The game which took out the sound for DLC

What is the music of life?

One of the cool things about the world of storytelling is the plethora of new and interesting ways one can find, or invent, to impart news ideas and experiences to the user. Maybe you want to give people the feeling of looking at folks in a dark room without obscuring their sight from what's happening, well in that case you can do a David Productions for Jojo and invert the colour scheme to make things visually indicative without having to outright say it. Maybe you want to imply that a long journey has been undergone without taking the audience through every single step of that journey because that would be long and unnecessary; (Zack Snyder!) well perhaps you could do something akin to Peter Weir's Gallipoli, where for one scene the camera is pulled back on a single wide shot across a wide space, allowing the actors to make their way across the land in their own time. Let the scene breath, but don't just have it slog on for five minutes under the justification of "It's the opening, people don't mind looking at the same thing constantly for the opening." Yes I do, Snyder, Yes I do. And if you're trying to tell the story of a deaf protagonist in a video game you can just... remove the sound? That seems a little... brash and ill conceived. Two prime descriptors to sum up 'The Quiet Man' as a whole.

Do you remember that game? I may just never forget it. The scars of that Quiet boi runeth deep in my psyche whenever I see that Square Enix logo during press events. First I get all excited fooling myself into some delusion that this will be that FF7 PC port that we desperately need goddammit, but then my breath catches as I allow myself to be swallowed by a terrible recollection and I think "Oh no. Could it be... him again?". Of course, no reveal could be as brazeningly maddening as  The Quiet Man's was, so let me share what the experience was like for anyone out there who was unlucky enough not to be there. So the reveal followed some alright looking titles, but there was nothing heartstopping during that particular E3 conference and so everyone was on the edge of their seat for the title that would blow our collective socks off to become the king of water cooler talk tomorrow. And then it happened, the screen faded in to one of the most high poly human face renders we've ever seen, of a young man walking down an alley with headphones in before a group of... stereotypical vaguely-Mexican thugs approach him? Huh, I figured this would be slightly more highbrow, but the graphics look amazing so I guess we'll let i- oh that was just a stylised live action intro? The ingame models look like potatoes? The sound for the clip isn't playing right? 'The Quiet Man'? Okay... what was that?

Sentiments of "This is weird" and "Looks kinda bad" would stay with me throughout the entire marketing cycle and into launch, thankfully ensuring that I would never make the mistake of diving into this game. (At least, not without knowing what I was getting myself into) It seems that many others shared my skepticism too, because this game pretty much faded from the public eye until it came out and was a sleeper... well, just a sleeper actually. (There's no 'hit' to be found in this software's files.) All that was learnt was thus; the protagonist was said to be deaf, hence the name and the strange underwater sound effect accompanying the fight scenes. At the time I remember thinking; oh, that's an interesting twist on the traditional character, I wonder how that will come into the play and ways in which the team thought to utilise it. Quiet curious considering that now, with hindsight, I can't conceive of a single way to bring this to life that would have made it any less crap than it ended up being.

Not everyone was lucky enough to get out of the way of this steamroller video game, however, some were caught underneath it's death treads and issued their dying warning to the rest of us, heroically trying to save the masses. And from what did they ward us? That The Quiet Man was a dumb idea. Ostensibly an action fighting game with a dramatic plot and an intense earthy storyline, The Quiet Man managed to offer actually no variety in it's gameplay, locations, or enemy archetypes. Okay, to be fair the locations did change, but they were all rendered in such a way that they looked identical, which is a curious way to self sabotage I've not quiet seen before. The fighting controls are a joke compared to actual games with fighting mechanics (hold you head high, Yakuza) and the challenge of the game is pretty much set to snore through until the final boss, assuming you make it that long. But the real sin which cursed The Quiet Man, and the reason I still recall one of the most forgettable games of it's generation; is the live action cutscenes.

Now I've spoken about my feelings on Live action cutscenes in gaming before; but to sum it up briefly for you: I think they're cheap and/or cringey. And to be fair, cheap is pretty much right. The amount of money it takes to create and render a decent looking cutscene compared to what it takes to rent a camera with some film and shoot some b-roll over in some abandoned studio somewhere, isn't really comparable. Unless you're packing your cutscenes with real actors who expect to get paid or something, you're sitting pretty! Of course, another added element is that you can, though few example in the gaming world do, take advantage of this to capture all those idiosyncrasies that modern computing software just cannot perform. Subtle facial movements, eye trackings, natural movement; all the things to sell real characters in a real story. If more Live action cutscenes did literally any of that, I wouldn't have a problem with them like I do. So how does The Quiet Man utilise them? Well they take out the sound of course...

Get it, cause he's deaf. Yes, yes and yes again; The Quiet Man has entire several minute long cutscenes, most of which consist of just characters talking, without the player being able to hear any of it. And before you all turn around and say "Oh, but that's brilliant! It captures the isolation and fear of being a deaf person in a world tailored for those without hearing issues", or some such rot, let me disabuse you of any allusions; this isn't the game trying to rope you into the protagonist's struggle. Because the protagonist can very clearly read lips and in fact converses several times in these cutscenes whilst you still hear jack. They could have thrown in subtitles, they could have had at least the protagonists' dialogue be hearable, they could have filmed any of these scenes in such a way that you can infer context and get to grips with the narrative, without being left bored and confused by everything you're experiencing. Instead, it comes across like these are just normal cutscenes that someone decided to strip the audio from. Because that's what they are.

Whether this was the grand plan all along or if someone just has a 'eureka' moment in the editor's longue; the results are jarring and downright sinful. Imagine watching a low effort drama with absolutely no sound; that's basically playing The Quiet Man. You don't know which character is which, so people commonly get confused on whether the person featured in flashbacks is the protagonist's mother or girlfriend, scenes that wouldn't drag if dialogue was being made do drag because you're not receiving any information and, most dumb of all, a key plotpoint of this story involves a betrayal. That's right, there's supposed to be someone that the protagonist trusts to ride-or-die levels, only for that person to betray them. Well how am I supposed to form the emotional connection which makes that betrayal worthwhile if I DON'T KNOW WHO ANYONE IS? It's frighteningly stupid decisions like this which propel an already mediocre game into outright absurdity.

Of course, in the end the team couldn't deprive these sound bites forever, and a short time after launch a free DLC was dropped that gave us back our MP3 files, something that they held a countdown to and everything; to let you really know how much this game would be revolutionised once you were able to actually hear the actors. And of course it proved nothing. The story was infinitely more mundane than whatever you came up with in your heads and that shallow stunt to maybe win back a few more eyes didn't amount to much of anything. I cannot fathom what studio decision led to the comedy of errors that was The Quiet Man's whole existence, but I'm forever grateful they happened else I wouldn't have this bizarre story to think back on every now and then. Thanks for the giggles, Human Head Studios, hope you better luck with your games in the fu- oh wait, they're the guys from the whole 'Rune 2' debacle, aren't they? (Damn, some people get none of the luck.)

Did Bethesda kill Rune 2?

Objection! 

Do you remember the Rune 2 story from a while back? Clearly I don't because I was certain that the game was Rune 3 and even now feel like I've been gaslighted big time, but I wrote a blog on it so I should supposedly know what I'm talking about... Apparently it was a story that followed a game Studio who were all raptured up in the middle of game development. Or at least that's what it must have felt like, because in the months before they officially announced they were being bought up by Bethesda, Human Head Studios apparently cut off all contact with the Game's publisher, Ragnarok LTD, and refused to hand over any of the data that would be needed to smoothly transition that work to a new developer. It was a befuddling tale full to the brim of 'he said' and- well Human Head haven't really responded to any accusations so it's really just 'he said' for now, but it still feels like we're only getting half the story and that's frustrating for everybody.

As it stands Rune 2 was struck with a major overhaul process that I believe is still in the works as they try to reshape the game into something that better resembles their lofty hopes for it. New developers have stepped into the void left by Human Head and things appear to be going well for the team, and good for them I say. It's never good when fellow members of the same industry work each other over like this, it erodes trust in a damnable way, but it also creates opportunity for others to come and step in where they're needed. Ultimately I'd say this was the sort of story that the industry really didn't need, capped off with a hearty resolution that the industry doesn't deserve. That being said, I'm not really the sort of person who finds Rune or it's sequel even passingly interesting so I have no personal stake in the success of this game whatsoever.

Ragnarok Games, on the otherhand, very much are and that's what spurred them into launching a lawsuit against Human Head Studios for egregious breech of contract (I'd imagine) and probably direct harm to potential profits through everything that went on. And taking everything at complete face value, whilst begrudgingly acknowledging that we still haven't heard from Human Head on this matter, it's hard to disagree with their actions here. The game's executive producer himself laid out how this could have been an amiable transition and how things could have ended peacefully between all parties, but until we hear otherwise we can only conclude it was Human Head's negligence that has led to this. So with all that accepted and readily to mind, why is it that Bethesda and Zenimax have been pulled into this debate?

That's right, the latest development out of this saga is that Ragnarok have amended their lawsuit to include Bethesda and Zenimax for being complicate in this scheme to smuggle the Human Head staff and turn them into Roundhouse Studios. Quite the lofty accusation, if you ask me. In a breakheel turn that's sure to make one question exactly where it is that Ragnorok is receiving their information from, they have pivoted completely from their initial assertion that Human Head reached out to Bethesda and now claim that Bethesda were an active conspirator in these events. Their assertions are that Bethesda head hunted Human Head (if you'll forgive the pun) in order to effectively assassinate Rune 2 and another game called 'Oblivion Song'. (Although with a name like that and knowledge of how zealous Zenimax are, I doubt that game would have made it to launch without a lawsuit anyway.)

It's the narrative that has been asserted along with this amendment that has captured the mind of the Internet however, because not only have Ragnarok deduced that Bethesda must be the masterminds behind this, but they've revealed the reason behind it too; because Bethesda would have seen Rune 2 as a threat to Skyrim/The Elder Scrolls. (Stop laughing, this is serious!) Okay, so if this is to be taken at face value, than it's a pretty damning accusation to throw Bethesda's way and textbook anti-competitive moves. This is the sort of thing that can really cause a stink in court and I wouldn't be surprised if Bethesda were hit with more than just a slap on the wrist if they're found guilty. I mean this is serious business right here! But then must find a way to prove Rune 2 could be reasonably seen as a threat to Elder Scrolls and that's... well Ragnarok have carved out an uphill battle for themselves here.

The important thing to remember here, provided that you're willing to see things from Ragnarok's view, is to not look at Rune 2 as it currently is but what it could have been. (Which is already hard to do given how that's a vision held only by the studios involved.) Now you have to imagine whether or not a sequel to a game with history all the way back to the year 2000 (Not as long as The Elder Scrolls) and which plants itself in Viking mythology (Which is technically the basis for Skyrim's Mythology) and just happens to be an open world RPG (a genre that Bethesda have defined) would be a threat to Bethesda's work. I'm not gonna lie, I find this incredibly dubious. By the simple merit of sharing a genre it seems as if Ragnarok have positioned themselves as rivals to Bethesda, one of the biggest companies in the industry, and I can't be the only seeing a little false equivalence here. Or are Ragnarok suggesting that Bethesda are willing to attack any game similar to the one they already released 9 years ago, if so; why didn't they try to scoop up Santa Monica Studio before God of War came out? Why do they let any RPG enter the market without first interfering? It's a narrative that doesn't exactly make the most amount of sense and I have a theory as to why.

Although the 'bad-faith' argument in itself is pretty serious to lay at Bethesda's door, without any proof it's just an accusation with no traction in the court room, and to a layman this story paints a logical incentive for Bethesda's alleged actions. Now perhaps there are some secret correspondence hiding in Rune 2's defence which proves all of this beyond a single doubt, but right now it does sort of feel like straws are being grasped at. I'm no legal eagle with years of court experience mind you, so perhaps all of this is perfectly fine within the courtroom, but outside I think it's not hard for eyebrows to be raised as people wonder exactly what it is Ragnarok are seeking out of this. What started at perhaps on of the most empathetic plights in gaming has become just that little suspect and I'm unsure what exactly to make of things right now.

I've seen the proposition raised, although I hesitate to stand behind it myself, that given the timing of all of this, (essentially with the amendment coming just after Bethesda was bought by Microsoft for a record amount of money) Ragnarok might be making their attempt to secure some of Bethesda's recent windful. Now I find it a little distasteful to consider, Ragnarok were horribly fouled by this whole affair and turning suspicion back around on them hardly seem helpful, but when the timing, accusation and validity coincides this well even I have to wonder. (This is a blog afterall, I hold no journalist responsibilities) To their credit, Ragnarok are underdogs in all this and that instantly makes them more relatable, but whenever large amounts of money enter the conversation I personally find my sympathy drain. But who knows, maybe us newborn doubters will all found ourselves made fools of in the court trails to come, I suppose we all shall see.

The sad and frightful tale of Rune 2

What a wild ride

You hear a lot of strange, wacky and sad stories coming out of any industry that proposes to deal with the fallacy of hiring humans (You read me right, automatic industry is the way of the future!) and the world of game development is not in any way different. There's always crazy mind-boggling stuff happening just behind the scenes which never get revealed until years after the fact and most times leave folk like me going "Huh, I wish I knew about that at the time." There's countless weird cancellations, failed projects, unfathomable design decisions, and even the way that Ubisoft made the exact same game over and over for years on end. (Apparently that was all because of one person. Not refuting that accusation, just think it makes a convenient excuse is all. On a related note: Did that guy happen to work as the sole greenlighter for Disney movies in his spare time?) Yet recently, thanks to an article from PC Gamer, we have the tale of a story that isn't ancient history by Internet standards. It's still old, mind you, but only about a year or so. And I think that's a fascinating topic to dive into as we find out what was the deal with Rune 2, Human Head Studios and Ragnarok Game.

First off, what is Rune 2? Thank you asking, honoured reader, because I have literally no idea whatsoever. Yeah, I had to look up some reviews and stuff, so that's great. Essentially Rune 2 is the sequel to 2000's Rune, and it was a long awaited release indeed. Much as one might guess, the concept handles Nordic viking mythology where one must battle the undead, godly and whatever lies inbetween, in order to save the world, or something. So it's a third person hack and slash adventure title, with a Nordic setting. There's some crafting in the game, weapon degradation and the ability to charge into fights that you aren't even nearly prepared for. (What more could you want from your game?) Unfortunately it wasn't well received for a number of reasons, most pointedly being the fact that the gameplay gets old quickly and there's not enough to really set this game apart from any others. Oh and it looked kinda sucky for when it came out. Which was last year, by the way. Also this game launched in the wake of 2018's 'God of War', another Nordic-mythology themed action adventure title, so there's no way this game would ever look even remotely passable in comparison. (That's just the bare-faced truth of the situation.)

But why was this game not the smash hit it could have been despite the 19 years of buildup? (I mean, you could argue that no game could live upto that hype, but I never even heard of this series so the game couldn't have been too ridiculously hyped.) The typical answer in this sorts of situations is little more than 'who knows', but the game's publisher, Ragnarok Game LTD, claim to know and let off about it in that aforementioned interview. Now one must bear in mind, of course, that this is a story being told from a single perspective thusfar, and until we hear both sides a lot of this can remain conjecture, but there's still some interesting nuggets to be gleaned from all this whole tale, starting from the beginning of the game's woes; when Human Head Studios announced that they would be disbanding and thus ceasing work on the game the day after release.

Quite the shocker for the everyday fan who was looking forward to this game for so long, but even more so for the publisher, Ragnarok Game, who apparently had no clue about this until it happened. Don't feel too distraught for this sudden closure, however, because it wasn't so far into the new year that the entire staff got picked up by Bethesda in order to open as Roundhouse Studios. (Huh, that was a quick and neat turnaround for them. How fortunate.) In their wake they left behind an absolutely bewildered publisher with a game that they hadn't marketed, yet announced they would be abandoning, which certainly wasn't the most smooth transition of the game's ownership. Ragnarok's General Counsel seemed to imply that this was vindictive in his interview, saying "If you want to tank a game ... this is the playbook on how to do it." But without Roundhouse's word this is merely idle speculation, and seeing as how they've already got their lawyers out I doubt there'll be any frank illumination on things like 'motivation.' (Although, to play devil's advocate. Resorting to legal representatives certainly does paint a guilty conscious on the team.)

So at this point I'd say it would be pretty understandable for Ragnarok game to wipe their hands of the game, take the loss and try to move on with something new, but either they couldn't or wouldn't because their team struggled to do whatever they could for Rune 2. All they really needed was the source code in order to continue working under the game with someone else, but then another roadblock was thrown in their face as Human Head refused to hand it over at first. (At this point you'll likely be struck, just as I was, at how annoying it is to hear a story from just one side. Although considering the source code was still the property of Ragnarok game at the time, they'd have to have a pretty good excuse for all of this nonsense.) It was only towards the end of the year that it was handed over and the work could begin to revive this game. And at this point the effort would be going into a revival, as this game did not fare well on the review circuit. Whether it was because it was left unfinished or just because it wasn't very good in the first place, first opinions were not kind and Ragnarok would, and will, have a mother of an uphill climb in rectifying that.

What's so bizarre about all this is the fact that the way Human Head Studios is alleged to have acted doesn't make sense either for their reputation or monetary gain. On one hand the way they abandoned Ragnarok has since become widely known due to the way that the publisher had to scramble other developers in order to make the difference up, some answered the call and all now have heard some of Human Head's shenanigans. On the otherhand, as was pointed out in the interview, by leaving before the release date and running, they walked out on two pay checks totalling over $150,000. (That Bethesda sign-up bonus must be strong.) Even Rune 2's executive producer seemed bewildered by that, he himself said that they could have just kept quiet and rode out the launch, collected the money, handed off the game and still be where they are now without any of the scrutiny and a lot richer. It's just a collection of scenarios that make no sense.

As for Rune 2, well it's currently in the midst of a major overhaul from all-new developers who have the benefit of direct player feedback to work off of. Just as with other games in this age of perpetual development, Rune 2 is the kind of game looking at a total overhaul and thus perhaps there might be hope for the beleaguered title yet. From what I understand there is a lot of work to be done, NPCs to be added, Quests to be shaken-up, maybe even entire systems to be reworked, but it seems that Ragnarok have amassed a team to pull it off. Studio 369 have taken over the development of this title in wake of it's soon-to-be Steam release and that will mark the coming of a new age for the game, and I, for one, hope for the best of luck for them and their game, as it sounds like they might need it.

All in all this adds up to a headscratching tale of 'backstabbing' in the gaming industry that is somewhat unlike anything I've heard before. I mean sure, you get the endless stories about big publishers leaning their weight on the smaller Devs for whatever reason, but two small companies coming at odds with seemingly no provocation? It just comes across as wildly out of left field. Whatever happens of this situation, Roundhouse Studio are going to have this stain on their reputation for a very long time, and perhaps even worse than that, people are going to remember them for the crap they pulled when they were still Human Head. No I don't mean any of this nonsense, I mean for the creation of that artsy dumpster fire 'The Quiet Man'. That's the kind of sordid wrongdoing that no one wants on their resume...