All hell has broken loose the moment Spiral Game Studios decided to release its next dino game, Orion: Dino Horde. A lot of gamers claimed that Spiral Game Studios released Dino Horde as a new game in order to avoid the ‘below-average’ score of its previous title, Orion: Dino Beatdown. In other words, most PC gamers felt cheated by Spiral’s attempt. Were they wrong or right? Let’s discuss this topic, shall we?
First things first, Orion: Dino Beatdown had an awful launch and as a result of that, it suffered from some really low scores. Spiral Game Studios has been working on an improved version of it; an update that is also a sequel to it, that is given for free to all existing owners of Dino Beatdown.
Sounds great, right? Well, it is. After all, those who were disappointed with the initial version of Dino Beatdown are getting new stuff for free. However, a lot of people think that Dino Horde is quite similar to Dino Beatdown, and that’s why it should had not been advertised or promoted as a new game.
Now that’s a great argument. Who would like to play an updated version of a previously released game, right? Ah, yes. Most people will agree with us. So, given the fact that you agreed on that argument, how come people do not criticize the latest Assassin’s Creed games? Why are people not reviewing with a ‘0’ score PES 2013, a soccer game that had the same engine, albeit a tweaked gameplay that could have been easily implemented to PES 2012 via a patch? Why are people not bashing all those publishers/developers that are milking their franchises?
As Prassel told Eurogamer, Dino Horde has six more dinosaurs, four more game modes, nearly 50 more achievements and over 20 more weapons and gear than Beatdown had. Not only that, but Dino Horde sports a new graphics engine, new animations and new netcode. In other words, it’s a sequel similar to what we’ve been getting from all other studios these days.
You see, it’s easy to bash indie or small teams. And it’s easy because you can damage them. You can destroy them. You can WIN. And most people feel satisfied with that accomplishment. They do not care about the fact that a game was given for free to existing customers. They do not care for the people that worked on this. They do not care if other, triple-A companies are doing the same thing. No, indie devs can be easily taken down.
Make no mistake, Spiral Game Studios has done some mistakes too. The company deleted some threads on Steam, and that drove crazy a lot of gamers. Spiral Game Studios has been also criticized for prior mistakes, mistakes that have been addressed (like using assets from Primal Carnage).
However, do we have the right to bash an indie team and not the entire industry for offering sequels that are mere upgrades of their predecessors? And if we do so, why are we targeting only those small teams? Where are those demands when triple-A teams offer underwhelming sequels that are overpriced?
John is the founder and Editor in Chief at DSOGaming. He is a PC gaming fan and highly supports the modding and indie communities. Before creating DSOGaming, John worked on numerous gaming websites. While he is a die-hard PC gamer, his gaming roots can be found on consoles. John loved – and still does – the 16-bit consoles, and considers SNES to be one of the best consoles. Still, the PC platform won him over consoles. That was mainly due to 3DFX and its iconic dedicated 3D accelerator graphics card, Voodoo 2. John has also written a higher degree thesis on the “The Evolution of PC graphics cards.”
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