Omega Syndrome

Fleisch · Post by **Fleisch** » June 20th, 2007, 1:56 pm

Don't recall if it's been mentioned here, but checking out the NMA forum on Fallout 3 led me to this link:

http://www.ausgamedev.com/index.html

An independent Aussie developer with an isometric, turn-based futuristic game, The Omega Syndrome. There's a demo available. Character/skill system very largely Fallout-based, to say the least, but with X-Com foes. Definitely worth a look for fans of the genre.

Gallifrey · Post by **Gallifrey** » June 20th, 2007, 1:57 pm

Is that the one where when you die, that's it, game over, no reloading from a save?
If so, I recall giving it a whirl a while back. Really neat game, but that whole death-is-final turned me right off.

Gothmog · Post by **Gothmog** » June 20th, 2007, 2:21 pm

Looks interesting. IÂ´ll try the demo.

Fleisch · Post by **Fleisch** » June 20th, 2007, 2:21 pm

Is that the one where when you die, that's it, game over, no reloading from a save?
If so, I recall giving it a whirl a while back. Really neat game, but that whole death-is-final turned me right off.

Probably, but that's no longer the case. The developer is clearly into "iron man" style, but apparently based on feedback, he has changed that. So you now have a "soft mode" save and reload option.

Gallifrey · Post by **Gallifrey** » June 20th, 2007, 2:27 pm

Awesome. I remember he was very adamant about not changing that ironman rule, glad to see things have changed!
I'll have do give it another go.

Saxon1974 · Post by **Saxon1974** » July 11th, 2007, 6:25 pm

This looks very interesting.

Is it worth 30$?

How long is the game and is it pretty bug free? Is it linear?

Iane · Post by **Iane** » August 7th, 2007, 2:09 am

Gallifrey wrote:Is that the one where when you die, that's it, game over, no reloading from a save?
If so, I recall giving it a whirl a while back. Really neat game, but that whole death-is-final turned me right off.

Did with me also but now with save options went out and purchased it with no regrets

focus · Post by **focus** » September 10th, 2007, 5:34 am

Just bought this game a couple of weeks back only find now that the guy has taken the site down and is no longer supporting the game.

Anyone know if any other forums, etc, exist for the game?

YouTube · September 10th, 2007, 6:09 am

Hmm, his final message is rather dismal:

David Moffatt wrote:After four years of updating and selling The Omega Syndrome online, I have finally decided to take it off sale and shut the site down. While this game was never profitable by any measure, it was fun working on it for the first few years. However over the last year I have found my motivation to work on it and subsidise it has flagged and recently it has dropped off altogether.

While I may be back with a new site and game in the future (I was never happy with the name of this one), I don't know if I will have the high motivation that is required to make another computer RPG. Why? Fan expectations are high, the potential audience is small and fractured and the amount of work that is required to create even a low quality computer RPG, far exceeds that of any other type of game. So in short I no longer believe they can be successful financially or otherwise, unless they are properly funded and have the very best people working in each area.

So in four years the game never made a profit? He didn't even want to leave it online to generate a few sales per month from people like focus who might stumble upon it? Damn...

Baelthazar · Post by **Baelthazar** » September 10th, 2007, 10:23 am

Well, from what I hear, the perma-death thing, which was made an option in a later patch, really caught tons of flak. 4 years ago, when that came out, I would think that the way to get one's name out and the opportunities for Digital Download were rather low. I hardly bought indie games back then (I used to think Paradox was an "indie" developer, which, at the time, it was).

Now the market has changed, I buy nearly 70% of my games from indie developers (seriously, the last AAA titles I bought were Bioshock and LOTR: Online, so one very recently and one like months ago). He should try to polish it up, re-release, maybe even see if he could get Gamersgate, or the like interested. I played the demo, it wasn't bad, a little derivative and it literally ripped off Fallout, but overall not awful.

I don't see Eschalon finding the same fate, as the whole climate of indie games has changed. Look at Darwinia, Defcon, Stardock (Gal Civ went from indie to AAA in a matter of 2 years), Kerberos (Sword of the Stars). Eschalon has lots of word of mouth and should break out. Heck, even Depths of Peril is getting tons of "press" on the various message boards across the net. Profitability take a bit of "leg-work" in that you have to post stuff all over the place to get people to see, but it is a great atmosphere for indies these days.

Spiderweb has been doing this for years, makes one wonder what Omega Syndrome did "wrong?"

Bael

Iane · Post by **Iane** » October 24th, 2007, 12:52 am

focus wrote:Just bought this game a couple of weeks back only find now that the guy has taken the site down and is no longer supporting the game.

Anyone know if any other forums, etc, exist for the game?

http://ausgamedev.10.forumer.com/index.php is still up - I only just seen this Damn - anyone know what last patch was for this game

focus · Post by **focus** » October 24th, 2007, 5:21 am

3.42 was the last patch I downloaded just before the site went down.

ttomm46 · Post by **ttomm46** » December 1st, 2007, 1:51 am

I wouldn't suggest buying..I bought the game when it first came out and every update you had to restart the game from scratch..the developer fiddled with the game so much i gave up on it....

Now if the site is down don't even think about it
Tom

ttomm46 · Post by **ttomm46** » May 21st, 2008, 12:11 am

I bought it . it was a waste of money and time..it was poorly balanced and every update it killed your saved games...It was more an experiment than a good game to me.It was a Faiiout clone without the fun,

The Drunken Lizard Pub

Omega Syndrome

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