First Look at Hatred - Spoiler: It's not very good

[Tsun Tzu]

Snip.

Actually found the post I remembered. Stuck out to me because it was so...ugh.

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=974255&page=4

#196.

I don't know why, but I seem to remember neogaf being less awful.

I find it sad that so many of us, myself included sometimes, decry getting swept up into controversy and panic, jumping to conclusions and making baseless assumptions, yet we can only seem to hold up those values about things we like and happily break them when it's with something we don't like.

We're human. Comes with the territory.

I find it curious you're bemused by the stupidity of the gaming press for giving a terrible game coverage, and not at the stupidity of the audience for actually buying it.

If the developers were "smart" about hoodwinking the press into into drumming up coverage for their controversy bait, what does that say about the intelligence and discrimination of the people putting down money for it? Either in spite of the (ridiculously negative) coverage, or because of it?

If the answer to the question "How dumb is the gaming press to give obvious controversy-bait coverage" is "pretty dumb", what is the answer to "How dumb does someone have to be to actually BUY the fucking thing after the fact"?

Can't I just think everyone involved, including myself for wasting time on it, is dumb?

 

[BloatedGuppy]

Can't I just think everyone involved, including myself for wasting time on it, is dumb?

That's fair, just want to be sure the censure is being equally and appropriately distributed. =D

 

[Erttheking]

Snip

So what, it was just one post on a forum? That's enough to get Total Biscuit to talk about it?

That's...will we humans ever not be slaves to our own emotions?

 

[Erttheking]

I find it funny people blame the developers for all the controversy and publicity this game got. When the media is who showed this game to the world screaming "LOOK AT THIS ABOMINATION!!!!" and then gave the developers a pedestal to just keep the train a' rollin'. Multiple people have said this so far and I'll repeat it. If people would have just ignored this game, if media had just moved on, this game would have had a silent release and then faded into obscurity pretty quickly.

It's more that they knowingly did this. It's like a SJW making a game having social justice themes(ex:Gone Home) knwoing all the media and controversy that's going to be surrounding it and still doing it anyways. Just ticks me the wrong way. It's like they don't even try. They know it's going to gain a lot of attention so they just ride that with out even trying to make a good game.

With that said I'm not excusing the media from this either. All they had to do was just not freak out over this game and it would've been over with.

In my eyes both parties are at fault here. The idiots who just won't let it go and the assholes who just couldn't care less.

Also the destruction is more a case of Unreal Engine 4 and not anything to do with the actual game

Look, say what you will about Gone Home, I feel like it was actually designed to be a game and not just to piss people off. I don't consider having a coming out story being something specifically designed to garner attention. Though oddly enough the two do seem to paint an interesting picture about the relationship between game media and some gamers.

 

[happyninja42]

Not sure if this was answered further up, but I just finished watching Totalbiscuit's review of the game, and I have one question:

What is "Are you drunk?" mode about? What does it actually change? He turned it on and didn't see anything different.

 

[Bombiz]

Not sure if this was answered further up, but I just finished watching Totalbiscuit's review of the game, and I have one question:

What is "Are you drunk?" mode about? What does it actually change? He turned it on and didn't see anything different.

from what I noticed it made the camera wobble a bit.

 

[Tsun Tzu]

Snip

So what, it was just one post on a forum? That's enough to get Total Biscuit to talk about it?

That's...will we humans ever not be slaves to our own emotions?

No idea? That's what I was referencing. ._.

And no. No we will not. Unless you want to go all beep boop or something, you future Cylon sympathizer you.

 

[shrekfan246]

Then someone might come along and say "Hey guys no one actually said that", and it'll go in one ear and out the other, because it's NOT Quality Information, because it doesn't confirm the bias.

It's not worth getting sad over, because it's not going to improve. If anything you're going to see it get worse and worse as time goes by.

I dunno, that kinda makes me sad because it gives the impression that the quality and level of discourse about video games is only going to decline, and it's already so bad that I barely ever feel like posting in forums anymore.

I remember when I had the edgy "fuck the system" mentality: I was a senior in high school. I even wrote about the horrors of political correctness and how I despised how much society seemed to want people to 'water down' their language.

It's been five years since then and you know what? Language hasn't been completely demolished and diluted into some easily digestible safe-for-kids mash. I'm not getting "censored" when I want to speak my mind about something I like/don't like, provided I know how to actually talk about it. Society hasn't collapsed at the feet of the PC Police. If anything, video games have been getting more and more bold about pushing the narrative envelope.

All of these backlashes do make me sad, because in all of them I see people becoming more and more polarized, and then I see people I held respect for make utter fools of themselves, and it never ends because another backlash has to come along and fuel the outrage machine. To crib a Nine Inch Nails album name, it's like a downward spiral, and I really don't want to see how it inevitably ends.

 

[BloatedGuppy]

I dunno, that kinda makes me sad because it gives the impression that the quality and level of discourse about video games is only going to decline, and it's already so bad that I barely ever feel like posting in forums anymore.

I remember when I had the edgy "fuck the system" mentality: I was a senior in high school. I even wrote about the horrors of political correctness and how I despised how much society seemed to want people to 'water down' their language.

It's been five years since then and you know what? Language hasn't been completely demolished and diluted into some easily digestible safe-for-kids mash. I'm not getting "censored" when I want to speak my mind about something I like/don't like, provided I know how to actually talk about it. Society hasn't collapsed at the feet of the PC Police. If anything, video games have been getting more and more bold about pushing the narrative envelope.

All of these backlashes do make me sad, because in all of them I see people becoming more and more polarized, and then I see people I held respect for make utter fools of themselves, and it never ends because another backlash has to come along and fuel the outrage machine. To crib a Nine Inch Nails album name, it's like a downward spiral, and I really don't want to see how it inevitably ends.

I'd recommend staying away from social media and not reading internet forums unless you're feeling robust.

Since polarization is a self-feeding cycle, it's not going to improve. Some people will drop out as a result of getting older/losing interest and possibly becoming embarrassed by themselves, but there will always be new people to replace them.

I remember when I was...god...I must have been about 23-24 at the time. Working with an older lady. One day she was having a rant about how 9 out of 10 people drink and drive. That was her statistic, 9 out of 10 people. I questioned her, I was like "How can you possibly believe that, it's patently ridiculous". Not only didn't she back off, she doubled down on it, and got angry. On this forum we had the infamous "XCOM Random" debate where the guy claimed a single floater wiped out his entire high level team while he proceeded to miss 100+ straight 95%+ shots. When it was demonstrated to be factually impossible, he insulted everyone and suggested we weren't privy to his ability to "look behind the curtain". People do not like having their noses poked in their rhetorical messes. What's more, even while you're doing it, they will frequently believe it is they who are boxing your ears. When a deeply held belief is challenged, you might as well be making jungle noises and flinging feces at them for all they are likely to take you seriously.

All you can do is try and work on your own ability to think critically about yourself and your beliefs, and not get too pronounced a headache waiting for others to do the same.

 

[veloper]

Why is everyone so sad and pessimistic over here?

Am I the only one enjoying this?
If you're not enjoying yourself and you're also not learning anything you want to learn, then there's absolutely no point in playing a forum rat.

 

[Lightspeaker]

Well at least it's the first A rated game on steam which will hopefully open the door for more A rated game. to bad the first seems like it's going shit but at least it did something important for the games industry

As long as its violence that is. Don't expect any eroge VNs on there or anything, or for them to add the option for nudity scenes into the VNs that are on there already which have had them cut. Because whilst blowing someone's brains out while they're lying crippled on the floor is fine; showing nipples is just horrible and wrong and disgusting.


On topic: game looks alright, honestly I've played worse. Actually it reminds me a bit of Warhammer 40k Kill Team which was fun but very shallow. Having looked through TB's video the actual visual style I find to be really nice as are the destruction physics but by all accounts it'd get very boring very fast. The same thing over and over again when that "same thing" is just "shoot everything" gets very dull.

I'd probably play it for a couple of quid. Not more than that though. It seems decent enough but no staying power at all.

 

[josemlopes]

It actually looks good and if it manages to be hard I am really interested. I dont care much for the murdering of people but I do like top-down shooters and there are few that arent sanic speeds arcade so yeah. The destruction also looks really good.

 

[IamLEAM1983]

What exactly makes it a " peice of crap"?

I know this wasn't addressed to me, but I'd say Hatred looks mediocre because there's not much of anything tying it together, except violence for its own sake. As someone who enjoys gaming as a narrative experience, this game just doesn't appeal to me.

You walk out, shoot civilians, walk around a bit more and execute someone else. Whoops, you take fire a bit so I assume the screen puts up some sort of low-health-warning-related effect. You respond to that by killing someone else. Bing, you get a little more health so you get to keep killing folks. Over and over and over.

I'm reminded of Uwe Boll's "Rampage", which is probably the guy's only halfway-to-watchable movie ever made. Most of it leads up to the title's rampage, so you get to be acquainted with the protagonist's disenfranchised take on everyday life. You get to see his relatives' passive disappointment, the unsuspecting casualness of his friends. Every now and then, the movie cuts to the kid preparing his things for the big day. Armor pads, ammo bags, a reconfigured welding mask, etc.

The process makes sense on an emotional level, and the movie refrains from pointing fingers at the protagonist. It's just there to display the full course of a kid going postal and doesn't revel in the violence. The violence happens when it happens, and that's it. It's bizarrely tame coming from a guy who gave us stinking turds like "Far Cry" and "House of the Dead"'s respective movie adaptations, while still not flinching away from violence and the problematic nature of some of Canada and America's Gun Porn-ish corners.

"Hatred" doesn't do that. It posits that violence is provocative, which is just trite coming from an industry that's revelled in a lot worse before. Its violence isn't any more provocative than a Nu-Metal band's early-aughts songs about cutting or suicide; it's plain and simple grandstanding masquerading as some sort of take-no-prisoners attitude. Innovation is a lot more commendable, in my book, than just going "'Ey, lookit me! Aren't I edgy as PHUCK?!"

"Rampage" is a good discussion starter. "Hatred" isn't even that. It's Geometry Wars gone gritty and monochrome with flashes of gore.

 

[Pseudonym]

Yeah, it looks very boring. The gameplay looked way too repetetive even in the 20 minute video by totalbiscuit I saw. It isn't even that edgy. I've seen more brutal stuff happen in hotline miami, spec ops: the line, GTA, gears of war. Especially the executions aren't that bad compared to all the other games I named. And those games have actually good gameplay and/or interesting storyline or they have something, anything, going for them besides their edgyness. They weren't just trying to sell themselves as edgy for the sake of being edgy. So yeah, I'm not going to waste my money on this shit.

 

[ToastiestZombie]

Gotta say that the physics and destructability look damn good. Put that into a less barebones game and I'd buy it in a heartbeat.

 

[Pinkilicious]

I'm not shocked... raw violence is just the simplest form of interaction in a game world. A game that's based around a premise of nothing more than violence is naturally going to be boring, unless it introduces some kind of exceptional gameplay mechanics that are inherently sound and addictive.

Don't get me wrong, violence can be fun, but these days I think people are more into violence + mobility + destruction... not just seeing blood spray. I mean, Postal did this, but with some humor and probably (although graphically dated) better.

In a way, isn't this just the AAA influence trickling down? "It's like POSTAL... but with better graphics, and no humor... this is GRITTY... REALISTIC!!!"...

...All that's missing is DLC and some lens flare.

That is a great way to take this.
I warned them, a long time ago before the Steam pulling, that they will 'make their mark' with what they were doing, and it would be very very bad for them. I tried to get them to look at the reputations of studios renowned for mediocre 'nontroversy' titles, but alas, this confirms, they did not improve either upon the controversial elements (no children or animals, no torturous/more brutal executions) nor did they. IMO a good amount of MK9/X fatalities are worse from what I've seen, they just don't go around calling each other cunts and fags. It's just a slightly more realistic CoD except EVERY level is No Russian. Whoop. Tee. Doo. Now that they have made it, and it is expectedly mediocre, people will likely not pay attention to any game they made past this. They have built themselves into the "one hit wonder" corner.
Perhaps I am just overly desensitised to treated/viewing much worse in real conflicts, but, the game seems overly tame to me if you remove the dark brooding atmosphere and music. It is the style that 'triggers' people into believing it is brutal, moreso than it really being so. They wanted to court just enough controversy to avoid any major bans. But they didn't have the stern taboo-breaking determination to push it as far as they should have. If you're going to be known only for controversy and not good gameplay, you could at least go for good controversy. But they failed both.
I think there's room for a legitimate balls-to-the-wall Serbian Film of a game. To truly test the boundaries of good taste, moral sanity, and societal taboo. But they clearly are all about nothing but the shekels.
(funny enough, the Burger King game is one of those closest it came to feeling that sort of thing. Stalking people around the neighborhood and such, or following them to their homes. Just change the burger for an axe or a saw, and add some MGS/R6 stealth elements and a police wanted system, and you're good to go. It's what I thought of when watching Dexter and seeing the geek on there say he wanted to make a serial killer game. Make it take place in the 50s though, so the police don't look too incompetent when they can't follow your trail.)

Is it weird that I was hoping this game would be more open-ended to how you would "clear" stages to keep the replay factor in check?

Other than that, I'm assuming it's better to stick with the Postal games, then?

Gee , Hatred, possibly not good. Who could have forseen that. Aside from the fact that people often compare it to POSTAL and POSTAL 2. People seem to forget that neither of these were very good games.

Almost certainly. The difference was that even the edgy as crap Postal 1 has a certain charm to it, because it doesn't have legions of other 'edgy' games to take off from before it, so it went off of edgy movies that teenagers of the day liked, that were a bit theatrical and surrealistic in their violence, so the last few levels come off feeling like a violent dream almost. Hatred looks to have absolutely none of that. Manhunt minus other killers minus the artistic flair plus more guns. There's no 'tongue in cheek' bits like in 2 nor no insane poetry like in 1. It is more lifeless than its victims. The level design just makes it even more blatant. *sigh* such utter disappointment.
At least we got a decent engine out of it SOMEONE else might put to good use. Who knows, we may not even need to buy a new game. Some crazy nutbar might go full Rise&Rule and build the better game over/in spite of theirs.

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/jump/9.876018.22033935
this may be a terrible game, but I believe it just justified its existence.

 

[Genocidicles]

So the ending has been posted on youtube


This is what the games media got in a tizzy about. This is the game too 'brutal' for twitch and gog. This warranted an AO rating.

Spoiler

Jesus Christ I'm definitely picking this up now. It looks fucking hilarious.

 

[Mutant1988]

This is what the game's media got in a tizzy about. This is the game too 'brutal' for twitch and gog. This warranted an AO rating.


Jesus Christ I'm definitely picking this up now. It looks fucking hilarious.[/spoiler]

Still looks like nihilistic wank material to me. Void of moral, humour or hell, seemingly any character development. Psycho from the get go, psycho in the end. As exaggerated as that situation is, it still looks like it's played 100% straight.

Spoiler

You win, everyone dies. The end

Oh, sorry, having the code be that number makes it comedy. That's literally all it takes.

 

[KungFuJazzHands]

Holy crap. The snide, judgmental moral posturing on display in this thread is fascinatingly pitiful. We get it guys, anyone who might actually enjoy playing a game like Hatred is a "weirdo" or a potential psychopath. Qualified armchair psychiatry on display here, folks.

If I were a shallower man, I'd preorder a copy and then come back here to blab about how much fun it will be playing it, just to get a reaction.*







*To clarify my personal opinion of the game: it looks like boring overhyped dogshit, completely undeserving of any of the attention it's been receiving. I won't be buying it anytime soon, so don't go getting your undies in a preemptive bunch.