Zombie Studios Closing

RooksBailey · January 19, 2015, 05:42:07 PM

I have really developed a thing for cyberpunk games lately. It started with Frozen Synapse (that was my first cyberpunk game believe it or not), and has since progressed through other titles, including my latest passion, Shadowrun. I just find the setting really compelling because it seems so relevant to what is actually starting to happen in the world.

As a result, I have found myself wishing that somebody would release a AAA cyberpunk shooter. This came to mind after I watched some vids of Insurgency. That game looks great - and I am very happy to see that the community is building nicely; it is now up to over 3K average players! - but the Middle East soldier vs terrorist setting is so tired to me. So I started thinking that I really would love to see a dev forget the "modern warfare" genre and go near future/ cyberpunk instead. There are some titles out there: Neo Tokyo, Blacklight Retribution and that French game (I forget the name) come to mind. But of the three, only Blacklight was a really solid game with a sizeable community (and I loved it!), but sadly the devs seem to have abandoned it as of late. Well, now I know why:

http://www.pcgamer.com/blacklight-retribution-devs-zombie-studios-to-close-after-21-years/?ns_campaign=article-feed&ns_mchannel=ref&ns_source=steam&ns_linkname=0&ns_fee=0

QuoteBlacklight: Retribution and Spec Ops developers Zombie Studios will close, the company announced today. Founded in 1994, the Seattle-based studio made the announcement on the official Zombie Studios website, but it doesn't spell the end for free-to-play shooter Blacklight: Retribution. That will fall into the hands of newly formed studio Builder Box, which is helmed by the former Director of Production and Technical Director of Zombie Studios.

Glad to hear that Blacklight is moving on to the new studio. It is a great game and deserves much better treatment.

Nefaro · January 19, 2015, 06:07:09 PM

I kinda enjoyed EYE: Divine Cybermancy, "the French one", mainly because it had a good dose of RPG in it. Some of it was weak or odd but I got some value out of it.

Never tried Blacklight.

Huw the Poo · January 19, 2015, 06:20:34 PM

Blacklight was an excellent example of the genre in my opinion, but I just wasn't good enough at it to play online. It was one of those games where I'd just spawn and die, spawn and die, repeat until ragequit.

EYE...heh...it's one of those games you have to try at least once. Mental.

Gusington · January 19, 2015, 06:23:57 PM

I've been wanting to try EYE for a while. I've seen it on sale for as low as 3.00 recently too.

Jarhead0331 · January 19, 2015, 06:47:36 PM

If you are interested in a futuristic "cyber-punk" FPS, check out Syndicate. Its really pretty good.

Nefaro · January 19, 2015, 08:33:59 PM

Quote from: Jarhead0331 on January 19, 2015, 06:47:36 PM
If you are interested in a futuristic "cyber-punk" FPS, check out Syndicate. Its really pretty good.

They made an FPS of that IP?

Lots of people bagged on the old Shadowrun first-person shooter years ago because it didn't incorporate the IP's RPG roots at all. I'd be surprised if a Syndicate FPS didn't have a similar effect on fans of the old one.

Jarhead0331 · January 19, 2015, 09:19:02 PM

Quote from: Nefaro on January 19, 2015, 08:33:59 PM
Quote from: Jarhead0331 on January 19, 2015, 06:47:36 PM
If you are interested in a futuristic "cyber-punk" FPS, check out Syndicate. Its really pretty good.

They made an FPS of that IP?

Lots of people bagged on the old Shadowrun first-person shooter years ago because it didn't incorporate the IP's RPG roots at all. I'd be surprised if a Syndicate FPS didn't have a similar effect on fans of the old one.

Yep. The game got pretty hammered for deviating from the roots of the original titles. Everyone wanted a remake like Satellite Reign, so when they got an FPS, a large number of Syndicate fans had a fit. As far as gameplay, it did get some positive reviews, but it was short lived game due to light SP content and not enough of a fan base in MP.

Jarhead0331 · January 19, 2015, 10:03:43 PM

I actually just reinstalled and started playing it for the first time in over 2 years and I'm having a blast. Great game with a lot of very cool ideas and options.

Nefaro · January 19, 2015, 10:09:28 PM

Quote from: Jarhead0331 on January 19, 2015, 10:03:43 PM
I actually just reinstalled and started playing it for the first time in over 2 years and I'm having a blast. Great game with a lot of very cool ideas and options.

Sounds like the same situation as the old SR one. Interesting multi-player stuff but the old fans were furious so it died off rather quickly, or so I read. Later on some praise started showing up but it's fate was sealed.

I don't recall reading much about the Syndicate one. Admittedly, I also passed both of them up because they were FPSes and not similar to the old stuff.

RooksBailey · January 20, 2015, 04:34:02 PM

Quote from: Nefaro on January 19, 2015, 06:07:09 PM
I kinda enjoyed EYE: Divine Cybermancy, "the French one", mainly because it had a good dose of RPG in it. Some of it was weak or odd but I got some value out of it.

That was the name! Sorry, I was too lazy to look it up. ;D I watched some gameplay vids. If nothing else, it certainly is an imaginative game! :)

Quote from: Huw The PooBlacklight was an excellent example of the genre in my opinion, but I just wasn't good enough at it to play online. It was one of those games where I'd just spawn and die, spawn and die, repeat until ragequit.

It was a bit too fast. I wish they would have went less CoD and more Battlefield in terms of pacing. What kept bringing me back was the setting, though. They really did a good job nailing the cyberpunk feel. That is not easy to do: too little cyberpunk spice and you wind up with a modern warfare shooter, and too much and you start drifting into standard science fiction.

Quote from: Jarhead0331Yep. The game got pretty hammered for deviating from the roots of the original titles. Everyone wanted a remake like Satellite Reign, so when they got an FPS, a large number of Syndicate fans had a fit. As far as gameplay, it did get some positive reviews, but it was short lived game due to light SP content and not enough of a fan base in MP.

Yeah, I remember the uproar over that. I actually took a look at the game on Amazon the other day - you can get a copy of $6 - and saw that now that the Syndicate fanbois have moved on (I mean fanbois of the original), the reviews have pushed the game to four stars out of five. People still largely think it was a missed opportunity for the franchise because the SP portion was too thin on story and content, but most liked it for the bargain price. Might have to pick it up one day.

Quote from: NefaroLots of people bagged on the old Shadowrun first-person shooter years ago because it didn't incorporate the IP's RPG roots at all.

I didn't even realize they made a FPS out of that IP! I have since taken a look at some reviews and can see why the game failed: based on what I read, Microsoft turned it into a pure MP arena shooter. WTH?

What a waste of an IP. Still, would love for somebody to take another crack at turning SR into a shooter like Deus Ex.

Lastly, an update on Blacklight Retribution from the devs:

QuoteFellow gamers,

We have some exciting news for Blacklight: Retribution and its community. As of 1 January 2015 Blacklight Retribution, in its entirety, will be owned by Builder Box. Who and what is Builder Box? In a nutshell we are the former Director of Production and the former Technical Director of Zombie Studios, along with the awesome staff that created, developed, and continually work on Blacklight: Retribution.

What does this mean for you the fan? While ownership of the game has changed, the people behind the scenes who have been constantly contributing to the Blacklight universe for the last four years remains intact. Builder Box will be working with Perfect World so that, as a fan, you can look forward to more updates and exciting changes in the coming year.

Thank you for all the support that you have given Zombie and Blacklight over the years, and we look forward to your ongoing support as we transition to Builder Box.

For more information on Builder Box you can follow us on Twitter @builderbox and like us here on Facebook:

All the best!

Andy Kipling
Co-CEO Builder Box, LLC

Russell Nelson
Co-CEO Builder Box, LLC

Glad to hear it!

Now if we could get similar news about Hawken....

RooksBailey · January 22, 2015, 02:20:42 AM

In light of the latest news concerning Zombie Studios and the future of Blacklight Retribution, I decided to reinstall the game after about a two year absence. All things considered, it is about how I remember it - which is both good and bad. Good, because the game is still a heck of a lot of fun (about 500 people still play it daily). In fact, if this was the beta for BR all over again, I would once again contribute real money to the game to help it succeed. That says a lot for the solid shooter fundamentals of the game. But on the bad side - nothing has really changed in the last two years with the exception of maybe one new map that I don't recall playing on before. That says a lot about just how much Zombie was neglecting this game for the last few years.

I am hopeful that Builder Box can get the game back on track as there is a real gem of a F2P here. However, what I really hope happens is that they announce a fresh, new Blacklight title, one more like the original which included a single player campaign with a multiplayer component. Seeing how F2P didn't prevent Zombie from going bankrupt, maybe it is time for BB to keep BR as their F2P offering, but for them to now focus on a more traditional P2P model. With Kickstarter, they probably could easily fund a brand new game, especially seeing how people already can try what they have accomplished with the franchise to date.

Just some thoughts. :)