Of all of Beamdog's Enhanced Edition rereleases before they switched to making DOA multiplayer games, Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced Edition was probably the most poorly budgeted and least hyped. Ironically, it might be the Enhanced Edition that ended up providing the most value to the game's legacy. In part, thanks to its belated recognition of Ossian Studios' cancelled premium modules from the 2000s. One of these was Neverwinter Nights: Tyrants of the Moonsea, an adventure set in the Forgotten Realms' Moonsea region which was finally completed by its creator Luke "Alazander" Scull in 2019 as an official DLC for the Enhanced Edition. In the years since then, Luke has continued to remaster his other classic modules for free while working on his upcoming Blades of Netheril sequel campaign and appears to have earned a good reputation on our forums. Yet it's not clear how many Codexers actually played Tyrants of the Moonsea. As I recall, many users were unhappy about having to buy Beamdog's version of Neverwinter Nights in order to play it. One of our resident Neverwinter Nights connoisseurs, the esteemed Gargaune, feels the module never got the attention it deserved. I suspect his outstanding review might persuade some of you to give it a second look. Here's an excerpt:
Structurally, the module can be split into three main segments. The sequence that takes you from Voonlar through Hillsfar and two major locations after that is a fairly linear progression despite already presenting you with a beautiful world map, a feature that Ossian first brought to NWN with the original release of DoD. You’ll have a good supply of optional side content to engage with but, by and large, you’re on a straight path taking you from one place to the next, Icewind Dale-style. Once you’re through with that, however, and have experienced a couple of plot twists to boot, you get access to a ship that puts you within striking distance of the four other major destinations you get in the Moonsea – Mulmaster, Thentia, Melvaunt and Zhentil Keep. At this point you’re told to tackle them in whichever order you like, digging up leads on your quarry, picking up side quests and, naturally, hitting the shops. Each one of the Moonsea’s urban centres will have a couple of quests to be started in them, some resolved locally, others requiring travelling to other places, and an optional dungeon of some manner. Aside from this, there’s nothing wrong with a little bit of serendipitous exploration, as the odd unmarked location can turn up questless combat encounters and, naturally, loot! The format here is similar to Baldur’s Gate 2’s non-Athkatlan locales (think Trademeet or the Umar Hills), each city has one or two main areas and a tidy amount of content but none of them are massive mainstays to explore nor does TotM ever set you loose on a contiguous countryside, like Darkness over Daggerford or the original Baldur’s Gate. Once you’ve had your fill of the open world and turned up some key leads for your main plot, you can chase up those directions and get nudged (albeit not exactly shoved) into the adventure’s climax, and I can honestly say it’s a pretty epic affair!
But if the plot demands you visit all city hubs, is it a TRÜE open world? Sort of... Per the old BioWare formula, you'll find yourself strung along to all the major locations at some point or other, but the game won't force your nose into every nook and cranny and some significant things can change depending on how you prioritise certain steps. In other words, there is a point of no return which can lock off an amount of side content, a point which may be intuited but isn't necessarily signposted. I'm being coy because I don't want to spoil stuff for you, and if you want to experience TotM completely blind, you should stop reading this paragraph right here and move on to the one below (seriously, right here!). If, however, you want to be sure you maximise content on your first playthrough, I'll give you the slightest hint - make sure you wrap up all your sightseeing before you go galloping across any wilderness, you'll know when you get to it.
I’ve mentioned dungeons and TotM has a healthy supply of them. Ossian’s other NWN entry, DoD, was quite lacklustre in this department, so it’s a relief that this module alternates open wilderness and proper dungeon areas regularly, with the usual variety of traps and bespoke encounters. The biggest criticism I can level at them is that they don’t tend to be particularly labyrinthine – some are large enough to accommodate a couple of forks and traversal loops, though quite a few come down on the smaller and more linear side. But while none of them could make a claim to being branching “mega-dungeons” filled to the brim with secrets and puzzles, and you’ll find much more impressive constructions in other modules, TotM’s spelunking sessions aren’t five-minute affairs either, they’re well-paced and well-stocked and should be able to hold your interest for the duration. Puzzles aren't all that plentiful or memorable, either the dungeon or quest sorts, but they are present and range from rote "find the four thingamajigs to slot in here" to more organic affairs, e.g. some players will know what's up when told they're to fight a Magic Golem, the rest had better explore available dialogue or they're in for a nasty surprise.
Difficulty-wise, TotM is pretty much along the lines of vanilla NWN content like Hordes of the Underdark, which is to say it isn’t especially hard while also not a walk in the park. Grizzled Swordflight veterans are unlikely to find anything particularly challenging, but regular gamers can be well served by playing on D&D Hardcore Rules, meaning the steady string of trashmobs will be effective as a source of progressive attrition, softening you up for some boss encounters which can genuinely put you through your paces, and controlling for disabling factors like Fear or save-or-die abilities is meaningful. The game swaps enemy palettes regularly and with wide variety, you'll fight undead in one place, cultists and demons in another, goblinoids over there or even hostile adventuring parties and so on. There's enough variety that you could make good use of all the different specific enhancement bonuses offered by the Altar of Blessings if you cared to, but most trashmobs aren't difficult enough to warrant it. This is common for Epic-range 3E D&D, as the power curve past level 15 tends to favour the player and it becomes challenging for designers to guard against all moving parts while also not making the game impenetrable to the average consumer, and I probably wouldn’t advise playing on low difficulty levels unless you’re new or really struggling for some reason. The module’s generous with special utility loot, trinkets like Gems of Seeing, Ioun Stones or magical rods, which will expand a given character’s abilities beyond their natural competencies and provide that additional versatility in tackling various battlefield situations. Personally, this is more up my alley and I found TotM to be gratifying in terms of general challenge, but hardcore min-maxers aren’t likely to break a sweat.
I suppose this would also be the appropriate time to remind people of Beamdog’s upgraded Party Control feature – this isn’t a TotM system, it’s an (unfortunately hidden) engine-level option that was added to NWN:EE, but it can make a big impact on the quality of your gameplay. Basically, these new controls allow you to manually select one or more party members (including your own PC) and issue precise instructions to “move there” or “attack that.” To enable it, go into \Documents\Neverwinter Nights\settings.tml and change the value of player-party-control to true. Then, in-game, you can select one or more party members by holding down Ctrl while left-clicking them or their portraits (or you can even hold down Ctrl and click-drag a marquee selection) for a blue circle highlight, then hold down Shift while left-clicking a target location or enemy. Note that a single click is “walk to” while double-clicking is “run to”, and you may want to issue a Stand Your Ground order beforehand if you don’t want henchmen to come right back. Restricting it to movement and combat might seem short of modded solutions (e.g. Balkoth’s Minion Control) but it also means it’s applicable to all NWN content, limiting the potential to break properly-scripted modules, and while it’s not a panacea for the game’s obstinate AI, it’s more than enough to make a huge difference in play. All classes will benefit tactically, but especially ranged and mage types (also endowed with spellcasting AoE indicators in the EE), who can now enjoy more build variety safe behind a leading warrior.
[...] Looking back to the Infinity Engine and even many of its contemporary peers, Baldur’s Gate 2 is king (no matter how much that might make some of the local fauna seethe), but why? Icewind Dale had better combat, the first Baldur’s Gate had better exploration, Planescape: Torment had better writing etc. – all of that is true, but Baldur’s Gate 2 was pretty darn good at all of it. That's what gets it top billing and the same qualities apply to Tyrants of the Moonsea for NWN – you should easily find other modules, official or fan-made, that do better in various individual respects, but Ossian's title scores high on all counts and if you enjoy NWN at all (if you don't, you should never admit it!), passing on TotM would be a big mistake.
Now, if the byzantine brandings and histories have left you confused, allow me to make it simple – Tyrants of the Moonsea is for sale on GOG, Steam and the Beamdog Client. If you also want to check out its prior episodes in the Alazander series, they're free on the Neverwinter Vault as Siege of Shadowdale Enhanced Editionand Crimson Tides of Tethyr Enhanced Edition or in NWN:EE's integrated content browser. For historic purposes, links to the Diamond Edition distributions of those two modules are on their respective Vault pages under Related Projects.
So there you have it, I've led you to the water, I've even forced your snout in, the rest is up to you. Drink and you'll get the full flavour of competent writing and design, solid production values and artistic direction, fun combat and exploration… To put it simply, Tyrants of the Moonsea is, at this time, the definitive single-player NWN experience.
Auburn, New Hampshire – March 12, 2024 – Coin Operated Games is pleased to announce that its final entry in their Neo-Victorian RPG series: Empyre: Earls of the Deep Earth, has come to Steam. Developed by a team of industry veterans from such influential companies as Crytek, Codemasters, Gameloft and Creative Assembly, Empyre: Earls of the Deep Earthis a top-down isometric RPG that takes place in a Neo-Victorian Orient in 1899.
…embark on a journey into a Neo-Victorian era version of the Orient…
The Story So Far
Struck with complete memory loss and wandering through a shadowy and mysteriously unfamiliar place; you find yourself on the hunt for the enigmatic Elias, a villainous rogue who is seemingly responsible for your amnesia. In Empyre: Earls of the Deep Earth, players are invited to explore the secrets of an exotic land, bathed in an ominous and seemingly perpetual darkness. Will you be able to discover a way to restore light to an endangered empire?
Featuring a top-down isometric presentation, Empyre: Earls of the Deep Earthwill rekindle the flames of nostalgia in old-school PC RPG fans with gameplay that harkens back to the classic story driven RPGs of the 90s. While the combat should feel familiar to veteran players of the Empyre series, there have been new twists added with a hybrid real time/turn-based combat system.
Players can enter a “Planning Mode” where they choose actions for each character in their party while combat is paused, and when entering into the “Action Mode” all characters will perform simultaneously, giving players complete control over their party while presenting a streamlined combat system that eliminates waiting for each character to act in sequence.
“One of the things we strove for when designing Empyre was to project a believable vision of the future in the past,” said John Randall, Creative Director of Empyre. “But not just any future. An Utopian vision of the future across cultures. A future based on steam-powered contraptions and all manner of mechanical marvels. People and society exist and act as they did in the early 20th Century but live in an amazing Age of wondrous machines. We feel this will give the players a one-of-a-kind experience that they haven’t seen anywhere before.”
Katowice, Poland – March 7, 2024 – Anshar Publishing and Tiny Trinket Games have launched their isometric turn-based RPG, Zoria: Age of Shattering worldwide for the PC on Steam, GOG and in the Epic Games Store for $24.99.
Anshar is launching Zoria: Age of Shattering on International Stop Playing Baldur's Gate 3 Day* because they realize there may be millions of hardcore RPG fans out there that will wake up today and have no idea what to do with their life after they finish breakfast.
Zoria is a single player tactical RPG with faster paced combat than traditional turn-based RPGs, an emphasis on class synergy and outpost and follower management, all set in an expansive fantasy world. In Zoria, you’ll be tasked with gathering the best warriors and mages to form a team of four that will liberate the Kingdom of Zoria which has fallen prey to the hellspawn that roam its land. Once lush forests, majestic buildings and thriving towns have been transformed into dark, dangerous locales. And this time we added new words to this description paragraph so you wouldn't complain about reading the same exact thing for three press releases in a row. So make sure to send your thank you notes to the email at the bottom of this media release to encourage us to do more of this in the future.
Zoria: Age of Shattering Key Features:
- Dynamic turn-based combat in an ever-changing environment - Build and develop your base. Manage your squad and send them on autonomous missions - Craft, rest and survive-a bonfire provides a safe spot to restock your resources and prepare for the coming battle - Specific party member skills can open new areas and quests
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STORY
Rome, 4th Century AD. Over the last few decades the Senate has become corrupt and has progressively lost power and influence, while the Emperor Diocletian and his army ruled unchallenged outside the eternal city.
Seeking to return to a dominant position, the members of the Roman Senate decide to use necromancy to increase their power, creating an army of undead and demons to fight against imperial soldiers.
By waging war on its own emperor, the Senate has caused a rift in the Roman population, which slowly began to live in fear.
Year after year the armies of undead summoned by the Senate have taken over, imposing themselves on the senators and enslaving the Roman population.
In this climate of chaos, an ancient gladiatorial school continued to train soldiers for the games. But the purpose of these gladiators is now different: to rid the city of the undead and invaders...to allow Rome to return to its former glory.
GAMEPLAY
Ludus Mortis is a Grid-Based First Person Dungeon Crawler inspired by classic cRPG from the 80s and 90s.
It's a party-based RPG ("blobber") with turn-based combat.
KEY FEATURES
Create your characters choosing from 14 classes
Manage and develop you Ludus (Gladiator School) by improving facilities, acquiring gladiators, crafting new equipment.
Explore catacombs and dungeons.
Manage your party changing formation, equipment and skills: you can try different combinations for every different dungeon.
Turn-based combat: think carefully and use your Action Points wisely.
Randomly-generated loot with thousands and thousands of different combinations
ABOUT THE DEVELOPER
68k Studio is based in Rome, Italy. We have been developing games for more than 10 years drawing inspiration from classic old-school cRPGs.
The Brujah are known for their impetuous tempers and defiant natures, and the clan contains some of the most violent vampires. Visionaries and brutes both, the Brujah have fallen from their stature as the Learned Clan to a motley lineage of radicals, troublemakers, and firebrands — all as much at odds with each other as with the systems they claim to oppose.
Playing a Brujah in Bloodlines 2
If you’re a player who leaves the shadows to the cowards, knows the frontline is where the fun is, and rebels against the establishment, Brujah is your clan.
In Bloodlines 2, Clan Brujah will offer a brutal brawling playstyle with its abilities (in Vampire: The Masquerade, known as Disciplines), getting you into the fray and rewarding you for staying there. The Brujah control the dance of combat by making enemies drop their defenses, knock them around on the battlefield and increase their damage by feeding for powerful finishing strikes.
In social environments, the Brujah are often expected to have a short temper. In Bloodlines 2, certain characters you meet may treat you differently depending on your clan, and while clans have access to angry, violent or threatening dialogue options, throughout Bloodlines 2 you will find unique dialogue sequences for the Brujah. And if you play against the archetypes, characters in-the-know will react.
As a predator of the night, hunting for blood is always a challenge, but the Brujah can often rely on their ability to influence pedestrians’ rage to make them chase you into an empty alley and have a midnight snack.
Abilities
When you choose your clan, you will start out with a passive ability unique to each clan. You are then able to unlock abilities from the Ability Tree, starting with your chosen clan. Each ability requires spending Ability Points to unlock, which are earned from completing missions, combat and exploration. At the peak of the Ability Tree, you can unlock the clan Perk, a reward to those dedicated enough to unlock all of the abilities for a clan, giving a permanent passive upgrade.
Brutality - Clan Passive - After feeding, become flushed with vampiric strength, temporarily increasing the power of all your melee attacks.
Taunt - Use your supernatural Presence to enrage an opponent or civilian prey, compelling them to attack you. While enraged, the target takes increased damage.
Charge - Surge forward with preternatural speed and rage, grabbing an enemy you collide with to use as a battering ram to knock down others in your path.
Lightning Strikes - Target multiple opponents and unleash an unstoppable hail of punches, with the final strike dealing increased damage.
Earthshock - Slam the ground with explosive force, flinging surrounding enemies into the air.
Pulverise - Clan Perk - Killing enemies without feeding still activates your Clan Passive.
Customizing your playstyle
In Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2, you can play your character in different ways. Brujah are a more brawler type, and the abilities are focused around supporting that. We wanted to make sure that this is not an ability optimization game where you need to go through a multitude of abilities and weigh them against each other. Playing a clan should be straight forward if you want it to be.
While this is true, you can also dive deeper into the customization of your playstyle. This is done by visiting important Seattle vampires that are sworn to assist the Sheriff (you) including offering their Blood to help unlock abilities from their clan. Abilities from other clans may cost more AP depending on how well they align with your clans Disciplines. The Brujah Disciplines are Celerity (speed enhancing abilities) Potence (strength enhancing abilities) and Presence (the supernatural ability to attract, awe, or terrify)) so if another clan has a speed enhancing ability it would cost less AP to unlock than an ability for a Discipline Brujah don’t have, such as becoming stealthier which is part of the Obfuscate Discipline. Unlocking additional Clan Perks will make them stack, so you can collect them all if you wish, elevating your power much closer to elder level.
While the activated abilities and Clan Perk can be learned from the other clans, your clan passive can not. This means that you can combine features from other clans in hundreds of different ways, but your Brujah playthrough will remain unique from playing as another clan who branches into Brujah abilities.
RPGs rely on a variety of factors, some of which include combat, storytelling, exploration and simulationism, in combination or otherwise. Many of these aspects are based on design elements such as dice rolls and worldbuilding, and this is exactly what esteemed community member lukaszek decided to analyse in his latest editorial.
Or well, at least to some degree that's what he's discussing there. As the introduction puts it:
Rolling 19 feels bad – so close to critical success! This is probably the reason behind the introduction of weapons with critical ranges. Pick the right one and you’ll be graced with big numbers more often.
On the other side of the spectrum is number 2. I guess players are more relieved that they didn’t roll 1 – it’s so close after all. And while that’s true for several RNG implementations, it’s not how physical dice work: 7, 19 and 13 are where the close calls are at.
Still, it never received the treatment that 19 did, and I felt that it was time to appreciate it a bit more.
Obviously, I’m talking about functional toilets in RPGs, and through these pages we’ll be plunging into the depths of restroom interactions and hygiene.
Go ahead and dive right in to find out why RPGs aren't actually going down the toilet as much as you'd expect them to be. Satisfaction guaranteed. Just remember to flush and wash your hands once you're done.
It is with great sadness that we address you today regarding difficult decisions that we had to make concerning Unforetold: Witchstone. The past few weeks have been challenging, as the combined impact of financial prospects that did not materialize have put us in a difficult position.
Hence after careful consideration, we have come to the regrettable conclusion that we must stop further production on Unforetold:Witchstone indefinitely as of March 8th 2024, after the release of Hotfix #7.
It further saddens us that due to these financial circumstances, we have had to make the tough decision to lay off the majority of our team. These developers created worlds unseen from nothing but with sheer will and collective imagination – a testament to the heart and soul poured into this studio. We want to express our heartfelt thanks to them for their passion and hard work.
We also want to assure you that we are doing everything in our power to support everyone affected. We have hired companies to help with personalized career coaching, emotional support, networking, and job placement assistance.
We call on the games industry in Montreal and around: if you have space, give our incredibly talented people a chance and you will be amazed.
As we move forward, we ask for your understanding and patience as we navigate through this transition period and find ways to rebuild again. We will do our best to keep you updated on any developments. As such, our social media accounts on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube accounts will remain as is. However, the Discord server will be shutting down as of March 8th 2024.
And finally, to our phenomenal team, our passionate players, and every single person who found a home in the universes we created in the last 12 years — a heartfelt thank you. So long, until we meet again.
Beat the drama drums, it's time for the RPG Codex best RPGs of 2023!
This is our second year going back to a Codex-only vote, on a 1-5 scale. In total, we had 430 votes (as opposed to 364 last year), voting on 162 RPGs (157 last year).
For those of you who just want the TL;DR, here are the winners:
RPG CODEX'S 2023 GOTYs:
#1 - Jagged Alliance 3
#2 - Baldur's Gate 3
#3 - Colony Ship: A Post-Earth Role Playing Game
For those who are new to the Vampire the Masquerade universe, the Brujah are a Vampire Clan. They are all descendants of the same bloodline that gives them similar strengths and weaknesses. They have access to supernatural Strength, Speed and Charisma. Their curse is that they are easily riled to anger and often use this reputation to their advantage with intimidation and threats. All these traits make them deadly opponents on and off the battlefield.
When we looked to adapt these rebels and philosophers into a video game, we were inspired by real world culture and vampiric fantasies to help you get immersed in their playstyle. Here are some perspectives on building different Brujah from across the studio and an introduction from Karim from World of Darkness on how Brujah was developed for Vampire: The Masquerade fifth edition.
Designing modern Brujah for Tabletop
“With the fifth edition of Vampire: The Masquerade, we wanted each clan to primarily embody a vampire archetype out of fiction and popular culture, rather than looking to their powers and fictional history alone for identity. Fortunately, for the Brujah this was easy.
The Brujah clan represent one of the oldest and most recognizable vampire archetypes: that of the eternal rebel. Brujah vampires identify fiercely with a personal cause, and cannot resist picking fights for the sake of this conviction. Explosive strength — of body as well as personality — thus becomes a defining asset of the clan. In previous editions of Vampire: The Masquerade the Brujah were often overshadowed by other clans in martial acumen, at least in practice, so we now made sure that their unique combination of Celerity and Potence would allow them to dominate most physical altercations.
However, in a game of personal horror, each archetype should be defined by their flaws just as much (if not more) than their powers. The tragedy of the Brujah is that beneath their surface idealism lies a deeper need — an addiction — for conflict. Mortals Embraced into the clan come from all walks of life and champion any number of causes, savory and less savory, united only in their belligerence. While many Brujah would claim to fight for the downtrodden, the perception of “downtrodden” is as varied as there are Brujah. And if a Brujah vampire would ever see their cause triumphant, they often find themselves championing the other side, the cold fire in their dead hearts goading them back into the fray — forever caught in a self-perpetuating cycle of destruction.”
– Karim Muammar, Designer of Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition and Brand Editor for the World of Darkness
Combat Discipline Design
“Designing the Brujah's in-game powers, we first had to consider the kind of player that best fits the Brujah archetype. Bloodlines 2 pits the player against overwhelming odds, and while Phyre is exceptionally powerful, these situations are often best approached quietly and carefully to begin with. Most clans have tools at their disposal to sustain and exploit stealth, picking apart large groups of opponents and remaining unseen until the time is just right... But for some players, the time is right now and the tool is blunt force.These players rebel against the planning and tension of stalking, instead preferring to trust their skills and instincts in the chaotic flow and dance of combat. With that in mind, the Brujah clan gives them the tools they need to get in people's faces and come out on top!
All the Brujah powers are offensive in some capacity. There's no easy way out, no help in staying alive, it's kill or be killed, so you'll need to be aggressive to survive. While that may sound simple, it won't be enough on its own. Each ability is designed to have utility beyond simple damage, so as you get to grips with combat, you'll find yourself using these more as tools to keep the flow of conflict under your control, which is where Brujah's real strength lies.
Your abilities allow you to crash through groups of opponents and drag enemies into a more isolated spot for a fairer fight or a safer feed. You’ve already seen a video of how to quickly deal overwhelming damage to a single target, but an even better tactical use is for bringing multiple opponents to the brink of death for a lethal follow up.
Brujah will also make use of Presence to taunt and enrage opponents, this makes them predictably aggressive, and is great for motivating a heavily armed mortal to try and club you to death with their firearm instead of shooting you! There's also a big explosive use of Potence , which can be used as both a crowd control and combo tool.
With all of the player's powers (and Brujah in particular), we've aimed to give them all a punchy, rhythmic feeling that makes them weave right in with your regular attacks and punctuates the chaos. My favourite's got to be the Presence-based power- Slagging opponents off to weaponise their emotions really puts you in the mindset of a belligerent Brujah troublemaker.”
– Max Bottomley, Senior Gameplay Designer
What’s Next?
Over the next few months, you’ll learn more about the playable clans through our upcoming Clan Highlights. Following a dev diary much like this one, where the team at TCR lets you in on their approach to create the clan in question, a Clan Highlight will showcase specific abilities and how the clan choice impacts roleplaying in the game.
Every fourth week, you’ll be able to follow TCR in a new dev diary regarding a specific clan. Following each diary, a Clan Highlight with material related to the clan presented in the previous dev diary will be released, with the Brujah Highlight coming in two weeks.
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NeocoreGames' tactical RPG King Arthur: Knight's Tale took a respectable third place in last year's RPG Codex GOTY awards. Some might argue that it should have ranked even higher. To be honest, this sort of mission-based tactical combat game, with a "dark Arthurian"-themed setting that has somehow become overused in recent years, isn't typically what our community is most interested in. Knight's Tale achieved its ranking through the sheer excellence of its combat design, a particularly impressive feat for a studio's first turn-based title. Some of you may have noticed that I've been itching for an official Codex review of the game for some time, and I'm happy that in the end it was Darth Roxor himself who contributed it. Here's an excerpt from his review:
With these basics out of the way, I would like to state one thing very clearly. Knight’s Tale is a paragon of system design. I don’t remember the last time I played something that had mechanics this well thought-through – you can tell that Neocore was focused first and foremost on making the combat work. Usually in such games you can easily identify features that could be removed with no harm to the mechanics, or others that are cheap bandaids put on glaring issues, but here everything just clicks together organically. Likewise, it’s great that Knight’s Tale avoids the pitfalls of most deterministic systems, where the fights feel like chess puzzles to arrange and essentially ‘pre-win’ on turn 1. There are enough variables involved in combat to make sure that the fights actually play out on a moment-to-moment basis where plans can go wrong, forcing you to adapt to the consequences of failure and unforeseen circumstances on the fly.
Most importantly, all of this is accomplished without universal death timers or constantly spawning reinforcements, which are something I’ve learnt to very strongly loathe in modern ‘tactics’ games, which need to retreat to (and abuse) cheap tricks like that to offer any semblance of difficulty or variety in encounter design. Meanwhile Knight’s Tale hardly ever gets old despite almost never using anything of the sort. In fact, I don’t think I can remember a single instance of needing to win a fight within X turns. There are also no ‘puzzles’ to be had anywhere, in or outside combat, which is almost as surprising as it is refreshing, because these also tend to be forced in modern tacticals. Simply everything in Knight’s Tale is just about battle.
At the same time, although the missions are all about wiping out the enemy, they’re still diverse enough thanks to other factors, that ‘kill them all’ as the universal objective is never really a problem. For starters, the levels and encounters are all hand-crafted, and typically with a lot of care. It would be too much to call them ‘open-ended’, but being able to choose in which order you’d like to pick your fights still gives you a good enough sense of agency – this is made all the more obvious in the few missions that are actually railroaded. Furthermore, the maps have single-use campsites and shrines strewn about, with the former giving you a pitstop for fixing armour or HP and the latter working a bit like in Diablo, in that they have various effects that can be both positive and negative, adding another important element when it comes to planning your course of action in a mission. Finally, the locales are varied enough to give each level a different flavour, even if some of the maps are recycled to a certain degree. You’ll be busting your way through enchanted groves, wastelands, ancient crypts, battlefields, downtrodden villages and many more.
[...] In the end, Knight’s Tale gives us a game that is first and foremost about combat. It’s obvious to me that the primary objective behind its development was to make sure that everything about the combat worked right, with no exceptions or handwaves, and that everything else was ten priority levels under that. Neocore knew precisely what they set out to accomplish and they did it with great success. This game simply knows what it’s about and it sticks to its guns exactly where it matters. Playing something with a focus and vision this clear and well-realised is always a true joy. As far as the genre of ‘Turn-Based RPG Encounters: The Game’ is concerned, Knight’s Tale is definitely one of its highlights. Its secondary or tertiary features may be lacking in some aspects, but that really doesn’t matter when the core gameplay is so well done. The atmosphere and style are also the icing on top that elevate it above many other entries in this genre, which tend to offer just the combat and nothing else really worth noting.
It took me a whopping 100 hours to finish, and frankly speaking, I was somewhat happy when it was over. Primarily because at some point I realised it was taking way too much of my free time, but also because by the end you’re mostly progressing on autopilot with your overpowered heroes, and the fatigue that eventually settles in just makes you look forward to the finish line. That’s why I strongly recommend playing on the hardest difficulty, and maybe even trying the roguelite mode if you’re feeling adventurous. But make no mistake – this is not a game that is best ‘dropped midway’. By quitting early, you’ll be depriving yourself of a significant part of the experience. Technically, there’s also post-endgame content that I think is supposed to be super-challenging, but I never even tried it. I couldn’t really be bothered.
Still, I had a great time with Knight’s Tale. Neocore has already announced a new standalone campaign for it too, which is Roman-themed and about the ‘lost’ IX Legion crawling out of Tartarus to end up in Avalon. It’s unbelievable, but for once I actually have something to look forward to among upcoming RPGs.
We're doing Twiglard's Codex-only poll again, so you can only vote when logged in.
Every year the list gets a bit longer, time to test that scroll wheel. Remember: more than just deciding the GOTY, the goal here is to help us parse all these new games and help find some hidden gems.
The poll will run for a week until next Thursday, I don't know the exact hour since Twiglard has to close it. And, to avoid alt spam, only pre-2024 accounts can vote.
Some people do really weird things when they're bored, when instead they could be contributing to their local community by digging ditches or sweeping the streets.
Unfortunately for society at large, folks like our local poster Agesilaus would rather write choose-your-own-adventure books about, ahem, philosophical discussions inspired by classical Hellenic and Chinese antiquity. This is your introduction to Elea.
"Classical antiquity played host to a great intellectual struggle. Philosophers, possessed by the desire to know, engaged in free inquiry and developed an astounding array of positions. They formed schools and engaged each other in philosophical debates. That same spirit grips our generation; we gather online to develop our beliefs and to clash like rams. Antiquity is born again, beautiful and new."
The text consists of short chapters that are connected by branching paths. At the end of each chapter you will decide how to proceed. Elea is written to be very accessible to all readers. Familiarity with ancient thinkers such as Parmenides and Zhuang Zhou will enrich the experience. The book is strongly rooted in a monist interpretation of the Eleatic fragments and philosophical Daoism. The characters you meet will explore the nature of Being, presenting an understanding of reality as an all-embracing and unshakeable unity.
You're probably puzzled why this is newsworthy, and I'm wondering about that myself, but to quote the very man who brought this upon us, "Elea mentions this site and its forums on a few occasions, and at one point goes into a discussion of game development and certain types of game mechanics that should be avoided." It is only natural that this prestigious magazine should be included for reference in assorted curricula and compendia, and word of it spread to the masses.
Elea can be bought on Amazon for 8 or 20 bucks depending if you want it on kindle or paper.
Why is it that after 3000 years, the story of Odysseus continues to enchant audiences across cultures and time? The Odyssey is a timeless masterpiece, that’s why. Despite all the advancements in storytelling in modern television, books and games, most still fall short of the charm found in this ancient tale.
We here at Absent Dragon propose a simple idea. We want to make an RPG about the Odyssey that stays accurate to the original text itself. What does this mean? It means never contradicting the text, letting the player do everything Odysseus did in the text, and never attempting to upstage the text. The game will be meticulously researched to ensure it’s as faithful as possible not only to The Odyssey, but to Greek mythology as a whole.
Aletheia: Return of Odysseus is a new RPG that puts you in control of the legendary hero as he embarks on his journey home to Ithaca. Together with your help, we can bring to life a faithful depiction of Homer’s Greece!
Features:
The timeless tale of the Odyssey, staying true to the original text.
Engaging Turn-Based Combat inspired by RPG classic Fallout 2.
Detailed character creation. Determine your upbringing, racial background, skills and attributes.
Reactive questing with multiple solutions, no hand-holding.
Explore Homer's Greece through beautifully crafted isometric graphics.
Manage your army as you encounter mythological creatures such as sirens, giants and nymphs.
What could truly set the ‘Aletheia' series apart could be a community that shares a passion for authentic mythology games. We hope that Return of Odysseus becomes an opportunity to explore and reflect on the rich world of Greek mythology in a new and engaging way. But why stop at just Greek mythology? We want to dive into the myths of other cultures, such as Egypt and Mesopotamia. By coming together, we can delve deeper into the rich stories and themes of these fascinating worlds, and help create authentic games about them. Join the Discord server if you're interested!
Swordhaven is a fantasy cRPG inspired by Infinity Engine titles—Baldur’s Gate 1, Icewind Dale, etc.—as well as other classics.
You take up the mantle of a lonely adventurer on their way to the barely explored land of Nova Drakonia.
During your voyage, you are met by a dying man who trusts you with a peculiar artefact that will involve you in an adventure of a lifetime, and a plot that threatens everything you’ve ever known and loved.
Some of Swordhaven’s core features include:
A flexible combat engine. Experience battle as a tactician in turn-based combat, or hasten the pace with the real-time with pause (RTwP) mode;
A classless roleplaying system: each stat combination provides a unique gaming experience, distinctive dialogues, and novel ways to solve quests;
A classics-inspired yet modern User Interface with large customization possibilities;
A vast, nonlinear world filled with unique NPCs and multi-solution quests that reward exploration, always offering alternative approaches to satisfy any character build;
Dozens of hours of exploration, from quiet village hamlets to hidden temples of the ancients, horrid crypts, bizarre dungeons, and otherworldly locales…
This is my 3rd dev diary, and I have used the last two to talk about the 1st and 2nd pillars of the game: Feel Like a Vampire, which covered the player fantasy; Visceral Immersive combat, which covers the action gameplay. Today I want to tell you about our 3rd and final game pillar: "Explore The World of Darkness," which covers the setting, society, characters, story, and RPG elements of the game. We'll be talking in-depth about RPG elements at a later date, so today I am going to focus mainly on the setting, society, and characters.
The World of Darkness is the larger umbrella for the Vampire The Masquerade IP and the related games. It handles the supernatural in a mature and grounded way, basing it on the premise that vampires, werewolves, and ghosts are actually real, but are hidden from our contemporary human society. Video games offer a unique perspective on this world that other mediums don't, being able to walk around it and explore it. Our goal with this pillar was to create a version of Seattle that is authentic to The World of Darkness IP and makes you believe that this hidden side of Seattle, where vampires are in control, could be real and that in contrast the human world feels more alien to you and potentially unreal. To that end, we didn't set about making an exact replica of Seattle, as our priority wasn't to represent the human world, but the vampire one. The Seattle you experience in Bloodlines 2 is a kind of "best-of" Seattle where we've taken key landmarks and brought them in closer together. For example, Pioneer Square is a key location, and it speaks to us of the old city and its founders (some of which were vampires that you will meet), but we also have volunteer park, which in reality is on the outskirts of the city but we loved the idea of doing a creepy mission there that reveals something sinister beneath this iconic conservatory.
We want you to feel like you are seeing Seattle through the eyes of a vampire, so we have also made buildings taller, lights brighter, and alleyways darker to give an overall heightened feeling to what you are seeing as if you are looking through the eyes of an apex predator. For a better explanation of this, I suggest you read Ben Matthews dev diary on our neo-noir art style.
In Bloodlines 1 you were a new vampire in a city with a large Anarch presence where the Camarilla don’t have complete dominance. For Bloodlines 2 we have flipped this on its head. You play Phyre, an Elder vampire (~400 years old) in a city where Camarilla has been dominant for decades, and any hint of Anarch sympathy is squashed. Phyre's number 1 loyalty is to herself, but she is wise enough to respect the power of the Camarilla and, more importantly, the Masquerade. Within the story Phyre earns a seat at the top-table of the Camarilla as the court's Sheriff, giving her the court's protection but also a powerful authority within Seattle's vampire society. This is an RPG, of course, so you can roleplay Sheriff in multiple ways, maybe you are a loyal Sheriff of the Camarilla, or an Anarch sympathiser working from within to undermine the court, or maybe you're a self-centred Elder vampire playing the different factions off each other to your advantage.
Phyre's motivation in the story is driven (at least initially) by regaining her power - she has awoken after 100 years in torpor (vampire hibernation) 6000 miles from home with markings all over her body which are limiting her powers. This sets up the narrative context of the ability tree (which we will show in due course) which instead of being about adding new powers to Phyre, like levelling up in the pen-and-paper RPG, you are unlocking her existing powers. Over her 300 years roaming the old world, Phyre had gained many powers, not only those from the disciplines of her clan.
An important part of the Masquerade is that vampires are hidden in plain sight in our society. There are several vampire hangouts in the city which, to a passerby appear innocent, but to those in the know, are important places in vampire society. For example, the little old lady who runs the all-night coffee shop may not be as sweet and defenceless as she seems at first glance. A key location the player often returns to, is Weaver Tower, a Seattle corporate HQ that is actually the front for the Camarilla, inspired by the downtown skyscrapers in Seattle and giving the city's Prince a skyline view over their domain.
Lastly, there can be no World of Darkness without light - the world of humans. The city is populated with "civilians," unaware that you are a vampire walking among them. Whilst this may seem great to a vampire - free-ranged food on every street - it also comes with risk, as using your vampiric powers or feeding in front of witnesses can trigger a Masquerade breach, and while you are Sheriff, even you are not above the law and could have the court's Scourge sent to deal with you if you are reckless on the streets of the emerald city. So make sure to hunt like a vampire: stalking from rooftops, hunting in alleyways, isolating your prey and if you are observed, deal with witnesses swiftly.
I hope you enjoyed hearing more about the setting and world of Bloodlines 2. We look forward to sharing more information with you in future dev diaries.
Good night!
Alex Skidmore, Project Creative Director
Auburn, New Hampshire – February 5th, 2024 - Coin Operated Games is excited to announce that its upcoming Neo-Victorian RPG Empyre: Earls of the Deep Earth, will be coming to PC via Steam on March 12, 2024. Developed by a team of industry veterans from such influential companies as Crytek, Creative Assembly, Codemasters and Digital Reality, Empyre: Earls of the Deep Earth is a top-down isometric RPG that takes place in an alternate version of China circa 1899.
About The Game
EMPYRE: Earls of the Deep Earth is the final isometric RPG adventure of the Empyre series, set in a Neo-Victorian era version of China. Struck with complete memory loss and wandering through a shadowy unfamiliar place, you find yourself on the hunt for the enigmatic Elias, a villainous rogue who is seemingly responsible for your amnesia. Players are invited to explore the secrets of an exotic land, bathed in an ominous and seemingly perpetual darkness. Will you be able to discover a way to restore light to an endangered empire?
Creating A New World
In order to design the new world that you explore in Earls of the Deep Earth, Coin Operated Games engaged the services of Stefano Tsai (Thor: Love & Thunder, His Dark Materials) to consult on specific details that we could use to properly portray Chinese culture and affairs. This partnership was invaluable in ensuring that the China depicted in the game was authentically and believably adapted for the Neo-Victorian setting of the Empyre series!
“It was great fun working with Coin Operated Games to make their version of China come to life,” said Stefano Tsai. “They were very interested in making sure that certain aspects were just right.”
“There are so many elements to Chinese culture that are so hard to capture and implement correctly,” said John Randall, Creative Director of EMPYRE. “I don’t know how we could have done it without Stefano’s assistance.”
Today in our Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2 stream we shared exciting news about the game and our first extended gameplay trailer. On the stream, The Chinese Room (TCR) Community Manager Josh Matthews was joined by Alex Skidmore, Project Creative Director at TCR, who shared insights on the game, the narrative background and how the game plays. If you missed the stream, you can check it out below.
The extended gameplay stream (below) contains several spoilers, and if you wish to avoid them, there are sections marked in the video timeline, or you can watch the trailer version of the gameplay video, which does not contain any major spoilers.
If you want a spoiler free experience, watch the Gameplay Trailer instead.
What's Next
Following this extended gameplay video, we will go into more details on each of the four base clans in Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2, showing abilities and how to customize your playstyle.
Hibernaculum is a retro inspired dungeon crawler that sets out to recreate the engrossing labyrinthine experiences of the classics of days gone by, whilst also building a modern, deeply unique & explorable world of survival, mystery and macabre intrigue.
Hibernaculum is a first person sci-fi/horror role playing game with survival horror roots.
Create a unique character to explore the depths of Hibernaculum & have the experience you want to have. Choices only matter, if they matter to you.
Non-linear gameplay allows for exploration at your own pace, and in your own fashion. Forge ahead and risk calamity or riches. Conversely, pace yourself and avoid harm.
Navigate a decayed industrial realm through environmental storytelling and a unique, brooding atmosphere.
Hibernaculum will be developed in C++ for PC (Windows) & Mac with hopes for porting to iOS & Nintendo Switch.
Hibernaculum will initially be available in English, French, German & Spanish.
Hibernaculum will be released DRM-free & available on Steam & GoG.
Hibernaculum has a sharp focus on exploration and atmosphere with a penchant for allowing the player to discover, uncover, salvage and piece together the mysteries of the Ship whilst emphasising mechanics that allow for emergent gameplay amidst the matrices of survival, combat and character progression.
With a raft of modern conveniences such as an on-screen minimap + waypoints, more aesthetic and navigable maps + hub areas, a more concise and efficient stat/combat system as well as many other UI and quality of life features we hope to make Hibernaculum the most playable, expansive, intriguing and absorbing game of it's type since the heyday of these games; the long forgotten primeval epoch of 1995.