Atari and French developer Monte Cristo (developers of City Life) are bringing their gorgeous action role-playing game Silverfall to the U.S. in late March. It's action-heavy, but this game promises more than just mindless hack & slash.Nelwe is a magical world whose civilization is divided by industrial revolution. The defenders of the natural world are struggling against those who seek power through technology. Unknown to them all, an ancient, forgotten darkness has laid plans to strike, and strike it does. The neutral, titular city of Silverfall is laid to waste and only a handful of refugees survive, fleeing into the nearby swampland.
Players will take on the role of one of these refugees and will choose to align themselves with either the naturalists or the technologists and harness that power to rebuild the city of Silverfall. The chosen path will have significant impact on character development. Naturalists, for instance, will have the ability shapeshift into animal forms, while the technologists will be able to receive 'implants' that give them greater power or special abilities.
The city of Silverfall will also evolve as the player makes choices in favor of nature or technology. It's by no means a one time decision. There are several quests with more than one possible solution. The hero must choose whether to advance technology or preserve nature several times throughout the game. It is these choices that determine how Silverfall is rebuilt.
But there's no rush. Silverfall is, for lack of a better term, a free-roaming RPG. The average player will probably spend around 25 hours on the game. It could be less if the player ignores all the optional side quests or much more if they are determined to become best friends with every NPC ally and do every quest in the game.
There are many NPC allies that can be recruited and up to two allies can be in the party at any given time. Of course, player's nature/technology alignment comes into play here as well as some NPCs will have alignment of their own and may not be sympathetic to the hero's struggle if their ideologies don't match. The player can cultivate a dynamic relationship with each ally and the strength of that relationship will determine what sort of optional side quests the ally will make available.
Allies cannot be directly controlled, but the AI that controls them in combat can be adjusted. They can be set to jump into the fray and attack or hang back and just heal the hero. It's up to you. As the hero's nature/technology shifts, the allies' alignment may shift as well, provided the relationship between them is strong enough. Their character development (skills and attributes) is predetermined for each ally, but their equipment can be customized as easily as the main hero's.
Various bits of armor and weaponry can have alignment requirements. Technologists might wield handsaws and rotating axes, while naturalists prefer more traditional weapons. One of the skills that can be trained improves the chances of finding enchanted items, as does certain equipment. For the most part, though, loot is random and is found in abundance while exploring the world.
Nelwe is a very large world consisting of several distinctive environments ranging from the swamp area where the game begins to vast deserts to snowy mountains and more. In keeping with the nature vs. technology theme, there are industrialized regions where the surrounding land has become withered and dry.
Players can choose from 4 different playable races: Humans, Trolls, Goblins and Elves. Each has its own racial bonuses to certain stats, but there are no restrictions as to how characters are developed. The player has four attributes and a whopping 110 different skills that can be upgraded as the hero gains levels. (There are 135 skills in all, but 10 require nature alignment, 10 require technology alignment and each of the four races have 5 special racial skills.)
Two multiplayer modes are available. Campaign Mode allows up to 8 players to cooperate and complete the main story line. Free Mode also supports 8 players and allows either PvP or cooperative play through the side quests. The main storyline is disabled in this mode.
Silverfall offers replayability, gorgeous graphics, free roaming gameplay and lots of hack & slash fun. What's more, with the promised map editor, the fan community might keep this game fresh and fun for a long time.
I'm a thirty-something computer programmer. I live in Delaware, but I grew up in Arkansas in a tiny town of 2500. We didn't have video arcades. Heck, it was nearly an hour's drive to anything as sophisticated as a Wal*Mart. Needless to say, my exposure to video games as a child was somewhat limited.
In the mid 80's, I cut my teeth on a used Atari 2600 bought at a flea market and a handful of games like Space Invaders and Pac Man. I was hooked in a blink. In the decades since, I've become a big fan of many genres of games. From first-person shooters to role-playing to strategy and everything in between. The only games that categorically don't interest me are sports games.
The easiest way for a game to win me over is to have a gripping story. I'll forgive a lot in a game that grabs me and keeps me interested. The inverse is true, too. If a game does not have a killer story, its gameplay had better be pretty darn compelling to make up for it. That doesn't happen very often
