Interview Hard to be a God interview at CRPG.ru

[Vault Dweller]

Tags: Burut Creative Team; Hard to be a God

<a href=http://www.crpg.ru>CRPG.ru</a>, a Russian site, obviously, has posted an <a href=http://www.crpg.ru/sections.php?op=viewarticle&artid=1996>interview</a> with <a href=http://www.akella.com/en/games/htbg/>Hard to be a God</a> (click on that link - sounds pretty cool, except for the real time thing) developers.
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Here is the best stuff from the interview (rough translation):
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<blockquote>Easy to use skill-based system
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Well developed dialogue system, you have a few options to every comment made by an NPC. NPCs react differently to the role your character may assume, i.e. a thief or a nobleman.
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Dialogues are voiced.
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There are 5 types of melee and firearm weapons. More than 100 units overall. There are critical hits. Combat is real time and very realistic. There are animations for dodging and blocking, so apparently it looks awesome.
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During a fight, you can estimate your opponent's abilities, defences, armor. For example, you may notice that your opponent doesn't block strikes at his head very well. Then you notice that he has a poor body armor, so you decide to focus on that instead. A couple of special attacks aimed at destroying the armor, and it's gone. Then you use special attacks dealing extra damage vs unarmormed opponents. Etc (I'm not a fan of RT combat, but that system sounds more interesting then the one in Oblivion: special attacks, location damage, etc - VD)
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Mounted combat!!! Horses apparently play a large role, besides, a medieval world should have horsies, and nobles are fond of them. Mounted combat is very effective and looks great. Horses are great for travelling and carrying stuff that doesn't fit in your pockets.
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There are 15 types of horses: heavy ones can carry more junk, combat horses are better for combat. You can't steal a horse, nobody would steal yours.
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Mounted combat: There are two tactics. One is "drive by" attacks, another is stopping the horse and exchanging blows. A horse can also participate in combat and kick people.
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The game should be released in Q4 2006.</blockquote>Discuss.
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Thanks for the translation, <b>Dmitri</b>
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[Balor]

A few additions:
- Each quest can be solved in a few ways - from 'brute force' to diplomatic. The game has two endings.
- The skill system is not exactly 'easy to use', but 'transparent and easy to understand'. I guess it's synonimous, though.
- No pause during combat, but since you cannot access inventory during it (stands to reason), and you play alone - it's not THAT bad.

 

[Vault Dweller]

How about a decent translation, Balor? Since you, obviously, have nothing better to do?

 

[Balor]

Not exactly.
And other parts is general PR stuff, mostly.
I'll see what I can do, though.

 

[Deacdo]

Like many Russian/Eastern European titles, they have a really interesting ideas (though the combat system seems far better suited to TBed rather than RT and I'm leary of RPGs that have purely voiced dialogue).

I'll be shocked if it is any good, though. This game is from the makers of Metalheart. I seem to recall that game had a lot of promise, too

 

[flabbyjack]

'sounds pretty cool...'

Yeah it SOUNDS cool. Did you look at the screenshots? Just some 3d models. It looks like they've got a LOONNNGGGG way to go, and they're already talking about how uber-kewl and dynamic they're early-alpha game is.

 

[dunduks]

This game is from the makers of Metalheart. I seem to recall that game had a lot of promise, too

If you mean Akella - they are publishers, the game is made by Burut CT, Metalheart was made by Numlock Software.
The basis for this game is a very interesting book written by Strugatski brothers (for those interested you can find description here).

 

[Uz0rnaem]

Burut? The Golden Land guys? Whatever happened to that game anyway?

 

[dunduks]

Burut? The Golden Land guys? Whatever happened to that game anyway?

Its a "so so" game at the best, from what I have heard. I don't think it will ever get released in english, though.

 

[Section8]

I thought it had been. No wait, that was Spells of Gold. Carry on.

 

[GrudgeHolder]

Ah, well, the book was published in English also - check here, for instance. Good stuff.

 

[Naked_Lunch]

Wonder if the translation's any good...

 

[RadioGnome Invisible]

Burut you say? Both Goldenlands were crap. The first one was godawful in almost everything, the second one is a little bit better, but still mediocre game at best, so i'm not expecting much from their new projects.

 

[Balor]

Well, if you extrapolate trends, you'll see that their next RPG would be above mediocre, and we are too few on RPGs to dismiss even that, unfortunately.