Author Topic: Bionic Dues is already my favorite game  (Read 20189 times)

Offline ible

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Bionic Dues is already my favorite game
« on: December 29, 2014, 10:27:50 am »
Even if there aren't any more updates, I highly recommend this game to people of all skill levels.

The range of difficulty level and depth of gameplay scales over a large range from Total Strategy Noob to Obsessive Grognard.

I really hope this is a sleeper hit and will get recognition from the gamer community in 2015.


Offline Zebeast46

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Re: Bionic Dues is already my favorite game
« Reply #1 on: December 29, 2014, 10:53:38 am »
Yes, it is a very awesome game, but I believe for some reason this was not one of the games in which they made their money back which is pretty sad.

My only complaints with this game were that I kept getting murdered alot on the easy difficulty but the casual difficulty was too easy, also it would be nice if there were more missions.

Sadly, me as a person is not a fan of roguelikes so I have not spent as much time on this game as I could have.
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Offline ible

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Re: Bionic Dues is already my favorite game
« Reply #2 on: December 29, 2014, 11:04:22 am »
Personally, one of the biggest ways my gameplay improved was to learn how to use wall corners effectively.

The Ninja is great with corners combines with one tile wide hallways.

The Brawler is great with corners and large areas.
Protip for the brawler, don't increase the shotgun range, focus on increasing the shotgun splash area.

On Expert/Misery difficulty I feel the sniper is actually the weakest exo out of the bunch, due to enemy bots outranging the Sniper so often.

Offline Zebeast46

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Re: Bionic Dues is already my favorite game
« Reply #3 on: December 29, 2014, 12:44:13 pm »
Something I find was hard getting used to was the fact that the robots can shoot diagonally through corners. Also what pilot would you recommend?
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Offline x4000

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Re: Bionic Dues is already my favorite game
« Reply #4 on: December 29, 2014, 12:56:51 pm »
Thank you very much! We keep hoping it will find more traction, too. It's one that we did lose money on making, but Keith has been doing some updates to it just for fun when he has time. We both really love this one. With Stars Beyond Reach inwork at the moment, that's been sucking up all our time for a while and will for another quarter or two. But I know he does have some more things he wants to do here when things are more calm.

Thanks so much for your support and kind words!
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Offline ible

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Re: Bionic Dues is already my favorite game
« Reply #5 on: December 29, 2014, 01:52:08 pm »
...what pilot would you recommend?
Genji - recommended for new players and when first learning a higher game difficulty level
  • Start off with more powerful Epic exos, immensely helping win the first 5-10 missions when exo part slots are empty
  • No need to find the Epic exo missions
Meg - recommended for all players
  • Her traits help without any knowledge/strategy required of player
  • Higher level parts make a noticeable difference in the first 5-10 missions when many of the exo part slots are empty(Genji is still better at the early game though)
  • Slightly better parts found throughout the game
Tuck - recommended for players who don't like surprises
  • Skip pointless mission areas and bots
  • See what is behind the locked doors(Large Crates, Recharge Stations, Ammo) without using up hacking points
  • No more surprises killing you when opening non-locked doors
  • Whistle through doors; calling massive numbers of bots to the killing field
  • The computer terminals that effect the enemy bots in sensor range work through doors
Rey - recommended for players with dead exos
  • Use suicidal tactics with less consequences
  • If you can't stand missing out on some of the end mission parts reward from one or two dead exos every mission
Axis - recommended for players who prefer specific missions; player should be familiar with all mission types
  • Easier to find the Epic Exo missions on the strategic map
  • Can skip over missions you don't want and spend more time on missions you do want
Emma - player should have specific exo part builds in mind
  • Use the store for parts to design highly specialized exos for nonstandard combat strategies
« Last Edit: December 29, 2014, 03:43:45 pm by ible »

Offline ible

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Re: Bionic Dues is already my favorite game
« Reply #6 on: December 29, 2014, 02:05:27 pm »
Thanks so much for your support and kind words!

You're very welcome.
I love Arcen for your post-release support and games with fresh ideas.

Bionic Dues and Tidalis are both great games that never caught on. I think its because the strategy aspects of both games that make them so great are hard to show to people. Both games are enjoyable because of the strategy and deep thinking involved; that doesn't show up well in articles and videos.
« Last Edit: December 29, 2014, 02:59:07 pm by ible »

Offline TheVampire100

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Re: Bionic Dues is already my favorite game
« Reply #7 on: December 29, 2014, 06:17:08 pm »
From Arcen games, AI War is my favorite game. Bionic Dues is awesome but it lacks the huge varity in content that AI War has (and I'm a huge fane of hardcore strategy games). The humor in BD is however superb and I love it. It's like a terminator satire XD
I would arrange my Arcen games like this:

1.) AI War
2.) Bionic Dues
3.)The last Federation
4.)Valley without Wind
5.)Valley without Wind 2
6.)Shattered Haven

I neither own Skyward Collapse nor Tidalis. I have also to say, Bionic Dues was my very first game of Arcen games and that got me fixed on your games, so afterall I have to thank it that it pointed me in your direction. Whatever I got from you, I never was disappointed. Even the underhwelming Shattered Haven has its good sites.

And sorry to disappoint you, Arcen games, but you are not my favorite games of all games I own. That would be however very hard because I have almost 300 games only on Steam, not counting games from friends (Family Share) into it, plus all the games I purchased on other online services and real life ( I have a book shelf full of games).
My favorite game currently is Fallen London (because I love story telling and horror games the most). Besides that I think I like the games of Arcen Games still the most. They are unique. They are regulary developed (at least the most of it) and you keep AI War fresh with the expansions (argh, I still need to test Destoryer of Worlds, for what reason have I bought it then).

And you are very community tied. A lot of developers lack that Especially the bigger companies loose the connection to their fans. And the connection to teh community is very important for a developer because afterall the consumers know what they would buy and what not.

Offline x4000

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Re: Bionic Dues is already my favorite game
« Reply #8 on: December 29, 2014, 07:12:12 pm »
Sweet!  And no problem not being your very favorite games ever, that does not disappoint me at all.  Every person can only ever have one favorite game ever, and that's a really prized sort of spot.  It's not something I ever fixate on, and just making games that people really like is plenty for me!

Those of you who liked Bionic Dues in particular, I hope that the game that comes after Stars Beyond Reach will be able to scratch that itch for you even better in some ways.  It won't be a roguelike, it's actually more of a SHMUP, but it's in some ways a refinement of a lot of ideas from Bionic Dues, along with a lot of other ideas that are new, or that are refined from other games of ours.  We were going to call that Airship Eternal, and that might stick, although I like that name less and less.  We shall see. :)
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Offline Zebeast46

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Re: Bionic Dues is already my favorite game
« Reply #9 on: December 29, 2014, 09:58:48 pm »
Yeah, my favourite games are mount and blade warband (because medieval times are my favorite setting and that game had awesome combat and multiplayer) and awesomenauts (which I love since it has more skill involved than most other mobas) but after that it has to be either the original thief games or ai war and the last federation. The reason why ai war and the thief games were not higher on my list was simply that while I love the stealth and strategy genre, I am not very good at them (in thief I play on easiest level and just go around killing everyone in sight :) ) and I don't have the time or attention span to play a full game of ai war or finish a game of thief. Because of this I only have about 12 hours of all my thief games combined and 35 hours of ai war and TLF combined while mount and blade has 346 hours and awesomenauts 56.

List of my favorite arcen games
1. The last federation
2. Ai war
3. Skyward collapse
4. Bionic Dues
5. AVWW 2
6. AVWW

Can't wait to add Stars Beyond Reach to that list
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Offline Misery

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Re: Bionic Dues is already my favorite game
« Reply #10 on: December 30, 2014, 03:43:36 am »
Those of you who liked Bionic Dues in particular, I hope that the game that comes after Stars Beyond Reach will be able to scratch that itch for you even better in some ways.  It won't be a roguelike, it's actually more of a SHMUP, but it's in some ways a refinement of a lot of ideas from Bionic Dues, along with a lot of other ideas that are new, or that are refined from other games of ours.  We were going to call that Airship Eternal, and that might stick, although I like that name less and less.  We shall see. :)

Argh, info on this game taunts me, it does!

I keep wondering what this one will be like.

Offline Wingflier

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Re: Bionic Dues is already my favorite game
« Reply #11 on: December 30, 2014, 07:47:06 am »
Chris, what's your favorite game of all time?
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Offline x4000

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Re: Bionic Dues is already my favorite game
« Reply #12 on: December 31, 2014, 02:38:40 pm »
My favorite games of all time are a bit odd, given the kind of games that I make.  I like a _lot_ of varied games, and there's a huge list of games that I really love extremely dearly.  And then a mass of games I couldn't care less about.

Anyway, my absolute top favorite games are tied between Final Fantasy 6 and Chrono Trigger.  Silent Hill 2 is maybe my third favorite game, certainly atmospherically.  I'm a huge fan of a ton of the NES-era games and SNES-era titles.  All of the Mario games from that time period, Marios 2 and 3 in particular.  And really, all Mario games in general (the platformer kinds), all Mario Kart games, and all Zelda games.  I even really like Zelda II, unlike most people.

I also have quite a soft spot for Castlevania II on the NES (I know, I know), Ironsword (even worse, I know), Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers, Rampart... and I know I'm forgetting many others.  I liked FF4 pretty well, I grew up on FF1 and loved that, and most of the other FFs I'm just kind of "friends" with. ;)  Secret of Mana was huge for me, Secret of Evermore was just a friend.  Earthbound I discovered later, but really like.

My first RTS was Warcraft 1, and then Warcraft II was something I obsessed over.  Age of Empires and AOE2 were then on a whole other level, and I really loved  Empire Earth also.  And I loved Rise of Nations.  And then much later, Supreme Commander 1.  I played the original Civilization a fair bit, but was never that hooked on it.  Civ 4 and later Civ 5 hooked me, but less so in multiplayer.

I really love the tactile nature of a ton of shooters.  Far Cry 1 and 2, Half Life 2 (and to some extent 1), and others I can't think of.  When I was younger I did play Wolfenstein and Duke Nukem 3D and Rise of the Triad, but Quake 2 was what really got me into the genre.  And then the Unreal Tournament games after that sealed the deal for me even more.  Out of recent(ish) shooters, I really love Red Faction: Guerrilla, which I'm glad to finally have on PC and not just PS3.

There were some Atari 2600 games that were really formative for me, although I wouldn't call any of them favorites.  Some other early PC games in that group, too.  I also really like board and card games.  I was huge into Magic: The Gathering for years as a kid.  Basically Revised through... maybe 6th Edition?  I still have maybe 5000 cards in my closet, waiting for my son to be old enough for me to inflict them on him. ;)

SimCity 2000 was never an absolute favorite game of mine, per se, but it sure was a staple of play.  Forgotten Realms: Unlimited Adventures was a favorite of mine in middle school.  I loved creating adventures with it, as you might imagine.  Demon Stalkers, from the late 80s, was another favorite PC game of mine.  I also really loved Lode Runner: The Legend Returns on the Mac, and only later had it on the PC.  Demon Stalkers I used the level editor for extensively, as with FRUA, but I didn't much with LR:TLR.

Oh, that reminds me of Maniac Mansion for some reason.  That on the NES was one of my favorites also.  Day of the Tentacle on the PC was also pretty good, but lost a lot of the magic for me.  In recent years I've been big into Minecraft, and Left 4 Dead 1 and 2, but now those have both been supplanted by 7 Days to Die.  Back in the day I was really into Descent 1 and 2, and Descent: Freespace, but now I think that Strike Suit Zero is starting to scratch that itch.  In recent years I've also been really taken with Rebuild 2, although Rebuild 3 has yet to grab me in the same way.

I have a long list of other games in my backlog to play, and I've played a ton of other games that I really liked, loved, or was anything from meh to hating on, but that's already a way-too-long list. ;)  I have a really wide taste in genres, and I don't tend to have much loyalty to a specific platform -- it's all about the games for me.  Though lately (past 5ish years) pretty much everything is either Nintendo or else on the PC.  A Link Between Worlds is the best Zelda game in a couple of decades, I'd venture to say, incidentally.

Okay, that's enough. ;)

Happy New Year, by the way, everyone! :)
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Offline nas1m

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Re: Bionic Dues is already my favorite game
« Reply #13 on: January 01, 2015, 04:51:43 am »
Same to you :). I am looking forward to another year of Arcen awesomeness :D!
And I really crave those things Keith has on his mind for Bionic - there's hoping ;)...
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Offline Cyborg

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Re: Bionic Dues is already my favorite game
« Reply #14 on: January 03, 2015, 10:05:37 pm »
Anyway, my absolute top favorite games are tied between Final Fantasy 6 and Chrono Trigger. 


Chrono Trigger was good and all, but you think it was better than Final Fantasy VI? The only thing I can think of is that the battle system for Chrono was more interesting at times. But as far as main character, villain, story- the RPG part of the game- it's not even close.
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