New Gods and Heroes:RR video interview/preview

[lonedawg]

http://pc.ign.com/articles/700/700340p1.html

Video -
http://media.pc.ign.com/media/734/734973/vids_1.html

Set in a myth-heavy Roman environment, Gods & Heroes will put players into the sandals of an up and coming hero in the ancient world. The game is still very early at this point, so Sony Online and Perpetual were not hot on letting us dirty the product with our hands, but we did get to watch the guys play for a bit and capture some footage. Design Director Steig Hedlund was also nice enough to grant us an opportunity to film him (very sorry for the hot sweaty lights) so the video team cut together the interview with some of the nifty bits of video from the game. Click that link right under this paragraph that appropriately says "video interview" and you'll be magically transported to the media section where you can view the interview in one of several different formats. Keep in mind this is still a very early product so what you see reflects that. Even so, it's already visually pleasing.


The surprising things these days is what little is actually surprising in most new MMOs. I suppose that's the case with a lot of different types and genres of games at this point. Innovation is hard to come by. Companies are less willing to splurge and try new things. But while much of Gods & Heroes isn't completely surprising there's plenty of little innovations and evolutions to go around that could turn this into an MMO to watch with features that players can appreciate for different reasons than the normal massively multiplayer game.

The most apparent of these evolutions is in the combat. While combat still relies on numbers and abilities more than twitch skill, it does try to involve players a bit more by creating a more reactive system of animations and moves while using combos to make sure that players are still awake.

You can see in the video clips that fighters have different moves that actually connect with enemies for a correct reaction. A foot sweep will knock a character down or a smack in the face will knock them back. We've seen combat like this before in The Matrix Online, but it seems to make more sense here. These combat styles also allows for combo moves that not only do more damage but can end up finishing a player off.

Combo points are built up using different moves while fighting (a bit like Rage or Rogue combo points in World of Warcraft). From there, these points can be used to pull off some special moves, often more in a row to string together a brutal finishing move when an opponent is close to death. The animations are definitely fun and present some good personality to characters. While in an interlocking system like this it's probably pretty hard to get them to look perfectly natural, they've done a very good job.

These kinds of animations have been included for all of the characters and monsters as well. A fight between a couple of soldiers is going to look very different than combat between a chimera and a soldier. That's pretty cool considering all of the different types of mythical creatures inhabiting the game environments. Considering how good these creatures are looking (check out the gorgon and hippocampus models in the screens on this page), there should be some very entertaining battles. You'll see larger creatures pick up and toss, bite and shake, and plenty of other interactive attacks to characters rather than the obligatory paw swipe, flinch, and grunt.

One of the other reasons that combat could be so interesting in Gods & Heroes is due to the squad system they're implementing to allow for larger battles and also the chance to have more fun and successful solo play experiences. Squads can be set up and used creatively for strategic purposes to take down larger enemy groups. Formations can be set to take advantage of different attacks and defenses such as the arrow volley from archers and shield wall by the infantry. Mages in groups can also stand behind infantry to use healing and throw damage spells at the enemy. How powerful these squad members are depends on where you find them but will pretty much always be less powerful than the player character to keep that feeling of power intact. Nobody wants to play second fiddle to a mere employee.

During the course of adventuring and questing, players will also run across areas that provide some more visually interesting action like large battle scenes. One presented to us showed the Romans fighting against some of their enemies which included giants and some catapults behind the walls of a nearby city flinging burning stones. The field was covered in action. These events aren't scripted, they're just some enemy factions set onto a battlefield doing their thing against NPCs they've been told to hate.

Gods & Heroes is a pretty good looking game even at this early stage. There's definitely some work to be done. It was understandable that they didn't want us to get our hands on it, but considering how early it still is, there's a lot of promise here for MMO players looking for a new setting for more adventure. The combat and squad systems are really intriguing and monster art is very good as you can see in the screens. We'll certainly be keeping a closer eye on this and let you know about the progress Perpetual has made when we see the game again at E3.

Combat looks sweet (though I wish it was still more twitch/hands-on) , love the way they actually have interaction with grapples/combo's and affects based on weapons/moves/characters (IE different enemies won't use the same old attacks as all the others).