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Steelrising, Flintlock Swansong and the rise of AA Jank in 2022

I have always been a fan of these budget western AA games. They are almost always jank, never scoring more than a 75 metacritic but are so earnest that I always buy em over some indie darlings the gaming press like to fawn over. Greedfall, Vampyr and The Council were amazing to name a few and people should check em out with expectations in check of course.

With 2022, we are looking at a barren wasteland in terms of AAA from May to possibly August ( depending if GOW Ragnarok comes out by then) so I would like to highlight a few of these AA games on the horizon.

Steelrising
Paris, 1789. The city is in the grip of terror. The Revolution has been suppressed with bloodshed by Louis XVI and his merciless mechanical army. It falls to Aegis, an engineering marvel, to take on the king's ranks of automatons and change the course of history.







Flintlock (Day 1 gamepass )
Join humanity’s last stand as Gods and guns collide in an all-new action-RPG open-world adventure. The Door to the Afterlife has been opened, allowing the old God’s army of the undead to escape from within. The living are on the brink of extinction. It’s time for the coalition army to retake their world. Embrace vengeance, gunpowder and magic and embark on an epic journey to lead mankind’s final siege against the tide of the dead.







Vampire: The Masquerade – Swansong
Based on the cult role-playing game and developed by specialists in the genre, Vampire: The Masquerade – Swansong is a narrative RPG in which your every choice determines the fate of the three main characters and of the Boston Camarilla. Play as 3 vampires who are over a hundred years old. Progress through the game through their intertwined destinies, deal with their different points of view and use their character sheets to try to separate the truth from the lies. Each character has their own abilities and vampiric disciplines that you can upgrade individually to suit your preferred approach.


























 

Labadal

Member
I'm cautiously optimistic about all three games, but they are not day one games,for me. Obviously, I won't wait for reviews, but I will check opinions of players, and check videos.
 

anthony2690

Banned
Steel rising looks awful, looks like a step down from their last game greedfall (what I still haven't played, but own)
 

Kuranghi

Member
The woman reminds me of Adebisi from Oz lmao imagine her coming up behind you in the pantry and blowing out your cupcake candle:

 

intbal

Member
Spiders has a lot of talented people, but they could use a little help refining core gameplay mechanics. Like character movement, which was pretty awful in Greedfall.
 

Umbasaborne

Banned
Some times you could use a little euro jank in your life. Also, dont be fooled by cyberpunk and the witcher 3, those games are just expensive euro jank
 

Fbh

Member


Sadly doesn't look particularly good.
It's a shame Spiders are doing a "Souls-like". I think they were onto something with Greedfall and trying to fill that Bioware style void.

Combat has never been their strong point...and a "Souls-like" with bad combat is straight up worthless.
 

Bartski

Gold Member
Sadly doesn't look particularly good.
It's a shame Spiders are doing a "Souls-like". I think they were onto something with Greedfall and trying to fill that Bioware style void.

Combat has never been their strong point...and a "Souls-like" with bad combat is straight up worthless.
I like the idea but the execution much less so... One of those games I wouldn't buy but would be very happy to see coming to gamepass
 

STARSBarry

Gold Member
Sadly doesn't look particularly good.
It's a shame Spiders are doing a "Souls-like". I think they were onto something with Greedfall and trying to fill that Bioware style void.

Combat has never been their strong point...and a "Souls-like" with bad combat is straight up worthless.

Honestly they should of just focussed on refining what they got right with greedfall by fixing what they got wrong. They jump around so much they lose focus. Greedfall was so close to being a good game, so very damn close so it's surprising to see them just go "fuck it, let's do dark souls".
 

Fbh

Member
Honestly they should of just focussed on refining what they got right with greedfall by fixing what they got wrong. They jump around so much they lose focus. Greedfall was so close to being a good game, so very damn close so it's surprising to see them just go "fuck it, let's do dark souls".

Totally agree.
Greedfall was flawed but I enjoyed my time with it. Really wanted to see them continue polishing up that style.

I have zero interest in Steelrising
 

ACESHIGH

Banned
Spiders have been around for a long time but they haven't been able to take their games to the next level. Still think mars war logs is their best game.
Don't think any of these AA eurojank games even reaches Witcher 2 level. An AA game from a decade ago.
Also these games tend to be pretty demanding on HW for what they offer on screen. Look at elex 2 for example
 
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