Chapter 378: Complete Overwhelm (Requesting Subscriptions, Monthly Passes)

Various perfect scores, along with various player topics and discussions online.

Inside Atrai, Antorini, who was in charge of 'Beautiful World', was completely bewildered.

On the first day of 'Beautiful World's' launch, the internet was filled with all sorts of praise from players, and sales were quite impressive.

But by the second day, the buzz had already dropped from the first day, and sales had also decreased.

However, from Antorini's perspective, this was still a normal operation.

But on the third day, and the fourth day.

The buzz for 'Red Dead Redemption' next door kept getting higher and higher.

Meanwhile, his 'Beautiful World' was no longer beautiful at all.

If it weren't for both games being on different platforms, Antorini had no doubt that 'Beautiful World's' sales would be even worse than they were now.

Especially the scores given by major media outlets, the uniformly perfect scores gave Antorini an unrealistic feeling.

Before this, Nebula Games' 'Call of Duty: Modern Warfare' had already seemed amazing enough to him.

Yet, even 'Call of Duty: Modern Warfare' hadn't managed to achieve such a terrifying result back then.

But now, 'Red Dead Redemption' was uniformly rated as perfect by major media outlets?

One must know that a perfect score is not easily obtained.

Whether it's technical capabilities, influence, level design, or story, a game with a perfect score must excel in at least two of these areas, while also possessing a certain artistic quality.

But now, did 'Red Dead Redemption' possess all of them?

Especially after 'Red Dead Redemption's' scores were released, major gaming media also reviewed 'Beautiful World'.

GameSpot gave it the highest score, but it was only 9 points.

The rest of the gaming media generally only gave scores ranging from 8 to 5.5.

This was mainly because 'Red Dead Redemption's' performance during the same period was simply too outstanding.

Firstly, its technical performance: if there was anything to criticize, the most notable point of contention in 'Red Dead Redemption' was the loading time players had to endure before entering the game.

However, this was also the main reason why 'Red Dead Redemption's' visual presentation overshadowed 'Beautiful World'.

Secondly, regarding the game's background era and character settings.

'Beautiful World' almost entirely adhered to the prevalent era of the Wild West, deifying Western culture.

In terms of the game's plot, players mostly saw benevolent white settlers threatened by violence, followed by heroic cowboys and law enforcers eliminating evil and bringing peace, with the result almost always being the complete annihilation of all enemies, giving a sense of Robin Hood-esque vigilantism.

It was very stereotypical; good was good, and evil was evil.

In contrast, 'Red Dead Redemption' was completely different.

Whether playing as Arthur Morgan or later John Marston, it was difficult to clearly say if they were good or bad.

You could say he was a good person, yet he had committed many evil deeds, stopping at nothing.

You could say he was a bad person, yet he had also helped many people in need.

This ambiguous setting of good and evil gave the entire game's story greater depth.

At the same time, setting the game's background at the end of the Wild West era further amplified a sense of loneliness and an individual's powerlessness in the face of changing times.

All these became bonus points for 'Red Dead Redemption'.

During this period, Antorini had been busy with the post-launch deployment of 'Beautiful World' and hadn't had time to follow 'Red Dead Redemption' in real-time. After all, both games were launched, and it was a battle of raw strength; his attention wouldn't make much difference.

But now, taking another look, wasn't the gap simply too huge!?

It's worth noting that to this day, Antorini himself had never created a game with a perfect score.

At that moment, Antorini also opened the Cosmic VR gaming pod, preparing to personally try out 'Red Dead Redemption' to see what made the game so good.

And after experiencing it, even though he hadn't fully completed it, having only reached the end of the Valentine storyline, he could only lament that it was completely incomparable.

As a professional designer in the gaming industry, Antorini was not without his skills.

After experiencing the content of 'Red Dead Redemption', Antorini immediately realized where he had lost.

Of course, he admitted that he didn't lose on the story.

Because in terms of story presentation, Antorini felt he shouldn't take the blame.

After all, 'Beautiful World' was an IP-adapted game.

He had perfectly replicated some of the stories and plots from the original novel.

Moreover, in terms of cinematography and narration, although some storyboards couldn't compare to 'Red Dead Redemption'.

For example, the scene where Arthur and John Marston robbed a cargo truck, standing on the oil tanker, he watched it no less than five times.

However, the biggest problem with the overall plot wasn't in this aspect, but in its depth.

Compared to 'Red Dead Redemption's' story, 'Beautiful World's' plot lacked a lot of depth.

But could this be his fault?

In fact, facing this situation, Antorini felt that if Atrai had adopted his ideas back then, it might have been better.

After all, cowboys fighting robots, while sounding absurd, wasn't entirely unfeasible.

'Red Dead Redemption' was more realistic and serious; in this context, an absurd, sci-fi-tinged plot like cowboys fighting robots might actually attract players.

Of course, in a true comparison, it definitely couldn't compete.

Because 'Beautiful World' lacked more than just a story.

Similarly, in terms of game design, Antorini also felt inferior.

As a renowned game designer, he was quite open-minded.

Moreover, the various settings in 'Red Dead Redemption' had greatly inspired him.

Especially the so-called open-world concept, which left him in awe.

In 'Beautiful World', he had actually incorporated many gameplay elements.

For example, mini-games, hunting, and fishing.

But more often, they were just added for the sake of having that gameplay.

However, 'Red Dead Redemption' showed him a completely different path.

That was the almost demanding realistic detail.

He even felt that if you stripped away all the external elements of 'Red Dead Redemption' and just took out the fishing and hunting gameplay, it could still be a relatively excellent small-scale hunting simulation game.

Yet, this was only a part of 'Red Dead Redemption'.

Open world, directly creating a world within the game.

This design philosophy also left Antorini and countless other industry designers in awe.

Of course, he was willing to admit defeat on his end.

But Atrai was in trouble.

Same genre, same release window, facing the impact of 'Red Dead Redemption', this time it was even worse than when they faced 'Call of Duty: Modern Warfare' before; it was completely overwhelmed.

It was like a toy car colliding with a real car.

However, compared to the troubled Atrai.

Nebula Games, on the other hand, was filled with a joyful atmosphere.

(End of Chapter) <>