In 2024, two "abstract" game masterpieces will be born in the game circle, Sony's "Star Attack" and NetEase's "Condor Shooting", both of which have become the focus of heated discussions among players because of their high investment costs and the start of the collapse.
But unlike "Star Attack", which exited at the speed of light and has not been heard from so far (even if there are rumors that this game is preparing for resurrection), NetEase believes that "Condor Shooting" can still be rescued, and hopes to recover at least 1 billion costs through another year of reconstruction, and the better thing is to complete the goal of "telling the 150-year story of the Condor Trilogy" promised by "Shooting the Condor".
Judging from the product data, the performance of "Shooting the Condor" is embarrassing. Within two months of the open beta, it suffered a sharp decline, and for the next ten months, it did not appear on the overall charts or the free and best-selling charts of the game. The game has also fallen into a state of stagnation in updates, and the project team has obviously entered a state of hidden retreat, with only a handful of reluctant players still holding on.
Therefore, the public beta of "Condor Shooting" 2.0 on March 13 will be a severe test for this product.
Today, Dr. X will analyze with you the problems existing in the past of "Shooting the Condor" and the new content after the new test.
(1.0 celestial anomalies, 20,000 vientiane renewals)
Key point 1: What went wrong with "Shooting the Condor", which fell to the bottom?
Last year, Lao X once analyzed the problems of the product "Condor Shooting" from the perspective of the project, which can be summed up in 12 big words - the positioning is unclear, and he wants to do it both and willingly.
Related reading: "NetEase threw 1 billion yuan, but failed to climb the mountain of "Genshin Impact"? 》
And if you go into the details, there are some key minepoints that have to be mentioned, which are also the problems that the new "Condor Shooting" team is determined to solve.
First of all, there is the problem of juvenile painting style, which can be called the most stubborn obstacle during the first test and the open beta of "Condor Shooting".
The project team seriously underestimated the player's sensitivity to the martial arts art style, and wanted to carry out a bold and innovative exploration of the new national style, but did not expect that this attempt would become the first bomb detonated by "Condor Shooting".
The project team insisted that "our direction (BJD-like modeling) was correct, but it wasn't optimized well enough", and made several artistic innovations to this end.
However, all this was ultimately in vain. We don't know how many potential players Condor has lost because of this style of art? In front of the screen, have you ever been shy away from this game because of the style of painting?
The problem of gameplay design followed the style of painting and became another flaw in "Condor Shooting". There is a lot of one-off content in the game, and the disadvantages of monotonous and boring gameplay are exposed after the novelty of the player's first entry into the game world wears off.
It's hard to imagine that in the MMO game market in 2024, there will be games that will climb towers as one of the main combat power enhancement gameplay.
Not only that, the lack of depth in map exploration, traditional cultural puzzle solving and school coursework using cramming, all of which greatly aggravate the "liver" of the game, and the process is not very interesting.
The Jin Yong Warrior, who players spend a lot of money and are full of expectations for drawing, has little actual role in the game, and cannot even accompany players to challenge the ten-person book. And the dungeon gameplay itself has become an insurmountable mountain for lone wolf players and mobile players.
Some players bluntly said that in the 1.0 version of "Condor Shooting", if it could have a powerful man-machine system like the copy of "Against the Water and Cold Mobile Game", the game might not decline so quickly.
In addition, problems such as the cost of transferring weapons, the imbalance of genres, and the large proportion of playing costs have all become the fuses for the first month of the open beta and many subsequent player retreats.
In addition, before the open beta, "Condor Shooting" carried out a large-scale high-profile publicity, and even had friction with similar products, shouting the very attractive slogan of "making the best Jin Yong game", which successfully shaped the player's super high expectations.
The so-called higher the expectations, the greater the disappointment, and in the end, whether it is from the painting style, the fun of the gameplay, and even the narrative quality of Jin Yong's IP, it is difficult to support the super high expectations before the open beta, and this huge psychological gap makes players choose to leave one after another.
(Camera, tool and human sense during the mission)
At the same time, on the eve of the open beta of "Shooting the Condor" 1.0, the overhaul of "Fantasy Journey to the West" caused strong dissatisfaction among players, and players transferred some of their anger to the new game "Shooting the Condor" in the same studio.
This external factor has also accelerated its fall at the speed of light.
Key point 2: Ten months of retreat and cultivation, what has changed in "Shooting the Condor"?
The thunderstorm of "Condor Shooting" has sparked a wide discussion among players.
Some players believe that the failure of "Shooting the Condor" just highlights the gold content of "Nine Yin True Scripture"; There are also players who put "Condor Shooting" and another NetEase product "Yanyun" with a similar nature together for analysis, why is there a sky collapse and a Tianhu start?
Dr. X summarized the players' opinions, with the following two main points:
First, "Yanyun" has successfully attracted a large number of Steam and console stand-alone users, and with high-quality stand-alone missions and side quests, it meets the needs of this part of the players. On the other hand, in terms of cultural atmosphere creation and narrative quality, "Shooting the Condor" has not yet been able to achieve content-driven players, and its strong social requirements are even more prohibitive for stand-alone users.
Second, "Yanyun" focuses on reducing the burden in game design, there are no daily required tasks, and players do not need to go online every day, which effectively reduces players' anxiety and pressure.
In the face of "Shooting the Condor", a case of innovative attempts in many aspects such as a collection of new school painting styles and martial arts versions of Genshin Impact, but failed miserably, even Boss Ding had to go down in person and change the team to try to save it.
The new mastermind of "Condor Shooting" V, in the face of huge historical problems and formulating a plan for recuperation, will inevitably be timid - this not only makes him put away his enterprising fighting spirit, but also makes him determined to devote himself to learning from the strengths of hundreds of schools and re-embracing the traditional characteristics of NetEase.
The core policy of "Condor Shooting" 2.0 is "respecting the original Jin Yong's rivers and lakes, free and unbounded martial arts moves".
It can be understood that Jin Yong's IP elements are strengthened, the depth of the game is excavated from the perspective of martial arts freedom, and the boundaries of gameplay are expanded.
One of the most significant changes is the overall painting style and modeling, all the classic characters of the original book have been redone, through a set of comparison charts, we can see that the characters are childish, the style of Internet celebrities has been greatly changed, the characters are tough and realistic, and the NPC has also changed the same.
The changes in the vertical painting are more obvious:
In terms of scene art, "Shooting the Condor" 2.0 also took a 180-degree turn, from the original warm color of "martial arts rivers and lakes in addition to fighting and killing, there are also fireworks", to a more solemn public style of rivers and lakes, the tone saturation of the environment rendering is reduced, and the mechanism of dynamic weather is also introduced, making some scenes and details more realistic.
The UI, health bar color, and damage numbers have also been revised. However, for the 2.0 UI style, I can't judge Dr. X.
Although the popular blue-on-background box UI has been tested in the market, I personally prefer the bright silhouette style of 1.0, with clear lettering and clear information. Of course, the aesthetic varies from person to person, and players may have different opinions.
On the other hand, although 1.0 also played the slogan of "martial arts freedom", it is not free in actual experience, and the different genres and combo chains officially respected have "optimal solutions", even if there are more moves and combinations, in the end 99% of players only use two.
"Condor Shooting" 2.0 hopes to solve the problem of unfree martial arts through a greater number of moves, more diverse linkage reactions, and construction depth.
Officially, version 2.0 added 251 new martial arts, plus the original moves, the number has reached more than 300. At the same time, the introduction of motion capture technology has made a qualitative leap forward in the sense of impact compared to 1.0.
(2.0 new Spirit Snake Fist)
The skill designs related to summons and magic elements in the previous drama have been deleted, and replaced by expressions that can better reflect the true qi of the sword, making one move and one style more martial arts charm.
(1.0 skill design with a lot of summoning elements)
The martial arts link is also a little better than the previous blunt splicing, with more linkage combinations that restore the original work, such as Dugu Nine Swords will have the characteristics of destroying all weapons, judging from the official display, this move will apply the "disarming" effect; The Eighteen Palms of the Dragon Descending will first use internal force to vibrate the enemy into the air, and then summon the dragon to perform multiple combos.
The internal power system has been overhauled and the perception system has been redone, and the two can also be combined. 2.0 adds a resonance system to the perception system, which generates different resonances through the combination of yin and yang, and then obtains additional bonuses to enrich the martial arts gameplay.
"Shooting the Condor" also sorted out the underlying combat logic and introduced a concept similar to the true qi value of "Tianya Moon Knife". Players need to empty the enemy's "Protective Points" before they can apply control states such as stiffness and exaggerated falling to the ground, and perform a set of gorgeous combos.
In addition, the addition of moves such as de-control skills, blocking counterattacks, and displacement allows PVP to return from simple and crude competitions to traditional martial arts games. The progress of this part of the gameplay has been recognized by many players in the previous "renewal test", after all, the PVP in 1.0 is equivalent to nothing.
In addition, "Condor Shooting" 2.0 deleted the tower climbing, and introduced an adventure fate gameplay similar to "A Dream of Rivers and Lakes".
In terms of cultivation, support is the same, and you can get full rewards in 5 minutes online every day. The upgrade of internal strength relies on time infusion cultivation, paying tribute to the non-level offline cultivation of the Nine Yin True Scripture.
Another noteworthy point is that many people can't play the game because of mobile optimization problems during the 1.0 public beta, which has also become the focus of 2.0 optimization, and after a year of testing, "Condor Shooting" is confident that it can carry 95% of the models on the market.
(Mobile - HD Quality)
It can be seen that the rebuild of "Condor Shooting" this year is not paddling, but there are still many questions that players are concerned about have not been answered.
For example, can 2.0 casual and mobile players enter the capital? Will the UI be optimized? Is the Knightly AI still clumsy? Is the change of martial arts collocation really free? What's more, while borrowing from various predecessors' gameplay and design, what are the characteristics of "Condor Shooting" itself?
Some people think that the core of "Condor Shooting" has been lost and has been reduced to a popular mobile game. After all, if a project that has been done for six years wants to be overhauled, it is like a big ship that is better than making a U-turn, how easy is it to say?
The project team chose to adopt a relatively stable way, so that the configuration needs are more close to the people, the style is in line with the taste of the public, and the gameplay draws on the mature experience of the predecessors.
However, the 2.0 version of the benefits launched on March 13 is still quite tempting for veteran players.
The official converts the time, money and character development progress paid by 1.0 players into rebates to compensate players, with an unprecedented amount of money, and there are also two big servers, new and old. Today's total rebate for the whole server is close to 10 billion gold ingots + tied gold.
Like Dr. X, I have played in the 1.0 open beta for more than two months, and there are more than 10,000 gold ingots + tied gold after the conversion of the cultivation value, I believe that many players who have invested in it will not miss this 2.0 rebate.
In addition, "Condor Shooting" 2.0 also announced future update plans, including the season system, the five unique heroes, and the new copy of Huashan Lunjian, hoping to attract players who love Jin Yong's IP and look forward to long-term operation.
Visiting Huashan in person and going to a classic martial arts event such as Huashan Sword Discussion may be the ultimate experience that "Condor Shooting" 2.0 hopes to bring to players.
Summary after class
In fact, do you know what players are most worried about now, they are afraid to play "Shooting the Condor" and tell us that we will see you in 3.0 in 2026.
After all, a lot of manpower and costs have been invested in the reset, even if the wealth is as rich as NetEase, even if Boss Ding is in charge, can this project still get a second chance to rebuild? This is really a big question mark.
Now "Shooting the Condor" 2.0 is somewhat flavorful in martial arts, but it remains to be seen whether the fun soul is in place.
There is also a key problem in front of the eagle: how to find its place in the highly competitive MMO market. It should not be simply defined as "Yanyun Sixteen Voices (Youth Version)", nor should it be the so-called "children born of Yanyun and the cold against the water", and it has more than these two mountains on its head.
As the producer said, NetEase has such a high-quality martial arts game IP, and "Condor Shooting" should never stop there.
And from the details found by some players, we can also find the hidden ambition of the eagle -
Kindness? Defeated the young owner?
(Just kidding, everyone who has played Yanyun understands)