While Final Stand: Ragnarok may not be the final stand of Mark Jacobs and Unchained Entertainment, it certainly is a bad omen of things to come for the long-delayed MMORPG Camelot Unchained and the reputation of its legendary developer.
Co-op Multiplayer.
Final Stand: Ragnarok is built on the same “next-gen game engine” intended to run Camelot Unchained (the project backers spent their hard-earned money on).
Unfortunately for everyone involved, the engine is far from next-gen, appearing to be visually as impressive as World of Warcraft, a game that is long overdue for another visual overhaul and whose visuals are in no way, shape, or form “next-gen” or “cutting-edge.”
While the bulk of Unchained Entertainment has been re-assigned to work on Final Stand: Ragnarok and its engine, if Final Stand: Ragnarok is an example of the quality of work they can output and a rough guideline of what we can expect from Camelot Unchained and its “next-gen engine,” then it is already dead in the water.
While I will admit the concept of Final Stand: Ragnarok is a good one, and I always enjoy games where I can fight against waves of enemies with friends, it has been done before, and honestly done better in other games, and most importantly via other game engines, with Unreal Engine 4 and 5 being perfect for a game such as this.
Unfortunately, after spending a decade and millions of investors’ and backers’ money, it’s very hard for Unchained Entertainment to turn around and admit the idea of creating a custom engine was a bad one, and instead, they continue to throw good money, after bad, assuring investors and backers that good things are coming while showcasing Final Stand: Ragnarok (a failure by all possible metric) as the type of games that will do well on the engine.
With no player base, no interest, dated visuals, mediocre but not terrible gameplay, and a wider gaming community that has lost faith that Camelot Unchained will even come out, Final Stand: Ragnarok had no chance of surviving and honestly has done little but further diminish community goodwill and any hope of Cameolot Unchained being anything other than an unmitigated failure.
Crowfall actually managed to launch in a more timely (but still delayed) manner, had better visuals and a gameplay loop that worked (even if it was rather tedious) and that died within days of launch; I will honestly be amazed if Camelot Unchained lasts for 48 hours, let alone 48 days.
Much of the initial hype surrounding Camelot Unchained and its current state is due to one man, Mark Jacobs. Yet, despite his many failings and (perceived) poor project management, he is not the villain of this story but rather its first and most prominent victim.
I want to address the claim that Mark Jacobs is a crook or a con man. I can understand why people would think that; however, such a judgement is made without considering one very important thing.
He believes in Camelot Unchained, he believed that investing in a custom engine instead of using one of the already established (and much better) game engines was a good idea, and he believed that launching Final Stand: Ragnarok would somehow be anything other than a complete failure.
Yes, Mark’s problem was not raising money for a project he knew would fail but rather raising money for a project he honestly believed would succeed. And was unable to see that very few people wanted a game like Camelot Unchained in 2014, and even fewer do now, a decade later.
Nor could he see that his insistence on doing things his way would lead to a decade of developmental delays and missteps that have all but ensured that his legacy has been damaged beyond repair and that he is unlikely to be hired by anyone else after Camelot Unchained inevitably fails, which is honestly a shame as he was the creative force behind of *two the iconic MMORPGs the in the turbulent history of the genre, in addition to working on several other games of varying notoriety, such as Darkness Falls: The Crusade, and Aliens Online, and its a pity his illustrious career is likely to end with a title that frankly should never have been made.
*Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning & Dark Age of Camelot.
I understand people’s anger, their feeling of being conned, and the fact that refunds have apparently taken years longer than they should (Mark indicated refunds should take around 90 days, but some backers claim to have waited over 900 days, and some claim they are still waiting).
Are these claims an exaggeration? Perhaps. But I have no reason to see why they would lie. City State Entertainment (now known as Unchained Entertainment) admitted there had been delays with issuing refunds, and I personally encountered a lengthy wait for my own refund (which I eventually claimed via a PayPal dispute several years ago).
Regardless, people must understand that Mark Jaobs was under no legal obligation to refund anyone, and the very fact he has refunded many backers (even if the refunds have been at a snail’s pace) is proof of his sincerity and hating on someone who sincerely invested their time, money and reputation in a project unlikely to succeed is a terrible way to live.
Please understand. I am not defending Mark. I wish he would win the lottery, refund everyone, and retire from game development altogether (or at least retire from being the one to make all the decisions).
Camelot Unchained has done little but proves crowdfunding doesn’t work for the MMORPG genre. But, I will not judge the man as a liar or thief when I know he is neither or let others do so without challenge, despite what has unfolded and continues to unfold with Camelot Unchained.
If I had invested so much of my own money (and even worse) that of other people into a project that is going nowhere fast and that few people believe will survive (or be released at all), I would feel terrible, sick to my stomach with guilt, and I would hope to receive mercy and understanding instead of mockery and insult, and so would many of the people who are reading this right now.
In short, refund if you can, and move on if you cannot, and regardless of what happens to your money and Camelot Unchained, if you have ever done anything wrong in your life that you have needed forgiveness for, Forgive Mark Jacobs and move along, eternity is too long to spend it in hell because you wouldn’t forgive a man who sincerely thought he had a good idea, and whose vision was exciting enough to inspire you to back him, even if that vision has not been, and is unlikely ever to be fully realised.
Final Stand: Ragnarok is a action video game developed and published by Unchained Entertainment, it was released on 28 October 2021 and retails for $19.99.
Final Stand: Ragnarok is available exclusively on PC.
Final Stand: Ragnarok is almost entirely dead, with an all-time peak of just 37 players on Steam and a daily average of less than one player (0.9).
Final Stand: Ragnarok offers the following matchmaking options:
The Final Stand: Ragnarok in-game store sells:
The following peripherals are officially supported:
While it’s possible to use a controller in-game, as the controller does not work on menus, Valve does not allow the game to be listed as having partial controller support until there is at least partial menu support when using a controller, even if certain functions and features are not available to controller users.
Final Stand: Ragnarok is unrated and contains:
Honestly, Final Stand: Ragnarok is a decent idea executed poorly. With dated visuals, relatively poor performance, virtually no player base, and a developer mired in controversy (both deserved and undeserved), there is no reason to play it when there are hundreds of better games.
Not only do I not recommend Final Stand: Ragnarok, but I find it impossible to recommend anything by the developer until something of substance is released and all backers of Camelot Unchained who are still awaiting refunds (some claim to have been waiting for several years) receive their refunds.
To be fully transparent, I was a backer of Camelot Unchained at one time; however, after Beta 1 was substantially delayed, I requested a refund, only to be strung along for several months before opting to get a refund via Paypal, where the Paypal rep I spoke to informed me that they had an unofficial policy of automatically granting refunds requests from backers of Cameolot Unchained due to the number of cases being opened, and the similarities between said cases (same reason for refund etc).
While I cannot confirm this is the case, not that PayPal had a special policy regarding refunds for Camelot Unchained, I can confirm this is what I was told on the phone, and the speed at which PayPal issued the refund does lend credence that such a policy existed at one time.
