Necromunda video game

[IBBoard]

I've never heard of the game (and I've never played X-com either, for that matter, even though I'm probably about old enough to have played them) but it would be good if it was moddable to fit - especially since retro seems to be the "in thing" again, with even Microsoft selling old games on the XBox now.

One of the great things about older games was always the playability. They might not have been great graphics, but playability and the gamer always seemed to be more of the focus. These days they push for fancy graphics and the gameplay isn't quite as good. That plus they love to DRM games today, which means that you won't be able to play 15 year old games in 2025, unlike the 1995 games that you can still play today (even on some quite cheap hardware).

[snowblizz]

One of the great things about older games was always the playability. They might not have been great graphics, but playability and the gamer always seemed to be more of the focus. These days they push for fancy graphics and the gameplay isn't quite as good. That plus they love to DRM games today, which means that you won't be able to play 15 year old games in 2025, unlike the 1995 games that you can still play today (even on some quite cheap hardware).

Yup. That's pretty much how I feel. I think they're lucky to make even one "original" game each year. Otherwise it seems to be "OMG!!111one! look at how much more you have to pay for a graphics card to see the [insert something difficult to render] that we managed to cram in".

Now I wasn't suggesting the "skinning" or modding of the game. It was thinking merely on gameplay concepts. E.g. X-com TFTD and Apocalypse had many similarities to what I think I'd like to see in a Necromunda game. You had a base, squads of troopers, equipment, fight-scenes were "3D and/or levelled" and I mean that you could move between levels and shoot from one level to another in open spaces etc. Maybe you could mod it. In fact there's a opensource remake that probably has potential in that regard.
I'm just saying that the style of game would suit the idea of Necromunda. Fallout works in a simialr manner, especially the latest "3" version that I've yet to play. I'm waiting for it to be priced for humans not geese that lay golden eggs.

[IBBoard]

Gore mentioned "a few little conversions", hence the comment on modding a game. Mods will never be quite as good as "from scratch" builds, since you're making compromises based on the constraints of the original game, but you can still do quite well with them.

As for the X-com games, from what I looked up of their release dates and some of the screenshots then that seems quite advanced to have multi-level fighting. You'd have thought that with all the fuss they make these days of the complexities of some games (like Dawn of War not handling bridges) then these older games would have struggled more!

[snowblizz]

As for the X-com games, from what I looked up of their release dates and some of the screenshots then that seems quite advanced to have multi-level fighting. You'd have thought that with all the fuss they make these days of the complexities of some games (like Dawn of War not handling bridges) then these older games would have struggled more!

When you don't have to do fancy graphics you can do some real hardcore programming (tm).
More programmers and less graphics artists from "game-production schools" I say!

Don't know what to say. The X-com game I'm thinking on had 3 (and maybe +1 ground level) levels, so fairly basic, and it was all divided into squares. But fighting inside a cargo containership really felt much like I imagine Necromunda would.

And flying around in anti-grav powered armour like a god of War with a weapon that could hardly miss (when the character had enough shooting skill) is rather exhilarating.

Highly recommended. I'm re-playing X-com UFO right now. I might have to go with TFTD as well after that.

[sapien82]

I have thought about a necromunda game for a long time. The easiest way to make it would be to make a half life 2 mod!
We can use the halflife engine which is still very much alive and looks great.
We just have to have the smart code heads to impliment the additional code to create the gang stats and levelling !

[IBBoard]

Never played Half Life. The old UT engine (and I mean the real UT, not the later ones) had a great look for it.

Still, as we started off the topic saying, would you want Necro the FPS where you're part of a gang (a la Unreal Tournament) or Necro the RTS where it is more gang management? HL would be fine for the former, but not so much for the latter.

[Digitalchaos]

Some really needs to get some people together, license necromunda video games on pc, iOS, and droid, then use kickstarter to get funding. Turn based and multiplayer. Epic.

[IBBoard]

Great idea and perfect for a kickstarter to show the interest, but I somehow doubt GW would go for it. They'll want quite a lot of money for the licensing and they're quite protective over it (based on articles I've read about WH:Online) so they'd constantly be poking, prodding and interfering.

They're now focused on WH and 40K (plus LotR, I guess) and everything else has been shovelled off into the dark recesses in case you spend money on an old game that doesn't change very often, rather than a core game with a known upgrade cycle to encourage people to keep buying more.

[starcrash]

Just joined as I have like darkbarlow asking the question, why has Necromunda not been turned into a video game?

Unlike dark I was think much more along the lines of a turn based strategy akin to XCOM. So much one could do with a computer game, fog of war, slow motion deaths, extended ranking system, territory management including mapping the hive.

IBBoard interested to hear that you think GW wouldn't go for it. I know it has been an age but I don't suppose you could point me at the article on WH:Online?

They way I see it is that as you say GW is focused on a series of core products which require player to buy lots of miniatures. Necro is gathering dust in a corner so would they not jump at the chance?

[IBBoard]

I've not got the articles, but I remember a WD article on WH:Online that said that GW staff were heavily involved and vetted almost all aspects of the game, with the implication that they were making sure that it was all "just right". It has been so long that I can't remember if there was anything else that I read.

As for why they wouldn't jump at the chance - it is entirely my last paragraph: they've got the core games now and the GW business model is to force all of the interest onto those core games. Anything that could distract people from the core games is a bad thing in the current GW world (and that probably stretches back at least five years by now, if not longer). That almost certainly includes video games as well - anything that isn't core means that people aren't spending money on core!*

* The 40K film is slightly different, though, in that it is more of a one-off. You watch it for an hour or two, buy a copy to put on your shelf, and it is more like merchandise than full gaming distraction.