Genesis Rising: The Universal Crusade Review
čas přidán 24. 09. 2023
Genesis Rising is a space strategy game where your ships are living organisms fueled by blood, and that's the most normal part of it.
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I take video suggestions at mandaloremovies@gmail.com
Twitter: Lord_Mandalore
English captions by: @ValentineGrimCC
00:00 - Intro
00:23 - Background & Issues
01:22 - Game Premise
05:07 - Visuals
08:36 - Music & Sound Design
12:14 - Gameplay
17:35 - Story
32:20 - Conclusions
33:57 - Credits
35:04 - Fun
#GenesisRising #GenesisRisingPC #GenesisRisingRecivew
Support the channel at: www.patreon.com/mandaloregaming or www.paypal.me/mandaloregaming
I take video suggestions at mandaloremovies@gmail.com
Twitter: Lord_Mandalore
English captions by: @ValentineGrimCC
00:00 - Intro
00:23 - Background & Issues
01:22 - Game Premise
05:07 - Visuals
08:36 - Music & Sound Design
12:14 - Gameplay
17:35 - Story
32:20 - Conclusions
33:57 - Credits
35:04 - Fun
#GenesisRising #GenesisRisingPC #GenesisRisingRecivew
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Komentáře
Genesis Rising on Steam - store.steampowered.com/app/3230/Genesis_Rising/ I'm glad to see a lot of people thought they imagined this game. It's a lot to take in.
Aslan ate my son, Mandy. Please help, he won't leave the chik-fil-a.
I actually bought this when it was newish, or more accurately my dad bought it for me on one of our occasional gamestop visits where I looked at the back of boxes for 15 minutes until deciding which game I was gonna play for the next month or two. I don't think I made it past two missions before going back to play mechwarrior.
@Infel Sphere oh man, you've just made me remember how my dad and I would go to a game store every few months and pick up one game on sale. That's how I found Halo 3 when I was 6, and me and my dad played it a lot. Nowadays, he and I mostly play Arma and racing games, but we still occasionally play games like Halo.
Thank you for the coverage of our first video game :) It's been a while since someone mentioned Genesis Rising :) If we can answer any questions regarding the game you might have, please let us know :)
Please please, add "Rise of Nations: Rise of Legends" to your to-do list. That game feels like it was fever dream. It had everything in it.
Hi, @MandaloreGaming, I'm one of the Genesis Rising's developers. Thank you for doing this excellent and humorous review - surprised that you dug it out after all this time, I enjoyed watching it very much, and considering how flawed the game was, you were actually very kind :) None of us at Metamorf had any previous professional experience whatsoever at the beginning of the production - a few of us did some experimental game development as a hobby, but nothing nearly close to this scale, so it was a madness to start it with such a small team, and a miracle that it actually came out. The production took many years because we were also building the engine from scratch, together with all the tools for world-editing and directing in-game real-time interactive sequences (which was bleeding-edge tech for that time and wasn't used at all, the publisher decided for pre-rendered cutscenes), with its own visual scripting language embedded, designed specifically for directing cinematic scenes that vary depending on information from simulation and vice versa. The idea was to be able to see the fleet you designed through the main ship's window during the dialogues, it was fully implemented and cut out from the final game in favour of video-clips. The multiplayer code supported hundreds of entities in the scene over the very slow modems of that time, which most of the games in that era didn't have. Multiplayer mode was actually the main focus of development, and the best part of the game, inspired very much by Orson Scott Card's book Ender's Game - it was full 3D at the begining, with all the problems with orientation that being in zero-gravity brings, so it was "nailed" to a 2D plane later in development; it even had realistic physical movement of spaceships (accelerated half of the way and then thrusted in the other direction to stop at a designated point), but that made spatial distances and all strategies around them totally meaningless, so we threw that out too. The multiplayer idea never took off with the publisher as it required additional investment for server maintenance etc, but it was actually fun to play in LAN, not sure if it's possible with the released version. We did most of that work (engine, the world-editor and the game) with 4 (in letters: four) developers, and 6-8 artists, depending on the moment. The budget was actually miserable, until in the last year the publisher jumped in, doubled the team and "spiced up" the production value with cinematics. I still cringe at those Warhammer-like armors and the ship interiors with blinking lights, because originally everything was organic, like in the Cruciform comic book - from the elegant suits with veins growing on human bodies, to command room that looked like a crosover between a whale's stomach and a cathedral. The style of characters in the initial version was also much more cartoony and could be described as "Disney meets David Cronenberg in H.R. Giger's living room", but all of that was dropped by publisher as it was considered "too East-European", and replaced with something they thought Warhammer or H.A.L.O. audience would like more. Flawed as it was, this project was started in the moment when the game industry didn't exist AT ALL in our freshly bombed country, exausted by a decade of wars. It has demonstrated that even in those circumstances, it is not impossible to start and finish (albeit with sticks and ropes) a fully fledged "almost AAA" game, and has inspired many others to get into the industry, which is today very healthy and growing in Serbia. Thank you once again for the review, it is much appreciated.
That's awesome to hear that the ambitions had been so much higher, and that the 3D space Homeworld influence still came through despite all the cutbacks that had to be done due to the rough development conditions. Thanks for all your hard work. Despite how unstable it was it still stuck with me all these years later and a game worth remembering is pretty special.
No wonder humanity in this game is so reminiscent of NAZO
It would be great if you guys could get the band back together and remake this game with visuals on the level of Scorn and everything else as you envisioned it. Maybe some rewrites of the story a bit. Just imagine the henta-I mean fan content people will make!
Honestly, knowing the story behind the game makes the achievement of building a game like this extremely impressive, and makes its flaws understandable. It's like finishing your work on your first big school project while the building is on fire. Sure, it's got flaws, but considering what you were dealing with at the time, those flaws are forgivable. The project had some really awesome ideas in it too that deserve more expansion.
May I inquire if you plan to create a similar game as this? It may not be perfect but certainly had a lot of fun, Im hoping that maybe a retelling with a more serious tone :v, perhaps more bio-ships the size of titanic proportions? I mean nothing speaks more terrifying as a massive bio-ship heading to your fleet
I honestly love the idea of "All of the universe exists to annoy one guy because God thinks it's funny to mess with the first being he ever made". It makes God look like he's one of those Roller Coaster Tycoon players who build Mister Bones' Wild Ride and just sit there, watching it, giggling to himself the entire time.
Like the Firstborn from Jericho, except that idea was really, REALLY good and needs to be expanded on.
"Hey there, it's Josh..."
@Marcara081 I loved the backstory and lore of that game and wish it got a follow-up. Heck, I'd settle for a visual novel as long as the setting and characters remained that creative.
I know eve is all I'm saying to uou
well, if god exists, i think it would be something like that - a tycoon type player giggling at what he created...
I love how essentially the "conspiracy" of the government already controlling the universe is to do the exact same thing but even better this time They literally want to do New Game+. It's brilliant
Tbh the opening father-son bonding time actually does fit the nightmarish setting, but it lacks one critical element: The perspective of the outsider. I’m reminded of the episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation that features Picard being tortured by the Cardassians. At one point the torturer is sitting in the interrogation cell with his daughter on his knee, doting on her as he tortures Picard. Picard asks him how he could allow a child to witness such horror, at which point the torturer is genuinely confused, and asks him why, given that his daughter has been taught that enemies of the Cardassian state deserve their fate. This scene is missing its Picard-analogue. To Iconah and his father, this *genuinely is* a fun, super-cool outing between father and son. A genuine heartfelt bit of bonding. To an outsider, it is a father teaching his son how to best order a giant slave-beast to kill. But without the outsider, that part is de-emphasized. We only experience it through the eyes of the characters present.
I disagree. The player themselves is already such an outsider. Putting a character in there just to fill that role would feel artificial. Star Trek does it that way for the obvious reason that Picard is already the protagonist of the show before such a scene was ever imagined so naturally we just keep following his perspective. But generally putting an outsider into your world just so that the audience can discover the world along with the character is considered a cheap escape from trying to describe the world in an organic way by just letting the audience witness it. In a way it's a "tell instead of show" situation where instead of being shown the world you get told about it by this outsider character. Just think, what is are your first thoughts whenever you hear of another new isekai show? Sure, there are gems among those too, but usually that genre label alone is enough to expect it to most probably be some kind of trash.
21st century Pov character isn't necessary; just the whiplash alone already tells you everything.
Picard's been through a lot. But reality TV?! That's going too far. Inhumane torture!
@Hanako Seishin I think there’s some miscommunication here, I don’t mean a *setting* outsider, I mean a *cultural* outsider. Picard and the Cardassians occupy the same setting, but Picard is an outsider to Cardassian culture. Such a thing could be accomplished by hearing random comms chatter from destroyed ships as their crews panicked. However, I must acknowledge @StriderXYZ’s comment that the outright whiplash of the scene serves as its own dramatic highlight. Tonal dissonance is an under-utilized narrative tool, and can often stand on its own merits.
@SweetMeat Lol. DS9 could’ve been accurately renamed “Keeping up with the Cardassians”!
I kind of really like how casual some elements of this are. Like...the universe is conquered, humanity drives around nightmare-ships but people still get blasted on alcohol and get horny about boobs. There's something kind of striking about the fact these people are still fundamentally human. And man, so much stuff in this game needs another swing taken at it. There are SO many cool ideas here.
they're making clones of people for teleconferencing and somehow they haven't found a way to just spawn them in disconnected from the original like a dirty holodeck (or for more practical purposes, turning some trusted guy into your own Duncan Idaho), so I'm disputing their humanity part
I haven't read the rest of the Dune series yet do they ever get the idea to just clone Duncan enough times to make an army EDIT: I mean Gholagize or whatever the term is
Squirl
Alcohol woohooo
The idea of the final boss of a video game with multiple endings being the you's who chose the other endings is actually kind of dope. I can maybe imagine this working in a fully-fledged RPG? Maybe the other you's could have different classes, abilities, and personalities than your current character to give you a taste of different playstyles to incentivize you to replay it. They could even allude to other events you never saw because of the choices you made on your current playthrough.
You have a have a big brawl with multiple variations of your character. Basically have 1 version that's your mirror match, and then a bunch of other versions that are varying degrees different, from different variations of your class, to different classes different builds for that class. Maybe even nice little minor details based on character creation stuff. Depends on whether this going to a tough fight against yourself or a more a comedic episode where you have a level that is filled with nothing but different versions of the player character.
@Spookmeyer There's a game for that, also an RTS, called Achron. It's about 3 races, each with their own time travel mechanics, fighting each other. It's fantastic. In the end (spoiler: due to time travel shennigans, your commander AI character ends up stuck in a repeating cycle, and turns out to be the tech that all 3 races use for coordinating time travel)
I was going to mention the Dark Souls 1 cut content that toyed with this idea. But since someone else brought it up I can add that the final boss of Dark Souls 3, Soul of Cinder, does technically do the "version of the player who chose different builds" concept. There, the idea is that your character from the 1st game is manifested alongside every other person who linked the flame (IE went for the "canon" ending). So the boss puts in mind all the different builds your character would have gone for and even mixes them up when he switches between builds. The boss can have a straight sword build with a passive sorcery spell active or a spear build with a pyromancy damage buff.
@Trouble in large numbers nah, just like divergent timelines meeting up or like some kind closed timeloop fuckery. Doesn't have to get too bad to still have fun with it
It could even be a good concept for a sequel. Yeah, it could mean a third of the game would be unplayable in a single playthrough, but it's still an interesting idea.
In like, a Bioware RPG or something, the ending final battle being yourself versus the yourself-who-picked-the-other-endings is actually pretty fun idea for a final battle.
Has a very Planescape: Torment feel to it.
Yeah that's a legit fantastic idea. Get the ending you want by facing yourself.
Very Shin Megami Tensei.
@Shenaldrac "Now I must fight myself after defeating Lucifer in the hidden ending that requires jumping through several hoops that are unknowable unless you replay the game a few times or Google it! Truly, my ideals must be at the forefront of this new world, and subscribe to the best ideology of the only 3 that exist within this world!" Also after you beat yourself an entirely new super hidden Boss appears on the next playthrough, it's you, but with all the most overpowered skills to use against the MC, like Pierce and the ridiculous physical skills like Friekugal you unlock later on haha.
@I, CATO SICARIUS "Truly, my ideals must be at the forefront of this new world." Lmao that's pretty funny.
Between this, Vangers, Hammerfight and more weird games than I can remember, I'm astounded how Slavs are so good at building fascinating worlds.
Man, I remember absolutely destroying my wrist playing Hammerfight
Were I to hazard a guess, I would say that most Slavs live in countries that are not the most pleasant to live in (both in terms of economy and climate), we had at least 1 destructive war or oppressive regime in the living memory of large part of population, the cultural memory is an all-over-the-place stew of numerous traditions from pagan age, the East-West mixture brewed through Late Medieval to Industrial, distinct Romantic flavour of the above and whatever garbled scraps of Western development snuck their way behind the Iron Curtain usually way past the expiration date in the USA: we're just all a little mad and it's just how we deal with it. Some make bizarre masterworks of science-fantasy, some do extreme parkour, some go into politics... It's mostly a joke, but really, if there's something unique about Slavs is casual acceptance of how mad and unfair life can be. I know, I'm Polish. Tounge-in-cheek complaining is a national pasttime.
Many of them might turn out as crap, but it's still inspiring for new sci-fi writers to just not care what people might think and go wild with crazy ideas.
I'd throw Pathologic, Void / Turgor, and Perimeter (only first) in this list. Perimeter is in the same universe as Vangers.
Slavs are mostly immune to the tropes of Western fantasy and science fiction due to having spent almost a century without access to fantasy at all and only a small trickle of state-approved Western science fiction. This gives people a fresh perspective.
Fun facts about the Lapis: 1. Their biggest ships are actually carved PLANETS. 2. You can steal their builder ships and build your own Lapis. 3. Lapis means "Stone" in Latin.
"2. You can steal their builder ships and build your own Lapis." How good are their ships?
@Bloodlyshiva It depends on the level in which you capture them. As the player-made Lapis use the same genes as the NPC Lapis from their respective levels, Early on, they're very weak, but they are quite strong if you can nab a builder in the endgame. It's fun to petrify enemies and many levels have asteroids in them.
The concept of humanity riding biological eldritch space ships and it comes across as humanity being more alien than the aliens in the galaxy. Not so much with their story, however. It's rather out there, exactly.
that's where Lapidos comes from in pokemon
My word, the setting without the cutscenes is one of the most genuinely horrifying future sci-fi settings I’ve experienced. The ship designs are so inspired. I hope someone does pick this setting up one day and does the potential justice.
The idea that these ships are living beings capable of adapting their bodies for warfare adds a little bit to the horror,especially with all the blood sucking and the explosions…and the fact that zoom calls in this universe create a clone of the person you’re talking to God,biopunk is such a good genre for body horror,and horror in general
Lifter birdie
If anything apparently it was done much more justice prior to being picked up by a publisher, there's a dev who commented above.
@The Bird Said publisher also (eventually) helped getting this game out of the door however. Just adding some food for thoughts.
@StriderZYX I mean, obviously. It's just always regrettable when things are changed for the worse to fit trends. While they provided funding, and publishing, they also had a not insignificant portion of the game redone to their own taste. Trade offs I suppose.
I stumbled and my knees went weak. I gripped the side of the bus shelter I was standing beside for support. Genesis Rising. The title of the video opened a cellar of memories. Forgotten for decades, ones of frustrating missions and never being sure what's going on with anything I was doing. They flooded back into me like the memories of a long dead race bestowing arcane knowledge upon a hapless explorer. But these were not lost antediluvian technological blueprints, no forgotten incantations, no forbidden spells of deathless gods. These were the memories of Genesis Rising, and I am now poorer for remembering. Good video!
I somehow instinctually read your comment in a Max Payne voice. Funny as hell, it was the most horrible thing I could think of.
Holy shit this has got to be the first time in my life someone has acknowledged the Leviathan series. It has got to be one of my favorite fictional universes ever and I am both surprised and over the moon that it is still being talked about.
Same I grow up loving the series and sadly wasn't as popular as his other books. I alsowish someone would make an game based on the idea/universe.
Hearing "the last unexplored galaxy" is such a grand fucking statement if you understand anything about the sheer unhumanly absurd scale of the universe and it's delivered with all the gravitas of a dude telling you your coffee is ready.
Kinda terrifying if you think about it. It means that the universe has an edge and humanity found it.
@Disciple of Dagon no wonder they became so edgy themselves.
@Dima S bro
@Disciple of Dagon nah, whats more terrifying is when our universe dies its completely possible another big bang might happen meaning that we may not have been the first. Assuming the void of space is truly infinite there could be an unimaginable number of previous universes that ran their course and burned out. If you think about it that way our existence is infinitesimally small.
@Disciple of Dagon well, considering space-time "curves", wouldn't it be less an "edge" and more of a "loop"? Like if you travel in a straight line through the universe you'll eventually end up where you started(not counting any movement your starting point might have made itself, but you get what I mean)
"I thought of a universe where everyone becomes genetic freaks" You know, a world full of nothing but Scott Steiners DOES sound rather horrifying.
You could say that it sounds not normal, and that your chances of winning would drastic go down.
This is genuinely such an interesting idea. Most sci-fi settings tend to make humans the runt of the universe. How amazing of an RPG setting would this concept make? A mashup of (oldschool) Spelljammer and Genesis Rising would totally rock.
Elfs use organids of a sort in oldschool Spelljammer, as well as bio-mecha. I have zero interest in nu-Spelljammer.
I always liked it when humanity is treated as if nothing else a proper player cause let's be real we are a vicious race even when compared to our planets wildlife
I was a beta tester for the game, it's such a blast from the past to see you review it now.
I keep wishing for bioships in stellaris and these organic ships are the perfect design for them. Especially for the idea of human empire that enslaves and wipes out aliens after repeated attempts by them to do the same thing.
Agree!
you could probably rip the models from this game and make a mod lol
Man, I had always imagined a sort of biopunk story where humanity were like the zerg or the tyranids, though in my mind it was more of an underdog story how those who had nothing managed to use biological tech to grow and become stronger.
I've thought of that too, only the reverse where they aren't the underdog and instead are a universe sized horror that is spreading to other universes, like the tyranid great devourer, but big enough to eat whole universes.
there is actually something like that. a little world building project and a graphic novel going on called "humanity lost" you should look it up
Having the final battle in a time travel plot be against yourself from the different endings, that's downright inspired.
Not even Looper and Steins;Gate can do that.
the closest to it for me is Dragons Dogma. you fight your finished Character if you play NG+, pick a different choice and played offline.
@Michael Andrei Palon, F*cking hell I see you everywhere. Is it because I recognise the Lumity PFP, yeah it is, but damn. Are you stalking me?
@Jaydee8652 Heh, nah, just having similar preferences when it comes to this channel.
They did that in empire earth
The whole thing with a God's original plan for creation being just this one dude in a much smaller universe is so funny to me. Almost a.... Divine Comedy? (Ultrakill references were great lmao) The part where Mandy expanded an image of space in photoshop while the guy was explaining it cracked me up.
I like to think that god just told mellagio that to mess with it even more
That's a kabbalist myth of creation in a way.
I had to watch clips from Xavier: Renegade Angel as a mind-cleanse after listening to Lord Mandalore explain this game's plot, which is *really* saying something.
The scene of the three protagonists bickering with each other immediately reminded me of Xavier saying "You're the sad figment of my twisted psyche's tragic dividend" to his doppleganger.
@Peace MasterProbably because he was playing the xavier theme
My mind also went immediatly to the Leviathan books when I heard bio-spaceships. I read the books a long while ago, and I always felt like the concept was so unique and interesting, especially considering they are meant for 12-16 year olds.
I always think Lexx, which also has evil humans ruling the universe with similar batshit insane comedy horror. I'm 100% certain the Serbs who made the game were fans.
"you could put an eye out with those things, lady" - top tier dialogue, give the writer a prize for that one. Had a hearty laugh
Truly some Channel Awesome movie level writing...
As a a fan of the Homeworld series and Sins of the Solar Empire, I am ashamed to admit that I completely missed this game. It looks absolutely amazing, the bio-ships are incredible.
Don’t worry It ain’t…
This setting is insane. The WHOLE universe being explored gave me pause but calling someone on the phone actually summoning a clone of them made me take a break.
Same, and I have an insane diet for crazy.
They do all this insane worldbuilding, but then the characters complain about certain parts of space *being cold.* It's like they fired everyone who knew what they were doing halfway through development.
@Rick just like how nobody will fly over Antarctica because "it's too cold" Yeah right!
There is a comic currently being written with a similar setting called Humanity Lost by Callum Stephen Diggle were the human are the bad guys but have been mutated and fly in fleshy ships and is has some of the most original alien designs I have ever seen
Ooh, I'll have to check that out. Thanks.
That came to mind too
You know, I always wondered what a Warhammer 40K movie would look like if David Cronenberg directed it and now I have a pretty good idea thanks to this review.
There was a YA book where humans lived in an alternate dimension where insects were huge, and they plugged computers into their brain so they could drive them like tanks. That was a cool idea.
After all the insane plot twists this story pulls, the line at 27:57 will always make me laugh my ass off.
Humanity going on a universe-wide genocidal campaign to search for some mythical item just to rewind time to make an even stronger human empire is 100% A+ human writing. The aliens that wrote this script knew what they were doing!
Hello! My name is Average Human Writer! We would like to invite you to our test ch-... I mean, Human Writer Con that's being held at your local flying saucer. Please arrive alone. Yours truly, Someone who's totally not going to dissect you, Average H.W.
Jumbo
Humanity just wanted to play New Game+
i love this so much. bizzare scifi is my favourite thing in the entire world and this one is incredible. might have to suffer through playing this game to experience this
It's not a terrible game at all, in my humble opinion. Its certainly worth giving it a playthrough.
@Suranis its mainly the crashing thats putting me off
I just had a seizure and as soon as I was alone I went and searched up your channel because of how comforting your videos are to me even while I’m alone in this hospital room, just wanted to say thanks honestly
The biotechnology for this reminds me a lot of the sequel/reboot of 90s Image superhero comic Prophet that ran in the 2010s. A far-future human empire of multiple dynasties conquers the galaxy, using an army of genetically adaptive clones of the original John Prophet. Even some of the ships and vehicles were organic, made from John's genetic material.
I remember seeing the synopsis for this in a game magazine many years ago and thought it was pretty unique. Humans as the bad guys and using organic technology as opposed to the typical shiny high-tech spaceships as depicted in most sci-fi stories.
Playing the Xavier Renegade Angel music over Iconah talking with alternate versions of himself is genius
It was me who bequeathed thee the psychopathological hand me downs. So it was you who stained them!
@KrazyKaiser whoever found it, browned it
So the music was actually from Xavier. I immediately got those vibes and thought I was losing my mind XD.
Shakashuri blowdown
This sounds like such a fantastic premise for a game. Maybe someday they'll get a budget and another shot at it.
Dude, I forgot about the Leviathan books. The flechette bats were some of the coolest weapons I've encountered from that kind of setting.
I love everything about this game but man, it’s nuts haha. What a wild trip. I kind of love it because sometimes Sci-Fi feels very gatekeepy on if you’re doing HARD sci-fi with heavy, scientifically viable world building, and anything else is just lame or kiddie or somehow lesser. This feels like someone went SCI-FI and ran with it haha. No holds barred, no restrictions, no concerns about making every aspect of it completely viable, and I kind of love that.
I love those organic living ships. I've had nightmares about living monster ships because the idea fascinates me so much.
It's kind of why I like thinking that a game is never really "bad" as long as there's something in it that is an original idea or interesting take on something. "Extreme Tactics" is a game I don't like but it does have the neat mechanic of designing your own ships with modules, chassis and methods of movement.
My brother and me went to a bootleg game store when we were kids and we ended up picking this game up simply because of the cover art
I can't imagine how much less it might have sold without that cryptic cover.
Same. I never forgot seeing it in store just once, and finally websearched it a decade later. Oh, what a disappointment that it wasn't an obscure masterpiece...
This game feels like it could *only* be bought at a bootleg game store.
I got this at a Target or K-Mart when I was a kid. This and Nexus the Jupiter Incident are both pretty good sci-fi RTS. When they work.
@Uncle Sam at the time in Serbia the only game stores were bootleg game stores! Burned DVDs all day
I LOVE the leviathan series!!! Its such a cool mix between Diselpunk, Mechs, Bio/gene splycing -punk, and to some degree, enviromentalism.
The anime Knights of Sidonia (Sidonia no Kishi, originally a manga) has some similar lore to this, with both humanity and aliens taking advantage of living biological giants, fighting against conventional mecha and space ships... I recommend it
Holy crap I didn't think I would see the Leviathan Trilogy get mentioned anywhere on the internet anytime soon. You just pulled back a lot of fond teenage memories for me
I remember seeing this in the local video game store here in Serbia back in 2007/08. Years after, even. Not only did I have no idea it was a Serbian game, seeing someone talk about it is surreal indeed.
I couldn’t help but laugh when Mandalore cut to homeworld for a breather during the bit that can only be described as the “future’s future future”.
l put my hamster in a sock and slammed it against the furniture
The bioships and evil mutant humanity immediately made me think of the comic book series Prophet (2012). Humanity is basically the evil oppressive empire that everyone is terrified of, but what we have become is almost unrecognisable. Iirc all the ships, bases, probes and other tech is built around cloning and mutating one man, so you have ships with rib cages and huge, hideous faces.
The bioships remind me of the works of Peter F Hamilton. Excellent use of this underused scifi concept.
The Leviathan books were the first thing I thought of when you mentioned the bio-ships, thanks for mentioning them. I also didn't know there was an artbook.
That Xavier Renegade Angel reference at 29:06 really made my day. Thank you
I almost choked with laughter when I heard the Xavier Regegade Angel theme start: I half expected Iconah to have a Shakashuri blowdown with himself 😂
I literally died when the protagonist argued with himselves. The dead monotone acting of the same dude voicing three of himself is beyond comical.
the Xavier Renegade Angel music Mand edited in the background killed me
@Xenomorthian My god I just realized that, died all over again.
Some of the stuff in this game reminded me strongly of the Lexx series. When Mandalore pointed out that the tone of the game is jumping between Warhammer 40K and Farscape, I've gotta say in hindsight that Lexx fits that quite well.
IIRC Stephen Baxter's Xeelee Sequence novels had a lot of bioships in it. They were called the Spline I think, and were originally piloted by an invading alien race called the Qax but after the Qax were defeated the humans started using the Spline too and they were so prolific they took part in the final battle in the universe against the eldritch photino birds...or something. It's been like a decade since i read it.
A remake of the aesthetic and mechanics of this game as a mod for sins of a solar empire would be so good
This is the first time I've thought of Leviathan in a very long time. Steam punk feuding with gene slicing victorians was a hell of a setting. What'd you think of the ending?
I remember when this game was showcased on Xplay back in 2006/7, got super hyped by the premise, and then forgot about it for 16 years save for this shadowy recollection of a game where ships ran on blood- which colored a couple TTRPG homebrew things for Vampire: The Requiem and Demon: The Descent Thank you for reminding me that this existed
This was always one of those games I was curious about, I loved the idea of Bio-ships and I was hungry for a new strategy game, but after seeing your review I think I made the right call going for other games.
I'm still struggling to parse how the gorgeous yet nightmarish biomechanical ship designs are part of the same game where the cutscenes look like id Software's version of Xavier Renegade Angel.
God: "Me bequeefed thee." Mellagio: *REEEEEEEE*
You can find only something like this in Slavjank. Very few genres come close to this kind of feeling.
For those of you who don't get the reference at 4:30 it's a reference to Society, a movie I recommend you watch at least once. Mandy talks about it at length in a video called Society (feat. MandaloreGaming & Brendaniel) | Pondering Spooky Tapes
The whole section of mixing and matching your fleet (and stations) with gear to your hearts content did remind me of two other games. 1. Impossible Creatures (which also uses Gene-Splicing to mix animals together into a custom unit with its own look and stats - but it's somewhat limited). 2. Earth 2150 (where adding weapons to units to your hearts content, as long as there is room for it - but it's visually a bit more limited). Its expansions and sequel 2160 also do that. Former might be more interesting to look at simply because it's premise is somewhat goofy and it plays the sillinessness aspect for what's worth it.
It is true that in Homeworld, you were pretty much happy you got a persistant fleet. Like there were some missions where if you didn't have a big or good enough fleet from previous missions, you were going to have a really challenging time. So it forced you to make more ships before leaving the level. Keep the fleet strong. In Genesis Rising... I too didn't have that feeling. It wasn't like I ever felt as if the enemy would wipe me out if I didn't have enough ships from get go.
I bought this game for my computer back in 07-08 or so with a Christmas gift card. My ancient (even at the time) computer couldn't even start the game. I was heartbroken, cried and begged my mom to try and get a refund, which I did end up getting but only after explaining to the customer service I didn't meet the system requirements.
These kind of hidden gem reviews are what makes your channel a hidden gem
Agreed, I loved the living ships in Farcscape and I love the idea here. Living ships will always be such a cool and unique idea, I wish more things used that idea and ran with it. Biotechnology, living technology, things that should be inorganic but being alive has always been such a weird, eerie and cool idea.
I think no man’s sky’s has something like that. Their living ships are Neato.
It's overdone at this point. Far from unique
Lexx alois one, and has that weirdness of a living ship, its also tboth very campy, very 2000 and weird and great. And doesnt roin hobbs have a living ship trilogy. its fantasy, but still.
I think with how popular Evangelion was (and still is) makes living technology not all that new in media, it's also a high bar most of the time Is done the story gets very existentialist.
I just want to say that you are one of the best creators on this platform. I’m thrilled when I see a new video by you. Thank you for your work!
I really appreciate this kind of video that lets me dive into more interesting "classics" that I missed. Especially, when playing them probably isnt very fun, or so time-consuming that I preferably play other stuff. Im happy I got to see Genesis Rising, and the setting and bio-ship are kinda fascinating. Thanks Mandalore! Funnily enough, I often confuse this game with Genesis Rising, which seems quite similar: A bad game with interesting indeas and great music. Both games' music I mostly know from mods. And both I only saw more of through this channel.
i outright don't even play any aaa or old games and watch these kinds of videos instead. like 12 hours of oblivion or 20 hours review of skyrim one dude made 7 hours review of that gta with horses and he made it sound like a great thing while i know for sure if i played i would get zero connections out of the game and gonna be bored in minutes. the dude is from usa and reads a ton about usa history and travels across the country so he manages to create a really cool story and analysis of this thing while for me it all would be boring waste of time. it's fun to hear a good storyteller about nature and stuff and it extremely boring to see stupid nature and be stuck in it
I like how at 2:30 it's so obvious none of the blows are connecting, like a low budget action movie, made even better by the fact that it's CGI and thus there should be no concern about injuring the actors.
Really cool game all things considered. With some polish and modernization I could see this becoming another great space RTS with the most unique visuals out there. That aside, I had to check and see if Iconah was voiced by Paul Dobson or something cause it really sounds like him most of the time - albeit a lighter version of Graveheart from Shadow Raiders. Can anyone confirm?
This game reminded me of "The Night's Dawn" Trilogy of books by Peter F. Hamilton which also has bioships Its worth a read but is VERY dense and if you aren't used to the heavier space operas it can be a slog
The evil human empire with biological ships reminds me of a graphic novel called "humanity lost" by Callum Stephen Diggle.
Yeah I was gonna say the same thing. Cool ass book.
Kinda but at the same time it wasnt humanity who ruled but some ai if I remember correctly
@Cyprus 100 yeah, I was disappointed by it cause it's not really humanity that's evil. They got taken over and the last human alive is a good guy.
33:28 I read these books, utterly fantastic. I never expected them to be mentioned in one of these videos. they honestly deserve more attention than they get.
Man, this game looks so cool. Great find, thanks for sharing. Bioships are rare by my brainstem is making them a few bells. Escape Velocity I believe had some, 'Nids need no elaboration, Zerg technically, feels like there should be more. Edit: War Planets.
Mellagio is amazing and vastly under appreciated.
@MandaloreGaming, thank you for this. Game might be janky, but is beautiful. BTW, the original disc version of the game is more stable than the Steam version, which doesn't create vital cache folders the game needs. If you know what's missing, you can create the folders yourself and (mostly) fix it. The save files also come in text format, so you can edit them and give yourself any mutation at any strength level. You can also change the fleet size limit, but you'll have to do it again in a couple of missions as they increase the original amount.
You mentioned Leviathan books and I love- that. I just want an Iron Harvey mod of just that, on a grander scale. Walking battleships, krakens, even the Japanese Mini-Kaiju
This game sounds like the definition of “it has potential” Cool bioships, human empire, mutations and supernatural/spiritual themes. If they rebooted this IP today i bet it could be amazing
You would think that the spiritual would clash against transhumanism. It would be better to focus as only two main factions to start off so religion vs Geiger?
@D M Spiritual Transhumanism is featured in various Sci-Fi settings. Prime Example The Mechanicus
From experience with games and media like this, "it has potential" often ends up being meaningless, if the makers fail to build on it. Like, its great how such an insane setting can make you think about the world and possibilies, but thats your head doing the work, not the game. The game took cool themes and meshed them together, and mostly mostly failed to deliver, except in some of the visuals and 10% of the soundtrack. Probably better to leave the creative heads to use and execute on their own, cool concepts, rather than have them try to fix the IP. And sometimes executing a generic idea well can be worth more than a bad unique game. IMO thats why we remember Halo 1-3, and not Genesis Rising. The orinal Halo trilogie is really generic in so many ways, with colorful 80s aliens and the most basic military scifi. But it managed to create cool gameplay and a fun setting. If anything, Halo under 343 Industries became a bit more crazy, but also much worse executed.
This channel is great at finding games I've never heard of (and would probably never find normally) and making them interesting. Hope Mandalore continues to find interesting and obscure games.
This is the first time I've ever heard someone talk about the 'Leviathan trilogy'. While it is young adult, it still is quite an interesting story regarding world war 1 / the great war.
This was a game I saw an ad for in a magazine once, never got, and constantly think about. I love the idea of the bio ships so much that I once thought of how I would implement them in my own Sci Fi setting.
Its the first time ive thought about Farscape in a long time, but you saying how under used this sort of ship is reminded me of the ship in Farscape being alive, and the baby ship it had that was kidnapped and brought up to become a war like ship and this was really painful for mumma ship. Totally need more living space ships in sifi .
The setting reminds me of the comic book "The prophet", far future with a imperium of man based on biotech and cloning. It ever has biological ships, you should check it out!
I actually owned this back in the day, and I might still have a disk somewhere. I think it was probably one of the best "Homeworld clones" produced. One thing you couldn't see, because you were playing on a modern system, is that if you were close to the recommended specs the game would pause dead when it was loading a cutscene. So those bits where you were the Rock talking to People, the computer would lock up. The first few times it happened I literally reset my machine as I thought it crashed. I forget exactly how long it took to load the scene but it was a good 3 minutes. So you would be doing your thing and then you would be staring at nothing for a while. Very jarring, especially since there could be multiple cutscenes a mission. I never finished it, mainly as I think I decided I didn't like the Rock and the other jerks. The whole organic thing the game had going was fantastic though. Utterly unique. If someone could take that and spin a new game out of it I would be all over that like a rash.
I never thought I'd hear someone mention the leviathan series. I red the trilogy in junior highschool and it's probably my favorite series of books ever. pure imagination porn
Holy cow ... it's THAT game! I think I remember a stealth mission, which took some retries, but my quit moment came a few missions later. I don't even remember why exactly. I was always looking for more Homeworld and just wasn't it. EDIT: Okay, it's not THAT game. The UI was different and movement was actually 3D ... but very different from HW. I guess Mandalore will dig that one out as well, whatever it was. I still remember GR, but notthing besides the organic spacecraft and mutations. No idea why I quit the game and what happened up to that point. Not even the cutscenes seem familiar.
I bought this game from Big Lots for like $7 back in the day. I don't remember why, but I didn't like it and it reminded me of why RTS was a dead genre at that point. I had a very similar story about that space sim where you switched your ship between light mode and dark mode. They were those genres going out with a fizzle.
I do find it interesting that a few different settings have had the core idea of humanity being invaded by alien powers, resulting in the creation of an autocratic dystopian nightmare government which proceeds to conquer large portions of the setting. Like the Xeelee Saga, Humanity Lost, All Tomorrows to some degree with the Gravitals, I'm not sure if that's the origin story of the government in Nemesis the Warlock, but the idea is similar. I find the idea interesting that war and the threat of extinction causes humans to resort to desperate measures, often including some pretty horrific biological and cultural changes, that persist after the war making us the horrifying imperial power in the story.
I’ve never heard more genuine fear when Mandy asked “is he going for the fish?”
It wasn’t even Size 2
Shadow over Innsmouth in a nutshell.
I was f*cking dying on the floor 🤣 EDIT: Also, I got your Ultrakill reference, @Sam M
@92edoy so thats what he meant by it? its somehow an ultrakill reference?
The end boss fight being the MC from the other two endings is genius.
If some developer was to take this and really flesh it out and make the gaming experience fun and interesting this would be a hell of a good game. would need a hell of a lot of work though. What a cool concept
Holy crap - me having played this game completely left my memory but I got such strange deja-vu from seeing the overall UI, ship designs and skill icons during battles. Can't remember anything about the story though. Fairly certain I didn't quite give a damn back then. It's definitely a unique game albeit being rough in a lot of places.
If you're looking for an older game to review that's a bit outside the box, Rise & Fall: Civilizations at War might be a good one. RTS that allowed you to play as either Rome, Egypt, Greece or Babylon, but the twist is that each civilization had one of two heroes you could choose, and once you built up enough points in game, you could go into 3rd person mode and basically be a god of war, destroying the regular shmucks. It also had a naval system if I remember correctly (as in, individual units that could fight on board the ships). Came out in 2006
i played this game when i was young and the music, art style and overall setting has been stuck in my head ever since. i love it.
Mandalore's content is perfect to sit back, relax and grab some snacks. I respect the fact he has been doing YT for 11 years
How was Internet Historian's new video?
You goddamn right.
*yawn*
Unlike a lot of other CS-tv creators with their endless ads.
@Kektus I too don't understand the worshipping of CS-tvrs
This game is visually and thematically fantastic
God, despite all the jank and half-fufilled ideas I can't help but love this game. It's just the type of batshit insanity that I love.
If anyone wants a story with a similar setting to this game done right, then I HIGHLY recommend reading a graphic novel series called Humanity Lost by Callum Stephen Diggle.
Well I played this game when I was becoming an adolescent... I really liked it alot and wished for a second title since I though it had so much dynamic potential
"You play as a 5 year old child whose haircutter hates him" 😂 cracked me up. What a weird but fascinating game, never heard of it before.