Underrail Forum

Underrail => General => Topic started by: Styg on September 19, 2018, 10:56:05 am

Title: Steam Score Woes
Post by: Styg on September 19, 2018, 10:56:05 am
Recently we've been having a bit of trouble with Steam reviews from people with... um, questionable gaming abilities and we took a hit to our "recent" score. This usually happens after big sales which attract... um, a more diverse crowd, but this time it's particularly bad. So if any of you guys owns the game on Steam and enjoys it, we would greatly appreciate a positive feedback to bump up the score to its rightful place. Don't get overzealous and do something against the Steam TOS, though. Thanks.
Title: Re: Steam Score Woes
Post by: HulkOSaurus on September 19, 2018, 12:08:20 pm
No worries.

I will leave an honest review of the game. Needless to say it will be thumbs up, but considering the current gaming fashion, I just don't think it's a game for everybody... and I think it's fair of me to leave a fair warning. What do you think?

But I wouldn't get too worked up if I were you, because a decent amount of the game's popularity comes from friends telling friends, far as I can tell.
Title: Re: Steam Score Woes
Post by: Fenix on September 19, 2018, 12:56:50 pm
I still have no review for Underrail (because I perceive it as serious business but feel I can't give the game review it deserves) but now I will do.

and I think it's fair of me to leave a fair warning. What do you think?

You see, it's a negative thing.
Instead of telling "this game is not for everyone" just describe what this game is and things that make you think this game is not for everyone, without mentioning it.
"Not for everyone" make emphasis that it's a fundamentally flawed game, while you just mean I think that low-skilled gamers shouldn't try to rolfstomp it.
Title: Re: Steam Score Woes
Post by: HulkOSaurus on September 19, 2018, 03:14:30 pm
Fair point.

In that case:

people with... um, questionable gaming abilities

Shouldn't that be changed in case people reviewing the game on Steam decide they want to check this website?
Title: Re: Steam Score Woes
Post by: MirddinEmris on September 19, 2018, 05:11:20 pm
Quote
people with... um, questionable gaming abilities and we took a hit to our "recent" score. This usually happens after big sales which attract... um, a more diverse crowd

So, casuals are crying out again? Well, this looks like a job for nolifer grognard! To the rescue!

Also, not only you can leave a review, but you also can rate other's reviews so that most useful and objective are at the top.
Title: Re: Steam Score Woes
Post by: Piggon on September 19, 2018, 10:48:39 pm
No problem, glad to help out  :)
Title: Re: Steam Score Woes
Post by: TheAverageGortsby on September 20, 2018, 12:31:29 am
That's got to be frustrating, having people leave a negative review where they just say stuff like it's hard, or they didn't know what they were doing. Left a positive review years(!) ago now, but I'll ask if anyone I know who plays it can throw some thumbs up.
Title: Re: Steam Score Woes
Post by: ciox on September 20, 2018, 08:12:01 am
Seems to be already fixed, glad my typical "good." review helped.  8)
Title: Re: Steam Score Woes
Post by: Styg on September 20, 2018, 08:41:05 am
No worries.

I will leave an honest review of the game. Needless to say it will be thumbs up, but considering the current gaming fashion, I just don't think it's a game for everybody... and I think it's fair of me to leave a fair warning. What do you think?

Write your honest opinion, of course. I'm just assuming that, like me, there are other people here who don't typically write reviews at all, even for the games they like.

But I wouldn't get too worked up if I were you, because a decent amount of the game's popularity comes from friends telling friends, far as I can tell.
There's that, but there's also Steam visibility/perception and I think (according to the sales) that when people see that orange "Mixed" rating, it's a big turn-off.

Anyway, thanks for the help guys, we're back in the blue. :D
Title: Re: Steam Score Woes
Post by: Sykar on September 20, 2018, 07:07:11 pm
I will write a review tomorrow.
Title: Re: Steam Score Woes
Post by: Arclight on September 21, 2018, 12:57:52 am
I wrote one after a few hours of playing the game. Far, far better than many of the RPGs I;ve played over the years.

I'd write another, if I could... :D
Title: Re: Steam Score Woes
Post by: Yonaiker on September 21, 2018, 03:24:05 am
Recently we've been having a bit of trouble with Steam reviews from people with... um, questionable gaming abilities and we took a hit to our "recent" score. This usually happens after big sales which attract... um, a more diverse crowd, but this time it's particularly bad. So if any of you guys owns the game on Steam and enjoys it, we would greatly appreciate a positive feedback to bump up the score to its rightful place. Don't get overzealous and do something against the Steam TOS, though. Thanks.

I'd say UnderRail has been designed for a niche audience, I don't blame them, the game mechanics would discourage the average gamer to play and don't wanna spend time to learn by constant trial and error.

Will leave my review soon.
Title: Re: Steam Score Woes
Post by: ciox on September 21, 2018, 06:27:31 am
Not much you can do about that except the old/new trick, balance the difficulties differently so that Normal is very easy, and there's more difficulties after Normal or they're tougher.
Title: Re: Steam Score Woes
Post by: bati on September 28, 2018, 10:12:17 am
Added my review. To be honest, I should have done it sooner but I was too busy playing the game lol.
Title: Re: Steam Score Woes
Post by: Megaost on October 10, 2018, 08:34:30 pm
I would if I hadn't written a review already, two years ago.  :(
So frustrating to see a really great game get thumbed down by people who either don't like the genre or are just bad.
Title: Re: Steam Score Woes
Post by: drealmer7 on October 17, 2018, 01:39:26 pm
Not much you can do about that except the old/new trick, balance the difficulties differently so that Normal is very easy, and there's more difficulties after Normal or they're tougher.
Definitely NOT the thing to do.  /puke !
Title: Re: Steam Score Woes
Post by: MirddinEmris on October 17, 2018, 07:39:01 pm
Change the game with no other purpose that casuals can feel better about themself? Yeah, great idea
Title: Re: Steam Score Woes
Post by: ciox on October 18, 2018, 01:02:54 pm
I'm not talking about this game, it's becoming more hardcore as time goes on and I couldn't stop it if I wanted to, but when making a new game it's probably what you should do to keep casual players from being destroyed as soon as they click on "Normal".
Title: Re: Steam Score Woes
Post by: MirddinEmris on October 18, 2018, 05:10:12 pm
You cna always play on easy. If someone can't accept the fact that they don't have what it takes to play on normal and switch to lower difficulty, but instead need constant affirmation that he is a good player (instead of trying to become one), i don't think this is the game for him. There are plenty of game like this, that are coddling the player instead of challenging him, why not try them instead?
Title: Re: Steam Score Woes
Post by: Styg on October 19, 2018, 08:18:59 am
Not much you can do about that except the old/new trick, balance the difficulties differently so that Normal is very easy, and there's more difficulties after Normal or they're tougher.

It might not be tasteful, but I'm afraid this might be necessary in the future, especially considering that the game's "normal" is not really geared towards an average player, not even an average RPG player of today who has a couple of modern RPGs under his belt. So, yeah, while I do somewhat enjoy seeing players get dominated by my NPCs, it is necessary, financially, for the game to be playable by more than just the hardcore gamers.
Title: Re: Steam Score Woes
Post by: UnLimiTeD on October 19, 2018, 11:13:25 am
Then change the names.
Some people take it as a (well deserved) hit to their pride when they have to play on 'easy', but then just give each difficulty a different name. Maybe relating to monsters in the game, or...
Or go the praetorians route with difficulties hard, very hard, unbeatable.  ;D
Most of us here will play on hard anyways, some on dominating, so you if you split the lower 2 difficulties into 3, there won't be many complaints coming from the core audience.
Title: Re: Steam Score Woes
Post by: ciox on October 19, 2018, 02:17:40 pm
It seems that people will generally refuse to play on the lowest difficulty setting, whatever it's called.
Unless you have exactly 2 difficulty settings or something, people will pick something around the middle.

It might not be tasteful, but I'm afraid this might be necessary in the future, especially considering that the game's "normal" is not really geared towards an average player, not even an average RPG player of today who has a couple of modern RPGs under his belt. So, yeah, while I do somewhat enjoy seeing players get dominated by my NPCs, it is necessary, financially, for the game to be playable by more than just the hardcore gamers.

That's a surprise, I guess you may be right in the long run.
More difficulties is always nice anyway, I'd like to play on a difficulty that's like Hard but with Dominating's mobs for example, some others wanted that too IIRC.
Title: Re: Steam Score Woes
Post by: MirddinEmris on October 19, 2018, 05:10:28 pm
Styg, if you have plans to make the game more accessible to an average player, you will have to completely redo the DC first. Many of the negative reviews on steam and negative posts on forums are about that area. Hell, even "oldschool" players are often sore and grumpy about this part of the game.
Title: Re: Steam Score Woes
Post by: Sykar on October 27, 2018, 07:49:40 am
Gosh I finally motivated myself to write a review, sorry about the long delay. I hope this will help to stall future morons who down rate it because they are not playing the usual brain dead AAA game and are helpless without a quest compass.

Edit: I just noticed that they gave it an average score of 72% on Metacritic. What a travesty considering they give any AAA game with a semblance of polish near perfect scores even though they are shallower than a puddle and almost as buggy as Pathfinder:Kingmaker at its release.
Title: Re: Steam Score Woes
Post by: Qiox on November 26, 2018, 12:23:02 am
I gave it a positive review in 2015 :)

But, you can count 3 of my family members among the recent negative reviews.  Both of my brothers, and a nephew, were describing it as one of the best RPGs they ever played.  Then they reached the Deep Caverns...

No matter how much advice I have given them, they absolutely refuse to even install the game again.  They hate how it changed.  They hated how much your experiences there were affected by things they didn't know would matter (access to vendors).

Unfortunately all three prefer to play RPGs just once.   Most people like that are going to be left with a very bad impression upon reaching the end game.

Even I agree that it is a serious flaw with the game that has yet to be fixed.
Title: Re: Steam Score Woes
Post by: sthalik on November 30, 2018, 05:37:46 pm
Then they reached the Deep Caverns...

No matter how much advice I have given them, they absolutely refuse to even install the game again.  They hate how it changed.

I wish the change into DC could be somewhat more gradual. And DC not being so distinct from earlier gameplay. Hollow Earth has excellent atmosphere but I can understand why it's too much for non-diehards.
Title: Re: Steam Score Woes
Post by: Qiox on December 01, 2018, 07:25:59 am
It is not even the area itself and its difficulty.  It is the fact that so much of what you did dozens of hours earlier has a drastic effect on what it is like down there.  And you have zero indication that this is coming.  Being told that you can't go back when you are at the elevator is meaningless because you have no idea of how much gameplay is left or what will be available to you down there, or which decisions you've made up until then will have what kind of effects.

It requires prior knowledge, or multiple runs, or looking up guides.   And for a lot of rpg players that is unforgivable.