GRAVEN

[yaboi]

Anybody tried the demo for Graven, the new 3DRealms game that's aiming to be the new Hexen? It's time-limited, only out until Sunday I believe.

https://youtu.be/KB0cmCSaZpQ

I could barely run it because I've got a lil toaster laptop, but it seemed fun, I'm excited to see where they go with it

[Matt]

You can pet the dog, but you also might have to talk to people

I'm on the fence

[leileilol]

Doesn't seem like "the new Hexen", maybe it's more like it's sequel. Inventory is Deus Ex-like, the view bobbing/shaking is very rough and the melee combat seems to be the HL zombie cycle + sudden lunges for two of the common baddies. The map lacks landmarks and is mostly a green/yellow palette of swamp fog and lanterns (more reminiscent of Daikatana). There's nasty softlock potentials with the checkpoint system (environment isn't restored from a previous state). There's also stamina to pad you down, and lots of water to slowly wade in while the enemies go unencumbered.

Graphically, the assets look nice (definitely better thought put into the models and textures than most 'boomer shooters'), though there's a questionable use of shaders mixed in (stipple alpha!?) with postprocessing (ssao!?) and a shimmery lack of mipmapping. Kind of a clashing 'retro' aesthetic if you ask me. Assets, given they're normal mappy and such of constrained resolutions, look technically made more for an OG XBOX game and can easily go for that with some filtering on and some SSAO/dithering off.

[KynikossDragonn]

I've seen a friend of mine streaming this, I don't know... Doesn't seem very appealing so far. The demo looks really rough around the edges.

I could barely run it because I've got a lil toaster laptop

I wonder if I'd fair any better running it. I have a Intel Iris Pro 580 for graphics.