Horizons FD: All the new steam reviews are thumbs down

lomac

L
FD: All the new steam reviews are thumbs down (edit: if 2.1.03 fixed your issues pls update your review)

Edit: If the latest patch has addressed the reasons you gave a thumbs-down review, please take the time to update your review. The devs seem to have addressed quite a few issues.

Original Post:

All seem to be related to 2.1. Just in case no one is watching steam.

IMO they should have kept them as separate products, then ED would get all positives and then only Horizons would get the negatives. The original game was amazing.

Edit: Oops they are still separate products, my mistake.

Edit: Some have challenged my data, I added a reply with mire info here: https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showt...s-down/page2?p=4131463&viewfull=1#post4131463
 
Last edited:

Monk

Monk
ZOMG the GabeN storefront garden is going to kill a game! How dare he?! LOL

I would not be where I am today if I listened to the opinions of the sheep herd. Even that shepherd can go shove it for all I care.

I still see generally the same activity from my friend's list, so I'm not too worried.



I am curious to see what Frontier's financial plan for their studio looks like for the next few years. I'm guessing that revenue from ED (and its expansions) is going to trail off precipitously as the market for their game becomes saturated. Planet Coaster will be the revenue generator going forward...funding DB's dream project well into the future.
 

GG7

G
Cmdr Dubstep Dragon said:
lol watch this thread get filled with pro 2.1 fanboys defending a lost cause
Click to expand...

I was going to say the same thing. It does NO ONE in the ED community any good to be blindly defending 2.1 when the general consensus among long time ED players and more importantly... GAME REVIEWERS, that Engineers can best be described as a half baked addition which was not quite ready for prime time.

That said... If you remove the Engineers portion of 2.1 and only focus on other additions such as the redesigned mission board with improved USS and mission specific content, redesigned outfitting sections, Galaxy Map Bookmarks, all the new voice comm features when docking with and departing from stations, there are still a lot of very cool things about 2.1 that deserve some praise.

I just hope that FD knows better than to only listen to its predictable fanboy contingent and actually takes the time to read the volumes of constructive criticism regarding how Engineers can be turned around and brought up to the level of quality we normally associate with this game.

Time will tell, and hopefully we will soon see where this is all headed when the next point update finally arrives.

Speaking of which... Anyone have any new info on the ETA of the next point update? I would have guessed it would drop today being Tuesday, but obviously not the case.
 
Last edited:

lomac

L
At 600+ hours I'm not a casual. I've adapted to the new AI, it forced me to finally bind FA toggle to a joystick button, and it's fine, it is more fun. But you can read all the rage quits by more casual players, and it's a legitimate concern.

Git gud - some people just can't or won't, doesn't mean they shouldn't play. FD can do something to balance the difficulty to player skill. It's a tough thing to do but it can be done.

I read a lot of threads where people were having fun playing the way it used to be and they just can't seem to adjust. Maybe there should be a solo-only mode where the player can adjust the difficulty of the AI. In other games, including MMOs you have that. For example in WoW you have normal mode dungeons of various levels and then hard mode. You have LFR, normal, hard mode, and mythic mode.

It's critical because it allows the game to appeal to casual players who can't or don't want to spend the time to "git gud' and doesn't dumb down the game for more enthusiastic players who want more of a challenge and better rewards.

Edit: Also to those saying reviews don't matter - they do matter. Often I will base my final buying decisions on well written and thought out reviews, both negative and positive. This happens with hard goods on Amazon, Newegg, etc. and also with games, movies etc. In general the games that I've found enjoyable typically have overwhelmingly positive reviews, and when there's a wave of negative reviews it typically signals a problem.
 
Last edited:

Darrett

Darrett
Monk said:
I am curious to see what Frontier's financial plan for their studio looks like for the next few years. I'm guessing that revenue from ED (and its expansions) is going to trail off precipitously as the market for their game becomes saturated. Planet Coaster will be the revenue generator going forward...funding DB's dream project well into the future.
Click to expand...
This is the real question. Yes, it's DB's dream project, but he's also a businessman. Will he be willing to spend money on a losing venture if Elite isn't capable of financing itself? And if so, how far down that path is he willing to go? It might be overly pessimistic, but I would doubt we can expect more than one season of the game losing more on development than it generates before we get the "Offline mode" patch and the server plug gets pulled.
 

Janichsan

J
GG7 said:
I was going to say the same thing. It does NO ONE in the ED community any good to be blindly defending 2.1 when the general consensus among long time ED players and more importantly... GAME REVIEWERS, that Engineers can best be described as a half baked addition which was not quite ready for prime time.
Click to expand...
What "game reviewers"? All the "reviews" of the patch are from disgruntled players that bear the same level of credibility as a post in this forum. (Not that I wouldn't disagree with you that the Engineers are in fact - once more - a very half-baked addition.)
 

A. C. Dobro VI

A. C. Dobro VI
Darrett said:
if Elite isn't capable of financing itself?
Click to expand...
That's what the other games are for. DB hasn't put all his eggs in one basket because he personally wants this to succeed. I'm not worried, they've gotten this far and from an age when things were much harder.
 
Last edited:

Dathayn

Dathayn
New steam reviews is the key bit of data there. I've been playing since launch and only have one account so I don't have that newbie perspective, but the numbers would suggest a rough go by new players and that's not a good thing. Once you get some light years under you, it's a different story. Although personally, I think peeps are all too often knee jerk to the negative on just about any creative endeavor these days and lack basic patience. Numbers are numbers tho.

There's a lot to love about 2.1, but there certainly are issues that need addressing. Maybe 2.2 will solidify the engineer vision and carry us forward in a more receptive light
 

Monk

Monk
Darrett said:
This is the real question. Yes, it's DB's dream project, but he's also a businessman. Will he be willing to spend money on a losing venture if Elite isn't capable of financing itself? And if so, how far down that path is he willing to go? It might be overly pessimistic, but I would doubt we can expect more than one season of the game losing more on development than it generates before we get the "Offline mode" patch and the server plug gets pulled.
Click to expand...

It is overly pessimistic. We don't have any data on the cost of development and how much total revenue they have taken in on this IP. For all we know, they could have collected enough revenue to float ED through to sunset.

A. C. Dobro VI said:
That's what the other games are for. DB hasn't put all his eggs in one basket because he personally wants this to succeed. I'm not worried, they've gotten this far and from an age when things were much harder.
Click to expand...

I'm not so sure that is a valid proposition. While I have heard this bandied about, and it kinda makes sense, I have to ultimately disagree. Frontier is publicly traded and answers to a board (though DB is the majority member). In the effort to keep the share price going up, supporting a game at a loss is not going to look well and will be met by opposition in the board room. DB can try to use his majority position to stay the course, but the stock price would tumble if this sort of news got out.
 

GG7

G
Janichsan said:
What "game reviewers"? All the "reviews" of the patch are from disgruntled players that bear the same level of credibility as a post in this forum. (Not that I wouldn't disagree with you that the Engineers are in fact - once more - a very half-baked addition.)
Click to expand...

I get the majority of my game news and reviews from Podcasts these days. I believe it was on the PC Gamer Podcast of two weeks ago (Not positive on which show number), but the panel on this show did discuss the 2.1 update of Elite Horizons and the editor of that Mag said in so many words that the new Engineers feature was "Half Baked" and that there were more negative reactions to the feature than positive.

Most web based game review sites will UPDATE their reviews for a game if there is new content released such as a DLC pack etc. If you are looking for something more tangible such as a web based review, I would suggest checking the usual sources such as IGN, PC Gamer Mag etc.

But back to your original suggestion... Not true! The less than glowing reception to Engineers most definitely extends beyond the disgruntled community member reviews and includes professional game reviewers as well. I consider PC Gamer Mag to be a reputable professional source of game reviews. Don't you?
 
Last edited:

Bomba Luigi

Bomba Luigi
Privata said:
57% of recent reviews are positive for elite dangerous
72% of recent reviews for horizons are positive
Click to expand...
So much to "All are negative".

Not that it really matters, positiv reviews or negative reviews it means all bananas. And it definitly says nothing about sales.
 

GG7

G
Bomba Luigi said:
So much to "All are negative".

Not that it really matters, positiv reviews or negative reviews it means all bananas. And it definitly says nothing about sales.
Click to expand...

Seriously? The guy provided NO SOURCE or attribution for those percentages. He just threw them up on this thread, and you just accept them as fact?

How about this...

90% of all gamers under the age of 30, own a WiiU.

I can pull numbers out of my butt too. ;) Doesn't make them true.
 

Bomba Luigi

Bomba Luigi
GG7 said:
Seriously? The guy provided NO SOURCE or attribution for those percentages. He just threw them up on this thread, and you just accept them as fact?

How about this...

90% of all gamers under the age of 30, own a WiiU.

I can pull numbers out of my butt too. ;) Doesn't make them true.
Click to expand...
No, I did go to steam and checked first, hes right. You can do it too.
 

Stupid_hippy

Stupid_hippy
Privata said:
57% of recent reviews are positive for elite dangerous
72% of recent reviews for horizons are positive
Click to expand...


Heh, good effort proving that this thread is a complete lie.. and yes, I looked myself,before anyone says he just made up these numbers, although it's only 57% and 71% now. :)
 

GG7

G
Bomba Luigi said:
No, I did go to steam and checked first, hes right. You can do it too.
Click to expand...

I will.

I don't see the kind of deep dive parsing of those numbers you actually need to determine how many are specifically referring to the Engineers update vs how many are referring to the game as a whole.

But lets assume that they are specific to Engineers only... If those numbers are accurately reflecting recent reviews as in (post 2.1), then that still means that 43% of the ED category reviews are negative and 28% of Horizon category reviews are negative.

Not what I would call a ringing endorsement from the game's community members, which tend to be much more biased towards the positive than the negative.

I think it would be safe to say when compared to previous updates to the game such as the original Horizons 2.0 and other more minor additions such as SHIPS and CQC that Engineers still holds the unflattering position of being the least liked seasonal update in the game's history.

Not something I personally can feel good about considering that the more time that goes by, the better handle the developers should have and generally do have on the game's code and their ability to add new features to the game without causing a drop in player support and general enthusiasm towards the title.

None of this spells DOOM for the franchise, but it does send a message that FD would be wise to heed. That goes for the ED fanboy contingent as well. ;)
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom