Unfinished: Nidhogg II 12/09/2016

@spitznock: not everyone is a premium member though, and it makes sense as it's a look at an unfinished game. maybe if they did it on a high frequency i'd have a bit of a problem with it, but this is alright.

I definitely like the older art style more. This new one is a little too goofy

Don't think I've seen GB go down the recycled content route before. It seems kind of lazy?

The fastest Premium content has become free?

I still think the character designs are terrible, they don't fit the game's style at all.

So I still really dig the art style since seeing this on UPF, but what stands out the most for me is the music. A few of the level tracks have been stuck in my head non stop. That never happens. Good job on the composer! Can't wait to at least buy the soundtrack for this when it's out!!

Some people are impossible to please. A slowdown in regular content at a time of year when there are basically no games coming out to cover isn't a big deal.

UPF is the perfect environment for Nidhogg so why not use it?

It's fine, it doesn't hurt my memories of Nidhogg 1. But this does look like garbage and not what I want, to the point where, just call it something different.

Also this video player is crap too.

edit: Also, it looks like naked Ernie and Burt, not Homer Simpson.

@williamflattener said:

This is basically how I feel too, somehow they made the game less impactful by being way more explicit.

Going back and playing some original Nidhogg, and this game seems super slow in comparison. Hopefully it's just the framerate troubles and it gets polished up before release, but at the moment everything seems sluggish, and a little bit claustrophobic with the larger character models and the smaller FOV.

The funny part is, if they did a free standing QuickLook, people would still whine that they were going over the same territory twice, because it's not the like the game is so complicated they would uncover some huge thing they didn't catch during UPF.

Also, GOTY is awesome, I don't even care that much about the vids and skits, just gimme them podcasts. I can and will listen to them argue about games all day.

@moregrammarplz: exactly what you said. Also: premium gate means more site regulars didn't see it than did, and the Nidhogg people shared this for promotion's sake. They deserve the boost.

I think the folks who are complaining about recycled content and laziness need to bear in mind that they basically showed the entire build they had here. There wasn't anything else to show in a new video, it made NO sense to make a new video, what else could they do or say? Getting people in to do another video would have just been repeating exactly the same content that they had already done.

@mvhvtmv: That's a good point. I'll probably play it anyway for all my belly-aching about styyyyyyle. The first one was so much damn fun, and this one does seem to capture the same rhythm.

(The rhythm is usually: Intense silence, silence, CURSING, silence, CURSING AND LAUGHTER, silence, silence, FINAL SCREEN ALREADY?!, CURSING, CURSING, then simultaneously screaming NOOOO and YEEESSSS)

Agreed. Didn't GB do something similar (cutting a standalone Quick Look out of a live stream) with a pre-release "Galak-Z"?

I concur!

I am OK with posting a cut of UPF in order to have a quick look of a game. This is a smarter way of doing this thing we call a website.

Looks super fun.

Cutting this out of UPF seems fine and efficient.

"No games coming out"

Yeah let's just ignore Jeff literally talking about looking into Steep two weeks ago. And all the other recently released games they ignored that would be relevant to users here. Earth's Dawn gets a look but not Root Letter, Xanadu Next, Harvest Moon, or some random steam game. It would have been nice if they banked those to release now since they knew they'd be shutting down production for a few minutes of GotY videos.

Nidhogg (and presumably this sequel) is a game that's at its best with a crowd around to OOH and AHHH and OH SHIT at the stuff that's going on. Why not use perfectly good footage where that happened, rather than record a new, potentially drier version with just two people in a Quick Look?

It sounds like the GB crew have been working like motherfuckers to produce their usual out-of-the-ordinary End of Year content; I think they're allowed to use video they've already got as a little respite at the pointy end of a weird, sometimes shitty year. Plus it works as a nice lil advertisement for UPF.

Oh, and my actual thoughts on Nidhogg II? I've already said a bit about the look in the comments of the actual UPF video, but I'm excited-ish to play it? I'm very keen to feel the weapon variety for myself, but until then I can't stop my brain from thinking it's just more Nidhogg. Eh, whatever... I know I'll change my tune when I'm in a room full of drunk mates all going OOH and AHHH and OH SHIT while we play.

Can't believe people are getting salty over 35 minutes of free content. It is an early preview build of a game which is better played in a multiplayer setting. Whats the point of re-recording coverage when this was such a perfect demonstration.

The art style is what it is it , I agree it looks better in game than on the earlier announcement videos.

what I am more interested in is the weapons. The first one was so perfectly balanced I am worried that bringing in others could break the fun. The bow in particular seemed too easy with a long range, infinite ammo and high fire rate. It did loom great in the GB crews hands but I hope this change doesn't lead to huge balancing issues, especially with new players.

I absolutely love the music for this game. Cannot get enough.

@poperamone: I think the question that everyone is asking is why was it on UPF in the first place?

Feeling good about this. Seems like a natural extension of the first (which I wouldn't have just wanted duplicated anyway - got plenty of mileage out of that). Feels like it forces new strategies within the same super fun concept. Diggin' the look.

Also, thumbs up to getting this up as a QL, would have likely missed it otherwise!

@johnnymcginley: That would only be a problem if they didn't release the UPF segment as a regular Quick Look. But they did. So there's no problem.

@nukleon: Who went out of their way to stand up for Mario Maker last year? The actual final GOTY conversation was rather short because there wasn't much argument against Mario Maker. Also, I think the GOTY stuff is good because it lets them get stuff out of the way so that they can have their own holiday vacation. If they wanted an end of the year break and they didn't do GOTY the way they did we would probably have no content on the site for the second half of December.

The art style has really grown on me. This game is looking dope as hell.

This is the first/only lengthy gameplay session of this game on the internet, right? And this is the GB crew's first time with it. REAL REAX ONLY. Makes perfect sense that they'd put it up for everybody.

As for the art style, I'm into it, but I do feel like the facial animations need to [Jim Ross voice] "slow down and sell more." I want to revel in their absurdity and they just go by too quickly.

I feel like the people defending the existence of the video are the ones overreacting? Some people pointed out that they found it odd that the video popped up this way. I don't, but I don't think that people were exactly flipping out about it the same way people seem to be in the other direction. The internet is weird.

Anyway, I love how deliberately ugly this looks. It's got a style I can get behind.

@jonny_anonymous: Come on, man. If "content for the holidays" was the sole concern, they wouldn't need to put so much time and effort into it.

Listen, if I were Vinny and my boss told me "you have to be away from your family for two weeks in December to generate content for the holidays", I'd say, "no, I'll just stay here and play Castlevania or whatever". And if that didn't fly, I'd tell him to shove it and find someone to replace me. There's clearly a lot more to GOTY than "generating content".

I feel bad about thinking I was going to watch a new video when I'd already seen it before, but good about free stuff for other people, I guess.

I don't know what people were mad about this thing looks amazing.

Character design makes me think of old game box art that looked nothing like the game's actual graphics. Maybe this is intentional.

Maybe you guys can put something in the title to indicate it's a clip of another show? I thought this would be new content since there's been a lot of games that had a QL after being on UPF. It was great on UPF but the QL format would be able to go into the comparisons with the original, probably some dev history, and go through the new menus etc. :(

cmon man

Dude, I am just telling you what Jeff said. The concept was created when they needed content for when they were on holiday.

"I take away his weapon...both of them."

I'm glad they made this part of UPF free as a separate video because it's a new game and more people would have liked to see it. I was thinking of uploading a bit of this on Youtube by myself but glad Giantbomb already did it.

Totally sold on Nidhogg 2 after seeing this, compared to when I first saw the trailer. Thanks!

I agree with Alex that there's a sort of "pureness" in the way the original Nidhogg is presented that is kind of a bummer to see missing in this sequel.

Regardless of how you feel about the leap in art style, though, the new presentation is still undeniably cool.

As a subscriber that doesn't watch UPF, I appreciate this being pulled out and uploaded separate. <3

So will Nidhogg 3 be a bunch of shitty 3D polygon characters and pre-rendered backgrounds? Because I would be totally fine with that

Changed my mind on the art. It gets better looking at it, and then it starts to fit.

@nukleon: Yea I agree, GOTY stuff definitely does not feel exciting.

The way it has been spoken about recently on the site it sounds like a drag for those guys, packing it all in while GBE guys are there and draining their mental energy on something that is really not that important.

I guess they need to fit in the categories to follow with the general consensus of gaming media.

So this is where we get made that this thing we all loved before on UPF but before we were the only ones able to see more people can see now right?

Around 22:30 Vinny sings the first words to "Not in Nottingham" from the Robin Hood Disney movie. Just wanted to acknowledge that. Prompted by Brad's "Every weapon has its ups and downs" just before that.

Really digging the art style - animation of both fighters is grotesque yet beautifully executed. Nice!

I think this retroactively makes last weeks UPF slightly professional.

The game looks fun but fuck man I could not handle looking at this artstyle for an extended period of time. Nidhogg 1 is much more my thing.

Nidhogg II:The Esports

It's the Giant Bomb Christmas flashback episode.