Publisher: OGPlanet
Developer: FIX Korea
System requirements: Windows XP/Vista/Win 7, 2.0 GHz dual-core CPU, 1 GB RAM (2 GB for Vista/Win 7), Radeon X800/GeForce 7600 or better graphics card, DirectX 9.0c, 6 GB hard-drive space
Genre: FPS
ESRB rating: Not rated
Release date: April 2013

Back in the ancient days of 1999, when Pentiums still roamed the Earth, a guy named Minh Le, along with some other talented guys, created a small mod for Half-Life called Counter Strike. The little mod caught on, and it and Minh were soon snapped up by Valve. Soon, he was hard at work on Counter Strike 2. The project eventually faded, and Minh left to develop his next game on his own. After slow-boiling for more than a decade, that game is ready to be served. Recently, an open beta launched, sundering the seals and letting the masses in (and testing server loads). With the official launch right around the corner, Tactical Intervention should be about finished. So, how does it look?

Well, to be honest, it looks a mess. There’s a fine line between grouping information in the center of the screen (where the player looks) and simply being cluttered. One of Tactical Intervention’s most obvious innovations is to replace the radar with a ring around the center of the screen. This ring has red and blue dots that get brighter the closer someone is. In theory, this lets you keep your eyes forward while still scanning your radar, but in practice, you miss enemies because you’re too busy looking at the dots swirling in front of you. Now, the display does vanish when the action starts, but it’s still more bewildering than helpful.

Tactical Intervention has a remarkably long list of features. By pressing X, you can do a tactical roll, either to dive out of the way of something or to put yourself out if you catch fire. Objects such as fire extinguishers and propane tanks can be picked up and thrown. You can heal teammates by pressing T. To pick up ammo from dead enemies, you have to stop and “use” their ammo pouch, taking precious seconds. Certain locations allow you to rappel down slopes. Attack dogs exist as kill-streak rewards, along with every kind of grenade you can imagine. Every weapon has a melee attack, but there’s no aiming down the sights. The mission game mode even introduces drivable vehicles. Your loadout includes the expected primary and secondary weapons, but also the kind of helmet you wear and even the radio you use. TI is bursting at the seams with “stuff.”

It’s also good to note that locational damage is reflected in the animations. If you get shot in the leg, your character will hobble about, favoring the other leg. The same thing goes for arms. While this might give a skilled player the edge in picking out the wounded ones, I found that it generally results in a server filled with limping, grunting men with guns. It was a very odd experience.

While comparisons to Counter Strike are inevitable, they don’t do Tactical Intervention any favors. These are two very different games. While CS is very tight and focused, TI‘s feature list is the length of your arm. That’s the kind of game it’s trying to be. The issue is that TI doesn’t feel like it comes together. Perhaps introducing different classes would make the huge feature list coherent and help players figure out what to do, but at the moment, it’s remarkably confusing at first.

Le’s an indie developer at heart, as this interview with Polygon clearly uncovers. He likes to experiment with things and never be tied down by design documents or corporate pressure. That’s a very good way to explain Tactical Intervention. There are a lot of ideas all tossed together to make a very interesting, if not very appetizing, murder salad. There’s an ambition at the heart of Tactical Intervention that you don’t find in most free-to-play shooters. While it’s current state is more than a little rough, I hope that Le and his team are able to buff it out in the next few months. There’s something interesting here, if only they’re able to find it.

© Ian Davis for The Adrenaline Vault, 2013. | Permalink | No comment(s)

Publisher: Perfect World
Developer: Cryptic Studios
System requirements: Windows XP SP3/Vista SP2/Win 7/Win 8, 2.8 GHz Core2Duo or better CPU, 2 GB RAM, 512 MB GeForce 8800/Radeon HD 2900GT or better graphics card, DirectX 9.0c-compatible sound device
Genre: MMO
ESRB rating: Not rated at press time
Release date: Early 2013

If you’ve been keeping up with D&D news, you’ve no doubt heard some stuff about the upcoming Neverwinter MMO. This week, I was given a chance to muck around in the city of Neverwinter in the first of several beta weekends. I spent a lot of time killing enemies, setting off traps, forming groups with other players, and screwing up my group runs because I suck at healing. In other words, another day in the life of an MMO player.

The game is set up with five classes, only four of which have been officially revealed. I saw some stuff about the fifth, but nothing definite while I was logged in for Q&A. The four classes are the Devoted Cleric (heals), Guardian Fighter (tank), Control Wizard (crowd control), and Trickster Rogue (DPS). The game utilizes D&D 4th-edition rules, including at-will powers and all the rest. This gives the MMO a fast feel. Rather than having auto-attacks and 40 skills on quick bars, you instead bind your at-will powers to the mouse buttons and fire them off all the time, while you put encounter and daily powers in your rotation with hotkeys. The game plays out with a third-person camera and standard WASD key control, and it really only needs about 10 hotkeys with the character builds I saw. Rather than having tons of skills, half of which you rarely use, it seems like the game is streamlined in its design.

Surprisingly, character generation does involve rolling dice. While the generation of stats is random, I did notice that every roll of the dice generated a different kind of optimal starting build. As such, I wouldn’t be put off by the possibility of screwing up a character at the start of the game just because of an issue with the random-number generator. You can re-roll as often you want, and all the rolls end up being optimum in some way. Neverwinter also has the standard roster of races you’d expect in Faerun: elf, half-elf, dwarf, halfling, tiefling, humans, and at least one unannounced race. Race impacts abilities and skills, but I found that just about any race has something to contribute to any class. And taking its cue from MMOs such as Lord of the Rings Online, faces are customizable for anyone with an appearance obsession and a half hour to kill before entering the world.

Quests and dungeons follow the standard format we’ve come to expect from MMOs, although I was pleased to see that traps and secret doors make an appearance in dungeons. Certain classes have skills that let them deal with these items, but any character can purchase tools that also let them interact with these objects. This lends a little bit of table-top feel to the game.

The biggest surprise to me was the Foundry. I hadn’t read very much about Neverwinter before I stepped into the game, but it turns out the developers are going to include the Foundry toolkit. This allows members of the community to build their own zones, dungeons and adventures to share with other players. We got a short look at it during the beta weekend, and I have to admit I was surprised to see that a free-to-play MMO would include a feature such as this. Having the ability to create your own content in this way is definitely an attempt to put this game into the tradition of BioWare’s classic Neverwinter Nights.

And yes, Neverwinter is going to start out free to play. While I’m not at all surprised by this, thanks to the dynamics of the video game industry, I didn’t get to really see how the game is going to be monetized (so don’t ask about prices, because I don’t know). It looks like it’s shaping up to be fine product, so we’ll have to see how everything plays out upon release.

© Jason Pitruzzello for The Adrenaline Vault, 2013. | Permalink | 5 comments

Publisher: Paradox Interactive
Developer: Paradox Development Studio
System requirements: Windows XP/Vista/Win 7, 2.4 GHz Pentium IV/AMD 3500+ or better CPU, 2 GB RAM, 512 MB GeForce 8800/Radeon X1900 or better graphics card, DirectX 9.0, 2 GB hard-drive space
Genre: Strategy
ESRB rating: Not rated at press time
Release date: February 18, 2013

Last year, I got a chance to see March of the Eagles up close during the Paradox Strategy Tour. The game depicts the Napoleonic Wars, with the help of developer Paradox’s Clausewitz engine. I recently received a preview copy, and I’ve been marching my armies across Europe for the past couple of weeks. It’s shaping up to be a fine strategy title, offering you a very realpolitik experience on top of its emphasis on warfare and military campaigns.

Set from 1805 to 1820, March of the Eagles lets you take control of major European and North African powers and lead them to victory. The game opens in 1805, with France and the United Kingdom already at war. Each of the countries, or at least those that aren’t already satellite states of a major power, can choose to join either the French or British coalition. Want to play Spain and reclaim Spanish dominance of the oceans? Join Napoleon in his quest to defeat the British. Want to crush the French and remove them completely from Germany? Take control of Prussia, join the British coalition and face the French in battle. Or take command of France yourself and attempt to dominate the entirety of Europe. Perhaps you can even start a war with Russia and try to do better than your historical counterparts.

But to call Eagles a game of the Napoleonic Wars is a bit of a misnomer. Each of the major powers has a set of provinces that they need to conquer to achieve land and/or naval dominance and win the game. This encourages each major power to act in its own interests. Sometimes it might make sense to get involved directly in the Napoleonic Wars, especially since the French start out as the land-dominant power, while the British rule the waves. However, just like in the history of the period, there are plenty of other conflicts you can fight. The Russians and the Ottomans have conflicting dominance provinces. Prussia needs to kick Sweden out of Germany and seize control of the Baltic. Austria is caught in the middle with potential enemies on all sides. Even Spain needs to defeat both France and the United Kingdom to fulfill its dominance conditions. I found that backstabbing, forming alliances of convenience, and having a willingness to declare war on any major power that appears to be in trouble are all a part of the game’s strategic depth. Just to give an example: As Spain I managed to seize naval dominance from the British. While preparing to backstab Napoleon and France to gain sway on land, I’m told that France has lost land dominance — to Russia. I hadn’t been paying attention to what was happening in Eastern Europe, and in 1812 I was in the position of being in a rivalry with Russia, a major power I had no hope of defeating by myself. History books were in danger of being rewritten, only now they would talk about how Spain and Russia plunged Europe into an even bigger war than any of the conflicts fought between Napoleon and the various coalitions.

Army composition and leadership are a big part of March of the Eagles. Various types of troops contribute to portions of combat in a number of ways, but leaders can only select tactics that fit the current composition of the army. For example, if you want your leaders to select the up-the-guard tactic, you need a certain percentage of guard and light infantry. Certain leaders are more proficient at certain kinds of warfare, but all leaders improve in skill and gain traits as they fight. And this leads to the game’s secondary hobby: grooming leaders through combat. Since just about any leader can substantially improve his proficiency after fighting in various battles, it pays for most countries to train their leaders in conflicts with smaller powers before challenging the other major powers of Europe.

March of the Eagles is a faster-paced strategy game than some of Paradox’s other titles, and I see a lot of potential in its multiplayer mode. It’s set to be released on February 18th for $19.99. For more details about this game, check out the Let’s Play video feature at the top of the page.

© Jason Pitruzzello for The Adrenaline Vault, 2013. | Permalink | No comment(s)

Publisher: Soldak Entertainment
Developer: Soldak Entertainment
System requirements: Windows 98/ME/2000/XP/Vista/Win 7/Mac OSX 10.4, 1.5 GHz Pentium IV CPU (2.0 GHz for Mac), 256 MB RAM, GeForce 2 or better graphics card (GeForce 3 for Mac), 200 MB hard-drive space
Genre: Action RPG
ESRB rating: Not rated
Release date: 2012

Drox Operative is an action RPG set in space. Wait, wait, come back! Did I mention it’s made by Soldak, the guys behind the amazing Depths of Peril and Din’s Curse? Well, it is! This means a large, randomly generated, dynamic universe and combat that does something new. Don’t dare call it a Diablo clone.

The galaxy of Drox Operative isn’t just a bunch of experience points and loot to harvest, but a living, breathing thing that will kill you if you’re not careful. Soldak has experimented with dynamic worlds before, and all that experience is at work in Drox. Ignore that quest to kill the giant space monster for too long and he will gather a horde of killer spores to murder your whole planet. Meanwhile, instead of trying to simply advance your character, you’re trying to survive in a dynamic universe filled with alliances and empires. The goal isn’t just to win, but to make sure you’re on the winning side before it ends.

But that’s all been done in Soldak’s previous games. What Drox does differently is translate the traditional fantasy genre into ship-based space combat. Yes, it’s the same system with stats, gear, loot drops and quests, but now it’s in the form of ships whizzing around and out-maneuvering each other. You can play entirely with the mouse, or using WASD to control your ship and your mouse to aim your guns. Toss in projectile weapons and mines and you have something that could almost pass for a souped-up 2D Freelancer.

If you’re in the market for a solid action RPG filled with stats and character builds, keep an eye on Drox Operative. It’s got all the right ingredients to finally break away from the Diablo-clone mold. For a sneak-peek, check out Soldak’s other games, all of which feature a very distinctive flavor that has earned them a cult following. Expect Drox Operative sometime later this year.

© Ian Davis for The Adrenaline Vault, 2012. | Permalink | One comment

Publisher: Hi-Rez Studios
Developer: Hi-Rez Studios
System requirements: Windows XP SP2/Vista/Win 7, 2.4 GHz Core2Duo/2.7 GHz Athlon X2 or better CPU, 2 GB RAM (XP)/3 GB RAM (Vista/Win 7), 512 MB graphics card with Shader Model 3.0 support, DirectX-compatible sound device, 10 GB hard-drive space
Genre: FPS
ESRB rating: Teen
Release date: 2012

My my, what an exciting time to be a gamer. The Internet has created a host of independently developed games, digital distribution and F2P are chipping away at the $60 price point, and Kickstarter is busting up the traditional publishing model. Now, developer Hi-Rez Studios has rescued the Tribes license. Tribes 2, featuring class-based team play and pinpoint-accurate weapons, was a game before its time. Even now, years after officially being shut down, you can still find players skiing around base defenses on community servers. As unique as it is, Tribes has never truly been emulated. Soon it will come to the masses in the form of a free-to-play online shooter. Thankfully, this release is looking to be more second coming than blasphemy.

In Tribes, movement is king, and not a bit of it has been watered down for Ascend. It’s all about using the land to boost your momentum. Activate frictionless “ski” mode when going down a slope, and hit the jetpack on the other side. Time it right (most of the weapons, especially the signature “spinfuser,” require precision) and you quickly become a heavily armed bullet. In Ascend you have a game that looks like it’s from 2012, but it plays uncannily like the 2001 classic. In fact, two of the original maps make a revised comeback.

While the current game modes include staples such as Team Deathmatch, Arena, and Capture and Hold, Tribes: Ascend doesn’t truly get started until you launch Capture the Flag. Unlike most other CTFs, you have an entire base ecosystem to manage. Radar systems detect intruders, who are shot by turrets, which are powered by a generator buried deep inside the base. If a single infiltrator can sneak in and take out the generator, all the defenses go down, making the flag vulnerable. Teamwork isn’t just recommended, it’s a must.

The best news is that Tribes: Ascend is free to play. You’re given three basic classes from which to choose, and from there you can unlock more classes and loadouts by earning in-game credit. It’s not too hard to get the stuff you want after a few hours of play, but dropping some real-world cash isn’t out of the question either. Already there’s much more equipment available than in previous iterations, so we’ll see if balance becomes a concern. Tribes: Ascend is in open beta right now, so feel free to check it out for yourself before it launches sometime later this year.

© Ian Davis for The Adrenaline Vault, 2012. | Permalink | 5 comments

Publisher: Mumbo Jumbo
Developer: Mumbo Jumbo
System requirements: Windows XP/Vista/Win 7, 1 GHz CPU, 512 MB RAM, DirectX 9.0c-compatible graphics card with Shader Model 2.0 support, 150 MB hard-drive space
Genre: Puzzle
ESRB rating: Everyone
Release date: May 1, 2012

There are many genres of games that seem to be content to never change. Match-threes, hidden-objects and time-management games seem to cater to a market that likes their games predictable and easy. Luxor Evolved, however doesn’t want to fall into that pit. As its name suggests, it wants to take that same universal game and turn it into something even core gamers can appreciate. Hold onto your moonstones; Luxor’s evolving!

Luxor Evolved takes the classic marble-shooter core and overclocks it. This is easily the fastest and most difficult game of its kind you’ve ever played. While the original might be a relaxing time-waster for your grandmother, this one aims to leave even the twitchiest FPS player with sweaty palms. Marbles roll around their tracks at uncomfortable speeds, while goodies and powerups fly out of their ruptured geometries like so much piñata candy. With the game speed ramped up, correctly prioritizing targets is skill number one, an experience more Serious Sam than Zuma.

Like most good arcade-style games today, Luxor Evolved is drenched in a neo-retro aesthetic. Bright vector lines and colorful particle effects atop a black backdrop make it look like an arcade game that never was. Heck, even the throbbing music is heavily influenced by Daft Punk’s Tron Legacy soundtrack. It has a stimulating chaotic feel that pairs well with Mountain Dew.

Evolved might have all the working pieces of a Luxor game, but it’s amazing what just a few tweaks can do. Mumbo Jumbo has turned a casual staple into something that can fill the downtimes at a LAN party without killing the buzz. While Luxor Evolved might not transcend the marble-shooting genre, it definitely deserves your attention.

© Ian Davis for The Adrenaline Vault, 2012. | Permalink | One comment

Publisher: THQ
Developer: Illfonic
System requirements: Windows XP/Vista/Win 7, 2.0 GHz Core2Duo or better CPU, 2 GB RAM (3 GB for Vista), 512 MB GeForce 8800 GT/Radeon 3850 HD or better graphics card, DirectX-compatible sound device, DirectX 9.0c, 3 GB hard-drive space.
Genre: FPS
ESRB rating: Teen
Release date: May 10, 2012

The other day I was standing in the shower when suddenly I was stung with an awareness of my mortality. I wondered that, if I died today, would I have left anything of worth behind? My life’s achievements, the friends, the debt, that nice thing I did once, what did they mean? But one stood out: that one time I dominated so much at a UT2K4 LAN party that I wasn’t invited back. I smiled, basking in the glow of my former glory, until I realized that I was about to be late for my retail job. I might withhold these deep personal truths from my counselor, but that’s only because he doesn’t understand. Developer Illfonic, however, has an uncanny understanding of my pains and desires. Their latest game, the oddly-titled Nexuiz, seems tailor-made to let you relive your better times, assuming those times involve classic FPS action.

To describe Nexuiz, it helps to explain its lineage. In 1999, id Software released the source code of its seminal Tech 1 engine, which powered Quake. An entire community of people grew around it, fiddling with the tech bits and making their own mods and stand-alone games. One of those games was Alien Arena, which over the years grew into Nexuiz. Now, after being digested by the community for almost a decade, this little mod is getting a full commercial release.

It’s interesting to note that Nexuiz has to call itself an “arena FPS.” Once upon a time there was no need for subdivision. But today, with copy-paste marines plodding about, aiming down their gun barrels, it’s important to make the distinction. Gone are today’s hitscan assault rifles. Instead of that nonsense, there’s a full armory of alien shotguns, rocket launchers, and other things with no earthly equivalent. If you miss the days of Quake and Unreal, then you’ll feel right at home.

Far from its humbling beginnings as a Quake mod, Nexuiz is getting a full facelift to meet the demands of 2012, including matchmaking lobbies (with server browsers), leaderboards and fancy graphics, thanks to CryEngine 3. One of Nexuiz’s most interesting additions is the mutator. No, not the Unreal Tournament mini-mods, but dynamic powerups that do everything from add jetpacks to temporarily change gravity. Not content with just a handful, or even a dozen, Illfonic has created a hundred different random mutators, which can change the game anytime. Even with all its updates, Nexuiz’s heart still beats with classic FPS blood. While the game’s currently available on the Xbox 360 through XBLA, the PC release is still going through closed beta testing to ensure it gets a proper homecoming when it’s released in May.

© Ian Davis for The Adrenaline Vault, 2012. | Permalink | 3 comments

Publisher: Paradox Interactive
Developer: Turbo Tape Games
System requirements: Windows Vista/Win 7, dual-core CPU, 2 GB RAM, 512 MB GeForce GT 240 or better graphics card, 4 GB hard-drive space, DirectX 9-compatible sound device, DirectX 9.0c
Genre: Simulation
ESRB rating: Not rated
Release date: April 10, 2012

Not since Jane’s Fleet Command more than a decade ago have we had a good naval warfare simulator. Turbo Tape games felt that it was high time that someone fix this, and Paradox agreed. Set in the frigid expanses of the North Atlantic, Naval War: Arctic Circle aims to bring all the complexity of modern aquatic killing to your desktop with an almost slavish attention to detail. Schedule those sonar buoy drops and warm up the Thales MMR 3D — it’s time to hunt down some red outlines!

The Arctic Circle is huge. You just won’t believe how incredibly huge it is. It’s large enough to loose entire fleets of half-kilometer-long ships. Combined with harsh cold weather conditions that mess with radar, the arctic isn’t your mother’s ugly shag carpeting. To assist you in your organized killing missions, your ships don’t just have multiple weapon systems, but multiple radar systems as well. Considering how much naval warfare is just a huge cat-and-mouse game, detection is half the battle (with evasion being the other half). Even helicopters have a few different sensor systems from which to choose, each one with its own unique advantages. It’s like playing an FPS with a handful of different sniper rifles. They all perform the same basic function, but learning how best to apply each one is part of the fun.

Combat might seem a bit simplistic compared to the lavish details imprinted on everything else. Instead of measuring specific location damage or failed systems, Naval War uses a basic hit-point counter. Since modern naval vessels are glass cannons, they’re effectively either alive or in a thousand pieces. It’s a small concession, but it shows that Turbo Tape doesn’t include detail for its own sake, but actually cares about how the game plays out.

Naval War might have a pretty 3D display, but you’ll spend most of your time staring into your radar scope. Sure, it might look like a bunch of green triangles following red lines on a blue background, but they’ll still leave you sweating it out in your command center. If ground combat has weakened your landlubber mind, Naval War: Arctic Circle will give it sea legs with a series of tutorials before sending you through its linear campaign and a collection of single missions. If solitaire isn’t your style, multiplayer’s there to let you test your brass against other admirals. We’ll see how seaworthy this sim is after it launches, but right now it looks pretty darn sober for a sailor.

© Ian Davis for The Adrenaline Vault, 2012. | Permalink | No comment(s)

Publisher: Perfect World Entertainment
Developer: Zombie Studios
System requirements: Windows XP/Vista/Win 7, dual-core CPU, 256 MB DirectX 9-compatible graphics card, DirectX 9.0c-compatible sound device, 2 GB RAM, 8 GB hard-drive space, broadband Internet connection
Genre: FPS
ESRB rating: Not rated at press time
Release date: 2012

The future might be a hellish, war-torn landscape, but it can still be a fun, if violent, romp. Having corporate-sponsored high-tech toys can make even the bleakest outlooks feel like a McDonald’s birthday party if done right. That’s what Blacklight Retribution is all about. The sequel to Blacklight: Tango Down, Retribution is a free-to-play FPS that’s all about insane customization options and x-ray vision. That’s right; the main gimmick in Tango Down returns, and it’s just as awesome as before. For a short time, you can activate your super peepers and locate enemies through walls. It worked really well in the first Blacklight, and it works just as well here. It keeps the game flowing very fast and prevents any sort of camping and cheap kills. It’s a good mechanic around which to build a game, but there’s a lot more in Retribution.

All the standard FPS game modes are present, but with a slight twist. While you earn points for kills and assists, the actual point value of each player can change. Players on hot streaks are labeled as “high threat” targets and are worth more, while the best player is the “Warlord” and is worth even more. It’s up to you whether to run or take the shot. Meanwhile, weapon depots scattered throughout levels allow you to spend the money you’ve earned that round to buy health and ammo refills, or special heavy weapons. You can bank the points you’ve earned to unlock upgrades after the round, or gamble and buy a single-use flamethrower and hope to earn even more.

While Blacklight: Tango Down was merely a cheap downloadable game, Retribution is going the F2P route. All players begin with a starter pack, which includes some basic weapons and armor. After that, you have to purchase the rest of your arsenal, either with GP or Zen. GP is earned as you play, while Zen can only be purchased with real money. Each weapon is pieced together from half a dozen different categories of parts, each with a huge list of components to buy. Once you factor in the various pieces of armor and camouflage options, the potential for customization is utterly staggering.

It’s no stretch to say that Blacklight: Retribution is the best-looking F2P shooter out there. In fact, it looks better than most AAA releases. Being developed exclusively for the PC means the developers can take advantage of all those wonderful DX11 goodies. We’ll see everything the corporate war of the future will hold when the game releases later this year.

© Ian Davis for The Adrenaline Vault, 2012. | Permalink | No comment(s)

Publisher: To be announced
Developer: Kot-in-Action Creative Artel
System requirements: Windows XP/Vista/Win 7/Linux, 2.0 GHz dual-core CPU, 512 MB GeForce 8600/Radeon HD 2600 graphics card, 2 GB RAM
Genre: Action RPG
ESRB rating: Not rated at press time
Release date: To be announced

Tomes of Mephistopheles has the body of a first-person dungeon crawler and the blood of a rogue-like. To find the titular Tomes, players have to descend into the dark, atmospheric depths of randomly generated dungeons, finding magical artifacts, ancient weapons of lore, and true love along the way. OK, maybe not that last one. But it does feature a wicked melee system, which is as close to true love as you’re going to find in a dungeon with rotting corpse monsters.

ToM’s first-person combat succeeds at being very fluid and fast, using quick combinations of both melee attack and spells. Enemies don’t just charge at you, but bob and weave like they should. Combat is collision-based instead of using hidden dice rolls, meaning it’s how well you fight that matters, not the numbers next to your name. The magic system in particular is well thought-out, letting you customize what you cast and how. For instance, you can alter how a spell moves, what kind of area it affects and how it’s guided. You can also add chain effects and multiple elements.

However, dungeons get lonely, no matter how large their monster tables are. That’s why ToM supports multiplayer of both co-op and PVP varieties. Using randomly generated persistent worlds, just like in Terraria or Minecraft, the game features characters you can take online to explore, fight, and even engage in clan matches. If you don’t find love online, perhaps you can be feared by your enemies, see them driven before you and read the forum posts of their women, pleading for you to make it stop.

Tomes of Mephistopheles is currently a work in progress, but a very playable one. While many features are still pending (such as crafting and quests), the core combat is solid. If this sounds like something you want to see made, you can support developer Kot-in-Action by pre-ordering the game, which gets you access to the current alpha build. There are some very exciting ideas inside Tomes of Mephistopheles, and unlike the real Mephistopheles, we’re excited for it to emerge from its hidden depths and come into our homes.

© Ian Davis for The Adrenaline Vault, 2012. | Permalink | One comment

Publisher: Focus Home Interactive
Developer: Pendulo Studios
System requirements: TBA
Genre: Adventure
ESRB rating: Not rated at press time
Release date: Q2 2012

Developed by Runaway veterans Pendulo Studios, Yesterday is an adventure game that removes the studio’s previous humor and implants a dark murder mystery in its place. Homeless people are found burned alive with mysterious Y-shaped scars on their palms. While investigating, our heroes get caught up in a world-wide conspiracy and a tangle of mind-bending puzzles. As you can see by the large, bloody pentagram in the trailer, Yesterday doesn’t hold back on the disturbing.

Like the popular Runaway games before it, Yesterday doesn’t skimp on the production values. Using a mixture of hand-drawn backgrounds and cell-shaded characters, the game creates a very evocative atmosphere, drawing you into every dark subway tunnel and abandoned overpass. Appropriate to the graphics, cutscenes are done in a comic-book style, lending action and movement to scenes without needing cutting-edge graphics.

Adventure games have fallen into a small niche in the last decade, and Yesterday takes many steps to climb back out. A hint feature gives you just the nudge you need to get past a frustrating puzzle. The system has a cool-down meter that slowly refills as you try solutions yourself, creating a nice balance. Best of all is the “Show Hotspot” button, which removes all the tedious pixel hunts that has plagued the genre and shows players all the interactive items on the screen. Don’t think that that Yesterday has gone soft, as your inventory quickly fills up with items, both useful and misleading. You’ll need all the help you can get.

With stylish artwork, intriguing story and frustration-free gameplay, Yesterday looks more like adventure gaming’s tomorrow. You unravel the plot through the viewpoints of multiple protagonists and go through more than a few twists along the way. No stranger to the genre, Pendulo Studios looks well-poised to bring this point-and-click thriller to life later this year.

© Ian Davis for The Adrenaline Vault, 2012. | Permalink | No comment(s)

Publisher: Paradox Interactive
Developer: Ino-co Plus
System requirements: TBA
Genre: Strategy
ESRB rating: Everyone 10+
Release date: Q2 2012

In 1994, Simtex released a 4X game entitled Master of Magic. Like every similar RTS at the time, it initially looked like a Civilization clone. Despite initial bugs, it was far more then just Civ with spells, and it quickly became a strategy classic. A few games have tried to capture its spark since, most infamously 2010’s Elemental, but none of them have quite made it. Unwilling to let such a great spirit languor in DOS emulators, Paradox Interactive is giving MoM a modern body in the form of Warlock: Master of the Arcane. The details are so enticing it might cause your carpal tunnel to flair up in anticipation.

Warlock features three races, each with its own very distinct set of units. You pick a race and a leader, each of whom has his own set of bonuses, and then you’re let off to conquer a randomly generated world, one turn at a time. Warlock feels very influenced by Civilization V. Before anyone panics, please note that it borrows the good parts: the hex-based combat, lack of unit stacks and actual ranged units. Being a master of arcana, you have access to a large grimoire of spells to cast, which adds whole new tactical spice. Once this plane of existence has sworn its allegiance to you, there are others to find and invade. It’s like a layered taco-dip of turn-based strategy, only instead of heartburn keeping you up at night, its “just one more turn.”

Yet, with all these features, Warlock manages to be accessible, yet still deep. A great example of this is the streamlined city management. There are only three resources: food, gold and mana. Units have build and upkeep costs, while buildings produce resources at a constant rate. Aside from the occasional bonus, tiles are not used for harvesting resources so much as for holding new buildings. Meanwhile, choosing buildings becomes more important, because you only get one building per population point. The changes are small and easily learned, but their interplay leads to a myriad of strategies.

Developer In-co Plus is still hard at work packing more goodness into their game for its nebulous Q2 2012 release. Currently, Warlock: Master of the Arcane is definitely one to watch for all those afflicted with “One More Turn” syndrome.

© Ian Davis for The Adrenaline Vault, 2012. | Permalink | 3 comments

Publisher: Valve
Developer: Hidden Path Entertainment
System requirements: Windows XP/Vista/Win 7, 3.0 GHz Pentium IV or better CPU, 128 MB graphics card with Pixel Shader 2.0 support, 1 GB RAM (2 GB for Vista/Win 7), DirectX 9.0c-compatible sound device, 3 GB hard-drive space
Genre: Shooter
ESRB rating: Not rated at press time
Release date: Q1 2012
Preview by: Ian Davis

Certain gaming communities are more resistant to change then others. Some, like certain players who seem to always answer certain calls of certain obligations, pile onto the latest annual release as if it were the last doughnut in the precinct. Counterstrike gamers are of a heartier breed. CS has seen two releases since its commercial debut in 2000, each with its own slow-and-steady patch schedule along the way. The changes have been minor, but not always accepted. For reference, CS has a player base so hardcore that they not only know what a tick-rate is, but they also have strong opinions about them. With Defense of the Ancients (DOTA) 2 on the way, Valve seems to be willing to tackle all the tricky classics. Thus, this one is being recast into Counterstrike: Global Offensive. So how can Valve update this FPS pillar without being an iconoclast?

First step: don’t change what isn’t broken. The base game is still Counterstrike. For the uninitiated, that means two teams charging off at each other, one trying to rescue hostages or plant a bomb, while the other prevents said actions, the dead respawning only after the round ends. After that, everybody buys new weapons and ammo with cash they earned in the previous round for their performance, and go at it again. No perks, no kill streaks; just you, a Mountain Dew, and every ounce of nervous skill you can muster. That’s Counterstrike, and that’s not changing.

However, the first to change is the look. Updated to the latest build of Source, CS:GO’s sharp textures and glowing lighting definitely make it stand out as the best-looking Source game yet. CS:GO shows that the venerable old engine still has what it takes to make a top-notch game today.

But graphics aside, the most important part of the engine is how it feels. The CS:GO team has brought in the top players from around the world to make sure that every movement, timing and animation feels like a CS game.

CS:GO isn’t all old news, though. Valve wants to reach out into the gaming world and bestow their gift of manshooters onto everyone, even those who are likely to be shredded moments after stepping into a server. To accommodate those who aren’t FPS Doug without watering down the juice, CS:GO features skill-based matchmaking. Casual mode provides large sums of cash to all players from the onset, letting you jump right in with your favorite firearm from the start.

The largest piece of news is that CS:GO will reach the consoles. The interface has been especially redesigned to accommodate our thumbstick-and-button brethren. The current High Priest of the PC cult has released a decree, stating that this move ought to be viewed as one of “goodwill and charity, so that all gamers might know Holy Balance and their eyes be lifted to a state of True Skill Based Competition.” Further, he added that he hopes that “their addiction to arbitrary leveling systems be broken, that they break the prestige cycle and know true freedom.”

Not convinced yet? As the release date comes closer, Valve is planning an open beta (the closed beta began last November), so you can get some frags under your belt and judge for yourself if CS:GO is worthy of the name. With a soft release date of “sometime in 2012,” rest assured that Counterstrike: Global Offensive will get the same slow-cooking attention that adds that special Valve ingredient, and be released only at the peak of flavor. Go go go!

Sources: Joystiq, Kotaku

© Michael Smith for The Adrenaline Vault, 2012. | Permalink | No comment(s)

Publisher: ChangYou
Developer: Zeonix
Genre: CCG (collectible card game)
Requirements: Any Flash enabled web browser
Release Date: 2012 (projected mid first quarter)
Written by: Mindy Hartman

Korean game developer Zeonix will be releasing a new online collectible card game, Sword Girls, which will go into closed beta 2 on December 7, 2011 and be released sometime in 2012. This CCG is anime-based, featuring over 500 hundred cards (at release, with more to come) of original art, though it is not tied to any real card game or television show. Players will have the ability to earn/trade/create countless cards and build unique decks so they can battle dungeons or other players in pvp matches.

The concept of the game is fairly simple. Each player builds a 31 card deck consisting of one main character and thirty followers and spells. The board has six slots for cards, one for the main character and five for playing followers/spells. The main character has life points which must be protected. Each follower/spell has a size value (1-5) and a player can’t have more than 10 points on the board. A player can win in one of two ways: when the other player’s main character has no life left or when the other player has no cards left in their deck to play. Sword Girls has an extra challenge because players must set their board each round within 30 seconds. This means that players will need to be fairly familiar with their cards and strategy, or they will fall behind when the round starts and they haven’t set their board.

I had a chance to play Sword Girls over the last week, and I have to admit, it’s addictive. Because the rounds are time limited, you have to think and plan quickly, and some how, that focus on making good decisions in a short time turns into extreme competitiveness and real life time loss. Losing a match made me want to tweak my deck, a card here, a card there, and then get right back in to show the dungeon master what’s what. I have a whole new appreciation for Yu-Gi-Oh! too. I couldn’t help but ask the heart of the cards to be with me and hope for the perfect draw. There are GM battles posted on their Facebook page if you want to see what it looks like.

Because this game is only dependent on a Flash browser, it could really be a lot of fun for gamers of all types, not just those tied to the PC. Sword Girls is definitely something to watch out for in 2012.

© Michael Smith for The Adrenaline Vault, 2011. | Permalink | 2 comments

Publisher: Nicolas Games
Developer: Intoxicate Studios
System requirements: Windows XP SP2/Vista/Win 7, 2 GHz Intel Core2Duo/AMD Athlon 64 X2 or better CPU, 256 MB graphics card with Shader 3.0 support, 2 GB RAM (Windows XP)/3 GB RAM (Vista/Win 7), DirectX 9.0c
Genre: Third-person shooter
ESRB rating: Not rated
Release date: November 2011

All psychiatrist Dr. Albert Tokaj wanted was an energy drink. He had just fallen asleep during his last session with a patient (his eighth of the day, thanks to the edict of the Shelter’s commanding officer), and he desperately needed a sugar injection. But he ended up in the bar instead when he found the nearest vending machine was empty. Soon after sitting down for a drink with a friend, Albert’s life took a distressing turn…and so begins Afterfall: InSanity, the debut shooter for indie developer Intoxicate Studios.

The Shelter is similar to the vaults of the Fallout series, a three-level underground habitat for survivors of a devastating nuclear war in 2035. It has a very lived-in, grungy look; residents congregate in the corridors while cleaning robots try to stay ahead of the human-generated blight. A monorail system links this shelter with others in the area. And it seems that Dr. Tokaj is not on many Shelter residents’ Christmas card lists; government-mandated therapy sessions have not endeared him to the populace. Still, when the General summons him to go to the lower levels with two security guards to find some missing scientists, he follows his orders and descends to the dark depths of the Shelter, where even darker surprises await him.

I recently had a chance to take the first few hours of InSanity for a spin, and I’m encouraged by what I’ve seen. The Unreal Engine 3-powered shooter delivers some very atmospheric visuals, which become more detailed the deeper you go into the Shelter. Some sections of the complex have a distinctly Doom 3 look about them, with your character having to depend upon a small flashlight and a PDA to navigate the gloomy lower levels. Combat is heavily melee-based; there are plenty of blunt-force weapons to be found (pipes, hammers, electric cattle prods, etc), very few firearms and a scarcity of ammo, most of which is found in dispensers instead of lying around on the floor. And the story has a few interesting twists and turns, with some unique puzzles to solve to top off the experience.

My preview build of Afterfall: InSanity had a few minor problems, including stability and the odd English text typo (much of the text on background monitors and TV screens is in Polish), but I suspect that these will be fixed before the final version of the game is launched at the end of the month. InSanity is shaping up to be a fine, low-budget indie offering. And with publisher Nicolas Games offering a $1 pre-order deal with 10 percent of the proceeds going to charity (click here for details), you could check it out yourself for the change in your couch cushions.

© Michael Smith for The Adrenaline Vault, 2011. | Permalink | No comment(s)

Publisher: Paradox Interactive
Developer: Paradox Interactive
System Requirements: Windows XP/Vista/7, Intel® Pentium® IV 2.4 GHz or AMD 3500+, 2 GB RAM, 2 GB free hard drive space, NVIDIA® GeForce 8800 or ATI Radeon® X1900 video card, Direct X-compatible sound card, DirectX 9, 3-button mouse, keyboard, speakers, Internet connection for multiplayer
Genre: Strategy
ESRB rating: Pending
Release date: February 7, 2012

In the wake of Paradox Interactive’s release of Sengoku, it shouldn’t surprise anyone in the game industry that Paradox is looking to create a sequel to the game that started them down the path of dynastic struggles and medieval warfare: Crusader Kings. While Sengoku is a budget offering depicting the Warring States period in Japanese history, Crusader Kings II advertises itself as a full price title that offers players the chance to “Increase your lands and fill your coffers, appoint vassals, battle traitors, introduce laws while interacting with hundreds of nobles, and create the most powerful dynasty of medieval Europe.” Luckily, I was given the chance to preview it for the past few weeks. And I have to say that even in its unfinished, beta condition, it is an engrossing game filled with the kinds of difficult choices historical medieval rulers would have faced, albeit with a slicker interface.

Like its predecessors, CKII is a game that fuses some RPG elements together with strategy gaming. As the player, you do not control a country or nation-state (they don’t even exist in the period, so that’s a good thing). Instead, you control your ruler and his or her titles and lands. You might choose to play as the Duke of Aquitaine, or perhaps the king of Denmark. But at all times, you, as the player, will find yourself managing just your ruler and their personal territory in the context of Western or Eastern feudalism. Rather than run all the lands yourself, you have vassals and family members who rule in your name throughout your realm. Particularly large kingdoms might see a player running 10-15 holdings themselves, but interacting with 40-50 vassals who rule another 200 holdings. Thus, even as you manage improvements in your lands and raise armies in strategic gaming fashion, you spend a considerable amount of time interacting with other characters. Appeasing and pleasing vassals and your family takes work and is complicated by the fact that the game assigns a variety of personality characteristics, called traits, that influence how much different characters like each other. While you, as the player, control your ruler’s actions, there will be characters in the game that just don’t like your ruler because he is a gluttonous coward or a prudish busybody.

Unlike most RPGs, the characters in the game are not following narratives. There is no story as such, so no one should confuse CKII with King Arthur: The Role Playing Wargame. The AI plays all of the other characters and tirelessly works to advance the political interests of all the NPCs in the game; the catch is that the game is set in the period starting in 1066 and stretching for the next 400 years. Advancing your political standing has less to do with researching sword +5 and raising taxes and has more to do with typical medieval pastimes like arranging marriages, plotting against your liege, crusading, and manipulating the church. During my time previewing the game, I found myself actually taking an active role in the marriage prospects of my children so that I could arrange alliances, even as I fretted about the fertility of my rulers, assassination attempts from my own family members, vassals trying to take the throne from me, and even backing an anti-pope. Treason, plots, imprisonment, executions, and even assassination are all tools used against both foreign enemies and domestic threats. Hardly a decade goes by in the game without the player facing enough plotting and scheming to make Shakespeare’s Macbeth or Richard III feel right at home.

Most strategy games are focused on a “conquer everything to win” style of gameplay. However, CKII focuses on a different approach. The goal is to make your dynasty the most prestigious, so every time your ruler dies, their piety and prestige gets added to the dynasty’s score. Since piety and prestige are also spent buying claims on foreign titles and asking the church for favors, players must take the time to budget their resources accordingly. While I never painted the entire map with my dynasty’s color by conquering everything at any point, it wasn’t because the game was too hard. It was because there was always something important to do that kept my rulers occupied and busy. While some inevitable snowballing of political and economic power occurs as your dynasty gains power over the years, being the ruler of a large swath of European territory changes the nature of the game. While it is nowhere near the gameplay in Spore, CKII sees players dealing with very different challenges when they are minor rulers in some backwater as opposed to powerful rulers over an empire in the richest areas of Europe. Smaller rulers not only plot and scheme against neighbors, but they find it much easier to manage their small families and their assorted claims. Kings and emperors find that even if you can levy 100,000 troops and take in hundreds of ducats in taxes every year, it means almost nothing if every time your ruler dies, half the empire breaks into a civil war because 24 separate dukes all have claims to the throne and the Pope is threatening to excommunicate you over the investiture conflict.

Combat in CKII is not a rehash of games like Medieval: Total War. Combat is influenced indirectly as it is in most Paradox titles. The good news is that characters control these combats, meaning if your cowardly brother is running the left flank of your army, he might just run away with 3000 men at the very moment you need him to hold fast. By taking away control of armies form players, the game ironically gives your strategic decisions more weight. Angering good military leaders within your realm is dangerous, as is letting your vassals have too much freedom. They might instead spend time fighting each other, wearing out their armies and killing/maiming their aristocratic leaders, weakening your whole kingdom in the face of potential foreign aggression.

The preview copy Paradox gave us has updated itself several times via Steam as I was previewing it. This prevented me from playing an entire game from start to finish (save game incompatibility), but I have had a chance to see various mechanics improve and balance over the past few weeks. Every time it updates, it becomes more engrossing. Crusader Kings II is slated for release in February, 2012, and I can’t wait. It has the potential to be a medievalist’s dream without bogging players down in historical minutia.

© Jason Pitruzzello for The Adrenaline Vault, 2011. | Permalink | No comment(s)

Publisher: Overhaul Games
Developer: Overhaul Games, Interplay
System requirements: Windows XP/Vista/Win 7, 3 GHz Pentium D CPU, GeForce GT 120/Radeon HD 2600 XT or better graphics card, 1 GB RAM, 1 GB hard-drive space, DirectX 9
Genre: FPS
ESRB rating: Not rated (original game rated Teen)
Release date: October 2011

Ever since widescreen flat-panel television prices finally came down from the stratosphere, “High Definition” has been one of our most cherished entertainment attributes. The phrase has joined “Director’s Cut” and “Remastered” as important buzzwords in TVs, DVDs and feature films. New developer Overhaul Games has used its inaugural release, MDK 2 HD, to add video gaming to the list of leisure activities sporting the magic high-def descriptor. They’ve taken an 11-year-old PC shooter and made it much more appealing to the eye, while retaining the original’s fast-paced gameplay.

Kurt Hectic was just a mild-mannered janitor until he came to work for mad scientist Dr. Hawkins and his six-legged, cigar-chomping robot dog, Max. When Earth is attacked by alien forces led by a giant blue demon known as Shwang Shwing, Dr. Hawkins puts Kurt into a homemade battle suit and sends him out to defend humanity. The 10-level shooter has you playing as all three characters (Kurt, Max and Hawkins). Kurt and Max are straight-ahead shooters (mostly of the spray-and-pray variety), while playing as Hawkins involves platforming and puzzle-solving, including combining inventory items into unique weapons.

Being an old-school PC gamer, I just happened to have a CD ROM copy of the original game in my collection, so I played the first three levels (one devoted to each character) before I took on the HD version (the pre-release press demo is limited to those levels). The gameplay is exactly the same between the two versions, but there’s a striking difference in how the games look. Check out the two screenshots on this page. On the left is a shot of the 2000 version, with the same scene from the new version on the right (both games were running at 1920 x 1200 with 32-bit color depth when the captures were taken). The graphics throughout MDK 2 HD are brighter and richer than those in the original game, but Overhaul has also made the subtitles more attractive and the character heads in the text boxes more detailed. And despite the numerous graphics updates, the new game runs at an almost constant 60 fps, and it retains some of the original game’s quirks, such as the lack of a target reticule in the shooting sections.

Sometimes trying to make an original experience better can backfire (see the Blu-ray versions of the Star Wars movies as a good example). But Overhaul has avoided the potential problems by leaving the core gameplay of MDK 2 alone and giving it a welcome new look. Anyone who fondly remembers the original game should definitely check out MDK 2 HD when it releases later this month.

© Michael Smith for The Adrenaline Vault, 2011. | Permalink | No comment(s)

Publisher: Ubisoft
Developer: Ubisoft Reflections
Genre: Racing
Rating: Teen
Release Date: September 6, 2011

Video games, like movies, are a collaborative art form. Anyone who waits through the 5 minute scrawl of text that ends each game, waiting to see what bonus features all their hard work has unlocked, knows that the only real difference between a video game and a movie is the lack of a key grip. Other than that, these AAA titles are assembled by a cast of hundreds or thousands, and marketed by twice that. I usually pay particular attention to the Creative Director – the person who keeps the ship afloat as it makes that long journey from inception to “gone gold.” And it’s particularly interesting when a creator leaves his baby in well-meaning hands and heads off to explore new frontiers, only to return several years down the line. Within the next six months, gamers have the chance to enjoy a series of titles that are notable for having enticed their fathers back into the fold. Next year, Ken Levine brings us a brand new Bioshock after sitting the second one out. This Fall, Michel Ancel returns to his Rayman platforming roots. And in just a few weeks, Martin Edmonson takes the wheel in Driver: San Francisco – returning to the series once again after a lengthy absence.

Edmonson and his team at Reflections burst onto the scene with the 1999 release Driver, for the original PlayStation. Putting players behind the wheel as undercover cop Jack Tanner, then a criminal getaway driver – this free-roaming ‘cops and robbers’ tale was remarkable for laying the blueprint for some of Grand Theft Auto’s later success. At the time, it was a real thrill to take the wheel and drive through a bustling metropolis, speeding through Hollywood-esque car chases. The sequel, Driver 2, allowed Tanner to get out of the car in order to grab new rides – again providing additional inspiration for the PS2 GTA series. Unfortunately, the much hyped next gen Driver 3 failed to match the innovations laid out by its predecessors and the series lost quite a bit of that luster.

Having had the chance to play through a three-part demo available now on the Playstation Network and XBLA, Edmonson’s return is felt immediately. This appetizer course offers up tantalizing morsels of game play and the racing feels crisp and dynamic. With Fast Five’s film director, Justin Lim, in the design stable – the feel of flying through a breakneck chase is immediately apparent. The recipe for addictive action racing feels complete.

Driver: San Francisco’s big hook takes a page from Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed series. In this title, Tanner is wounded in a major car crash and from that develops the ability to project or “Shift” his consciousness from one car to another; allowing him to take control of the driver and influence their actions. While it remains to be seen how this is developed in the narrative, each time Tanner “shifts” into the guise of another character – it feels like small morsels of the Animus trips in Creed. In the game, it plays similarly to that bravura sequence in the second Matrix flick – where the various agents continued to chase Neo by “car-jacking” various drivers on a crowded highway.

The “Prove It” sequence of the demo introduces Tanner’s new power and lets players take it for a spin. Tanner brings his partner along for the journey and is forced to execute a number of stunts while hunting a suspect – whom he torments by randomly popping into his head and taking control of his ride. All of this leads to some interesting and humorous wrinkles on the traditional car chase format as the unwitting suspect begins tormenting and toying with police cars and tow trucks – all just waiting to collar this perp.

“Escapist” finds Tanner picking up a passenger moments before the long arm of the law crashes down. The player then needs to utilize their driving prowess in concert with Tanner’s “Shifting” ability to lose the cops – as indicated by a red sphere on the map. As more cops join the fray, you’ll need to discover short cuts through the environment to cut them off. It’s similar to missions seen in the later GTA games but the “Shift” ability constantly adds a shiny gloss to the proceedings.

“Team Colors” is the closest mode to a traditional race – pairing two teams of two drivers each. This means, in the single player mode, you need to keep “shifting” between your two cars in order to insure that both cars cross the finish line in the top two slots. This micro-management of two sets of racers feels like carefully orchestrated chaos and left me at the edge of my seat the entire time – as I constantly checked on my wingman to make sure he was keeping up while working to fend off those vying for my front line pole position.

Driver: San Francisco goes on sale for the PS3 and Xbox 360 on September 6, 2011. A PC release is scheduled for later that month. From what I’ve played, this is a well-polished arcade racer that feels similar to the Burnout series while re-embracing the roots first laid down by Edmonson in the winning first installment. This is one to watch.

© Ed Humphries for The Adrenaline Vault, 2011. | Permalink | One comment

Publisher: Paradox Interactive
Developer: Paradox Interactive
System requirements: TBD
Genre: Strategy
ESRB rating: Not yet rated
Release date: September 13, 2011

Much like WWII, the Napoleonic Wars, and the Crusades, Japan’s Sengoku Period is an historic conflict that game designers can’t seem to leave alone. The intrigue and warfare of such a violent period has spawned a number of interesting titles over the years of such widely varying kinds as Takeda 3 and Total War: Shogun 2. Now Paradox Interactive has decided to add their grand strategy gaming touch to this period, bringing gamers Sengoku: Way of the Warrior. Rather than trying to out-do Creative Assembly or Magitech in terms of tactical battles, Paradox has taken a page from their own Crusader Kings and designed a title that is more focused on the interaction of characters than it is on the proper deployment of archers on a battlefield. In Sengoku, plotting and scheming has a central role to play in a game where your own vassals can be as much of a threat as an opposing clan.

The goal in Sengoku is to become Shogun, and in order to do so, your clan must control over fifty percent of the country for about 18 months. This sounds awfully easy, as surely any halfway competent ruler can conquer and hold half the country for two years. However, these simple victory conditions belie the intricate nature of the game. With Japan being divided into over 300 provinces, and with your character’s personal demesne limited to around 5 provinces, the game suddenly becomes much more difficult. Provinces not directly a part of your personal demesne are given to vassals to rule, and they have their own agenda as well as having a voice in clan affairs. Vassals that do not like you might plot against you, and all important vassals get to exert influence on the succession of the clan’s leadership. If your vassals are not cooperative, not only can they break away, but they can even decide that a character that is not your preferred heir be the next leader of the clan when your current ruler dies. Intra-clan politics can tie up a significant portion of your money, time, and resources, but it is worth it just so you can ensure that your own son gets to lead the clan when you die. The alternative is to become a mere vassal in a clan you have built up over a few decades.

External threats are also omnipresent in Sengoku. Warfare is conducted on the strategic map between armies, and there are no tactical battles as such. After a war is declared, armies fight one another and sieges take place. While there is some strategy to marching armies around the map, the real strategic elements involve who is commanding which armies (leader skill is crucial) and whether levies are mobilized or left home to defend their province. Like other Paradox titles, the player raises a standing army, called a retinue, using money from provinces. But provinces also generate a levy based on their buildings. This levy can be mobilized in times of war and go on offensive operations; however, if it stays home, it can add itself to the defenses of the province’s fortifications. Thus, an important decision when initiating a war is which levies to mobilize and which to leave at home. Furthermore, vassals, unless they are very powerful, cannot control their own levies during a war. Vassals generally can only control their personal retinue, meaning that the clan leader can control most of the clan’s military strength during a war without sidelining the vassals completely. This neatly gets around the problem of Crusader Kings where a liege would take a vassal’s armies and the vassal would sit on his hands for the entire war with nothing to do.

Diplomacy is very much based on whether two characters like each other; while gifts can raise their relations, characters with the right kinds of traits will like each other more than characters with the wrong kinds of traits. However, unlike other Paradox titles, diplomacy here is less about treaties and alliances and more about hostages, marriages, and plots. Declaring war costs honor. The more two characters like each other, and the more ties they have to one another, the more honor it costs. In order to prevent war between two clans, a mere piece of paper saying, “We won’t go to war” is not sufficient. Instead, the clans must exchange hostages. So long as hostages are exchanged, the two clans face a much higher cost in honor to declare a war, not to mention the cost in the lives of the hostages. And warfare, while it most often takes the form of wars of annihilation, is not always a fight to the death. It is possible to force other clans to submit to vassalage. While powerful clans won’t ever accept, weaker clans with no hope of victory might choose to become vassals. This lets the defeated clan keep its lands while owing you fealty. The disadvantage is that since they have their lands intact, they can plot against you later. But given the time it takes to conduct sieges, it can be faster to simply subordinate neighboring clans to prevent a war from lasting a decade.

Marriages are very important, and not just because your clan needs heirs. Marriages between two characters strengthen their ties, making war more costly. Furthermore, wives increase their husband’s stats. Every character has a martial, diplomacy, and intrigue stat that measures their ability in war, diplomacy, and subterfuge. Even an imbecile of a clan leader can become reasonably competent if his wives are smart; at least twice I’ve had militarily incompetent clan leaders whose wives were able to increase his martial score. And yes, I said wives. Polygamy is possible and, indeed, common; each male character can have up to four wives. While women cannot occupy positions of obvious political power in Sengoku, they can be critical in their capacity to support their husbands in whatever intrigues and warfare the clan engages.

Plotting is not just a term that covers various nefarious activities in which one can be engaged. There is an actual game mechanic called plots. When your character wants or needs help from other characters to achieve certain goals, you go to the plot menu and select a plot, activating it. Plots include everything from vassals conspiring against the clan leader to clan leaders wanting to initiate a multi-clan war against a powerful clan. After initiating a plot, your character can send diplomatic offers to other characters, asking them to join the plot. Once enough characters, with enough power, have joined the plot, the leader of the plot can initiate it, and the desired effect occurs. This mechanic is great in an environment where the AI controls maybe hundreds of characters. You don’t have to hope the AI understands the goal of a particular action; the plot mechanic ensures that if the AI accepts your offer to join a plot, it understands what is going to happen (no more “Hey, I thought we were allies so we could attack X, not to usurp control of the clan!” kind of AI behavior). Plots may also be discovered before they are initiated. The Master of the Guard can uncover plots against your character, and if discovered, not only is plot shut down (ending the arrangement between the characters) but the target who discovers the plot can expose the plotters, causing them to lose honor. Thus, plotting is not without risks.

For those who want to wage covert warfare on their own, ninjas are available and looking for work. Ninja perform a variety of mundane, but useful, activities, including taking hostages, rescuing hostages, damaging provinces, provoking uprisings, dishonoring characters, and the ever popular assassination of targets. They cost money, but much like their ronin counterparts, they are not always available for hire. Because they are not always in your demesne looking for work, you cannot abuse them by spamming ninja attacks. As for ronin, they are large additions to your retinue that take less time to recruit and are easier to support than spamming your own personal troops for the retinue. However, ronin are also not always available for hire, making it difficult to abuse them as well.

There is one unusual mechanic that has made its way into the game: seppuku. I was initially surprised that such a game mechanic was included, mainly because ritual suicide is controversial and I couldn’t see the point of its inclusion in a strategy game. As I indicated before, honor is something all characters have, and honor is used up declaring wars and in plotting. Honor can be gained in a variety of ways, but it is possible to lose way more than you earn. If your honor gets too low, you are in danger of losing the game. A character with low honor can commit seppuku, causing their heir to inherit and passing on some honor to that heir. In addition to this, a clan leader can demand that vassals with low honor commit seppuku. While the vassal can refuse, the refusal itself costs honor, resulting in serious complications for that vassal. While it might seem like this mechanic can be abused (for example, killing a bad ruler off so his brilliant son can take over), the reality is that seppuku has serious restrictions on its use. Furthermore, since vassals can exert influence on the succession of the clan’s leadership, it is often more worthwhile to hold on to a stupid ruler in the hopes that your sons can mature and take over. Seppuku is a solution for problems of personal honor only in the most extreme cases.

Sengoku is shaping up to be a very different strategy experience in feudal Japan from most other titles covering the period. It is currently still in beta, but it is slated for release on September 13, 2011. I’m looking forward to it.

© Jason Pitruzzello for The Adrenaline Vault, 2011. | Permalink | 2 comments

Publisher: Flying Wild Hog
Developer: Flying Wild Hog
System requirements: TBD
Genre: FPS
ESRB rating: Not yet rated
Release date: September 2011

Last week was one of those weeks. I found myself nearly overwhelmed by a slew of personal and work-related projects. Then I heard there was an opportunity to get a hands-on look at Flying Wild Hog’s upcoming cyberpunk shoot-em-up Hard Reset. Projects got put on hold as I made sure to allot a suitable chunk of time for it. Ever since a single screenshot appeared on the Internet earlier this year, I’ve been eager to take a closer look at this baby, because it seemed pretty damn enticing. Then there was talk about it being an old-school FPS (Doom-like as opposed to Halo-like) and that increased my interest tenfold. Finally, when I learned it was a PC-exclusive aimed at capitalizing on my favorite platform’s strengths, I was all but sold on it.

The version I was presented with showcased the beginning of the game, up to and including the first boss fight. At the start (and between levels) I was treated to hand-drawn and graphic novel-like cut-scenes. The setting is established as a grim technological future where a human city (the only one perhaps) is under siege by robots. Not as original as I’d hoped, but then again, the developers promised Doom not Planescape: Torment. The protagonist is some kind of tough guy cop/guard/soldier. He was drinking after a shift, but then there was a perimeter breach, and he was sent right back to work. Maybe they laid off all the other cops due to economic troubles.

Once on the ground you are provided with a very eloquent tutorial, which shows you what to do, how to do it, and then leaves you alone without annoying you, talking down to you, or requiring you to practice the task seven times. You basically have two guns, but that’s all you’ll ever need because you can upgrade each of those to transform into a variety of different weapons. So in the end you still get your machine gun, shotgun, grenade launcher, rocket launcher, plasma gun and so on. There is also never a need to drop what you are carrying to pick up something else.

The levels are linear and chock full of ammo and health. There are also tons of explosives to blow up, and various electrical devices that can be used to electrocute anything in their vicinity. This gives you the option of dishing out some serious environmental damage to your opponents, which, as you’ve already guessed, are robots of various shapes and sizes. The lot of them are quite dumb and most will just charge you without so much as trying to avoid running by the aforementioned environmental hazards. Some stay back and shoot rockets at you, but are unable to dodge or seek cover. So while individually every robot is a pushover on Normal difficulty, they make up for it when in numbers, and the battles are quite challenging as a result.

Graphically, the game is gorgeous. It was everything I hoped it would be, and even with all of the settings maxed out (and at 2560×1600 resolution) it never choked or stumbled on me. Neither the environments nor the rendering of the many enemies running in my direction, caused the engine to hiccup. At times I found myself simply admiring the futuristic urban views, which is not something that modern shooters are generally known for.

I want to mention that my recently re-awakened appetite for secrets in games (see my review of Dungeon Siege III) was fully satisfied by the amount of said secrets in Hard Reset. It was like being taken to the good old days of Wolfenstein 3D, and I am grateful for that. Of course, other aspects of the game, such as the combat, the level design, the graphics and the cut-scenes are all of the highest quality and need not be improved. All things considered I am eagerly looking forward to the final product, which, if all goes according to plan, should hit shelves in September.

© Alaric Teplitsky for The Adrenaline Vault, 2011. | Permalink | 3 comments