”In 2012 we released one of the worst games of all time,” says developer Spiral Game Studios, with an odd sort of pride, ”And now you can try and play it for free for an entire week starting May 4, 2015.”
The game in question is dinosaurs versus space marines shooter Orion: Prelude, which was received with about as much enthusiasm as a condom full of wasps when it launched three years ago.
Fair play to Spiral, though, who haven’t just accepted the fact that their game is terrible. Instead, they’ve spent the last three years whittling it into an enjoyable co-op experience, one that maybe isn’t up there with the very best multiplayer experiences, but is more than worth its $0.99 asking price. There’s a full suite of PvP and PvE game modes, plus you get to shoot a T-Rex with a laser. Win-win.
Coming May 4, the game’s ’Year 3 Update’ adds two Survival Co-Op maps, remastered weapon sounds, and various other fixes and tweaks. There was originally meant to be five new maps, but to make up for the missing levels Spiral says that ‘Condor Forest’ and ‘Raupi Island’ are ”being added to significantly.” They will be ”by far the most detailed environments in the entire game and it’s truly pushing Unreal Engine 3 to new levels.”
Kicking off on May 4, Orion: Prelude will be free to play for one week, if you find that one dollar asking price a bit steep. Just shows that even if it’s a total mess upon launch, any game can be rescued with enough hard work.
