SOF Studios and their game, H-Hour

[instagoat 133]

http://www.sofstudios.com/

Another competitor on the market for tacticool gameplay?

Only a lot of marketing claims at the moment and not a whole lot to back it up, it seems. Not even ingame material. Some people working on this apparently were involved in Rainbow Six: Patriots among other games from that genre. I suspect that´s kinda the thing they´re trying for, ghost-recon/rainbow six style gameplay.

Can this be a game to steal Arma's market?

[ProfTournesol 956]

Well, GR/R6 gameplay was nice, that would be a good thing. It won't compete with ArmA where CQB is meh, but ArmA needs a good competitor somehow.

[rye1 21]

I don't think it can steal anyone's market, it's in a category of its own. It's a competitor, to what, ground branch? I can't see anything that's actually popping out at me. They took an SF dude and are using him as a character, modeling his movements and so on. Ground Branch did similar, right? I can't see anything special or really that interesting.

[NoRailgunner 0]

Looks more like they are trying to make something like a SOCOM sequel....

[metalcraze 290]

Some people working on this apparently were involved in Rainbow Six: Patriots

They got fired before it even was finished?

Can this be a game to steal Arma's market?

Well Patriots is just another Splinter Cell Conviction. What are the chances?

[moses 1]

@InstaGoat

Well first off, thanks for the shoutout :)

In regards to the "marketing claims" you are referring to I'm assuming you are talking about what we are saying about our game H-Hour. Everything we have made public about the game are our intentions for H-Hour's game design, this was not meant for marketing purposes other than to inform gamers of what type of game we are set out to make. All-though we have been established as a company for a little over a year now, we still have a long road ahead in developing H-Hour, building out our company and our fan-base. Do we have any in-game material to backup anything? As of right now no, but when we do and the time is right we will make it public.

In regards to R6 & gameplay; David Sears was the previous lead in R6: Patriots and is the only person from that project now working for our studio, and is the Creative Director for H-Hour. If I were to make any references as to what type of gameplay H-Hour might resemble, it would be the original socom games given the fact that David created them.

In regards to competing with Arma / stealing their market, time will tell but I highly doubt it. From what I know about Arma it's gameplay takes place over large battlefields with vehicles & the like, where as our game will be strictly focused on CQB gameplay. Another thing Arma has going for them is it's large modding community & support for that community, something we currently do not have any intentions for (modding support that is, of course we will support the community in general).

@Rye

I can see where your coming from, but I can say with confidence that we are nothing like ground branch and we simply didn't just take an "SF dude" and use him as a character. Hopefully as we release more information you can see why we are different, or by reading through the content we currently have up on our website :)

FYI, I'm just "The Webmaster" over at SOF Studios and am chiming in my own opinion unaffiliated with SOFs. Just saw some traffic come over here, read what was said here, and wanted to point out a few things. We welcome anyone to come over to our forums and ask any questions about our studio or game, and we will do our best to answer them if possible.

[instagoat 133]

@InstaGoat

Well first off, thanks for the shoutout :)

In regards to the "marketing claims" you are referring to I'm assuming you are talking about what we are saying about our game H-Hour. Everything we have made public about the game are our intentions for H-Hour's game design, this was not meant for marketing purposes other than to inform gamers of what type of game we are set out to make. All-though we have been established as a company for a little over a year now, we still have a long road ahead in developing H-Hour, building out our company and our fan-base. Do we have any in-game material to backup anything? As of right now no, but when we do and the time is right we will make it public.

In regards to R6 & gameplay; David Sears was the previous lead in R6: Patriots and is the only person from that project now working for our studio, and is the Creative Director for H-Hour. If I were to make any references as to what type of gameplay H-Hour might resemble, it would be the original socom games given the fact that David created them.

In regards to competing with Arma / stealing their market, time will tell but I highly doubt it. From what I know about Arma it's gameplay takes place over large battlefields with vehicles & the like, where as our game will be strictly focused on CQB gameplay. Another thing Arma has going for them is it's large modding community & support for that community, something we currently do not have any intentions for (modding support that is, of course we will support the community in general).

@Rye

I can see where your coming from, but I can say with confidence that we are nothing like ground branch and we simply didn't just take an "SF dude" and use him as a character. Hopefully as we release more information you can see why we are different, or by reading through the content we currently have up on our website :)

FYI, I'm just "The Webmaster" over at SOF Studios and am chiming in my own opinion unaffiliated with SOFs. Just saw some traffic come over here, read what was said here, and wanted to point out a few things. We welcome anyone to come over to our forums and ask any questions about our studio or game, and we will do our best to answer them if possible.

Nice. Not going for the same market increases my interest in the thing you´ve got going there. In the past couple of years not a lot of games in this field have been really impressive, so I am keen on seeing what you do with the material.

So, while I am skeptical towards wether or not the thing will be successful, you have my attention. If it´s any good me and my friends (who are more into the speedier type of tactical gameplay, not the slow paced stuff Arma offers) will pick it up. I am unsure, however, about accepting things said on websites at face value. Following OFP Dragon rising has taught me that anything you cannot test and confirm for yourself has to be taken with a grain of salt. And with games, the whole code thing is such black magic that even while you can put a lot of things in, they may not work perfectly (or at all. Case in point, Manhattan. Arma 2 players will know what I mean.). So, if I say marketing I mean advertising your Ideas to draw in people. It is not meant in a negative fashion.

I think the whole tactical sim genre in all its broadness has been neglected by the industry recently, with the decline of Rainbow Six and Ghost Recon into speedy shooter gameplay, and the complete decay of games like Splinter Cell and Flashpoint, so any move in the other direction is appreciated. Maybe you got something going there, if yes, it can only be good for the genre as a whole.

[rye1 21]

I agree, the whole genre has been pushed under and people are just waiting for a game to bring it back.

[BobcatBob 10]

I feel like the game this would be most likely to compete with would be Ground Branch, that and/or Takedown not Arma.

[Phantom Six 25]

I've read up on David Sears. Ubisoft made a bad call. He wanted to bring Rainbow Six Patriots into a more tactical direction but Ubi most likely wouldn't like that so he's gone and now with SOF Studios. I heard he was also involved in SOCOM 1-2 but was out after Socom 3 and the series went to hell at that point while googling him up and reading a couple game articles and user comments.

Hearing that there's no modding supports can of saddens me, I'm a big fan of modding support unless the game can clock in countless hours without it (only game that I can think of that do that to me is AI Wars: Fleet Command where it takes at least 10 hours to play one match and it can take longer with every new round being a new experience). Modding supports can add so much more life to a game and keep it alive.

It does however seem promising to the Socom fans. I don't get why they wanted 3rd person mainly for the PS3 version of Takedown (well they are SOCOM fans) but Takedown seems more like a SWAT 4/Rainbow Six stuff and indoor combat in 3rd person is kind of meh for clearing rooms. Ground Branch seems like it can be the revival of the true Ghost Recon to me and H-Hour seems like the revival of Socom to me so. I'd probably compare H-Hour to Socom, Takedown to Swat and Rainbow, Ground Branch to Ghost. As for ARMA, its the true successor of the real flashpoint.

Edited December 1, 2012 by Phantom Six

[pathetic_berserker 4]

Kickstarter has kicked off,

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1687497632/h-hour-worlds-elite-0

Don't really know but might drop 20-25 $ on it for sentimental reasons.

[Flogger23m 2]

I tried to back this project but could not bring myself to do it. A lot of marketing words and fluff that can be interchangeably used with an R6 Vegas type game. 3rd person and a reticule only 1st person mode reminiscent of 1990 quality shooters was another nail in the coffin for me. Likewise, there is a number of medicore player VS player tactical (or attempted) shooters on the market. The lack of proper missions, which is a centric component of a tactical shooter is not a good sign.

Overall it seems like the project is trying to find a good balance of "realism and fun", while not pushing any boundaries in any way while using sorely dated view point styles that should not be feature in any post 2013 tactical/realism shooter. I also dislike how they do not state the engine they are using even though development has begun. I am fine with their model of getting enough funding to convince a venture capitalist or publisher to fund the rest of the project, but unlike Serellan they do not seem to have any lined up.

I wish them luck but I am saving my money for when (or if) Ground Branch starts another Kickstarter or other donation running.

[chortles 263]

Overall it seems like the project is trying to find a good balance of "realism and fun"

This was a mark against the project why??? Though I will say that the other reasons that you gave were perfectly good reasons to pass.

[Flogger23m 2]

This was a mark against the project why??? Though I will say that the other reasons that you gave were perfectly good reasons to pass.

It reminds me too much of games like Rainbow 6 Vegas (terms they use). Unless they back up their concept with specific feature lists (multiple randomized insertion points, body armor modeling ect.) it is hard for me to gauge if this is indeed a proper tactical shooter or a Vegas type game. Perhaps I will have to look through the forums more but from what I have read I just can not seem to discern what kind of game it will be. I have played SOCOM I, single player only, and it was a rather decent tactical shooter experience. Perhaps not as good as R6 or SWAT, but good nonetheless. The MP portion of the SOCOM series seems more like Counter Strike: 3rd Person from what SOCOM fans seem to claim. And if that is how H Hour will end up I may just not have the interest for it.

[papanowel 120]

This game looks like a joke:

https://www.sofstudios.com/index.php?/page/media.html

One year after the kickstarter, all the money goes into this :s I can't believe it. It's like a 5 years old game.

[chrisb 196]

...snip... It's like a 5 years old game.

I think you could be insulting 5yr olds there..;)

[papanowel 120]

I think you could be insulting 5yr olds there..;)

Sorry, I wanted to say, It's like a game that was released 5 years ago.

I might sound disrespectful but when you see the visual result for a game that supposed to use the Unreal engine 4... I'm quite shocked.

Game mechanics looks good on the other hand.

Edited August 14, 2014 by Papanowel

[chrisb 196]

Sorry, I wanted to say, It's like a game that was released 5 years ago.

I might sound disrespectful but when you see the visual result for a game that supposed to use the Unreal engine 4... I'm quite shocked.

Game mechanics looks good on the other hand.

Ah I see. Yes a five year old game. However it also looks like a game aimed at five year old's, 'run and gun', just turn off the blood. ;)

I hate this type of game, seems they sort of jumped on the bandwagon. It just turns the clock back and doesn't add anything to the genre. People will buy it though, why, who knows.

But the KS money may not have been the best spent, we've seen. :(

[papanowel 120]

You're right, looks like the game is going into the same way as Serellan did... another fail of the genre :(