RPGWatch - Shadows: Heretic Kingdoms Preview

Couchpotato

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Aubrielle discusses Shadows: Heretic Kingdoms, the refreshingly mature ARPG arriving next week. So lets say thank you to Aubrielle, and here is a small sample.

It's easy to be cautious on Steam. In the inevitable "Should I Buy This" thread for Shadows: Heretic Kingdoms, I said the following:

"Remember Illusion of Gaia for SNES? Remember the mechanic that allowed you to capture and switch between heroes to accomplish different tasks? Remember its speed of gameplay and combat?

Shadows: Heretic Kingdoms is an excellent spiritual descendant of that tradition.

It lacks the frenetic speed of Torchlight and the graceful combat of Grim Dawn, but it more than makes up with superior graphics, sound, and interface. The voice acting talent is incredible.

This is not a cash grab. This is a heavily inspired, from-the-heart ARPG. It's different than the games it gets compared to, but in many ways, it's far richer."

-Aubrielle"

You may have already seen that quote appear on RPGCodex (as well as a few other places), but it's what I believe. I just wish I'd said more.
More information.
 
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*bows to Couch, then to Yme*

Yme, if you play it, I hope you enjoy it!
 
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Combat is the only gripe I personally have with the game. If it were a little faster, more streamlined, with slightly more impressive visuals for spells and abilities, I feel like combat would make a far deeper impact.
Slower, less streamlined combat? Sounds like an ARPG I might actually like!
 
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Thank you. I played a little of it and at first it seemed bad but once abilities started to open up suddenly it felt good. You could call it a sort of blind date surprise genre.
 
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its a bit clunky, but thats how all the good ones usually are.
 
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This game is on my wishlist too. I'm actually looking forward to it more than any other game at the moment.

Your comments about the combat do worry me a little bit, but not enough to put me off the game. Besides, the game is going to be moddable and just about everything can be fixed with mods :)

Big thanks for writing this article Aubrielle.
 
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This is not a cash grab. This is a heavily inspired, from-the-heart ARPG. It's different than the games it gets compared to, but in many ways, it's far richer."

Also because this game is made by professionals, who know their trade and work in the game industry.
 
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So, how railroaded is the game? They say BG and Fallout are their influence, but both games let you do what you like in a open world and had 1000 interesting quests.

Does it have a standard arpg progression from one area to the next with little to no freedom but just with better story and good voice acting?

If the game is like BG and Fallout but you control one character and combat is more action it sounds like a good game, but if not I would rather continue playing Grim Dawn that also has quests with choices and consequence but great combat at the same time.
 
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I have been interested in this game for a while, but hopefully the respawning rate isn't too bad, that would drive me crazy.
 
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If it's like the first game the respawning is necessary to unlock all the attunements. If you have a focused build you won't need to backtrack, but you might do it anyway to unlock lesser used skills. I haven't read Aurielle's preview yet though, so I don't know how much the two games are alike.

Okay, read her preview but it didn't explain the combat system at all, other than to say it was slower than game a and game b. She also didn't compare it to the original game at all, so she may not have played it. Since I don't play for story and consequences the preview didn't let me know whether I'd like the game or not.

Is the game linear? Are there hidden doors, secret crawlways, thief skills, sneak attacks, backstabs, etc? How does town adventuring differ from dungeon delving? How does the economy work? How do you gain skills? Are there attributes? How do you level? Is it by using skills or by xp or something else? In Inquisition, you unlocked attunements by using items; use an item that was attuned to water and you may unlock an ice attack, for instance.

Maybe Aubrielle can do a followup post to let us know about the game systems and how they work. She covered crafting a little, so I have an idea there. I loved the original game so I plan on getting this to support the devs, but I'd love more details if Aubrielle has the time.
 
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Your comments about the combat do worry me a little bit, but not enough to put me off the game. Besides, the game is going to be moddable and just about everything can be fixed with mods :)

I do hope so. :) As I'd said in another thread, the dev team is definitely interested in the idea of faster, smoother combat, but their only limitation seems to be the engine they're using. They claim they'd need to put more mobs in to balance the challenge with the faster combat, and for that they'd need to improve their engine, and they're kind of at their budget limit right now. They're hoping the game will sell well, and if it does, they say that these improvements may be implemented. :)

As it is, I think if you're really interested in it already, I think you'll have a lot of fun with it. It's a rich game. :)

Okay, read her preview but it didn't explain the combat system at all, other than to say it was slower than game a and game b. She also didn't compare it to the original game at all, so she may not have played it. Since I don't play for story and consequences the preview didn't let me know whether I'd like the game or not.

Is the game linear? Are there hidden doors, secret crawlways, thief skills, sneak attacks, backstabs, etc? How does town adventuring differ from dungeon delving? How does the economy work? How do you gain skills? Are there attributes? How do you level? Is it by using skills or by xp or something else? In Inquisition, you unlocked attunements by using items; use an item that was attuned to water and you may unlock an ice attack, for instance.

Maybe Aubrielle can do a followup post to let us know about the game systems and how they work. She covered crafting a little, so I have an idea there. I loved the original game so I plan on getting this to support the devs, but I'd love more details if Aubrielle has the time.

I may have a hard time selling the idea of a follow up article to the other editors, especially when there's so much material coming down for publication, but just for you, Nut, since you've been nice to me, I'll see if I can accommodate you here. :)

Whew, okay.

There's no rogue systems in the game as far as I'm aware. This may be something GF is interested in in the future, but so far in the game, the closest characters I've run into that might resemble a rogue are the ranger you can pick in the beginning, and an Ishkari (goblin) archer. There's no backstab systems, and I haven't tried the ranger, but so far as I'm aware, there's no real stealth mechanic either. (I can't vouch 100% on the lack of stealth)

I'd seen a question about linearity above. In terms of linearity, with 1 being completely open like Skyrim or Oblivion, and 10 being…oh….Mega Man…the game is about a 4. You can backtrack, and the cenotaph system allows you to teleport to anyplace else in the game where there's another cenotaph. The levels are Diablo-like in terms of design, but I don't think they're procedurally generated, and they're the same when you return. You can clear out an area, but once you return, everything may have respawned. The respawns are a b*tch, too. The game does get progressively more difficult. There are also quests in the town of Thole that you can return to and do whenever you want (and probably in other towns as well, though I'm just now getting out of the Outlands), and the game doesn't really pressure you to keep going all the time. You can play at your leisure.

I have played the first one, but only for an hour or two. I loved it, and I think I personally liked the combat a little more if I recall. I've played Shadows way more.

All your characters level at once, and it's pure combat xp. I haven't seen many instances where you gain extra xp for completing a quest in a certain way, like in Icewind Dale or Baldur's Gate. And I haven't seen any instances of attunement. Every time you level, you get a point to spend on a fairly small tree. Certain abilities have level prerequisites, but once you're…say, level 3…you can use abilities C and D. Each ability has five rank slots you can put points into to make it better/faster/more powerful, and each character has very different abilities. The Ishkari archer has abilities to make him run faster, where Evia can put more damage-over-time on her fire attacks and gain spells to root enemies.

There is no dynamic economy. It's basically loot-and-sell.

In town, you can pick up quests to do different things, and said quests give you extra xp and rewards. Quests may be as simple as picking up the protection money for a certain seedy merchant, or for killing spiders in the catacombs. The demon will find just as many enemies in the shadow version of the town as out in the wilderness.

Does that help to answer any of your questions, Nut? :)
 
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If the levels are "Diablo-like in terms of design" than that would be an 8 on that linearity scale. Diablo like means that you get one relatively big area that once you clear you go to next such area that shares similar general design and that has similar but different enemies. Eventually you move your main story a bit and you go to next Act where all the areas have different theme (ice, forest, desert and so on).

So if I understand right, this is a classic aRPG that trades fast paced fun combat for couple more quests that are worse than quests in story based RPG like BG?

It seems I will need to watch some streams of people playing a full version before I can even begin to decide if this interests me. It seems I can rather play BGEE or Grim Dawn to get better of two worlds this game is trying to merge.
 
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Slower, less streamlined combat? Sounds like an ARPG I might actually like!

I had the same idea. :) Im glad they didnt make another average Diablo clone with overhyped fast combat. And I hope they didnt change it as Aubrielle suggests. I had some problems with that recently in VH2. Its good game in the Diablo-esque genre but when things heat up you really basically spam the abilities, powerups, tricks etc… while waiting for cooldowns. Its not tactical and IMHO its not much of an action either. Combat systems of DS, Mars Walr Logs or Witcher 2 works much better in the field of fluid action (or action feel).

Im more interested in the game now. Thanks for the article, Aubrielle. And of course, thanks for the others including neverending informative saga of Couchpotato's interviews. :p
 
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Im more interested in the game now. Thanks for the article, Aubrielle. And of course, thanks for the others including neverending informative saga of Couchpotato's interviews. :p

I'm happy to be of service. :) And if you like combat that's slower and more measured than a lot of Diablo clones, I agree that you'll like this one.

*winks* Someone's gotta be the grammar angel on Couch's shoulder. ;)
 
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*winks* Someone's gotta be the grammar angel on Couch's shoulder. ;)
Thank you as I'm terrible with English punctuations. :brood:

I also have a special interview on Friday with an announcement of a new game.
 
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