The Prime: Battle for Dominus dev chat yesterday was a little different than usual. First, it looks like they moved over to Twitch.tv (good choice for better quality, imo). Second, this chat actually included video footage from beta! Usual disclaimers apply: (1) Beta footage subject to change, (2) Rough and unpolished/unedited video, (3) Beta, (4) Beta, (5) Beta, (6) Small-scale, (7) a bit staged looking. Despite it looking early and rough, there are some cool things in the video. I’ll let you watch it first. Note: The video should start where Warren is giving us a quick explanation.
- I like the jet packs. Jet packs are going to add a fun dynamic to fights; a dynamic we are not used to in MMO’s. Watching those guys jet up out of reach, on top of things, for advantage is sweet.
- Notice the melee characters. So much pew pew going on that they seem to blend in but one of those guys was shredding that sniper.
- Interior fighting locations – It took watching the video three times for it to really register that they were all inside a cave-ish area at one point.
The rest of the video is good too. I was particularly interesting in the discussion about resource quality as it pertains to customizing your crafting. Very, very, SWG-like (which is a great thing).
The next combat video, if I heard correctly during the video, is going to be a larger scale fight. That should be very enlightening.
I am starting to follow this game a lot more since I decided to skip StarWars.
Something about the character models bothers me but that is a very minor criticism in my eyes. I am definitely keeping my eye on this one. Hopefully a few of us can get into the beta.
the game looks like complete crap imo
the only hope for this is if they balance the 3 factions, and the pvp is awesome. not worth getting over SWTORO (which i just tested) or GW2 at this point.
It won’t have the immediately noticeable production budget of SWTOR, but I do not believe that necessarily has to impact the production quality. Prime is looking to enter the market differently than GW2 and SWTOR. Prime is all about the open-ended 3 faction struggle. Crafting in Prime is akin to SWG with tons of experimentation and player control. It’s so different, and a niche so barely catered to, that it’s a no brainer for me to be excited.
I have a long list of things I want in a MMO, and Prime hits more things on that list than SWTOR and GW2 combined. This is all on paper, though, but I hope to see it play out.
I think that it is important to support this project. It is only through ambitious indie projects like this that true innovation will occur. SWTOR is fun and I will be playing it, but I can assure you it is not very innovative. Success of endeavors such as this can help to define game mechanics in future AAA titles.
My primary concern is that clever game mechanics in a MMO won’t win over an audience long term if an immersive storyline is not present. We’ll have to find out if there is more to Prime than novel resource harvesting and PvP…
This game looks like crap compared to SWTOR in the same way that There Will Be Blood looks like crap compared to Transformers. Star Wars will be an MMO that tries to provide a little of everything vs. a niche-targeting game, one with virtually infinite more funding (i.e. enough to accomplish everything they need to) and thus, with the luxury of extreme polish.
For someone looking for a meaningful, PvP-driven end game, Prime will probably be a better choice, unless there are some basic, unforgivable flaws in it’s fundamental design. SWTOR will affirm in the very least, if there is such a thing as a “popcorn” MMO. Beyond World of Warcraft, we haven’t really seen that sort of thing, and things are going to get very interesting with the release of GW2 and SWTOR. Any MMO that wants to strive in that stifling market would do well to target a niche rather than compete with millions of dollars worth of a little bit of story, PvE, and PvP.
@Keen learning of resource quality is similar to SWG made me incredible happy as well.
Prime’s leadership is just keeping me more and more interested in their game.
They are thinking about how Crowd Control abilities will affect the combat and to prevent CC wars. As Keen has already pointed out melee is a viable option in the game which pleases a melee player such as myself. No guild leveling which I love. Housing will be in the game. I am going to pay close attention to the “trophies” a person can put on display in the housing.
More talk of bounty hunting in this video tells me it is not a throw away gimmick.
I agree with everyone who has said it already niche gaming is the future. Those games will have the longest lives and best experiences.