rough starting loadout and the like) slow down and slice the pie on every door and corner you hit. That will save you a lot of trouble right there.

    If you don't know this technique it works like this; As you approach a door do it to one side of the door and take cover by the door frame. Before you enter, strafe from one side of the frame to the other, while looking through the door with your handgun up and ready to fire. You shouldn't engage unless necessary at this point, unless a Tazer Drone is making a beeline for you. After you complete this sweep you should have a good idea of any threats in the immediate room. Use this mental picture to get a plan together for clearing the threats visible from the doorway. Once this is done advance into the room, ready to back out at the sound of a beep. Even if Drone doesn't enter threat mode that doesn't mean it's not there, so don't drop your awareness. Pick a close corner and verify that it's threat free, then turn 180 degrees to check the other close corner. In Receiver you'll probably want to do this with your weapon down so you can sprint if necessary.

    Approaching corners you use the same principle but it's a much simpler execution. Hug the wall the corner is on, as you approach the corner, sweep out from the wall while aiming just past the corner, if you see a threat fire or retreat to the wall as the situation demands.

    Turning the music down or off is a big help in this game too, as some of the soundtrack's more dramatic crescendos can mask the sound of enemies.

  • Options
    IvanIssacsIvanIssacs Skull Leader SDF-1Registered User regular
    That feeling you get when you start off with a fully loaded clip in the Glock but forget to check to see if there's a round in the chamber and then clickclickcliFUCK.

  • Options
    DrakeDrake Edgelord Trash Below the ecliptic plane.Registered User regular
    My favorite with the Glock is forgetting to check the selective fire switch.

    "Yeah, lined up just right... squeeze don't jerk..." *BRRRRT* "shit..."

  • Options
    Gandalf_the_CrazedGandalf_the_Crazed Vigilo ConfidoRegistered User regular
    Hey you know what this game needs?

    To go fuck itself.
    In all seriousness, I feel like there needs to be an increased scavenging aspect to this thing. Keep the limit of 4 inventory slots or whatever, but increase the number of things you can fill them with/do with those things.

    Like maybe I grab an empty bottle from one of those kitchens, then I shoot down a fly-bot and salvage just a bit of some flammable fuel from it, maybe after I do that three times I've filled the bottle up, then I close the bottle and roll it around the corner at a turret to give me something easy to hit that will kill the damn thing, rather than trying to snipe one of the three pixels that will magically disable it.

    PEUsig_zps56da03ec.jpg
  • Options
    DrakeDrake Edgelord Trash Below the ecliptic plane.Registered User regular
    More stuff is on the way, but I'd be super surprised to see any kind of crafting get put in the game in an official update. We'll see some more guns, and probably some more enemies and environments and tweaks to gameplay.

    They have put the source code out though. Who knows what modders may come up with. I'd like to see a parkour system, personally. Some of these sets just beg for it.

  • Options
    TychoCelchuuuTychoCelchuuu PIGEON Registered User regular
    They also seem very receptive to fan suggestions, so maybe try posting that on the forums.

  • Options
    DrovekDrovek Registered User regular
    I'd rather have some work done on the performance area, but more stuff is always nice.

    steam_sig.png( < . . .
  • Options
    Gandalf_the_CrazedGandalf_the_Crazed Vigilo ConfidoRegistered User regular
    Yeah, I guess I just feel like right now, the exploration feels a little lackluster because it falls into a series of binary descriptions -- "enemy/no enemies", "bullets/no bullets", "tape/no tape", etc.

    Whereas if there was a little bit of a crafting, scavenging system, it would feel more organic and potentially create more interesting decision-making.

    PEUsig_zps56da03ec.jpg
  • Options
    DrakeDrake Edgelord Trash Below the ecliptic plane.Registered User regular
    There has been some interesting discussion on their forums about systems that allow you to scavenge stuff from the enemies and such. A neat idea I read there was a suggestion to add a screw driver you could find or spawn with. You could use it to open up downed enemies to scavenge bullets and stuff or even work as a melee weapon in a pinch.

    Crafting makeshift weapons from enemies would be a cool thing that I'd welcome to the game too.

  • Options
    Big ClassyBig Classy Registered User regular
    I decided to pick this up after Drake, Ivan, snot and borntohula were talking about it in chat. Went to the developers site and saw it comes free with pre-orders of Overgrowth. That is a freaking steal.

  • Options
    XaviarXaviar Registered User regular
    I love the gun mechanics in this. And I keep coming back for them. But I'm starting to think I don't like the game itself very much...

  • Options
    AuburnTigerAuburnTiger Registered User regular
    It's very early in the morning and I'm half asleep. So, where are your arms?

    XBL: Flex MythoMass
Sign In or Register to comment.