OK, I got Severance off GoG.
I played through the tutorial and got a lot of Deja Vu…. I think I might have played a demo of it or something. (which is likely cos I've been getting coverdisk demos from magazines since Amiga days)
First up, controls. They suck. Seems better suited to plain keyboard controls. I've been trying to learn the default mapping but I was wondering if there might be some 3rd party software that I can use to get controller working. Any tips for making the control better?
Secondly, the graphics renderer…. D3D doesn't seem to work. The game plays in the background, can hear the sounds when you change highlighted menu options, but just stays with 1 frame. Menu text is black instead of yellow.
OpenGL works but the light seems to flicker like vsync issues or something. Seen this? I really want to fix the lighting up before playing.
Other than that it seems pretty cool. I see the Dark Souls similarities already. Starting in a jail cell, lock on to targets, etc. At a few points in the tutorial I thought DS could use a few features. Like burning the barrels, Prince of Persia style climbing up the big steps. Also reminded me of the rope bow in Dark Messiah. Id like to see that make a comeback.
And before I get outta here, I'll reply to…
Severance actually has quicksaves, though, right, rather than a checkpoint system with a little memory, disguised with bonfires. Yeah, I'll be playing Severance first, if I can get it working.
Nah, Dark Souls is "Ironman" styles. It saves constantly. Saves everything you do like an MMORPG. There's no going back. It doesn't reload from a save it made when you rested at the fire - you just get teleported back there. If you used all your arrows up before you died they are still gone. In a checkpoint system you'd start again from the save with everything you had at that point.
The bonfires do act as a respawn point, but there is NO saving of anything done through the bonfire. Using one is entirely optional and often not advised. For example, if you want to run down and join the dragon covenant and you decide to rest at the bonfire in Ash Lake then you have a long and treacherous climb back up when you could have just boned it back up. (homeward bone, that is)
The bonfires also act as a place to
-Level up
-Pick your magic spells
-Upgrade weapons
-Upgrade armor
-Repair items
-Warp to other bonfires
-Refill your health potions
-Kindle the flame
-Reverse your hollow form
on top of the x,y,z co-ords for your respawn that you're confusing with a save point. You WISH there were save points! Would be waaaay easier.