Right On!!!

[KevinV12000]

I just heard about this game and read a portion of an interview with the lead designer and all I can say is that his interview was *the* most refreshing interview with a game designer I have read in years.

Story. Weapons that do different things as they are designed to do, like spears to keep the enemy at bay. Dialog. Mutliple solutions to quests. Turn based combat so that the player can think tactically.

And best of all, like me, the designer says he's an old Amiga gamer!

Woo-hoo! Sign me up! This game officialy went to the top of my list!

 

[Vault Dweller]

Thanks for the enthusiasm and support, Kevin. I hope we won't disappoint you.

 

[Jason]

Lies. All lies.

 

[KevinV12000]

Thanks for the reply, Vault Dweller. I doubt very much that I'm going to be disappointed!

I did, however, neglect to write about the number one thing that impressed me about the interview: when Mr. Weller (any relation to Paul, by the way?) was asked about what the graphics of the game. He answered:

The Age of Decadence is not the kind of game where technology matters. To some degree, it's a design choice. There is no shortage of fantastic looking games featuring physics, soil erosion, and photo-realism. There is, however, a shortage of games featuring fantastic gameplay... games like Darklands, X-COM, Fallout, etc. This is not to say that ours is such a game, but that's the direction and inspiration.

This is just such an excellent answer for any number of reasons, but take three off the top of my head. First, while graphics are nice I think it is beyond obvious that the obsession with visuals does for games what the same phenomena does for movies, i.e. not much. Second, it's a damn honest answer. It says: look, if you want fancy-pants cutting edge stuff, we're not your guy. Go elsewhere for that. What we have here is a CRPG with a story, like Fallout. Now, people forget that *even for its time* Fallout was very, very behind the times graphically. Heck, it came on one lone CD at a time when games were routinely coming with 3 or 4. But it's still a great game. Third, it mentions Darklands.

Any designer who lists as one of his inspiration Darklands is my kind of guy.

 

[Jora]

Hint: Vault Dweller is Vince D. Weller, which is not his real name :wink:

I knew the new alias would only cause absolute confusion and extreme chaos...

 

[KevinV12000]

Yeah, I was just picking that up and coming back to correct my post. Dang it, I'm not normally that slow!

heheheh

 

[Jason]

Don't tell anyone, but his real name is Tim Cain.

 

[Jasede]

Timothy Cain.

 

[LlamaGod]

Vault Dweller is O.J. Simpson, we have him on staff for Affimative Action reasons.

 

[onerobot]

Vault Dweller is a collective hallucination and the father of my illegitimate children.

 

[Lumpy]

And an alt of kingcomrade.

 

[Naked_Lunch]

Vault Dweller is probably Ariel Sharon