Tag: Early Access

Early Access Fraudsters: Lonath Online Is A Scam


Today’s Early Access Fraudsters comes in the form of Lonath Online, a title by 4NetGames that is by all measures a scam. How much of a scam?

If you head over to Lonath Online’s forums the two stickied threads you will see are warning people to stay away. Stay far away. 4NetGames is the product of one developer who apparently decided to just up and abandon his work way back in 2016, leaving the game in a state where it is still online and being sold for money ($7) while not actually functioning as a game as the server is offline. Yes, the forum moderator is recommending you stay far away.

Although I’d rather not do this, it has been too long. I’m marking Lonath online as abandoned(?), but 4NetGames may just be on hiatus for a little while. I have no idea if he plans to ever return or work on Lonath Online again. It has been (as of now, on the 21st of February) been marked abandoned.

If you have any questions, feel free to ask them, I will try to help out as much as possible.

EDIT: Servers are officially OFFLINE, please do not purchase this until the developer (if) comes back.

Lonath’s website is gone as is its social media presence, and the developer has been unreachable for years. Given Valve’s reputation for poorly responding to broken/nonfunctioning/abandoned games, it doesn’t come as much of a surprise to learn that users have been reporting Lonath Online for the past four years only to have absolutely no action taken.

Is the game selling copies? Presumably no. Is it wasting valuable real estate on the Steam store? Definitely. From my search I haven’t been able to find any other titles created by 4NetGames, but we’ll be keeping in eye out in case anything pops up under this developer title. To give people a heads up on who they are giving money to.

Early Access: Paycheck: City RPG


Paycheck: City RPG is the latest MMO to hit Steam Early Access and for first impressions the game is leaving players wanting.

At its core, Paycheck is shaping up to be a role playing game in the biblical sense; players actually playing roles such as shop owner, police officer, and thief. Developer Happy Dog Interactive LLC has promised functionality to address players who might try to make the game a living hell for others just trying to play by the rules.

“One of the biggest challenges in designing a game like this, is how do you ensure constructive gameplay? In other words, how do you prevent players from constantly shooting one another for no reason? Our solution to this and other gameplay related problems are the Fair Kill System and the Fair Arrest System. These intricate systems enable players to have fun in their respective roles without having to constantly deal with problematic players.”

The good news is that Paycheck: City RPG is free to play. The bad news is that it doesn’t seem to have launched into Early Access with much to do, and players are wondering why their time is being wasted. Complaints seem centered around the lack of activities and specifically the absence of anti-griefing mechanics that the Steam store page talks about.

“This game is a long way from being playable, very buggy with not many things to do. The map is way too small for the type of game it is. Players start with weapons and new spawns start same place every time and can get killed straight away. There is no real character building mechanics so its kind of just a TDM game at the moment.”

One player logged in to find a low population being harassed by a single person.

“My first five minutes into a server there was just a cop in spawn arresting people the minute they spawn in, and since anyone can be any job they want this just allows trolls to do stuff like this. I only played about 30 minutes because there was only 5 people on the server and one was just standing in spawn waiting to arrest people like i said before, but i hope this game reaches it’s potential it’d be fun.”

Another review notes a lack of enjoyment of being a shopkeeper when one can’t interact with their store.

“this needs some serious help. the game was pushed back for whatever reason and still feels terrible. driving a car is a nightmare, being a store owner makes no sense, cant even lock a room or interact with your store. i think this game needs to be worked on longer it wasnt ready for this launch.”

Many of the reviews agree that the game has potential to be something good. Someday, just not right now. For now, you might want to give the game some extra time in the oven before diving in.

Temtem Early Access Impressions: Several Hours On A Broken Game


Temtem is in early access and unless you have a lot of patience for a busted game in alpha, I highly advise not spending the $35 (or your equivalent) at this stage. I also recommend not going into the toxic cesspit also known as the Temtem Discord server. It’s a hive of scum and villainy.

So Temtem has been in early access for roughly a week during which it has spent a fair bit of that time completely unplayable for many buyers. It’s understandable, the game is in early access and in the alpha stage. Unlike some people, the developers are very clear about this. Temtem also has a lot of people wanting to play it, unlike a certain shovelware shooter game, but I digress.

Let’s talk about my five hours in Temtem.

Temtem is Pokemon. You are a child starting out the game in your small town (which is laid out a lot like Pallet Town) leaving home to go out on an adventure, and you go meet a Professor of Pokemon Temtem studies who has you choose one of three Pokemon Temtem in his lab to start your journey of becoming a Pokemon Temtem master. You’ll meet your rival Max and journey through a winding series of tall grass encounters, and there are gyms dojos and Pokemon Centers Temporiams and items that teach moves, and a Team Rocket-style villainous gang.

I picked Houchic for my first Temtem since I have always wanted a psychic monster as my starter. I’m going to make a lot of Pokemon references in my coverage because while Pokemon didn’t create the genre, it’s very obvious that many of Temtem’s systems are taken directly from Pokemon. Not copying a whole lot from DigiMon. Now personally I have played the first two generations of Pokemon games and know literally nothing from any further game in the series, so all of my references are going to be from the red&blue/gold&silver era. Thank you.

Sin #1: The Forced Loss

I hate when RPGs make me lose to prove a point that could have been proven a million other ways. Alright, not a million. Half a million. When you have a pre-scripted loss in a game that’s all about strategy, it makes the player doubt how much they are really in control of the game. Temtem has your rival Max beat you down in your first fight just so the game can send the message that some Temtem are just unfairly better than others. It feels out of character for a game that otherwise starts out essentially with a Dora The Explorer “come on let’s get to it, I know that we can do it” vibe of positivity and confidence.

Considering anyone who plays Temtem is doing so because they are/were a fan of Pokemon, it’s safe to say that a majority of the population playing this game is aware of the weakness mechanic. It also strikes me as lazy because your rival Max always chooses Oree which is a digital type and has an inherent advantage over two of the three starters. It is also the only digital type Temtem at this point, making it seem like the whole class was created just so the developer didn’t have to work Max around potentially having three separate Temtem.

Sin #2: The Broken Evolution

The evolution mechanic is terrible and bound to be confusing for the average person who doesn’t ask in Discord/read the wiki since there is no chat right now. The evolution system in Pokemon has your Pokemon evolve at specific levels. Bulbasaur will always become a Venusaur at 16. In Temtem however, the evolution of a monster is based on the level that you caught them at and it is functionally broken. For example, Ganki’s evolution is 27+. If you catch a Ganki at level 1, it will evolve at level 28. If you catch a Ganki at level 10, it will evolve at level 38. If you catch a Ganki at level 22 then you can make like Willie Wonka and go fudge yourself since the soft cap for Temtem right now is 48, meaning that Ganki is not going to evolve period.

The evolution issue effectively punishes players for catching high level Temtem, as the higher level you catch a Temtem at the exponentially more grinding you’re going to have to do before that Temtem can evolve. In Pokemon you were rewarded for catching higher level Pokemon by requiring less time to level them before they could evolve. Temtem does the opposite and punishes you for it.

The goal is to push people into Temtem’s convoluted and stupidly expensive breeding system.

Sin #3: Boy This Game Is A Slog

Temtem is an MMO, so you do find a small number of simple side quests tossed into the mix. The main game? I started feeling my enthusiasm wane long before I got to the first gym, and I haven’t even gained access to the first gym.

Temtem pads its zones like a teenager’s bra, and it makes the process of entering a new area dreadful. I had to go look at the old Pokemon guides to make sure I wasn’t misremembering, but if you look at the zones in Red/Blue you’ll find that they tend to contain roughly 5-10 trainers, often on the lower end, with the added caveat that some of those trainers can be skipped and a lot of them have one or two Pokemon total. Temtem meanwhile has so. many. trainers that each zone takes a ridiculous amount of time to travel through, and very few of those trainers can be skipped.

I also had an issue with the first “gym” in Temtem. In Pokemon you come across the first gym battle pretty early on. Brock’s two Pokemon are level 12 and 14 if my memory serves me correctly, and you fight him roughly an hour into the game depending on how fast you are. To get to Brock you go through Route 1, Veridian City, Veridian Forest, and Route 2, with the option of hitting your rival in Route 22. In Red/Blue you’ll fight six trainers including the one in Brock’s gym. Temtem meanwhile has you travel through Prasine Coast (9 unskippable trainers, 3 skippable) to Briçal de Mar (town, no fights), through Thalassian Cliffs (13 unskippable trainers, 3 skippable) to Arissola, the town where Sophia’s dojo is. Sophia isn’t in town, so you need to find her by going to Gifted Bridges (12 unskippable trainers, 2 skippable) to the Windward Fort, a six floor building (15 unskippable trainers, 4 skippable), before you FINALLY unlock Sophia’s dojo (6 trainers).

So to wrap things up: Pokemon puts you up against six trainers before you fight Brock who has two Pokemon upwards of level 14. Just to get to Sophia, you need to fight a minimum of 55 trainers (64 if you fight everyone) to get to the first dojo master who has six Temtem up to level 22. Jesus Christ.

And yes, I’m aware that Temtem isn’t Pokemon. But having the literal first dojo be such an tremendous slog to reach has resulted in my experiencing burnout which should not happen this early in such a game’s story. It’s shoddy pacing and it doesn’t make me enthusiastic about reaching further dojos if this is the experience that I can expect to have going forward, by which I mean stopping every ten feet for trainer battles. I’m more inclined to give MMOs a break when it comes to increased grind, but Temtem isn’t really an MMO in the functional sense. You’re just sharing space with other people.

Otherwise I have no opinion on the matter. Actually I have a lot of opinions on the matter.

Early Access Fraudsters: Cyber Watch Is Cyber Shovelware


Cyber Watch is a shovelware title hastily cobbled together in the Unreal Engine and tossed onto Steam for a couple of bucks in the hopes that enough people will buy it and not refund it to make a little bit of profit. Tossed onto Steam by a ragtag group of seven named individuals, Cyber Watch hopes to abuse the fact that it is “under development” to avoid criticism while not making use of Steam’s Early Access label.

The first thing you see on Cyber Watch’s store page is:

*****NOTE*****
THE GAME IS STILL UNDER DEVELOPMENT AND IT DOES NOT REPRESENT THE FINAL VERSION OF THE GAME.THERE IS STILL A LOT TO IMPROVE AND ADD
SO IF YOU WANT THE FULL EXPERIENCE OF THIS GAME PLEASE WAIT FOR THE FINAL VERSION TO RELEASE.UNNECESSARY REVIEWS WOULD NOT BE APPRECIATED.

What you get is a barely functioning pre-alpha build of a game whose working components I have to assume were built into the Unreal engine or available as an asset pack on the Unreal store. From untextured, very basic maps to weapons that may function halfway or break your character (see aim-down-sights in the screenshot below), to “vehicles” being nothing more than untextured RC cars that sloppily plant your character mode behind it.

Cyber Watch also blasts Neffex songs through your speakers at about ten times the volume of the rest of the game.

To further cement the idea that Cyber Watch is a hastily cobbled together mess of a prototype, as of one week ago this game wasn’t actually called Cyber Watch. SteamDB’s history shows that Cyber Watch was previously titled The Battle Of Bellum up to January 1, 2020. It was previously listed for a January 18 release date before the team just dumped it on the store on January 12. The Battle Of Bellum it seems would have been a third person action adventure game judging from a prior description:

“This game is a third person shooter game.This game is full of acton and adventures.”

Prior Steam listings also have The Battle Of Bellum listed as a single player game with achievements, so it seems like the team threw out what they had at the last minute and opted instead to push a rushed featureless prototype of a shooter on the store in the hopes that slapping a “this is unfinished” sticker would stifle criticism and people would buy the game regardless. It might have worked if they had listed the game as early access. They didn’t.

It isn’t going to work. I personally bought the game to drop a review and received this response from the developer:

“THERE IS A BIG NOTE IN THE DESCRIPTION……MAYBE….. MAYBE YOU DIDNT SEE IT…..ITS OKAY ……EVERYTHING YOU ARE SAYING IS ALREADY MENTIONED IN THE DESCRIPTION……SO DONT WASTE YOUR TIME ON COMMENTING LIKE THIS”

Posting in all caps always makes you correct, and trust me there is no way anything associated with this game is not a huge waste of time.

Thankfully with the way Steam goes, Cyber Watch will be buried in the history books with the rest of the low-effort shovelware to come out on Steam.

Not Massive: Build Your Own MMO In MMORPG Tycoon 2


Ever looked your favorite MMORPG Roma Victor and thought “I could do better than this”? Well now you have the chance to put your money where your mouth is without going through the difficult steps of acquiring millions of dollars to feed a budget.

MMORPG Tycoon 2 is the incidental sequel to the title MMORPG Tycoon. Currently in Early Access on Steam, MMORPG Tycoon puts the player in the role of building their own Azeroth or Gielinor or Club Penguin, whatever your heart desires. Create zones, build towns, give your players what they want and watch that cash flow. You’ll even have to deal with cheaters, obnoxious players, and just those who can’t figure the game out for themselves, as you push toward that revenue goal. You can even get in on the trend and make your game free to play, introducing exorbitant cash shops with pay to win elements if you so desire.

One thing that MMORPG Tycoon 2 is not is an MMO. It is single player and your customers are all bots. Still, it looks like a fun way to prove to the world what a design guru you truly are.

Check it out.

Source: Steam

Early Access: Inferna Is A Quaint Little Grinder


Inferna is a quaint little murder box that is kinda fun to run around in for a bit and kill mobs. If it wasn’t free to play, I’d suggest staying away from it.

As part of MMO Fallout’s year end checkup on various early access games, I decided to check out Inferna which launched into early access on December 20 of this year. Inferna is what AAA developers would probably refer to as “minimum viable product,” in that the developers over at the properly named INFERNA LIMITED have created some base systems and tossed the player into a map with gratuitously sprinkled in mobs of varying size, shape, and level.

Otherwise there isn’t a whole lot going on in Inferna at the moment, which is to be expected from a game that literally just launched into early access a week ago. There are some basic equipment enhancement systems in effect, mobs occasionally drop gear that can be sold to other players or to NPC shops. There is the option to create a personal shop like you tend to see in Korean MMOs and plop it down in town to sell items while you are off and about obtaining more goods.

Honestly there’s not a whole lot to talk about with Inferna. On a positive note the developer has clearly been hard at work pushing out patches, and in my short experience the game seems to have a vibrant and active trading community. If you’re expecting a game that is feature complete, you’ve immediately made a mistake by downloading an early access title. If you want a free game to tinker around in for a bit, give it a download.

As for me, I’ll be making a note on my big paper calendar to check in on Inferna in a year.

Early Access Fraudsters: Hellion Is Cancelled, Yet Still For Sale


Hellion needs to be forcibly removed from Steam.

The tale of Hellion is one that should leave you with a fair amount of hesitance to purchase any future product from Zero Gravity (assuming the company doesn’t buckle and cease to exist within the next six months before putting out its next title). Hellion has lots of bugs, Zero Gravity has no intent on fixing those bugs. Rather than push the game through early access and release a finished product, Zero Gravity has decided to abandon the title and cease patching it, ripping off the early access tag and just pushing it out as-is.

Granted, Zero Gravity isn’t done making money off of the game, as they reduced the price to $14.99 and are still selling it. As if to add the fraudulent cherry on the ice cream sundae, Zero Gravity is still advertising Hellion as though the game is still in development. There are features listed on the store page as “work in progress” despite there no longer being any work or progress being put into the title. How’s that for fraud? The company’s own lead production artist and investor even publicly blamed the decision on individuals at Zero Gravity choosing to cut and run to use the funds for their own projects.

The plus side of all of this is that Hellion’s reviews are in the toilet, currently sitting at a 29% mostly negative rating with comments dedicated to warning potential buyers that the game is nowhere near finished and has been abandoned. Should Zero Gravity release a new game, it will no doubt be held to increased scrutiny and the tale of Hellion’s abandonment will surely be reinforced at every possible moment.

For all this and more, check out SidAlpha’s video on the topic.

One Year Later, Edengrad Remains Offline


Edengrad

MMO Fallout has been keeping an eye on everyone’s favorite MMO Edengrad for the past year, and at the conclusion of 2019 I can definitively say that the game is still dead.

It feels like forever ago that the Edengrad servers went offline, but the calendar suggests that the actual date might be closer to 2018. Probably around the time that its developer Huckleberry Games went bankrupt. News from the bankruptcy suggested that Huckleberry was receiving attention from investors as well as the government to get them more funding and put the train back on the tracks.

And back on the tracks they were put. Back in November 2018 a dev account just called “office” posted an ominous ‘we’re back soon’ message. How soon is too soon? Thirteen months, since the company hasn’t posted anything to the Edengrad community since then. Huckleberry Games is still alive and kicking, and more importantly pulling money from investors. The company just filed actions a couple of days ago to issue new shares and bring in more revenue. Bully!

The only thing the company doesn’t seem to want to talk about are its games. Will Edengrad come back? If so, when? What else is Huckleberry working on? Does the company exist to do something other than vacuum in investor money? Who knows.

What I do know is that the Edengrad website remains offline, although you can’t buy the domain. I tried. For everyone else, we’ll just have to wait and see if 2020 brings any news.

RuneScape In Your Pants: Mobile Early Access Is Live


RuneScape mobile has entered early access on Android phones, allowing gamers their dream of finally carrying the MMO around in their pants. Users who take advantage of the early access will be gifted a mobile founder’s pack which contains a steel panther combat pet, a unique rest animation, and radiant dawn armor. Product director Jason Millena stated;

“Given RuneScape’s 18-year long heritage, in addition to being recognised by Guinness World Records for ‘The Most Prolifically Updated MMORPG Videogame’, to have the whole of RuneScape running on mobile is a massive achievement. We couldn’t be more excited to launch in Early Access and welcome those who know RuneScape the best – our members.”

You can get mobile early access here.

[Video] Twitch Plays The Outer Worlds


It was bound to happen eventually.

This week marks the launch of The Outer Worlds, but if you want to play the game you can do so right now…Sort of. Being the crazy people they are, Obsidian Entertainment has decided to throw The Outer Worlds up for the world to play…on Twitch. This technically makes The Outer Worlds the first pre-release game to be given the Twitch Plays treatment.

Streaming is going on right now. You can head over to the Obsidian Twitch channel and play along in the chat yourself. Create the kind of playthrough that even Polygon would be proud of.