New Judas Previews And Interviews With Ken Levine - Luke Reacts 

When Ken was talking about "circle of values" I was like ... "Dude, forget that! Gimme some 'circus of values' in Judas, instead!" 😄

I found the Friends per Second Podcast interview to be far more interesting, mainly because Ken gets to delve a lot deeper into some of the themes of the story and its background, but also because it doesn't have Geoff INTERRUPTING HIM AFTER EVERY FIVE FUCKING WORDS.

It's kind of awesome that because Take Two has so many IP's that are extremely profitable they are ok with just letting Levine do what he does, Wish EA would try some of that.

You don’t notice the AI in oblivion until you play Starfield. The game really lacked any resemblance of npc:s being alive. Stores are open 24/7 with the same trader and characters are just waiting for you.

Hes talking about half procedual generated levels in a roguelike setting, with storie differences based of choices

We already know this game is gonna be a trip. Ken Levine makes some of the best games ever.

Just found out about this game a couple days ago and now it’s the up and coming game I’m most excited for

I just love the art style.

The biggest challenge they have is game length, the longer the game is the more complicated the systems become we saw this with the mass effect trilogy.

So I think the concept of the LEGO bricks is this initially: if you had only two bricks you have about 30 or so iterations of building combinations. Add 3 bricks and the combination quadruples. Add more and more bricks the possibilities feel endless. So I imagine he’s “designed” game components that are compatible with each other in a certain way that creates a sense of infinite possibilities.

After watching the interviews, I do think I have clear picture of Levine's ambitions with Judas, I know what he means with "Narrative Legos" is not a bizarre concept if you have play enough choose your own adventure games. My overall concern with this, if the quality of the game is gonna be solid through the game's entire scope. Because having a complex choose your own adventure game were things really change base on your decisions, that's a lot human labor that needs to spread itself thin to fulfill the ambition, which we know has been problem with Ken, specifically with the way he manages his project's team. I think what would be more productive to be concern regarding Judas' is whether or not the people that work on it got treated fairly and got compensated for their work.

I really hope the ideas come together the way he is explaning. The lego idea is ambitious but fantastic. The friends per second interview was great. Super hyped for Judas, its probably my most anticipated after Bioshock 1 and infinite are two of my favourite games.

The main problem with systems-driven content generation usually comes down to the amount of "pieces" it has to work with, and at what scale it's working at. At some point this system could get very "emergent" and that would create VERY different content. Narrative-wise, it would be like branching story-lines on steroids.

I also feel like trying to eliminate the failed mission aspect where even if you make somebody mad or don’t do it it’s not a fail it’s just moving on somewhere else

Apparently Levine is a perfectionist and that's one of his problems.

You are literally the only person I have heard talk about this game. I have no information and cannot form an opinion lol

It just feels like taking the long way around to get to multiple story threads.

I feel like something like this won’t even be apparent to most people unless they play it multiple times.

I think judas is in a good place, I can't wait. At the time, bioshock was way ahead of its time

When they talked about Radiant AI it reminded me of Clive Barker's Undying (2001). In this game if you fought someone and then ran away fast enough you wouldn't be followed. Go back to that room they wouldn't be there. They might be two doors down looking for you. Same goes for a scene at the beginning where dogs burst through a window when you enter the room. Instead, if you took your time you might be down the hallway when you hear the breaking the glass.

Professional Skeptic at work.

The title Judas makes more sense now. He was one Jesus 12 disciples who betrayed Jesus and got him arrested. Maybe one of those characters will betray you in some sense. Or maybe you pick one and it betrays you. Either way I think Betrayal is gonna be a theme.

I feel I have a pretty decent understanding of what he's talking about about. The question is will they be able to pull it off so that it's satisfying no matter what you choose to do.

Game looks/sounds great

His Pedegree and his passion in the video, actually make me sure that this game is going to be pretty freaking good. He clearly plays his games, and he clearly thinks about his game when he’s not working on it actively. I would be stunned if this game isnt at least an eight out of 10, and a must play amongst narrative focused gamers- but of course, that still speaks to gameplay and you have to feel it to believe it.

I think what will make or break this game is how easy it will be to see under the hood. If it's masked well it could be amazing. If it's super obvious to see how it works it will completely break the immersion

After Starfield I have grown to appreciate your outlook on unreleased games.

Yes I totally understand what we're getting here. It's a unique experience I think is going to surprise a lot of people. There are a lot of generes being mixed here so understandably It can be difficult to grasp what this actually is. My Understanding is that at its core it's Bioshock, meaning story telling , gun play, plasmids and setting will all be integral to the overall experience. Layer that with a refined nemesis system where the AI is constantly engaging with the player and keeping a list of what actions that player took. This is where I believe narrative legos come in. The biggest surprise I think people are going to get is the depth of combat most notably powers. Hacking alone looks to have a lot to it. It looks like we have subsets to powers called chips. And then this is where the roguelike comes in. It has been stated that item and weapon loss on death is present which should create an emphasis on stealth gameplay after being "reprinted" it has also been shared that the ship changes on death and that the layout can also change. Fps podcast also talked about procedural levels or textures within areas which I think is going to dynamically change the way we look at games. Ill be honest I truly think this could be the greatest game of all time if Ken pulls this off.

Yeah, my Skyrim didn't have any of that lol.

I would never put a candle near the air flow of my pc. 😅

It give me Redfall vibe i hope turn good

Reminds me of Detroit Becomes Human with a mix of Arkham Ciry. But you already mentioned it.

I can see this playing out of its truly a linear story based open ended. Dungeon. Crawler..

Kinda sounds like Remnant 2 with the way each run would give you a randomized thread

what he said ressembles starfield feelings. Like they trust in procedural systems so much that it ends up being a complex solution for a simple problem and takes space from other important aspects that should be more prioritized from the design point of view

I dunno, I watched the FPS interview and got a pretty good idea of the game.

At the moment i am more excited and it is my most anticipated game so far. Even more than gta6.

Take the Lego mediphor and replace it with a tree diagram.

The way he talks about the game makes perfect sense to me. I don't understand how you don't get it. He wants a game narrative to have consequences and branching to all sorts of parts of gameplay. So when you play and I play we experience different things each time. Not just 5 endings, but information that you will miss on your 5 or 6 playthrough that will teach you about these character relationships and there motivations. It's a next gen experience that he wants to create and it's been in development for a long time. They are left to make what they want similar to the team who made it takes two. Making the next generation of games by creating experience that will last decades vs being something that is fun over a weekend. He explains his process and it shows to me that you don't understand that creative side of what he is saying. You make videos and give opinion. This is more of the created side of how the thing is made and how this game will be special vs what has come before it.

I think he's trying to make something like KOTOR but FPS 🤔 but honestly I'm more confused now than I was before 😂

Kind of sounds like the Butterfly Effect in Until Dawn

Kim Levine, the game you talking about, is it here with us right now? Can you make him do a noise?

So the game is gong to have like an AI game master that kind of responds and reacts to player choices? Like it learns who you are based on your actions/choices and uses already created in game ready-made modules and applies them to your gameplay. Oh you like to explore rather than do main quests? Ok here are some interesting areas you can stumble into with people you can react to that will affect the dynamics of the main story ABCD etc in some way later on. Sounds complicated. As long as my monitor won’t come to life and kill me in my sleep.

Where gameplay

Until Dawn was able to have countless branching paths based on quick time events and player made decisions. So it can definitely be done. Just has to feel unique enough to constitute several playthroughs. I think Ken has his work cut out for him tho! 🎉

Still waiting for anachronox 2

Reminds me of early fallout 76 days though, you speak to holograms to get a quest and defeat robots and all humans are dead and you have a wrist/hand thingy and you have to choose between different factions! I'm not sure if the formula would still be fun after a few hours into the game.

Anyone else getting serious old school fable vibes?

Sounds like the first incoming game of my game company. But I think they won't do it right.

It just sounds like a rouge like with a branching story if you can make it so mechanics function differently that’s cool and I can see that it is a little more than a rouge like/lite with a branching story like it’s cool that you can have story aspects that affect the worlds but it kinda feels like he just thinks he came up with something new and crazy when he didn’t really. And even if it is sort of a rouge like/like type thing then that’s fine but it doesn’t really feel like something actually brand new like the story stuff is cool and if it can be pulled off cool but I don’t know really how new it would be when you can have huge games with branching stories where all your actions change things while it could still be really cool I don’t really think it’s that new or anything. It also kinda feels like the fable creator talking to me

What about hades

Ken could make a game that fails miserably, yet it would still be an amazing work of art. Infinite is a great example. People didn't respond well to it. They considered it the worst in the series, especially with the promises given. Yet now we, or at least most, look back and say it was actually a great game. We just liked bioshock 2 more at the time.

'we didn't want the player to pay the price' Why not? That would be interesting.

Ahhhhhhh, the old fashioned "choices matter" marketing gimic. The only game that truly delivered on that promise so far was baldurs gate 3

im always skeptical of these pre-release interviews. i think more times than not they cut like 80% of the talking points lol. plus every time i hear “dynamic player relative ai” or “dynamic player driven story” it immediately raises massive red flags. i mean it is 2024 so i think its possible but the current industry is also a shit show.

So he's just doing System Shock again, got it.

What matters is if its actually fun and interesting. I have serious doubts about this title.

14:24 and still on Unreal Engine 4 💀☠

I remember him talking about BS Infinite, that game was going to be a WORK OF ART. Then it released as a very generic linear shooter with a forgettable narrative, it barely resembled what he promised. So color me a skeptic. Also, what he describes would involve a lot of content that many players will never see. Larian had to fund themselves to do something like that, is he self funded ?

Cautiously optimistic about this game. The stuff he said sounds good, but how many times have we heard other devs talk about our choices matter, but they either flat out don't, or it's a very surface level difference.

Is it just me or does Luke Stephens logo look like a Pile of Poop Emoji?

Luke Stephen’s is everything wrong with gaming journalism

Luke is fast becoming one of my favourite creators. Something about is style. He's up there with Ralph, aka skillup.

"Do you even understand what this game is supposed to be" Nobody knows except the people working on it. Even IGN and SkillUp don't know because 5 hours of playing a game based on the concept of narrative legos wouldn't actually give them any idea of its success or failure. Based on how Levine describes the concept, you'd only really get a full understanding of its design after playing through it at least twice. Whether it's a failure or success will only be revealed after we all play it. But ultimately, these interviews aren't previews. Hell, what IGN and SkillUp played weren't really previews. A preview is checking out a game that's close to being finished. We're probably over a year out from this game being released. It's nowhere near finished. Levine himself has said that there's a major feature of the game that isn't even implemented yet. So this is not a preview. Calling it such is misinformation. Personally, I'm fascinated by the idea but I'm also not the biggest fan of Levine's previous work. I think System Shock 2 is great but I'm not the biggest fan of the first Thief game and the best Bioshock game is the one he didn't work on. So for me, I'm more just curious because of the design goals on this project.

I'm not really buying what Ken is selling for me. BioShock Infinite mismanagement was something else.

Procedurally generated and story doesn't match. Last time this was used were in starfield and we all know what becomes out of it.

Sounds shady....

Troy Baker really is everywhere in gaming/animation.

Dude just said the same thing for 25 min straight

typical luke ...

Just change your channel name already to Luke Skeptical Live

Heavy No Man's Sky Sean Murray energy.

Sounds like Ken is pulling a Peter Molyneux with this one.

I want gameplay not people talking about gameplay hahaha. Come on Ken

Ken Levine, Todd Howard, Peter Molyneux. These people are all cut from the same cloth. They care more about selling you on an idea than they do actually figuring out how to implement the idea. Im sure the game he's making in his head is impressive. Somehow i doubt it will translate to anything real.

Something seems really off Idk if it’s the art style or the world building they showed so far but my Skeptic Sense is over 9000!

Luke i hate everything Stephens

I trust Ken Levine. He's not peddling bs, like Todd Howard.

You obviously don't understand what a roguelite is. That is what Ken is going for and those games are repetitive in the best ways.

Feels like a Molyneux moment...

Who?

Ah yes, Ken Levine, who is building up a new studio just for one or two games and then closing it to start over X D I guess his new game is just a bioshock reskin. And Im not much a fan of bioshock. Sooo... Im not much interested, except it is available for a fiver on gog as complete edition and I dont have anything else (which wont happen with the pile of to-do stuff)

Ken Levine the most overrated hack in the gaming industry been making the same game for decades only making it worse every time

This looks so bad looks like Outer Worlds ripoff

I would agree on the "over promissing" aspect, IF Levine did it all the time during development. But he didn't and instead we got nothing for 10 years at all and only now, because he's certain that it will work, he's slowly going public with it.