Kickstarter - Consortium

Dhruin

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Consortium is a "narrative first person RPG set 45,000 feet in the air and 30 years in the future" from Interdimensional Games, who are seeking $200k over the next 25 days. Apparently the project has roots in a project from 1999 titled 'Amen' from Cavedog, though I can't say I recall that development.
JOIN US in bringing to life this bright vision of humanity’s future – a world that has overcome many of the gravest environmental and societal issues we face today. Step through the rift and join the CONSORTIUM; the most feared and revered paramilitary peacekeepers on the planet.
WHAT IF you could take complete control of another human being? And what if that human being was a man destined to decide the fate of an alternate dimension? Speak for him, move for him, and be known as merciful and/or a killer, hero, liar, wild card...or perhaps the strong/silent type?
CONSORTIUM gives you that chance...
The story of CONSORTIUM begins in our world - the “real world” - where we here at Interdimensional Games have developed a satellite (IDGI-1) capable of opening a digital rift through time and space. Anyone with an internet connection can travel through this rift and awaken within an alternate dimension from our own – the “game world" - in the year 2042.
Upon crossing the rift, you’ll find yourself aboard a Consortium command vessel, designated C-3800-D, “ZENLIL,” and in full control of a man codenamed Bishop Six. Zenlil is one of five such Consortium vessels, and is the ultimate in air superiority. A massive jumbo jet that’s powered by fusion batteries and capable of taking missions in orbit or even as far as the Artemis-1 Moon Colony.

  • PLAYER FREEDOM: Our game will never force you to stand in one place, staring at a character, while they ramble on. Walk away from people at any time, or talk to people while doing other things. Just remember that characters will respond accordingly to any strange or rude behaviour!

  • NPCs REMEMBER: Similar to the recently successful (and fantastic) "The Walking Dead" game series, everything you say is remembered by characters. Their opinion of you will change over time, and the course of the game narrative can be altered. Your decisions will cascade into future CONSORTIUM games as well, so choose wisely...

  • ENSEMBLE INTERACTIVE CONVERSATIONS: Our game allows you to carry on conversations with multiple NPCs simultaneously. Guide the ensemble and speak to who you want, agree/disagree with who/what you want, or say nothing and let things unfold without your input!
Watch as our extremely detailed story unfolds based on your responses and actions, or simply walk away from any conversation and/or choose to say or do nothing at all... The choice is always yours!
Jeremey Soule has already been announced as the composer, by the way.
More information.
 
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$10 is cheap for a game. Looks like an interesting concepts storywise. The pitch video make me think of System Shock too.

All this with great music!
 
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The video looks great. I was pretty worried when I saw the screenshots. They don't do the visuals justice.
 
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How is this more innovative than say Mass effect (which cost half the price of the minium contribution for the game)? I also might have misheard, but I think they said that this will be just the first episode of a longer series!
 
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I actually got to see a little bit of AMEN: THE AWAKENING way back in '99 or something, at a tech summit in Las Vegas where several companies that all belonged to GT Interactive (SingleTrac, Ron Gilbert's Humongous Entertainment, Cavedog - sort of a branch of Humongous, Legend Entertainment - run by Bob Bates, a newly purchased company called Bootprint Interactive that never got off the ground consisting of a bunch of Origin refugees, and some others) got together and were supposed to have some kind of expertise / technology share - sort of a chance for people to get an idea what each other was working on, and to hopefully get some ideas about how we might be able to swap information and help from each other. Who's solved what problems and how they did it, who's working on some cool client / server architecture, who is most familiar with working on which console, etc.

It was a good idea, but went by the wayside when we were then acquired by Atari.

Anyway, I got the chance to see their technology - which was cool for the time. Not quite to the point of blowing away Unreal or anything, but it seemed like it was on par with what Valve was doing with the Quake 2 engine on Half Life 1. (Again, this was over a decade ago, when that was the hot up-and-coming / recently released stuff).

But that's ancient tech. As far as the game itself - I saw it mainly as an FPS with heavy story (and some stealth?) Sort of a Half-Life wannabe. It seemed to be more Half-Life than Deus Ex.

Still, if I wasn't suffering from KS fatigue, I'd be putting some cash into this one. Might do it anyway. Just 'cuz I'm curious.
 
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System Shock I and II are a couple of my all-time favorites, and I agree the pitch video had that vibe... but I had a hard time discerning the actual FPS part of the gameplay. If it's all stuff in the TRON-like grid, I think that's not good enough for me. It seemed way too basic. I think I would back if they show more compelling combat.
 
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The jumbo-jet spaceship is kind of an odd choice.
 
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How is this more innovative than say Mass effect (which cost half the price of the minium contribution for the game)? I also might have misheard, but I think they said that this will be just the first episode of a longer series!

You're obviously confused. You can get a copy of the game for a $10 pledge. I don't think you could get a copy of Mass Effect for $5 upon release.
 
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The jumbo-jet spaceship is kind of an odd choice.

Yeah, in fact it's pretty bad. If I'm going to have some sort of futuristic airship, why not make it look cool, different, stylistic. Instead, I'm commanding a jumbo jet? Not very exciting visually if you ask me.
 
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Yeah, in fact it's pretty bad. If I'm going to have some sort of futuristic airship, why not make it look cool, different, stylistic. Instead, I'm commanding a jumbo jet? Not very exciting visually if you ask me.

It could be worse - it could look more like a douglas dc-8 and it could be called the Xenu instead of the Zenlil.
 
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At least, players who value story more than anything are served with this presentation.

Similar to the recently successful (and fantastic) "The Walking Dead" game series, everything you say is remembered by characters. Their opinion of you will change over time, and the course of the game narrative can be altered. Your decisions will cascade into future CONSORTIUM games as well, so choose wisely…

They state well by stating game narrative can be altered.

Because in their reference(TWD), it is the same story told differently. Players have very little impact on the chains of events. The dressing of the chains is changed with NPCs lines adapted from previous talks. But the events stay the same for most of them.

They learned their Bioware's lesson and understood it was better to pretend providing choice than to provide choice. Developpment costs are not the same.

I wonder if it is going to be the same for this game.
 
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Looks rather neat. Considering backing...

I agree though that they could have made the plane look slightly less... dull. :p
 
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Looks somewhat interesting, but I still don't think they'll get $200k.
 
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$200K and part of it goes not to some anonymous composer but Soule… Who can't be cheap.
Are they serious with the sum?
Also stating that he is "the single greatest game composer"… Nah. With all due respect, he is great, but there are many other great game composers (take Noriyuki Iwadare for example) and it's not fair to name just one as the greatest.

Although I feel I should back this up, it's the month of bargains and I just can't afford to put anything before the final day, and that'll happen only if my wallet doesn't go into thick minus (it'll definetly end up in red a bit, but I don't want to bother with clearing the issue whole next year).
In short, no Kickstarter pledges from me this month. Sorry.
 
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Soule is definitely one of the best though. There are quite a few areas I want to improve in the Elder Scrolls, but music is not one of them.
 
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A First Person Shooter? right, like there aren't 290328198e+3223 other FPSs out there
 
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