It does if you bought it expecting "a stealth survival game" as it was advertised because if you did want to play a guerilla warfare then you would have bought a game advertised as such instead of a "stealth survival game", you get it? 😉
That wall that isn't connected to anything at about 7 mins in is actually a thing you might see in the English countryside, remnants of old churches that have mostly fallen down and been reclaimed by nature. I get why it wouldn't make sense otherwise though, haha.
DrTheKay Idiot, it clearly had damage, and yes walls like that exist in the UK. Maybe if you stopped getting angry like a baby and read a book or went to school you'd actually know these things.
I've honestly never seen a review that was simultaneously so informative and meaty and so brutal at the same time. It's honestly really impressive to see someone able to put together a review like this without letting their distaste boil over into vitriol. The bunny hop crew are damn good at this stuff.
Although I can't disagree with any of the reviewer's main points, none of these got in the way of my own personal enjoyment of playing through the game. I actually found the experience really atmospheric, a lot of fun, and quite rewarding - especially when you can outsmart a large mob of robots robots with an alarm clock and some dynamite! I've spent around 20 odd hours with it so far and intend to try a perma-death run next, which I think would improve the gameplay experience and ramp up the threat level. On a side note, those self standing walls can be found all over Britain and Ireland.
whoa...that was absolutely scathing and really in depth. I feel like if you mailed the dev a hangman's noose in a box that read "Constructive Criticism" it would be more kind.
I just died at my perma-death walkthrough in "Sir, Your Being Hunted". And I just wanted to point out some things I've noticed during my play session. Perma-death changes everything: The stealth in this game is just composed of distractions and visibility. Since there are very few actions to perform by the player (actions required to progress in the game) the need for perfection in those tasks becomes mandatory in order to provide an enjoyable experience. This "need for perfection" that helps so much to counteract the inherent boredom of the game's main concept, its completely lost when you have the ability to just respawn. Not to mention the absolute loss of any frightening traits the enemies could have. To put it simple: respawning breaks the game; mechanics's balance and immersion. This game its not about stealth: at least its not about the stealth we are used to. This game handles stealth in a most peculiar way, to master it, you don't need to understand enemy patterns, you don't need to observe too much, neither solve puzzles concerning cones of vision. You need an alarm clock. It's all about the resources, it handles stealth like Warcraft 3 or AoE handles strategy: resource management. In "Sir You're Being Hunted" you have to plan ahead, take risks based on a probability; "Do I have enough distraction items to go ahead with the objective? or should I look for more in some nearby village? but how many bottles would suffice? because I also need space for food and a big 4x4 space in my inventory in case I find a big fragment..." or "should I go for the fragment now or scavenge a little first? since every time I get a fragment the difficulty ramps a bit" Its all about management; resource management, Inventory space management, Damage control, etc... It is a survival game more than a stealth game, is a resistance course against a funny and terrifying enemy, in a hostile and unwelcoming environment (depressing in some ways). (Of course, every single though I expressed here comes out of a perma-death play through) And it has its touches, I can't really agree with the flaws you found in the game George, because I'm not approaching the game with the same perspective, since for me it isn't really a stealth game (although stealth is required). Its not a game I'll play too often, but I can definitely see myself playing a whole afternoon just to see how far I can go before dying. I dare you people! try to finish the game without dying a single time! and you will understand the true greatness of this title, which isn't that much but its fun...sometimes really fun. A final note: this game isn't worth 16€, I mean, what the fuck is going on these days? where an unpolished game like this comes out in the market without punishing feedback from the players? Being fucking indie its not an excuse neither being procedural generated or v 1.0. we're being asked for 16€ to play this beta people!
Sounds to me like the random generation is this games biggest downfall. I don't really see why you'd want to play this more than once, so why not take the time to hand craft the world and actually make it fun to explore and nice to look at?
There are five different biomes, all with completely different art styles and environments, something George didn't mention at all. My favourite is the Industrial biome - very reminiscent of S.T.A.L.K.E.R and very beautiful and immersive.
Martin Down That doesn't say anything about why they _had_ to be procedurally generated though. Five different areas which are brilliantly designed in one rendition will always look better than five different areas with objects randomly thrown together.
Martin Down The industrial biome is good as such. The problem is that the terrain generation just isn't too good. I wonder why it was done. For replayability? To cut the need for level design? Imagine Sir, you are being hunted. Imagine it with five islands. All hand-crafted. Suddenly, the author could have made actually interesting, detailed locations. Suddenly, loot is not an issue anymore, because it can be spread properly. These locations could have been designed to incorporate the flaws of the AI, and highlighted its strengths. Suddenly, the empty areas in between are no issue anymore, either. I feel this game would have been ten times as good if two islands had been cut, as had the procedural generation, and instead we'd have gotten three well-designed islands. I dare say it could have been absolutely great.
Having followed the Kickstarter closely, the problem is, the first premodifier of this game is "procedurally-generated". The concept of the game was procedural generation. I don't believe the point was to add replayability, it was to make it so your experience was unique.
I have a story when i played this game. I fired apon a single enemy and killed him. Then an entire army chased me. I hid in a field and a robot came right next to me. Scariest gaming moment of all time
willi2wallace I googled Gisborough Priory, went to 6:57, saw Gisborough Priory, and am still confused as to why that means anything in relation to the criticisms of the game. Am I missing something?
I've really enjoyed this game, I find it to be a thrilling, and rather haunting experience. It's purely experiential, with you fully immersed in the role, weak, in a desperate situation, and being actively hunted. It's good with a podcast, and while it has a "humourous" air about it, it's honestly rather terrifying more often than not. I'd compare the stealth to Thief, it's frighteningly similar. It's a great game!
I feel like the ending point made was brilliant. Its not like the entire thing is awful or anything, its just that it was a great idea and a vision that didn't get the right translation into a game. I think everyone that heard of this concept loved it, whether it was being hunted by robots or loving the steampunk asthetics. Yet it sounds like the way a goal was made, and the intrusion of RPG or possibly even rouge-lite/like influence resulted in a missed opportunity.
Some of the problems you had, like the low quality textures, can be explained by a small budget. Getting the AI to work really well is expensive. But that just kinda suggests to me that the devs bit off a little more than they could chew. I think if there was less ambition, a shorter, more random permadeath experience with smaller levels and less collectables but better balancing, crafting and more ways of dealing with the enemies, it would have been a lot more fun.
Getting AI to work well doesn't necessarily have to be expensive at all. It just takes someone who knows how to program (which someone on this game's development team obviously already knows how to do) to think critically instead of regurgitating what they learned from programming books and tutorials. And even the low quality textures could have easily been replaced with better pics for those textures. I've seen way better textures in things made with Blender and that software is completely free. It seems more so to me like they really just didn't give much of a care for making a good game and placed style over substance.
7:37 It seems what they were trying to go for is something like Siberia, with automatons and industrial cyberpunk or steampunk. They did not seem to do it as well, but then again, I'm not a gaming critic.
I found this video because I randomly remembered this game, I looked it up thinking I was going to watch the Jacksepticeye video but I found yours. I am subscribed to you because of your reviews of the Metal Gear Solid games and felt I needed to watch this, Even in 2014 you had great criteria and great points in your reviews.
Lord Zephyros This game is very like stalker in game play mechanics i didn´t say it IS Stalker. Also i don´t deny that i think that Stalker was a fantastic game but this is game is good when you give it a chance.
The game seems like it has no confidence. It looks as though it was trying to craft a tense, tough-as-nails manhunt survival sim, but it underminds that with a health regen system and a really dumb game objective. It seems like the creator couldn't find a way to make the game interesting without having some sort of objective for the player in mind. Instead of tasking players with surviving on the island for as long as they can while evading the robot hunters, using nothing but their wits and resources around the island, it tasks players with running around collecting arbitrary items for a non-existent plot. It's a shame, because I had a lot of hope for this one.
I put this game on my GOG wishlist, good to see a review here. After watching, I am still interested in the game, so perhaps I may have to find out myself.
Its a good game, and technically impressive (the lead coder, Tom Betts, clearly knows his stuff). Both Minecraft and Terraria use "blocks" (giant voxels) to generate terrain. Its obviously much more difficult to do with high poly meshes instead. Its easy to criticize, especially being blind to all the complexity at work behind the scenes, but to pull off something like this game with a small team its quite impressive (from the programming side, in particular). I get the feeling you didnt like the game for what it is and hoped it would be something else (a stealth based game, a first person shooter, etc).
I would really really be into this game. If the version playable right now was a late alpha or early beta, because that's honestly what it feels like right now.
BunnyHop did you even play the game after the full release? I really don't think you did because you claim that you start with no weapon... this is no longer the case. When you begin a new game now you choose a class each with a unique loadout.
I did not like this game. I felt like I was playing some kind of extended joke steeped in gloomy, stoic, British humor that would have been hilarious to someone else. But I don't think the game's problem is its quality or its setting or its mechanics. I actually got the feeling I was playing something very special. I just don't think I was the target audience.
I remember being really excited about this game, but when i actually played it i enjoyed it for a bit but never felt the need to go back to it after a couple of hours. The feeling that you've seen everything the game has to offer in very little time is strong here, and although adding online multiplayer was nice of the devs i felt like that didn't fix the core problem of the game.
I think this game would have been vastly improved if it was treated more like a roguelike. Make each biome completable in 40-60mins, make it so you can choose to just play one biome at a time. Make each biome dramatically different from one another in landscape terrain and features as well as enemy-types and gameplay. Make a leaderboard. Make a modding kit. Balance. Or, you know, go back in time and remake this game because those dramatic changes aren't going to happen.
I agree completely. I liked the description of the game, but once I played it, I got bored very fast after I killed a few robots with a hatchet. The idea of searching for a billion shards in this world felt depressing, so I stopped playing. Btw. the art style is sorta there. But they cannot even start saying that it can somehow justify the lack of gameplay. Your Bastion reference was spot on here.
i think a Sir You are Being Hunted could be recreated and made much better, i love the concept but it could have been executed so much. The multiplayer can be fun but can be made so much better.
also, there are plenty of cases where a village house in Minecraft will get completely buried in a hill side, but I guess that doesn't count because you can't mine in sir
It same problem with many other kickstarter games, devs get lazy and cannot bother to finish and polish game properly because they already got enough money, that is why work first, money later in rest of the world.
Thank you for the honest review. I bought this game way too early and hoped too hard that it would get good but I have completely lost interest in it at this point. I can't believe they slapped a 1.0 on it and let it out. This game has a lot of bundle deals in it's future.
Why this game would be randomly generated?, for a world that desperately needs hand crafting, personality and variety, the creator chose to go the easy way and let AI do the hard work of building a world. The game could have been so much better if it was like that, the art direction could have even undermined the other gameplay related problems.
Martin Down is the minority only here, in SBH channel. The outside is populated by Martin Downs, the hyped fans who already invested too much and now protect their beloved early access games from naysayers. They stand ready to downvote comments on reddit and negative reviews on steam, so the positive ones are artificially pushed to view. They act in mobs chanting "It's not ready yet! it's not ready yet!".
I have this game for 5 years now and I played it once. And I will never play it again. I think I even removed it from library xD. I played it for 13 minutes the first and the last time!:.
I can agree with some of the criticisms against the game and having gone through it I think there is probably not a lot of replayability though personally I am on my second playthrough and still getting a fair amount of enjoyment out of it. I think the eventual multiplayer may add a bit of fun to the game, but I would not judge Sir... as a game with massive longevity. I've had some fun moments, I've had some tense moments and I quite like it as a stealth game. The lack of ammo, and often the lack of access to weapons at all, may put people off it and I wouldn't blame them. I do personally find it slightly refreshing that combat is not the first and foremost option and how that also makes you pick your shots when you do have ammo and, while killing robots by the bushrel might be fun, I also like having to use my brain to figure out ways to trick the robots in various ways and achieve my goal any way I can.
Then you might be better off playing Frictional Games such as Penumbra trilogy, Amnesia: The Dark Descent and Soma than this lazily made "stealth survival game" if you are into being defenseless against deadly enemies and have to hide and run instead of fighting. 😉
If it's this easy to dupe people into funding your game, even if it is a P.O.S., I need to start a kickstarter for one of my game ideas. The only difference is that my game will actually be a good one. "Believe It!!"
I feel like this game still has a long way to go though and I agree it should maybe have sat on the back burner a little longer until its official release but this review was absolutely scathing and offered no constructive criticism. I like your videos but I feel the only message I got out of this video was "This game sucks don't buy it." Would have liked to have seen some suggestions on what could have enhanced the game or features that should come later on in future updates. EDIT: Had to come back and mention that I have not played this game yet and have only seen a few short videos about it but was watching this to see if it would be worth my time to buy it. This video... didn't really weigh my decision one way or the other.
If the game is being released as a finished product but the product is clearly unfinished, then someone should absolutely tell you ''This game sucks don't buy it.'' Would you buy a new car from a dealership with half of its engine unfinished?? There's no need for ''constructive criticism'' at this point because *the game is already constructed.*
@@archentity It always still can be updated though therefore constructive criticism could actually be useful if developers care about improving their works. 😉
@@archentity Is that it or is it that you grew up before Internet was omnipresent and updates became much more easy and convenient to make? 😉 Because I don't remember any time when shareholders didn't waste potential out of greed of pressuring creators to produce something, anything, at the lowest cost and within the shortest deadlines to sell a product as soon as possible and with the highest possible margin which is the very reason why video-games have been released more and more unfinished as arts have been turning more and more into "industry", do you? 😏 Also, did I claim that "games need updates to be complete"? I don't think so because I did specifically mention "improving works" and not "completing works", were you not the one who lashed out a decade ago at people who put words into your mouth that you did not actually say? Beware becoming what you fight against. 😼
@@Maxime_Martyr I never accused you of anything with my above statement. I was merely stating my background to only give you an idea of why I'm against games being released incomplete simply because they can be updated later. I actually agree with nearly all of the things you just said and wish that we could go back to a time when game companies were more focused on the art instead of the money. The only thing I don't agree with is "improving works" because once a game is sold, it shouldn't need any improvements if it was made properly to begin with. And I think that because I grew up during a time where this wasn't a thing and remember how much better the gaming industry was for it.
Have you had chance to play "Stick it to the man"? Playstation 4 had it as free game this month for PS+. It's like.. platformer adventure game, spiced up with some pretty alright humor. Oh yeah, it also has alien spagethi arm used for some platforming and mind-reading. :p I was surprised how I enjoyed the humor of that game. Reminds me of Monkey Island in some aspects. Like having a 3 headed Luchidore wrestler.
I noticed that what you call a review is not really a review it's more like a discussion after all a review mentions controls how they feel and are they good, bug issues, how the game runs overall, and the frame rate issues if any.
On the one hand it seems liike a good amount of the problems CAN be fixed in time. It is a shame it still aint right though. Anyways. STALKER LOST ALPHA is out in Early Access. DO a review of a STALKER game. Any one of them. Now :D !
I'm not a fan of stealth games but it sounds like the game mostly accomplished its goals. You didn't enjoy it, that's fine, I wouldn't either probably. But they don't sound like bad design decisions so much as decisions you didn't enjoy. Or that's what it seems like, from watching the review.
Listen to the tamagotchi player:)))...If you try to play the game at its level,you will find a deeply satisfying game!...It sounds like a compromise,but there is more then one way to play a game,just use imagination!
You make some really good points, but the review feels a bit unbalanced in my opinion. Every aspect of the game you describe is put in a negative light, it has some big issues but it's much better game than that I think.
And what parts were so good about it?? I keep seeing people say, ''but it's still a good game though!..'', and every last one of you people *don't ever give a single reason* as to why it is good even though George just rattled off a slew of reasons why its a bad game.
***** I didn't give any good reasons myself because I'm the not the one reviewing the game, but I'll give some of my thoughts if you want. The overall theme and setting of the game is really unique, everything is dreary and bleak just like England in winter. The industrial biome is definitely the standout one here. I see how this isn't to everyone's taste but as someone who comes from England it's refreshing to see a different setting to videogame norm. The design of the robots are also familiar (with top hats and pipes) but strangely disturbing as they speak stereotypical English phrases. What the hell happened to the population of people on these islands? Other robot designs are also rather creative and very memorable. It gave me a good feeling of being hunted, the robots are sprawling everywhere so you always have to be on the alert. Triggering one robot can lead to a really bad situation as you try to escape. This can lead to some panic ridden situations as you run over a hill to find out you're surrounded. George had some issues with the game with having too much food, which is one of the problems of random loot as it's not always consistent for everyone playing. However I haven't had problems with too much food, often finding myself at 20 vitality with no food left over. I do agree that fires are largely pointless though when they attract so many robots, and you can normally get by on food which you can't cook. It might not be suited to some die-hard stealth fans since it's near impossible to complete the game without being spotted. There are times where you will be undoubtedly seen, that can be frustrating but the fun is dealing with the situation. I think it would do nicely with a different save system too, it can be quite easy to get in a vicious cycle of dying feeling like you've achieved nothing. The terrain generation can be weird at times too, I came across a few stupidly long piers and strangely placed walls. The game is far from perfect but a number of thrilling experiences similar to which I've never had before have lead to me really enjoy this game. Not to mention the ambient music is fantastic.
NylePudding So basically the theme of the game and the ambient music was really the only good things about the game you could come up with? I would include your part about the robots, but as George pointed out, the robots' AI was so poorly implemented that most people won't even be able to properly enjoy those. This thing just isn't worth the money that so many people put into it nor the money that they are still asking people to pay for it.
***** At the end of the day people play video games for different reasons, people also like different things. A unique setting in one game might be worth more or less to the other person. I felt like it was worth the money to me personally, others have felt the same. At the same time it isn't worth the money to other people because they like different things, there is nothing wrong with either. You can't say if it's worth the money or not as a generalization, it just isn't worth the money to you. George doesn't even make a statement like that despite his criticism.
NylePudding Actually it's so not that simple. Different people do like and dislike different things. But there are many cases where the *majority* of the people will *dislike* a certain thing, and this happens to be one of those cases. That is the essential purpose of reviews and critiques. That's why there are ''bad'' games and ''good'' games. A bad game is one that most people who are into that genre will dislike and a good game is one that most people who are into that genre will like. So you *can* say that it isn't worth the money as a generalization when most people who would be into this type of game would hate it due to its many inherent flaws that ruin what it originally set out to do. Basically your argument was, ''Well someone pointed out many good reasons why the game is bad, but people should still be told to spend their money on it because some people will still like it and some won't.'' So why did you watch the review in the first place? Just to validate your feelings about the game by seeing if at least one other person out there feels the same way you do and if they don't then you simply outright discount everything that they say? That's a very ignorant approach to not just video games but life in general. Would you think this way with other things?? So if someone tells you that a car is a lemon because most of it is broken down even though *some people* won't mind and still like the car, that person is supposed to say that it's still ''worth the money'' even though its full of flaws that it shouldn't have in the first place??
I completely disagree with pretty much everything said in this review. I found this game amazing, fun and addictive. I fail to see the negatives that you have pointed out and I'm kinda saddened by such a negative review of such a good game. But of course this opinion is just one persons opinion and we all have our own. So before anyone decide confidently not to get this game I would recommend you try it for yourself and forge your OWN opinion.
The levels are randomly generated and there are five completely different biomes, so I don't really see how the environment is lackluster. Also considering the still early state of the game, it's obvious there is still work to be done on it's environment, as beautiful as I personally find it already. The story, like Half-Life is more down to the player making their own 'story' based around the intro and outro videos that you get. The AI is NOT predictable.. it changes every shard you collect and intensifies constantly.. The robots are always readily hunting you, and you never feel like you can stand in one place for long... Honestly it's a great game and George is foolish to slam it so hard and dismay people away from it.
Oh and there are many stealth tools, glass bottles, rocks, train sets, clocks, trombones, bear traps.. could even use a torch to get the robots attention, turn it off, then run away and pick them off away from their group....
"The game eventually becomes less about stealth and more about guerrilla warfare"
that doesn't necessarily sound like a bad thing.
It does if you bought it expecting "a stealth survival game" as it was advertised because if you did want to play a guerilla warfare then you would have bought a game advertised as such instead of a "stealth survival game", you get it? 😉
That wall that isn't connected to anything at about 7 mins in is actually a thing you might see in the English countryside, remnants of old churches that have mostly fallen down and been reclaimed by nature. I get why it wouldn't make sense otherwise though, haha.
+DrTheKay calm down dude
Also folly castles
DrTheKay you must have a fun life.
DrTheKay Idiot, it clearly had damage, and yes walls like that exist in the UK. Maybe if you stopped getting angry like a baby and read a book or went to school you'd actually know these things.
Procedural generation has so much potential.
I cry every time I see it poorly implemented.
I've honestly never seen a review that was simultaneously so informative and meaty and so brutal at the same time. It's honestly really impressive to see someone able to put together a review like this without letting their distaste boil over into vitriol.
The bunny hop crew are damn good at this stuff.
Although I can't disagree with any of the reviewer's main points, none of these got in the way of my own personal enjoyment of playing through the game.
I actually found the experience really atmospheric, a lot of fun, and quite rewarding - especially when you can outsmart a large mob of robots robots with an alarm clock and some dynamite!
I've spent around 20 odd hours with it so far and intend to try a perma-death run next, which I think would improve the gameplay experience and ramp up the threat level.
On a side note, those self standing walls can be found all over Britain and Ireland.
whoa...that was absolutely scathing and really in depth. I feel like if you mailed the dev a hangman's noose in a box that read "Constructive Criticism" it would be more kind.
Well at least the developer would post a "Wot I Think" about that.
huh?
***** The dev is a reviewer... just google it...
Part of the evidence that proves google is evil...just google it. The most dismissive comment in the history of ever, lol.
Pretty much.
I just died at my perma-death walkthrough in "Sir, Your Being Hunted". And I just wanted to point out some things I've noticed during my play session.
Perma-death changes everything: The stealth in this game is just composed of distractions and visibility. Since there are very few actions to perform by the player (actions required to progress in the game) the need for perfection in those tasks becomes mandatory in order to provide an enjoyable experience. This "need for perfection" that helps so much to counteract the inherent boredom of the game's main concept, its completely lost when you have the ability to just respawn. Not to mention the absolute loss of any frightening traits the enemies could have. To put it simple: respawning breaks the game; mechanics's balance and immersion.
This game its not about stealth: at least its not about the stealth we are used to. This game handles stealth in a most peculiar way, to master it, you don't need to understand enemy patterns, you don't need to observe too much, neither solve puzzles concerning cones of vision. You need an alarm clock.
It's all about the resources, it handles stealth like Warcraft 3 or AoE handles strategy: resource management. In "Sir You're Being Hunted" you have to plan ahead, take risks based on a probability;
"Do I have enough distraction items to go ahead with the objective? or should I look for more in some nearby village? but how many bottles would suffice? because I also need space for food and a big 4x4 space in my inventory in case I find a big fragment..." or "should I go for the fragment now or scavenge a little first? since every time I get a fragment the difficulty ramps a bit"
Its all about management; resource management, Inventory space management, Damage control, etc...
It is a survival game more than a stealth game, is a resistance course against a funny and terrifying enemy, in a hostile and unwelcoming environment (depressing in some ways). (Of course, every single though I expressed here comes out of a perma-death play through)
And it has its touches, I can't really agree with the flaws you found in the game George, because I'm not approaching the game with the same perspective, since for me it isn't really a stealth game (although stealth is required). Its not a game I'll play too often, but I can definitely see myself playing a whole afternoon just to see how far I can go before dying. I dare you people! try to finish the game without dying a single time! and you will understand the true greatness of this title, which isn't that much but its fun...sometimes really fun.
A final note: this game isn't worth 16€, I mean, what the fuck is going on these days? where an unpolished game like this comes out in the market without punishing feedback from the players? Being fucking indie its not an excuse neither being procedural generated or v 1.0. we're being asked for 16€ to play this beta people!
Honestly... everything you described about the game here, combined with the footage I saw, really makes me wanna play this thing... :-D
Why? Are you attracted to boredom? 😏
So it's a high-budget FPS version of Slender: The Eight Pages.
Instig8iveJournalism You live!.. 3 years ago anyway :(
My thought exactly. 😏
Sounds to me like the random generation is this games biggest downfall. I don't really see why you'd want to play this more than once, so why not take the time to hand craft the world and actually make it fun to explore and nice to look at?
There are five different biomes, all with completely different art styles and environments, something George didn't mention at all. My favourite is the Industrial biome - very reminiscent of S.T.A.L.K.E.R and very beautiful and immersive.
Martin Down That doesn't say anything about why they _had_ to be procedurally generated though. Five different areas which are brilliantly designed in one rendition will always look better than five different areas with objects randomly thrown together.
Martin Down
The industrial biome is good as such.
The problem is that the terrain generation just isn't too good. I wonder why it was done. For replayability? To cut the need for level design?
Imagine Sir, you are being hunted. Imagine it with five islands. All hand-crafted. Suddenly, the author could have made actually interesting, detailed locations. Suddenly, loot is not an issue anymore, because it can be spread properly. These locations could have been designed to incorporate the flaws of the AI, and highlighted its strengths.
Suddenly, the empty areas in between are no issue anymore, either.
I feel this game would have been ten times as good if two islands had been cut, as had the procedural generation, and instead we'd have gotten three well-designed islands. I dare say it could have been absolutely great.
Fen Y Hell, let's be crazy and just have one island, make it the best island imaginable.
Having followed the Kickstarter closely, the problem is, the first premodifier of this game is "procedurally-generated". The concept of the game was procedural generation. I don't believe the point was to add replayability, it was to make it so your experience was unique.
So if I understand it's sorta if you tried to stretch the hell of a fetch quest?
That's it, you got it right. 😉
I have a story when i played this game. I fired apon a single enemy and killed him. Then an entire army chased me. I hid in a field and a robot came right next to me. Scariest gaming moment of all time
Great review. But I do I think you should Google Guisborough Priory.
Wow, Guisborough Priory is a really cool thing.
You are too humble for your own good Jim. If I could fund you a thousand times over, I would.
In case you're all wondering what this comment is about, go to ~6:57.
willi2wallace
I googled Gisborough Priory, went to 6:57, saw Gisborough Priory, and am still confused as to why that means anything in relation to the criticisms of the game. Am I missing something?
martin mcgorty He referred to it as a wall not connected to anything because he wasn't aware of its significance.
I can't help but think this game inspired Generation Zero in a few ways...
If not, the two games certainly share a lot of similarities.
I've really enjoyed this game, I find it to be a thrilling, and rather haunting experience. It's purely experiential, with you fully immersed in the role, weak, in a desperate situation, and being actively hunted. It's good with a podcast, and while it has a "humourous" air about it, it's honestly rather terrifying more often than not. I'd compare the stealth to Thief, it's frighteningly similar. It's a great game!
I feel like the ending point made was brilliant. Its not like the entire thing is awful or anything, its just that it was a great idea and a vision that didn't get the right translation into a game. I think everyone that heard of this concept loved it, whether it was being hunted by robots or loving the steampunk asthetics. Yet it sounds like the way a goal was made, and the intrusion of RPG or possibly even rouge-lite/like influence resulted in a missed opportunity.
Some of the problems you had, like the low quality textures, can be explained by a small budget. Getting the AI to work really well is expensive. But that just kinda suggests to me that the devs bit off a little more than they could chew.
I think if there was less ambition, a shorter, more random permadeath experience with smaller levels and less collectables but better balancing, crafting and more ways of dealing with the enemies, it would have been a lot more fun.
Getting AI to work well doesn't necessarily have to be expensive at all. It just takes someone who knows how to program (which someone on this game's development team obviously already knows how to do) to think critically instead of regurgitating what they learned from programming books and tutorials. And even the low quality textures could have easily been replaced with better pics for those textures. I've seen way better textures in things made with Blender and that software is completely free. It seems more so to me like they really just didn't give much of a care for making a good game and placed style over substance.
7:37 It seems what they were trying to go for is something like Siberia, with automatons and industrial cyberpunk or steampunk. They did not seem to do it as well, but then again, I'm not a gaming critic.
So what? You don't need to be a professional to have opinions as long as you are knowledgeable, you know? 😉
I found this video because I randomly remembered this game, I looked it up thinking I was going to watch the Jacksepticeye video but I found yours. I am subscribed to you because of your reviews of the Metal Gear Solid games and felt I needed to watch this, Even in 2014 you had great criteria and great points in your reviews.
So uh, in short: Neat premise, poor execution.
I just finished my first run in this (like literally 10 minuted ago) and i can recommend it to anyone that in particular liked the Stalker franchise.
Raster Punk Check out the industrial biome. It's a lot like it.
Lord Zephyros This game is very like stalker in game play mechanics i didn´t say it IS Stalker. Also i don´t deny that i think that Stalker was a fantastic game but this is game is good when you give it a chance.
Jacob Larsson *citations needed*
Is the game any better now? I mean, it's been updated since, right?
Yup, and the reviewer didnt cover many of the upsides.
@@shakinbacin4105 Which are?
@@Maxime_Martyr i dont fucking know bro that was 3 years ago
@@shakinbacin4105 Then they weren't that good to begin with if you already forgot them after 3 years. 😏
@@Maxime_Martyr game must have something good about it if you're still hating in the comments over a decade later 😏
Sounds like the Professor Elemental song about the game turned out better than the game itself.
That's about the only good thing about this game. 😏
The game seems like it has no confidence. It looks as though it was trying to craft a tense, tough-as-nails manhunt survival sim, but it underminds that with a health regen system and a really dumb game objective. It seems like the creator couldn't find a way to make the game interesting without having some sort of objective for the player in mind. Instead of tasking players with surviving on the island for as long as they can while evading the robot hunters, using nothing but their wits and resources around the island, it tasks players with running around collecting arbitrary items for a non-existent plot.
It's a shame, because I had a lot of hope for this one.
this game was almost as boring as slender was. Wandering around a island and collecting rocks is so boring.
I put this game on my GOG wishlist, good to see a review here.
After watching, I am still interested in the game, so perhaps I may have to find out myself.
Now, either there's something very wrong with my TH-cam, or this game is eye-strainingly dark.
Its a good game, and technically impressive (the lead coder, Tom Betts, clearly knows his stuff). Both Minecraft and Terraria use "blocks" (giant voxels) to generate terrain. Its obviously much more difficult to do with high poly meshes instead. Its easy to criticize, especially being blind to all the complexity at work behind the scenes, but to pull off something like this game with a small team its quite impressive (from the programming side, in particular). I get the feeling you didnt like the game for what it is and hoped it would be something else (a stealth based game, a first person shooter, etc).
It WAS advertised as a "stealth survival first person game" therefore that IS what anyone who bought it expected it to be. 🤨
I would really really be into this game.
If the version playable right now was a late alpha or early beta, because that's honestly what it feels like right now.
7:38 Basically it's talking about robots who want to commit murder in the first degree. Who is writing this note is pretty vague though.
A damning from George feels, well, certainly very damning. My curiosity in this game ends here.
"There's a lot of walking to do and there aren't many interesting things to see or do while you walk."
You've never been to England, have you?
BunnyHop did you even play the game after the full release? I really don't think you did because you claim that you start with no weapon... this is no longer the case. When you begin a new game now you choose a class each with a unique loadout.
I did not like this game. I felt like I was playing some kind of extended joke steeped in gloomy, stoic, British humor that would have been hilarious to someone else. But I don't think the game's problem is its quality or its setting or its mechanics. I actually got the feeling I was playing something very special. I just don't think I was the target audience.
I liked the game, but not everyone enjoys everything. But god damn, this game at least actually works better than We Happy Few!
Wait, how so? 🤔
Would love to see your take on Miasmata.
Why is 80% of the screen always black
Because you can only ever release brown and ugly looking games for some reason.
It looked like a really fun idea, but yeah this is what I kind of expected of it.
I remember being really excited about this game, but when i actually played it i enjoyed it for a bit but never felt the need to go back to it after a couple of hours.
The feeling that you've seen everything the game has to offer in very little time is strong here, and although adding online multiplayer was nice of the devs i felt like that didn't fix the core problem of the game.
1:39 Did he just really make a Slender Clone with more slendermen?
My thought exactly. 😏
I remember playing a build of this game quite a few months ago, the sad thing is that this version doesn't look that different.
I think this game would have been vastly improved if it was treated more like a roguelike. Make each biome completable in 40-60mins, make it so you can choose to just play one biome at a time. Make each biome dramatically different from one another in landscape terrain and features as well as enemy-types and gameplay. Make a leaderboard. Make a modding kit. Balance. Or, you know, go back in time and remake this game because those dramatic changes aren't going to happen.
Why were you not its game-designer? 😢
Supported them on Kickstarted. Was very disappointed with the game.
Did you demand a refund? 😏
I agree completely. I liked the description of the game, but once I played it, I got bored very fast after I killed a few robots with a hatchet. The idea of searching for a billion shards in this world felt depressing, so I stopped playing. Btw. the art style is sorta there. But they cannot even start saying that it can somehow justify the lack of gameplay. Your Bastion reference was spot on here.
It's like they didn't even play it before they tried to sell it. They couldn't have thought that this was a fun game.
i think a Sir You are Being Hunted could be recreated and made much better, i love the concept but it could have been executed so much. The multiplayer can be fun but can be made so much better.
It is far to be worth the 92 000 € from its Kickstarter's patrons anyway. 🤨
also, there are plenty of cases where a village house in Minecraft will get completely buried in a hill side, but I guess that doesn't count because you can't mine in sir
It same problem with many other kickstarter games, devs get lazy and cannot bother to finish and polish game properly because they already got enough money, that is why work first, money later in rest of the world.
i love these reviews, because they explain why the game plays bad, and explains the exact problems that make the mechanics not work
Seems like Jim has more work to do. I'll wait until 2.0 release. And I was eager to grab this game.
Which will absolve this game of all it's flaws in the GOTY patch.
PC Gamer UK always employed some interesting and amusing people imo
Thank you for the honest review. I bought this game way too early and hoped too hard that it would get good but I have completely lost interest in it at this point. I can't believe they slapped a 1.0 on it and let it out. This game has a lot of bundle deals in it's future.
Why this game would be randomly generated?, for a world that desperately needs hand crafting, personality and variety, the creator chose to go the easy way and let AI do the hard work of building a world. The game could have been so much better if it was like that, the art direction could have even undermined the other gameplay related problems.
Bunnyhop for president \/
Aw I was looking forward to this being good
Is this a Morrowind Mod? Someone actually received money to make this?
KackBratz they had a very successful KS campaign too :P
This was made with Unity and 92 000 € from Kickstarter. 😏
Very nice review, i have no interest in this game, but you have a way with words that makes watching your reviews interesting.
Martin Down is the minority only here, in SBH channel. The outside is populated by Martin Downs, the hyped fans who already invested too much and now protect their beloved early access games from naysayers. They stand ready to downvote comments on reddit and negative reviews on steam, so the positive ones are artificially pushed to view. They act in mobs chanting "It's not ready yet! it's not ready yet!".
diegofloor Beware the beast! He lurks out there in the -unknown- internet, seeking those who -are far from home- bash a bad game because it sucks.
Sir, you did a very good review. I won't buy
I liked the concept and wanted to like the game but ultimately I agree with you.
Agree, getting a refund. Gonna check back up on your videos before any other sale purchases.
What is that game at 0:55? :o
Bastion
MovingForwardify thanks mate! :D
A Guerrilla warfare game sounds like an awesome idea
FarCry 1 has been around since 2004 already. 😉
You should totally do a video on the appeal of games like Minecraft and Terraria next
I have this game for 5 years now and I played it once. And I will never play it again. I think I even removed it from library xD. I played it for 13 minutes the first and the last time!:.
I can agree with some of the criticisms against the game and having gone through it I think there is probably not a lot of replayability though personally I am on my second playthrough and still getting a fair amount of enjoyment out of it. I think the eventual multiplayer may add a bit of fun to the game, but I would not judge Sir... as a game with massive longevity.
I've had some fun moments, I've had some tense moments and I quite like it as a stealth game. The lack of ammo, and often the lack of access to weapons at all, may put people off it and I wouldn't blame them. I do personally find it slightly refreshing that combat is not the first and foremost option and how that also makes you pick your shots when you do have ammo and, while killing robots by the bushrel might be fun, I also like having to use my brain to figure out ways to trick the robots in various ways and achieve my goal any way I can.
Then you might be better off playing Frictional Games such as Penumbra trilogy, Amnesia: The Dark Descent and Soma than this lazily made "stealth survival game" if you are into being defenseless against deadly enemies and have to hide and run instead of fighting. 😉
I think this video was well done, because I feel just feel as depressed and sad as the reviewer about how this game turned out. :/
calling robots-guards is painful
I enjoyed the game but your review was spot on.
Thanks George. You just saved me some scratch. I really wanted this game to be good :(
couldve been a sorta point lookout riff if it wasnt generated but instead actually designed. shame
If it's this easy to dupe people into funding your game, even if it is a P.O.S., I need to start a kickstarter for one of my game ideas. The only difference is that my game will actually be a good one. "Believe It!!"
Man are people just dumbfounded that Bunnyhop did a negative review on an indie game? The fuck
I feel like this game still has a long way to go though and I agree it should maybe have sat on the back burner a little longer until its official release but this review was absolutely scathing and offered no constructive criticism. I like your videos but I feel the only message I got out of this video was "This game sucks don't buy it." Would have liked to have seen some suggestions on what could have enhanced the game or features that should come later on in future updates.
EDIT: Had to come back and mention that I have not played this game yet and have only seen a few short videos about it but was watching this to see if it would be worth my time to buy it. This video... didn't really weigh my decision one way or the other.
If the game is being released as a finished product but the product is clearly unfinished, then someone should absolutely tell you ''This game sucks don't buy it.'' Would you buy a new car from a dealership with half of its engine unfinished?? There's no need for ''constructive criticism'' at this point because *the game is already constructed.*
@@archentity It always still can be updated though therefore constructive criticism could actually be useful if developers care about improving their works. 😉
@@Maxime_Martyr I grew up in a time where no game needed updates post purchase to become complete.
@@archentity Is that it or is it that you grew up before Internet was omnipresent and updates became much more easy and convenient to make? 😉
Because I don't remember any time when shareholders didn't waste potential out of greed of pressuring creators to produce something, anything, at the lowest cost and within the shortest deadlines to sell a product as soon as possible and with the highest possible margin which is the very reason why video-games have been released more and more unfinished as arts have been turning more and more into "industry", do you? 😏
Also, did I claim that "games need updates to be complete"? I don't think so because I did specifically mention "improving works" and not "completing works", were you not the one who lashed out a decade ago at people who put words into your mouth that you did not actually say? Beware becoming what you fight against. 😼
@@Maxime_Martyr I never accused you of anything with my above statement. I was merely stating my background to only give you an idea of why I'm against games being released incomplete simply because they can be updated later.
I actually agree with nearly all of the things you just said and wish that we could go back to a time when game companies were more focused on the art instead of the money.
The only thing I don't agree with is "improving works" because once a game is sold, it shouldn't need any improvements if it was made properly to begin with. And I think that because I grew up during a time where this wasn't a thing and remember how much better the gaming industry was for it.
Have you had chance to play "Stick it to the man"? Playstation 4 had it as free game this month for PS+. It's like.. platformer adventure game, spiced up with some pretty alright humor. Oh yeah, it also has alien spagethi arm used for some platforming and mind-reading. :p
I was surprised how I enjoyed the humor of that game. Reminds me of Monkey Island in some aspects. Like having a 3 headed Luchidore wrestler.
I got this game while in early access hoping something like "The Most Dangerous Game", but was sorely disappointed for many of the same reasons.
You make a game, it's worthy of review. Simple as that.
Sir,that was an excellent review.
Liked and subbed.
I was hoping this would be Thief with the skin of Voodoo Vince with the soul of DayZ. Sad.
nothing worse then having high expectations and then being let down. Shame, I wanted to like this game.
Pathologic English Steampunk countryside?
I don't like you because you didn't do a positive review of a game I backed on kickstarter.
Sarcasm or not, this is basically the last 3 years of posts on my channel :P
It's sad that these days, many people don't watch reviews for information, but to get validation of their earlier choices.
It's backwards.
Fen Y
*TRUTH.*
This review would've killed my love for sir I watched this before I bought sir
4:10 - 4:17
- What happened here?
Looks like a large aoe attack just leveled him instantly, though I think that's just because he wasn't being careful enough.
I noticed that what you call a review is not really a review it's more like a discussion after all a review mentions controls how they feel and are they good, bug issues, how the game runs overall, and the frame rate issues if any.
umm, rewatch the video, he mentioned *alot* of those things...
On the one hand it seems liike a good amount of the problems CAN be fixed in time. It is a shame it still aint right though.
Anyways. STALKER LOST ALPHA is out in Early Access. DO a review of a STALKER game. Any one of them. Now :D !
I tried to love this game but the exact things you mentioned put me down. I love the atmosphere and everything, it's just not enjoyable.
I'm not a fan of stealth games but it sounds like the game mostly accomplished its goals. You didn't enjoy it, that's fine, I wouldn't either probably. But they don't sound like bad design decisions so much as decisions you didn't enjoy.
Or that's what it seems like, from watching the review.
Is it me or is this game inspired by DayZ?
Listen to the tamagotchi player:)))...If you try to play the game at its level,you will find a deeply satisfying game!...It sounds like a compromise,but there is more then one way to play a game,just use imagination!
Hm. Maybe this is old review. HP doesnt regenerate quick enough to tanking damage. If you not hide you will be dead very soon in this game
Sir, you need more subscribers!
6:17 Not to mention WarFrame. :P
You make some really good points, but the review feels a bit unbalanced in my opinion. Every aspect of the game you describe is put in a negative light, it has some big issues but it's much better game than that I think.
And what parts were so good about it?? I keep seeing people say, ''but it's still a good game though!..'', and every last one of you people *don't ever give a single reason* as to why it is good even though George just rattled off a slew of reasons why its a bad game.
***** I didn't give any good reasons myself because I'm the not the one reviewing the game, but I'll give some of my thoughts if you want.
The overall theme and setting of the game is really unique, everything is dreary and bleak just like England in winter. The industrial biome is definitely the standout one here. I see how this isn't to everyone's taste but as someone who comes from England it's refreshing to see a different setting to videogame norm. The design of the robots are also familiar (with top hats and pipes) but strangely disturbing as they speak stereotypical English phrases. What the hell happened to the population of people on these islands? Other robot designs are also rather creative and very memorable.
It gave me a good feeling of being hunted, the robots are sprawling everywhere so you always have to be on the alert. Triggering one robot can lead to a really bad situation as you try to escape. This can lead to some panic ridden situations as you run over a hill to find out you're surrounded.
George had some issues with the game with having too much food, which is one of the problems of random loot as it's not always consistent for everyone playing. However I haven't had problems with too much food, often finding myself at 20 vitality with no food left over. I do agree that fires are largely pointless though when they attract so many robots, and you can normally get by on food which you can't cook.
It might not be suited to some die-hard stealth fans since it's near impossible to complete the game without being spotted. There are times where you will be undoubtedly seen, that can be frustrating but the fun is dealing with the situation.
I think it would do nicely with a different save system too, it can be quite easy to get in a vicious cycle of dying feeling like you've achieved nothing. The terrain generation can be weird at times too, I came across a few stupidly long piers and strangely placed walls.
The game is far from perfect but a number of thrilling experiences similar to which I've never had before have lead to me really enjoy this game. Not to mention the ambient music is fantastic.
NylePudding
So basically the theme of the game and the ambient music was really the only good things about the game you could come up with? I would include your part about the robots, but as George pointed out, the robots' AI was so poorly implemented that most people won't even be able to properly enjoy those. This thing just isn't worth the money that so many people put into it nor the money that they are still asking people to pay for it.
***** At the end of the day people play video games for different reasons, people also like different things. A unique setting in one game might be worth more or less to the other person.
I felt like it was worth the money to me personally, others have felt the same. At the same time it isn't worth the money to other people because they like different things, there is nothing wrong with either. You can't say if it's worth the money or not as a generalization, it just isn't worth the money to you. George doesn't even make a statement like that despite his criticism.
NylePudding
Actually it's so not that simple. Different people do like and dislike different things. But there are many cases where the *majority* of the people will *dislike* a certain thing, and this happens to be one of those cases. That is the essential purpose of reviews and critiques. That's why there are ''bad'' games and ''good'' games. A bad game is one that most people who are into that genre will dislike and a good game is one that most people who are into that genre will like.
So you *can* say that it isn't worth the money as a generalization when most people who would be into this type of game would hate it due to its many inherent flaws that ruin what it originally set out to do.
Basically your argument was, ''Well someone pointed out many good reasons why the game is bad, but people should still be told to spend their money on it because some people will still like it and some won't.'' So why did you watch the review in the first place? Just to validate your feelings about the game by seeing if at least one other person out there feels the same way you do and if they don't then you simply outright discount everything that they say? That's a very ignorant approach to not just video games but life in general. Would you think this way with other things?? So if someone tells you that a car is a lemon because most of it is broken down even though *some people* won't mind and still like the car, that person is supposed to say that it's still ''worth the money'' even though its full of flaws that it shouldn't have in the first place??
kickstarter is a place when you fund ideas...
aw man, i was kinda hyped for this...
sounds like a good concept but not executed well
Very disappointing I really enjoyed the premise of this game last year while watching some early-access previews of it.
I am personally getting sick of procedurally generated levels.
I completely disagree with pretty much everything said in this review. I found this game amazing, fun and addictive. I fail to see the negatives that you have pointed out and I'm kinda saddened by such a negative review of such a good game.
But of course this opinion is just one persons opinion and we all have our own. So before anyone decide confidently not to get this game I would recommend you try it for yourself and forge your OWN opinion.
Thank you for your worthless sentiment
Anyone In Cherno? There are actually a lot of stealth tools. George just doesn't know what he's talking about this time sadly..
The levels are randomly generated and there are five completely different biomes, so I don't really see how the environment is lackluster. Also considering the still early state of the game, it's obvious there is still work to be done on it's environment, as beautiful as I personally find it already. The story, like Half-Life is more down to the player making their own 'story' based around the intro and outro videos that you get. The AI is NOT predictable.. it changes every shard you collect and intensifies constantly.. The robots are always readily hunting you, and you never feel like you can stand in one place for long... Honestly it's a great game and George is foolish to slam it so hard and dismay people away from it.
Oh and there are many stealth tools, glass bottles, rocks, train sets, clocks, trombones, bear traps.. could even use a torch to get the robots attention, turn it off, then run away and pick them off away from their group....
AndyMG104
Thank you for reading my worthless sentiment. :)