henke on 14/9/2014 at 15:04
I'm a bit surprised to see that none of my Steam friends owned this title, nor that there was much talk about it on the forum. ACE Team seems like it's been held it quite high regard around these parts, but maybe their last few games have turned people off. Indeed Zeno Clash 2 was quite dull, and didn't live up to it's predecessor, and that game where you played as a rock? Eh, interesting idea I guess but it didn't do much for me. Anyway, with their latest effort they've made a game that's as weird and wonderful and fun to play as Zeno Clash.
[video=youtube;XR8I-BhTta0]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XR8I-BhTta0[/video]
The story is one of a warlock sleeping at the bottom of an abyss. He dreams of monsters, and the monsters come alive and attack the people on the surface of the world. He also dreams of a woman who fights the monsters, and it is the role of this woman, Katrien, that the player assumes. As Katrien you must fight your way to the bottom of the abyss and confront the warlock. Each time you fail to do so you awake back at the surface, and the abyss has changed, and you must try again. So there's sort of a permadeath system, but you do retain your Level and money when you respawn. You loose all your equipment though. So there is a good deal of planning ahead required if you're ever to make it to the bottom. This all perhaps makes it sound more difficult than it is, it's not that hard of a game. It's no Dark Souls, though with a lot of DS-ish elements it feels a bit like Dark Souls Lite. After 6 hours I had beaten the game with one of the unlockable characters, the Ghost Monk, an hour later I had beaten it with Katrien. That last run down the abyss was a tad boring though. Once you get a hang of the game's systems and the enemies patterns it's not hard, and infact it all just starts feeling a bit formulaic and samey.
So yeah, at 6-7 hours it's not a long game, but it
is an interesting one, and it has a lot of personality.
Oh and also it looks gorgeous.
Inline Image:
http://cloud-4.steampowered.com/ugc/541878445385073827/3F615D1FC9C4524AFC017178A524A1475ED82949/1024x576.resizedimageInline Image:
http://cloud-4.steampowered.com/ugc/541878445363119272/40BF31A877397C95634A48DE3BDC47DC7A0CA448/1024x576.resizedimageInline Image:
http://cloud-4.steampowered.com/ugc/541878445392662959/91A06386B2FB716AD24705E880C709B28405018F/1024x576.resizedimageInline Image:
http://cloud-4.steampowered.com/ugc/541878445385079451/17B2A63786CB673CB1F8525EB942C7120692EAA8/1024x576.resizedimageShadowcat on 14/9/2014 at 15:28
Yeah, I thought this sounded pretty great in the previews I read. If ACE Team ever make their games DRM-free I'll be all over it.
I'm curious about the "play as your enemies" aspect. Do the available moves change when that happens? It all looked like hand-made animations, and I'm wondering if they've actually animated all the player moves (x3 for the three main player characters?) for every enemy in the game? Or are you always restricted to the enemy's normal move-set? (or are the two things the same in any case?)
henke on 14/9/2014 at 16:33
Yeah there are certain sections of the game where it transforms you into one of the enemy types. They do have their own moves and special attacks and whatnot. Certain vendors also sell you items that'll transform you into one of the enemy characters, but I never really looked into that too much.
Oh, and when you die you continue playing as one of the human soldiers. They're not as powerful as the main characters, but if you manage to get to an altar you can revive the main character. If you die as the soldier it's game over, and back up to the surface with you UNLESS you've purchased and placed a Camp Token at one of the previous altars. Kind of a lot going on in this game.
