With the successes of Double Fine’s unnamed adventure game and Wasteland 2, Kickstarter is the current darling of the independent gaming community and ‘crowdsourcing’ the hot new buzzword being thrown around by insufferable energetic web 2.0 conmen. Kickstarter hasn’t always been a success though, my favourite unfunded project being the criminals who developed Tony Hawk Ride failing to fund some marble madness clone they wanted to inflict on us. If only the same could be said about smug upstart Serellan’s lame sounding tactical shooter TAKEDOWN.
Takedown (I’m not typing it in all caps anymore, fuck that) promises to deliver an ‘old-school’, ‘hardcore’ tactical shooter, along the lines of the early Rainbow Six games. The first red flag should be that this promise is coming to us from the Christian Allen, director of Halo: Reach, a game diametrically opposed to the one he is now making. He also uses his time spent in the marine corp as part of his credentials, which is a bit like me being a wine critic after my time spent labouring on a vineyard. The other red flags are scattered all throughout the product description on Kickstarter.
I was going to list them all, but I can’t be bothered, so here’s a badly punctuated ramble instead: They’ve sold the character squad mates to donors, so prepare to have your team of elite murderers look like acne ridden, neck bearded derpsters, unfit to hold a gun. They’re turning a first person game into a third person one for the console port, but then leaving the other console port up to player feedback. The mind boggles how their hardcore, realistic gunplay will adapt to an entirely different perspective from a radically different controller input. Despite this radical alteration to the entire gameplay dynamic for what will no doubt be inferior versions of the product, Mac and Linux ports, requiring only the most minor of coding alterations, are ‘under evaluation based on demand’ which is code for ‘not happening, but we’d like your money first.’ They bash the premise of current popular shooters Call of Duty and Battlefield only to, seconds later, turn around and call them ‘great games’. This kind of behaviour reeks of arse-licking, desperate for money. They already have funding from venture capitalists, but are asking for a spare $200,000 from Kickstarter just to use the site to drum up promotion. They claim they’re using it to prove to their backers that a market exists for a shooting game (really?) but really they just wanted 5000 pre-sales, which really isn’t much in the context of a game that would ordinarily have to shift a few hundred thousand copies to turn a profit. They’re being vague as fuck about what the game is actually about, already you can see on their own forums people having wildly different demands and expectations of what they want from this game. Oh and it’s those people, who wouldn’t have ever heard the word ‘ludology’ let along grasp the concepts, they’ve invited into the design consultation process. No doubt a more thorough design document exists out there but they know that if specifics were known now, they’d have even less interest than the 5000 misguided fools who’ve already reserved their copies. But these aren’t even my biggest problem with the game.
My biggest problem with the game is that it’s another way too serious shooting game. I’ve always been a lover, not a fighter, so the glorification of war and violence in video games has never sit too well with me. I can come around usually because I’m fighting for freedom or saving the world or some other altruistic purpose, or sometimes the game is so outrageously goofy you’re obviously not meant to take it seriously to begin with (eg. DOOM, Goldeneye 007 etc.). Even the earlier Call of Duty games had an ominous tone and underpinning philosophy that war is most tragic waste of life and resources we’ve ever created. That’s why I enjoyed the early ones and not the fist bumping, ammo passing, snow mobile racing, Eminem rapping iterations of late. Takedown though has you fighting for a private military corporation. That’s right, you’re not even fighting for ideals anymore, you’re fighting for money. PMCs make a profit out of violence, war and political instability. They run war like a business and are as ethically bankrupt as every other corporation. Takedown wants to celebrate them, putting you in the shoes of a PMC contractor, murdering his way to a new plasma TV. I’m being presumptuous about the content of a game that isn’t even made yet, it could be a satirical commentary on PMCs by giving you outrageously disgusting missions like assassinating influential members of Greenpeace or Palestinian children, but I heard the word ‘hardcore’ uttered enough times in their embarrassing promotional video that I’m confident this will not be the case.
Tragically, their dream, my nightmare, will be realised after a late rally saw Takedown raises thirty five thousand american dollars in eight hours. Not even the finest prostitutes can charge generate that kind of cash-flow. I was going to post this article last night, predicting they wouldn’t reach their target and how it would be a great moment for gaming, but I was worried that any mention of the game, no matter how derogatory on a site with as little traffic as ours could drum up unwarranted attention and increase their chances of success, so I held back. Yes it’s true that I’m bitter and evil for wishing ill on people I’ll never know, who’s success won’t affect me in the slightest but I’m just an arsehole like that. No fuck that, I’m not the one promoting the commercialism of war and asking others to fund my efforts to do so. I’m a saint.
Pietriots 
Remember when FPS games on consoles and PCs were actually fun and weren’t another REALISM MILLION DOLLAR SELLING FAP FESTS like CoD/Battlefield?
*sigh* At least I have Portal and Half-Life still on Steam, and my N64, and Metroid Prime.
I hate this industry. 😦
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So what are peoples expectations based on, just the Halo: Reach guys credentials? A bunch of random devs who have never worked with each other? Have they started work on this game? All I can see are ideas outlined. A screenshot would be encouraging and surely possible without $200,000.
It’s all a bit vague, I like this quote “If you get shot, there are consequences” What a concept!
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In a generation alone the gaming industry made a genre I like in the previous gens boring.
And with controls that are like ass.
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I just want to clarify that I am not against Kickstarter though. This is an awesome project that everyone need to get behind!
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=O maybe you could join Deg and I for some classic Rainbow Six some time.
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“Remember when FPS games on consoles and PCs were actually fun and weren’t another REALISM MILLION DOLLAR SELLING FAP FESTS like CoD/Battlefield?”
CoD and Battlefield aren’t realistic shooters. The past is always the good ol’ times and the present sucks. Boo hoo.
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Thanks for the feedback!
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he mad? i think he mad
Anyway, check out this fan blog I made for Takedown, with exclusive concept art not seen anywhere else! Just click on my name.
Play it loud, Gamers!
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I’m sorry you must have missed the part where Christian Allen worked on:
Rouge spear, Ghost Recon..
So get your facts stright before you call 5000 people fools!
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I reserve the right to omit evidence against my case. The Kickstarter page criticises the direction of newer Rainbow Six games though too…
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But your supposed to be a Journalist not a lawyer!
Your representing facts the way you want others to see them.
Also about the console port.
He said the PC will be the main focus after that the consoles will come.
I agree with you that that is not ideal but what choose do we (we = hardcore shooter players) have? what other options do we have? find me one TRUE hardcore shooter that came out lately?
Also you don’t have to support this but your actually attacking the kickstarter?
(this one specifically)
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I’m not a journalist and don’t you have Operation Flashpoint: Red River?
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Can’t seem to replay to the last post..
So your not a Journalist then again before insulting 5000 people why not get all your facts straight?
And why ignore the facts? Why write something you don’t believe in (I’m talking about your post in the kickstarter forums about not REALLY wanting this to fail)
OF:RR Has a ton of bugs, and is a step backwards from the game that they ripped off. (The original Operation Flashpoint and it’s amazing expansion Resistance?)
And Yes I own both!
Beyond that OF, ARMA, etc they aren’t CQC they are more open world.
SWAT, R6 are different then that.
Plus you have hostage situations in this games.
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I write because I want to. I wanted to say something about Kickstarter and I felt this was a perfect time to because Takedown came down to the wire. Since then there’s already been a bunch of other successful gaming campaigns on Kickstarter, including the Shadowrun Returns one I just mentioned. Republique sounds incredible and will probably be funded too.
Anyway as for Operation Flashpoint, I’ve never actually played it. These games aren’t for me.
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Then why are you commenting about something you don’t know? Because you can?
All your doing is hurting a game and a company that need all the help they can get..
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Interesting that your comments section requires approval from you. Filter away…
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We’ve had issues with spam in the past. Registered Disqus users do not need to be filtered.
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This article really proves people will find just about anything to complain about. All you people commenting that agree with him, what’s your beef with all of this? Do you not like the part where there’s a game that a smaller number of people (compared to CoD/Battlefield fans) who want a tactical simulation game are finally going to get one? Everyone has styles of games that they prefer, just part of that whole ‘individuality’ thing, I guess. If you’re worried that it promotes war, at least consider the idea of the game is RESCUING hostages. Not just mindless killing of waves of soldiers. If your concern is that you want more ‘fun’ games… seems like you’re in luck as publishers are hard at work at getting you your Kinect games that are fun for the family. Seriously… of all the things to whine about in the gaming industry…
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Although I also think this article is silly.
I think you missed the point (I might be wrong)
He is saying we are fools (I’m assuming your also a backer) for believing in this game and this specific kickstart.
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“I was going to list them all, but I can’t be bothered”= I was going to do my job, but it’s easier to write this hack piece instead!
Your reasoning on every single point is flawed. This is a classic example of trolling, and you’re freaking pathetic for trying to hurt somebody elses project to generate traffic.
You say Christian Allen is unqualified to make this game. The number one reason you give is that he was in the marines. I don’t know if you were trying to say that he doesn’t have enough video game experience (Which would be contradicted by your next point) or if you just have something against our service members, but I don’t really see where you were going with this. The reason it’s important is because he has a clear understanding of firearms and military procedures. Those of us who like their games more on the realistic side appreciate that kind of experience behind the wheel.
Your next point is that he designed HALO: Reach. Again, not really sure what point this was trying to make. I would guess you meant that he’s not familiar enough with the genre? But that doesn’t make sense, he’s worked on other games that much better resemble the one he’s trying to make, and he got into the industry by starting out as a modder for the very games that he’s trying to recreate the experience of. You can’t just pick and choose what evidence you display to try and bash somebody, it makes you look like a fool when somebody brings up everything you left out.
What next? How about the bit about putting the donor’s faces into the game, and how that means you’ll be playing as “acne ridden, neck bearded derpsters”. Insulting gamers in general isn’t usually a great way to make them like you. And considering that reward went to people capable of donating $2500, I doubt the teenage demographic were the ones that bought into it. Especially in a genre that trypically appeals to a much older audience. Once again, I don’t know where you were going with this one, but it kind of falls flat when you look at the actual argument.
I’m not even going to get into your rant about war and PMCs, or how you then equate this project to a prostitute, but I would like to discuss those other kickstarters you mentioned. Do you realize that Double Fine Adventured didn’t have a single description of the game beyond “point and click adventure”? You somehow find that OK while simultaneously criticizing this project for being too vauge? That’s just retarded.
Thanks for your time, and feel free to block this comment. It’s going up on the TAKEDOWN (all caps) forum either way.
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Hey good lookin’! What’s cookin’? Check out my blog on this very issue.
Keyword: Satire.
I think it’s worth putting on the TAKEDOWN forums too, if you know what I mean.
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Your a complete moron. I never even heard about your crappy site until now. You should thank TAKEDOWN for giving your little piss ant little site some readership.
Feel free to take this down, but at least a few people can read it before you do….
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Actually I get to read your comment before anyone because due to spambots we have comment approval. While I’ve never denied a legitimate comment, I thought about saving you the embarrassment of calling me a moron while using the possessive form of “you’re”.
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This is my favourite thing on the internet right now.
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You mad bro?
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I’m disappointed you let your political views cloud your vision of a game that many fans have been clamoring for. Everyone has a favorite type of game. Since no one had the balls to create a game like this since about 2004 I felt it was worth the risk of my money to kickstart Serellan into making something that I hope will bring back that feeling you can only get from a tactical shooter. This is the type of game that would have me on the edge of my chair full of nerves. Based off your excitement for shadowrun I can already begin to see the type of gamer you possibly are. Now lets look back at shadowrun 2007… Did you play that? was there something missing? Lets apply that same questioning to FPS games of today, and that’s where you have the tactical kickstarters. Which leads me to the fact that the real reason you don’t like it. You are against the concepts of war. Im not going to get into a societal argument with you. You can be against all war and whatnot. You can even be against promoting war in video games. Let’s not knock the credentials of a developer and his kickstarter to in essence rant your antiwar sentiment.
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I never played Shadowrun 2007 because I felt it would be a disaster the moment it was announced as a shooter.
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As a backer of the project I think you are being a little hard on Christian and the game. If you were following the project you would find that it is somewhat miraculous that he got funded. It was a nail bitter that is for sure. Living in the Seattle area we try our best to support local talent, but we don’t support blindly. We believe that Christian has enough creditably to pull this game off. I would even go so far to say that his career is on the line. People do miraculous things when put in that kind of situation. You mentioned that you are a lover. If you were then you would love the fact that Christian and the Serellan team are following their dreams and support them as well. If you ever have a dream that you want to put on Kickstarter (or any other crowdfunding site) let us know and I would be more than happy to support your dream too.
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Wow, I missed this shit-fight. Firstly, we don’t censor comments from real people, because we don’t care. We aren’t journalists, and we write because we enjoy it and we value personal experiences. We aren’t experts on anything and we take the piss out of people and ourselves, and welcome anyone ribbing us. Our general readers KNOW THIS about us, any bad press from this article is a bunch of shrugged shoulders and a few people laughing at Derp McGee. Very little damage is done, and none is intended.
Secondly, we respect the fact that you’re defending the project.
Finally and crucially, RABicle has every right to post his opinion of the project, and question how this game is being funded and it’s very existence. He’s not a fan of the concept and did a very good job explaining why. Why individuals feel the need to circle around it and piss up a storm, makes me question how much further you think the project will go – some of these comments are equally as misguided as what you claim of the article. People are going to have opinions, and this project celebrates questionable concepts that clash with others views of what a game should be. You guys have a vision, I like that, focus on yourselves and show the world. I have a vision too: your half-finished game dangling over an open toilet ready to be flushed. My point?
People will hate Takedown no matter how good it is, people will IGNORE it, people will laugh at it, yet the target audience will remain the same. To think such a specifically targeted game like Takedown should cater to every blogger on the internet, deserves a REALITY CHECK – and this is it. Let’s embrace that, take a cold shower and laugh at how small our dicks are.
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First of all I don’t know about you but my dick is like THIS big so yeah..
Second of all I get it you have your opinion. But you should be able to defend it with facts. Or else it’s just a stupid comment not worth airing.
On the Takedown forums he also mentioned that he didn’t REALLY mean he wants to see the project fail.. So why post something like that?
If he was objective he would have gotten a grounded response from the Dev.
In my opinion the was a lost opportunity..
P.S I have a huge dick.. Just saying..
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Say it one more time and it might just come true.
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The argument that because this is going to be a real-as-it-gets Counter-terrorism simulator means that its fans must be the most red-blooded, war-mongering guys out there seriously bothers me. I’ve been playing Rainbow Six since the very beginning (the RVS 2.0 mod revitilised Raven Shield for me, so I highly recommend it), my uncle introduced me to the Jane’s series of combat simulators, and now I’m having a hell of a time with Naval War: Arctic Circle and Wargame: European Escalation…
…yet I’m quite the liberal when it comes to war. I believe proportionality should be a guideline to war (meaning “no more force than is required should be applied to resolve a conflict”). I strongly oppose torture, and in order to gain crucial information from prisoners, treating them with the dignity they deserve is much more effective (see: Hanns Scharff). If anything, those who are more intimately familiar with the workings of conflict are more likely to understand how terrible a thing war is, as Norman Schwartzkopf of Desert Storm once said:
“A professional soldier understands that war means killing people, war means maiming people, war means families left without fathers and mothers. All you have to do is hold your first dying soldier in your arms, and have that terribly futile feeling that his life is flowing out and you can’t do anything about it. Then you understand the horror of war.”
You want to play your simple games that are pick-up-and-play like your casual FPSes and point-and-click adventure games? More power to you. Us? We enjoy games that are complex, tense, and kick-in-the-balls hard, because there is no greater high than that feeling of accomplishment of learning the ramp-start procedure of an A-10 Charlie in Digital Combat Simulator or defeating Gwyndolin in Dark Souls.
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Its a shame they respond to angry fans being well angry, but completely ignore posts like this, in all honesty it undermines their professionalism, they’ve already admitted to not being journalists so thats the only thing left and they’re allowing people to just trample it, way to ensure a bumpy road towards a popular website.. Or kill all hopes of it.
Now I’m in the same boat as this individual, im not a fan of the military and frankly I see no difference between our current armed forces and for pay forces (like blackwater) Morally Speaking, beyond that I just dont really like war, but I too love games that bring the challenge and pressure of “real world decision making” and no respawns, personally I feel games like COD and BF even Halo make war more arcadey and are more “glorification of war and violence ” then any Tactical Shooter out there at least in more realistic shooters you only have one life and shooting civilians/team mates ends the game. Now if you delve a little deeper into things you’ll notice that none of the older shooters out there that where truly hardcore and tactical glorified war, actually they did the opposite and encouraged you to really focus on keeping your team alive.
“They bash the premise of current popular shooters Call of Duty and Battlefield only to, seconds later, turn around and call them ‘great games’”
This part really bothered me, I believe you missed what they where trying to get at, in their genre they ARE great games, for teamwork oriented run and guns they’re fun, they’re fast paced and they’re exciting in their own right, but they are Not hardcore, they are Not tactical shooters and they are Not what we (the supporters of TakeDown) want, or crave despite what the industry claims, that is what they meant and anyone who is a fan of this genre understood their message,
“They claim they’re using it to prove to their backers that a market exists for a shooting game (really?)”
And thats where you went wrong with your article, this isnt a ” just a shooter” its not going to be another Halo or COD nothing like Battlefield, its going to be a tactical shooter, you can wiki the term, it will explain the key differences and yes this is indeed a forgotten genre that backers are weary about, current “tactical shooters” are mere shadows of their former selves dropping the tactical aspect to align more with the current popular genre.. You should give Project Reality or an old Rainbow Six game a try, even Operation Flashpoint (Not red river, its another shadow) and experience what the difference is first hand, instead of insulting an entire genre you admit to knowing nothing about, sure you’re just a blogger and don’t Need credibility and sure you dont consider yourself a journalist but lets face the truth, by acting in this childish manner both you and Grubdog have destroyed any hope or credibility for your site and stunted its growth considerably throughout this thread, which of course doesnt bother me personally, I just find it ironic.
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Plenty of hate for someone without anything to show. Kickstarters are our best hope for genuinely good games once again and someone of your caliber has the need to paste hate just because? You cant even diss anything because there isnt anything. We never had the illusion that Takedown will destroy all past expectations. Its hope we are buying for that we are being catered to.
And since you’re doing it. Your article sucks enough to make me want to write angry comments. I’m justified since I’m not a journalist and am not responsible.
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“You cant even diss anything because there isnt anything.”
I think that’s the whole point.
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You might want to learn the different between words that mean nothing, “marine corp”, and Marine Corps. I couldn’t locate a single mention of his military service anywhere on the Kickstarter project page, so your statement “He also uses his time spent in the marine corp as part of his credentials” is simply made up as far as I can tell.
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I can’t believe you felt the need to go on and on and bash a video game that is actually trying to bring back the “old school” 1 life – 1 objective gameplay style that does not incorporate health regeneration and respawn abilities. Every shooter game currently on the market is so god damn childish and retarded. I seriously do not don’t to play childish shooter games like BF3 or CoD. So far Takedown is doing an amazing job. You need to get a life and worry about more important things. I actually can’t help but wonder why you decided to bash Takedown. Did your own kickstarter fail? Did you have a fallout with the Takedown developers? Did they ruin life some how? Really, why do you even give a shit what a few game developers try to do?
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Was it my fault you backed this game?
EDIT: Oh god, it’s doing my head in that your url links to Insurgency, a totally awesome game.
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