Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Din's Curse Preview

Action RPG's, such as the ever popular Diablo, tend to be relatively simple hack and slash games.  Soldak Entertainment is taking them to a whole new level.  In their upcoming Action RPG, Din's Curse, they bring a dynamic and meaningful game world to the genre.

Soldak is quite familiar with the genre. Their first title, Depths of Peril, was very popular.  One of its unique aspects was that you competed against other NPC adventure factions to see who would rule the city.  Eventually you fight them, as well as taking on dungeons.

The first area which sets Din's apart is the character creation.   You don't just choose a class archetype and be on your way.  Instead Din's uses a hybrid skill system that gives the player around 141 class options.  That should add some nice replay value.

Speaking of replay value, Din's Curse offers it in spades.  The entire game world is recreated with each new game.  This is much more than just dynamic dungeon layouts.  You never know which monsters, items, npc's and quests will be waiting for you.

Choice is another important aspect of Din's Curse.  A lot of RPG's say that choices matter, but in the end they don't .  In this game, the choices you make can have a profound impact on the game world.  For example, if you don't rescue that npc, they will die.  Whatever quests  they may have offered will be gone.

In Din's Curse, you will have to think about where you are fighting.  If you (or monsters) are tossing around powerful spells you may actually cause a cave-in or explosion.  These, of course, are also different from game to game.  Don't forget about traps and treasure room's, they are here too.

Last but not least, multiplayer.  Their previous game, Kivis Underworld, did have a multiplayer expansion.  That means it is certainly a possibility with Din's Curse. 

Din's Curse is looking to take the traditional Action RPG one step further.  It has all of the standard features, but wraps a truly dynamic world around them.  The game is currently in development, but you can follow along using their forums or blog.