Elveon by 10tacle Studios is shaping up to be a fantastic re-envisioning of the Elvish race. While Elves may seem like a well established fantasy icon, Elveon is poised to take them in an entirely new direction. In most fantasy settings, elves are portrayed as a powerful but fading race. Though they possess great power and wisdom, their civilization is in decline and they are no longer the dominant force in the world. Elveon instead focuses on the rise of the Elvish civilization.Rather than focus on the elves versus external forces like an opposing army the conflict will instead be focused on different factions of elves. In the preview trailer two combatants were shown. The first was a typical elvish character. Long blond hair, bright silver armor, and sharp facial features. The second was a large, brutal looking creature. Red, raw flesh could be seen between craggy, organic looking plates. His features were bestial looking with sharp teeth and sinister eyes. Both of these creatures were elves, from two of the different factions. There are two other factions planned making a total of four different types of elves.
As is expected from any next-gen title, Elveon looks phenomenal. In order to provide a consistent look throughout a level a specific color is selected. The level is then constructed using various shades of that color. This provides a uniform look to the level, but still makes for a varied environment. There are also dynamic weather and lighting effects. As clouds move across the sky the lighting changes, creating sun rays or dipping the world into darkness as the sun is momentarily blocked. The shadows were especially well done. During the combat scenes the shadows followed the elaborate combat moves exactly and really added to the feeling of being immersed in this world.
Elveon is an Action/RPG game, but it’s “more God of War than Oblivion” according to Marcel Jung, 10tacle’s Public Relations Manager. Combat will be the main focus of the game, with some RPG elements added in. Your character will advance based on accomplishments rather than gaining XP. So, for example, in order to gain a level you will have to seek out and kill a specific monster rather than wandering around hunting for monsters to kill in order to gain XP.
The combat that was shown was incredibly well done. There are 4 types of weapons available: a pair of daggers, a sword, a spear, and a bow. Each weapon has different attributes and they can all be upgraded with items to improve their performance. The combat looked great as well. In one combat using the daggers the elf made three different types of attacks, and they all looked great. The first was a scissoring attack, the second was a windmill-like attack using both blades, and the last was a single blade attack in an almost fencing style with the other blade held back. Blocking is incorporated seamlessly into the combat as well. Blocks are done by striking your opponents weapon and knocking it away, leaving him open for a counterattack.
While Elveon can be played straight through as an action game, the player is also rewarded for delving a little more deeply into the game. For those players more interested in the RPG aspect of the game a deeper story can be unlocked by taking on more of the RPG missions. While the story will make perfect sense to someone who just plays the action portions, new information will be presented to someone who goes deeper and will make the player begin to question whether or not what they are is necessarily the best choice. Players who enjoy searching out the best and fanciest items will be rewarded for taking that route as well.
The amount of background work that has gone into this project is incredible. Elveon is not satisfied using anything that has been done before. They are rebuilding the story of the elves from the ground up. Specialist teams were hired on to create each individual part of the game. Architects were hired to design unique and realistic architecture for all the buildings in the game. A martial arts team was hired to create a unique fighting style to be used throughout the game that incorporates both eastern and western fighting. They created a unique script for writing their elvish language. The language is completely original and is based on ancient Greek, Egyptian, and Hebrew. How this language will be incorporated is still under discussion, but according to Slavo Hazucha, 10tacles Managing Director of the Slovakia Studio, there is talk of a “hardcore elvish version” with only the original language used in the game.
Elveon is based on the Unreal 3 engine with some additional tweaks. Since the Unreal engine was made for first person shooters and Elveon is a 3rd person action game, certain changes had to be made. The physics were improved to help make the combat better. The rendering had to be improved because the characters don’t move around as quickly as they do in an FPS so a more detailed character model is needed. The enemy AI had to be improved in order to handle the combat actions.
Unfortunately, all of these improvements come at a cost. Elveon isn’t scheduled to be released until summer of 2007. While it’s a long wait it is understandable. It takes time to build an entirely new world.
I’ve always loved video games. I don’t know why, but they’ve always fascinated me. When I was younger, if I visited someone who had an Atari, that was all I wanted to do. It was a glorious day when I finally got my very own Nintendo.
I like a wide variety of games. I’m great at action and rpg games. I tend to be too much of a perfectionist with first person shooters and stealth games. I’ll spend 20 minutes in a level, only to reset it the first time a guard sees me. Platformers aren’t really my thing, I think the technology has better things to offer than that now. And I don’t do sports games.
I love games with a good story. I’ll play for hours just trying to get to the next plot twist. In a perfect world, I’d be writing my own video games someday
