Player Preview - Skyforge

Title: Skyforge
Developer: Allods Team & Obsidian Entertainment
Status: Open Beta

Official Site: http://bit.ly/1gcoBOK

Hey what’s up, Serpentine here taking a look at the MMORPG, SkyForge, a joint development venture between the Allods Team, the guys behind Allods Online, and Obsidian Entertainment, the guys behind numerous RPG’s like Wasteland 2, Pillars of Eternity and South Park the Stick of Truth. Skyforge has you playing as one of many immortals whose job it is to protect the people of Aelion. You oversee all the events of the world from the capital of Aelion and warp into to help out in situations where you’re powers will be needed.

Skyforge isn’t what you would expect from an ordinary MMO and honestly only just manages to make it into the category. There is no large interconnected world like you see in other MMO’s like World of Warcraft or Archeage were you can walk to almost anywhere in the world, Skyforge instead opts for instanced dungeons called Squad missions that can be completed solo or with up to 3 squad members with the dungeon scaling in difficulty depending on the number of players. These squad missions are the main content of the game with each dungeon being played multiple times at higher difficulties for the quest line and also to gain more sparks to upgrade your character. The dungeons consist of a couple of mini bosses before you take on the final boss of the dungeon with the final boss usually providing for a very intense a fun experience were the action orientated combat takes full effect as you have to dodge attacks so as not to get one shot.

The region areas provide more of that open world feel but only slightly as the maps are still fairly small but contains a bunch of side quests for you to complete. This mode is honestly a little dull and while playing in these regions the game starts to gain that feeling of an MMO grind. Thankfully however you don’t have to complete the side quests and can just focus on the main storyline, bypassing the kill so many of this thing or collect so many of this drop. Even in these areas you won’t see a ton of people around and for very good reason as the content isn’t as fun to play as the dungeons and you only really have to go to region once and spend an hour or so before you never have to go back.

Finally there is PvP that consists of a free for all mode, 3v3 and finally 5v5. I wasn’t able to play the team based modes but from the free for all mode there is some depth with chaining character abilities that you don’t really use while PvE’ing. In many of the maps the closer you are to the centre the more powerful you become so it encourages players to the centre of the map other than that though the PvP isn’t doing anything too special or different.

The combat in Skyforge is action based but does have an odd targeting system included where most of your abilities won’t be usable unless you have an enemy targeted. This kind of combat feels a little odd at first but is actually a really solid way of doing it especially once you get the hang of the locking onto enemies. Plus I imagine it’s a way to deal with frustrating lag that you can experience in other Action based MMO’s. 

As for the underlying mechanics and features that we are used to from MMO’s Skyforge changes some of them up a bit and eliminating some entirely. The gear that you can change out consists of 2 weapon slots and 4 rings, that’s all you will have access to early on, later you will unlock 4 amulet slots and a trophy slot. Armour is absent from the game and is a little disappointing as with many MMO players and even RPG players getting a new piece of armour and actually having that change your look is a big part of the game. Instead Skyforge implements a costume feature were you can collect costumes and change them whenever you want with no stats tied to them at all. The economy in Skyforge is non-existent with no player driven markets instead the market only allows you to buy boosters, licences for mounts and costumes. Basically Skyforge focuses purely on combat and not much else, no resource gathering, no professions and no crafting

There is one side mechanic in the form of adepts, dedicated followers that can be sent on missions that will end up giving you small stat boosts. As an immortal you rely on followers to increase your power and with adepts you can spread the word about your good deeds to gain more followers and in turn more adepts. This is basically a small management task of sending adepts to complete time based mission and building chapels so as to gain the stat boosts.  

 

Skyforge also does a couple things different in terms of the class you play. We’ve seen this featured in a couple of MMO’s here and there allowing you to play whatever class you want, whenever you want. Unfortunately you only have access to 3 of the 13 total classes at the beginning with cryomancer being your damage dealer, Paladin being your defensive class and priest being your support. The other 10 classes unlock the further you progress in the game via the ascension atlas, a large skill tree that unlocks not only classes but abilities, passives and god mode. You’ll be using 3 different coloured sparks to progress through the tree with the Spark of Balance, the spark of creation and finally the spark of destruction. Each node that is unlocked in the ascension tree will contribute those stats to any class that you play, the lower level skill tree is where you can start unlocking class specific abilities and passives using class specific sparks that are gained from random drops.

Your characters level in the game isn’t you’re standard fixed number with so much xp taking you to the next level. Instead Skyforge calculates a prestige ranking from your currently equipped equipment and how many skill tree nodes you have unlocked which is actually a really good way to keep matchmaking balanced and to quickly find out which player is statistically stronger than the other. With the usual level system 2 people can be the same level but 1 of them can have legendary items equipped while the other has common and they will still be queued together whereas with Skyforges prestige system there would be a significant gap.

Other features of the game include a guild system or a pantheon as it’s called in Skyforge. Here you will be able to build up your pantheon by gaining resources from the adept feature mentioned earlier. There are buildings that give you bonus stats, gain access to extremely difficult dungeons and probably most importantly a building that gives you access to pantheon wars were your pantheon will take on another pantheon in PvP and PvE trials with up to 100 players from each pantheon. Being successful in a pantheon war will give you control over a territory that will generate income for, unlock special costumes and mounts and you will gain enhancements to the ascension atlas. Skyforges free to play model offers a premium subscription to the game that gives you a couple of resource bonuses including 50% spark and credit gains, 50% more building resources for the pantheon and free teleportation. The other areas of the game that the premium currency is more beneficial is buying new costumes, mounts and licences for those mounts. The licences for mounts last 1 hour each and the timer is only running when you are riding the mount. Once you have purchased numerous licences you will unlock the mount permanently and never have to purchase a license for it again.

 Altogether Skyforge is a MMO focused on combat with all other elements taking a backseat or just not implemented at all. The dungeon style to the game provides a nice polished experience with no gap filling content and not much time wasting as is seen in other titles in the genre. The dungeons don’t get old too quickly either as each time you complete one, the next time you go to that dungeon it will be a harder difficulty. The game doesn’t offer any real downtime activities like professions, crafting or actual resource gathering so it’s not really an MMO you can spend a bunch of time in doing different things, more of an MMO that you play for a couple of hours a day unless you are really into the combat.

Anyway, that’s been my player preview for Skyforge. The game is currently in Open Beta with no official release date as of yet. If you want to find out more about the game check out the links below. Thanks for watching, I’ll see you guys next time.

Player Preview - Defect

Title: Defect
Developer: Three Phase Interactive
Status: Demo

Official Site: http://bit.ly/1OfbNS9
Steam Page: http://bit.ly/1DogGTf
Kick-Starter: http://kck.st/1GtwfsK

Hey what’s up, Serpentine here taking a look at the space combat action game, Defect, the first PC and Mac title developed by the 3 man team over at Three Phase Interactive. You and your team are working to get new and improved spaceships out into the galaxy were you will act as designer, builder and captain to a crew of recently released prisoners.

The recurring mechanic in Defect has your crew of prisoners defecting and mutinying you of your own ship after the completion of every mission. That’s not the worst part either, that same ship and crew will be making a return to mess with you and your brand new ship. This has you designing ships at the start of every mission with the reminder that this ship will inevitably be stolen and used against you so designing a weakness that you can take advantage of isn’t the worst idea and is even were the game gets its name, Defect. You aren’t meant to build the best ship possible, you’re meant to build a ship that will succeed in its mission at the bare minimum requirement.

Mutiny!!!

The missions that you will be sent on will include general combat missions, races, mini-boss and boss fights. For each mission you will be given a short debriefing that will give you some idea as to how you want to build your ship to tackle the situation weather you build your ship for agility and speed, defence and weaponry or something in-between. Your first ship build will most likely fail especially in the later missions so you will have to go back to the drawing board and tinker with a couple of  the components to get it just right.

Building your ship is pretty intuitive with the ship building system that defect has implemented. As long as every piece of your ship is connected to the core, even if it’s via a chain of other pieces it will work and then you can manipulate every piece through scale and rotation to create something that is somewhat unique. There are some limited resources that you have to adhere to when building your ship however including power and crew members. Each part of the ship will have a certain power and crew member usage associated with it so you have to build within those restraints. As you complete each mission you will unlock more and more pieces to help you build better ships but again just be careful not to make something too powerful or you may come to regret it.

Building Ships Made Easy

The controls in the game are fairly simple with W activating your thrusters while “a” and “d” rotate your ship. If you’re struggling to manoeuvre your ship there are components to help increase its manoeuvrability including wings and rudders. For combat most weapons are forward facing unless otherwise rotated during the building phase so you will have to line up the front of your ship with the enemy most of the time. The weapons will automatically fire once you’re within range but you can take direct control of weapons via the direct control mechanic that not only works for all weapons but also engines, shields and wings to give those components a boost in effectiveness. Taking direct control of a weapon allows you to aim and fire where ever and whenever you want at least for the weapons that are able to rotate. The bonus given when taking direct control of one of your ships components is nothing to laugh at either and will undoubtedly be needed to be taken full advantage off for the later missions. 

We're Gonna Need a Bigger Ship

During combat as you would expect your ship will take damage with each component on the ship having its own health bar. While you can survive without your shields or armour it’s the more important components like your engines and crew quarters that will severely decrease your ability to fight if destroyed. There is a repair mechanic to the game though to help you get back to some sort of combat effectiveness by using scrap collected from ships you have destroyed to do some quick patch work. The combat as a whole though is a little simplistic with enemy ships just flying directly at you to get off their forward facing weapons and you’re doing basically the same thing. Without the third dimension it is hard to make the combat more interesting but luckily Defect doesn’t focus only on combat based missions, providing races, boss fights, base assaults and more.

Incoming Fire

Other features of the game include unique music to play too corresponding to what type of crew quarters you use for instance the circular crew quarters provides an eary alien kind of tune. A feature planned for release is the ability to take on other players creations in the challenge mode unfortunately this will only be an AI controlled ship but nonetheless it will be interesting to see other player’s creations in combat.

Altogether Defect is a fun combination of ship customization and space combat with the somewhat unique feature of your ship being stolen at the end of each mission leading to instant regret when it warps in with its new crew. The various mission type’s keeps the game interesting as the combat alone is basically a jousting match with the two ships flying into each other unloading all the weapons they have available. The ship building works great and is super easy to use, the system also provides progression to bigger, better ships so that you start of small with limited resources but by the end of the game you will be able to create massive ships with numerous weapons, shields, special equipment and more. Defect is definitely more of a creative focused space sim requiring you to build a new ship for every mission so if you’re the creative type and like space combat, then you should definitely check out Defect. If you’re looking for a more combat focused experience however, Defect may not be that game for you. There is a demo available to download so if you’re not sure you can try it out.

Space Station

Anyway, that’s been my player preview for Defect, the game has been green lit on Steam and is currently seeking funding via Kick-starter which it is currently at around 30 thousand of its 40 thousand goal. If you want to find out more about the game check out the links below. Thanks for watching, I’ll see you guys next time.

Player Preview - The Red Solstice

Title: The Red Solstice

Developer: Iron Ward

Officially Released July 9th

Official Website: http://bit.ly/1NTy3Rq
Steam Page: http://bit.ly/1HRTceI

Hey what’s up, Serpentine here taking a look at the Action RPG, The Red Solstice, the first title developed by the team at Iron Ward. After a devastating virus wipes out the population on Earth it’s your mission to stop the outbreak from spreading any further on Mars, humanities last hope. To top it all off one of the worst weather storms in Mars history is occurring known as the red solstice.

For each mission you will take control of a 4 man squad with control primarily being given over the commander of the squad. The controls of the game are what you would expect: right click to move, left click to attack and hotkeys for abilities. To take control of the other squad members you will have to enter a slowed down tactical mode were you can move them individually and use their unique abilities. Admittedly not being able to take direct control of the other units and their abilities outside of the tactical mode is a little strange but it does put an emphasis on the commander of your squad and the times that you would want to take direct control you would probably already be in tactical mode. Inventory management and healing with the medic however would have been nice to do outside of tactical mode.

Tactical Mode

 Speaking of classes, there are 8 classes available including Assault, Heavy Support, Medic, Recon and more. For the single player missions you will be locked into that squad’s specific classes but you will be able to switch out their weapons, abilities and upgrade their attributes before you head into a mission. For multiplayer missions though you will be able to choose whatever class you want but first you will have to unlock them all with experience with the more niche classes like recon being unlocked later on down the track. As with the single player mission you will be able to set your soldier up with guns, a primary and a secondary, an ability set and passive boosters. The same kind of experience unlocks occur here too in what could be compared to how killing floor does their progression system with more power and better abilities unlocking the further you progress a class allowing you to take on some of the harder difficulty levels.

Classes

The multiplayer mode has you squad searching for an anomaly located somewhere on the map that you will eventually find out to be a boss creature you have to kill. Heading straight to the anomaly isn’t the best idea though as you’ll need to gain a few levels beforehand thus unlocking your abilities to stand any chance of defeating it also you will need to hunt for valuable supplies like med kits, explosives and ammunition from inside the buildings. As with most wave based games the wave’s start off fairly easy and slowly get harder and harder so picking the right time to attack the anomaly boss is essential so as not to get overrun. Picking a good team competition before jumping into the mission is extremely important too due to some of the classes’ special abilities for instance the medic can obviously heal but it can also generate med kits, anti-venom, bandages and stimulants that you and your teammates can take advantage of. Similarly the heavy support can generate ammunition which is extremely important as you’re likely to run out before the mission is over and you don’t really want to be running around inside of buildings searching for it. The final boss fight is a little underwhelming unfortunately basically being a bullet sponge, this is one area of the multiplayer that could have been improved upon and would have made the experience so much better but as it is now all you do is click on the boss and dodge its attacks.

Multiplayer

The gameplay difference from single player to multiplayer is fairly small but they do make the two modes feel significantly different. Single player missions requires a lot more focus on squad management and strategy specifically setting up a defensive perimeter while taking full advantage of the slowed down tactical mode. Multiplayer however loses some of that strategic element with no tactical mode nor the same kind of level design as single player that allows for more defensive set-ups. Instead multiplayer is more about continually moving so as not to get overrun by the horde and if you get split up somewhere on the way well, that’s pretty much game over for you until you can respawn again.

Surrounded!!

There is one final game mode called survival however this is basically just the multiplayer mode but for single player, so you take control of a squad of 4 on one of the multiplayer maps regaining the access to tactical mode. However due to the level design and the way multiplayer is set-up, Survival mode is a strange combination that doesn’t really work all that well and is definitely the weakest of the 3 game modes. If you wanted to play single player then the single player campaign is definitely the way to go.

Other features of the game include a stat sheet that keeps track of your multiplayer contributions like kills, deaths, and damage dealt. For multiplayer there are numerous options that you can enable and disable for an altered experience including fast mode were the time between waves will be sped up, Swarm mode were more zombies are spawned etc etc. There are also 6 different maps to play on with 4 difficulty levels to test your team against.

Altogether The Red Solstice provides a great strategic campaign with maps that are well designed and fun to play with an interesting story going on in the background. The multiplayer changes it up with a faster, more chaotic play style that relies heavily on good teamwork and communication to succeed. The game feels like a more squad focused version of StarCraft’s: Wings of Liberty campaign in terms of the actual combat so if you liked that kind of gameplay then The Red Solstice may be for you. Otherwise if you’re like squad based strategy games or you like horde based gameplay, The Red Solstice is worth a look. 

Bombs Away!

Anyway, that’s been my player preview for The Red Solstice, the game released on the 9^th of July and is currently available to purchase on Steam. If you want to find out more about the game check out the links above. Thanks for reading and I’ll see you guys next time.