The multiplayer component is basically set up to facilitate an ongoing battle between the two main “races” in the game. That is, the humans and the undead. While there will be a selection of modes that facilitate quick matches, we were informed that the main play will centre around the battle between the humans and the undead. That is, each side will play a map and the side that wins will move forward and penetrate the territory of the other, while the loser would have to rally and try and win back that ground.
Archers can be tricky at first, but become very deadly.
There were two servers provided for our entertainment. On one server, there was a conquest style of maps and the other had a death match going on. The conquest style maps required the teams to acquire “capture points”. Both teams started with 100 points and this would count down as capture points were taken. Essentially, the team with the most capture points would win. As we played through and watched wins and losses go by, we went through about five maps. The death match was something of a standard affair that was held in what looked like a medieval death pit.
As mentioned, there were two teams (or races) that you could choose from, these being the humans and the undead. Each race had five types of character classes that you could play as - Archer, Assassin, Knight/Warrior, Priestess and Mage. Each of these characters was distinctly different and had individual traits to boot. One unique aspect of the game was that as you killed and beat enemies, you gained experience points. With experience points, you gained levels and with the levels you gained some skill points. Pressing M at any point in the game, would open up a skills tree. This would allow you to allocate skill points to improve and add skills mid-game. At first it was a little bit confusing, because it wasn’t clearly indicating what skills were being picked. Thankfully, it became intuitive with time and there was the advantage of being able to mix and match as long as you had enough points.
ZAP!
While it initially seemed that the characters were quite one-dimensional, it became apparent that there is a lot more to them than meets the eye. The archer felt a bit awkward to control at first, but once the player was able to come to grips with the leading and aiming, they would become a deadly force. Assassins could cloak and sneak up on enemies. Knights had an ability to project a shield in order to protect multiple players. Priestesses were mainly there as healers but could also “curse” enemies and steal extra experience points off dead enemies. The mages had a set of awesome and potentially devastating spells.
At first, it seemed that the players who played as knights and archers were having the better of things. We had a lot of success in particular playing as a knight, charging in and slicing anything that moved. It made us question whether the balance of the game was in check. However, as people became accustomed to what was going on, it seemed that the only class that was really having difficulty was the Assassin class. We were a little bit disappointed that the environments were a little bit lacking, especially in terms of interactivity. Whereas in the single player we were promised a lot, the multiplayer had very little.
Damned campers.
Despite being an early build, the controls in the game were very solid. As followers of this game would know, the game is played from a first person perspective. It’s your standard keyboard and mouse affair but everything felt as it should be, apart from a slightly sluggish strafe. Even when the gameplay got hectic, the controls held up well. It was a little disappointing that the knight only had the one swiping motion apart from the “stance” attack. We were told of how the mages could cast fireballs and control them manually but we didn’t get to see this. From what we saw, the graphical presentation of the game was on track to being excellent. There were hardly any technical hitch-ups and the frame rate was surprisingly consistent. The sound was going in the right direction as well.
Overall, the experience was quite an enjoyable one. Assuming that all the beta bugs and hitches will be cleaned up before the game goes on the market, the only foreseeable downfall is that the gameplay may grow stale by not differentiating itself enough from other multiplayer titles played from a first-person perspective. From what we saw and played, we were quite pleased with the result. The multiplayer component is shaping up to be a good foil to the already exciting single player.
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