Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Rampant Coyote on Knights of the Chalice
I have now played through the demo of Knights of the Chalice. Articles and interviews are cropping up all over the place on this one.For good reason, in my opinion.
Graphically, it resembles some old 1990-era titles like Ultima VI and the Magic Candle III. The low-res graphics were no accident - the demo clocks in at under 7 megs in spite of a reasonable amount of content, simply because those small sprites don't take much room.
Most complaints registered about the game have concerned cosmetics and the interface. They aren't wrong. (Similar complaints have been levied against Frayed Knights, so I feel some kinship with the developer there...)
Complaints aside, I think it's a winner. I've not yet bought the full game - I'm on as much of a budget as anybody else here ;) - but it's on my "must buy" list. This one surprised me as much as Depths of Peril did a couple of years ago. Like Depths, I wasn't expecting too much of this one when I heard about it. And - well, color me impressed.
As far as the gameplay is concerned, the game uses a modified versions of the Open Gaming License for the 3.5 D20 rule system - which I am pretty dang familiar with. And it uses it in such a way that translates very well to tactical combat. The tactical combat is - in a word - awesome. Sure, I have my complaints. The enemy AI is sometimes a little too clever - such as when even a "stupid" monster knows to go after the mage first if possible. Maybe our little wizard shouldn't wear the robe decorated with a target in the future? But when I'm complaining about the AI being "too" clever (well, sometimes), you know I'm getting a little nitpicky.The combats are challenging. You won't be hacking and slashing your way through 'em - at least not in the demo. Not only do you have to be pretty tactical with your positioning and spell use, but you also need to husband your resources a bit so that you not only survive this combat, but the next one you don't know anything about. In classic D&D style, you only recover spell points while resting (at a campfire, in this game), and so the whole resource-management between multiple combats thing is strongly in effect here.
Oh, and you'll have to deal with stuff like 5-foot moves (a free position adjustment you can take every round), attacks of opportunity, and so forth. The AI has to deal with it too. A nasty spider-like Aranachak has a number of spell-like abilities, and is constantly backing up a square each round to fireball, web, acid spray, and to heal itself. They know the tricks. It's not hard to imagine a devilish Dungeon Master on the other side of the screen, plotting out the moves to best screw over the players with otherwise "fair" fights.
There are daylight and weather cycles, and a plethora of monsters. Character special abilities seem to be a little lacking (or I've just not figgered 'em out yet), but the spell list seems pretty extensive and reasonably true to the source material. The non-combat decisions seem few but consequential - there are times when you are offered the choice of fighting or avoiding combat, and avoiding a fight just might be the best answer, particularly if the monster in question seems a little out of your league. (I'm happy to report that bargaining with a monster rather than fighting it entitled me to a sizeable experience point award as well - probably comparable to what I'd have received if I duked it out).The full version of the game supposedly includes a campaign that can take your characters from 1st to 20th level - which is quite believable, considering the accelerated rate at which the characters receive experience points in the D20 system. I can easily envision multiple campaigns using this same underlying system (with an upgraded engine) being made in the future. Hey, I'm still happily playing 3.5 D&D in a 4.0 world in my pen-and-paper games, so I would probably keep buyin' 'em.
Cosmetically, yeah, there are some reasonable gripes, as I said before. The graphics resolution could be better, but that doesn't bug me too much. The interface seems kinda inconsistent and takes some getting used to. Besides being inconsistent and confusing, it doesn't ask for confirmation before letting you commit to actions. And, as people have been complaining about, the all-caps font is the worst of the Commodore 64 era experimental faux-script nonsense that looks lifted directly out of the original Temple of Apshai (but with drop-shadow pixels). There is another font used for the very impressive help menus, fortunately, making it a little easier to understand the massively detailed instructions and detailed information about the extensive implementation of the Open Gaming License rules.
While the game does have the retro look and resolution, it also has some nice, more modern effects, such as particle effects and transparencies (and better than a 255-color palette) to offer some counterpoint to the 20-year-old appearance. And there's the little fact that the short demo version (less than a 7 meg download) is beefier than most floppy-based distributions of two decades ago.
Once I get the time, I'll be picking up the full version of this one and I'll inevitably post some more thoughts. But from what I've seen thus far, I'm impressed. While far from perfect, it seems like another one to set on the stage and show to people as an example of what indies can do.
Labels: Indie Evangelism, Roleplaying Games
- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 5:51 AM (Permalink)
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Minor bit: Within combat at least, there IS a confirmation prior to self targeting spells. I was ruined at times due to a misclick or some such in the times before release---plus you can always right-click to cancel any in-combat spell targeting otherwise.
Great post; it was very interesting to read more about what you've seen so far of the game.
While I certainly understand (if not whole-heartedly share) the negative reactions on the game's (soon to be fixed) font, I must say I haven't been anything but consistently impressed by what I consider to be a remarkably intuitive interface, especially considering the sheer amount of information and feedback which is available to the player at all times. Admittedly, there are a few minor annoyances (some of which it seems will be fixed within just a few days) but I found KotC very easy to immediately pick up and play; as opposed to other indie RPGs like Jeff Vogel's Avernum 5 (which took quite a while for me to get used to), or even retail games like Temple of Elemental Evil with its rather awkward radial UI dial.
While I certainly understand (if not whole-heartedly share) the negative reactions on the game's (soon to be fixed) font, I must say I haven't been anything but consistently impressed by what I consider to be a remarkably intuitive interface, especially considering the sheer amount of information and feedback which is available to the player at all times. Admittedly, there are a few minor annoyances (some of which it seems will be fixed within just a few days) but I found KotC very easy to immediately pick up and play; as opposed to other indie RPGs like Jeff Vogel's Avernum 5 (which took quite a while for me to get used to), or even retail games like Temple of Elemental Evil with its rather awkward radial UI dial.
Hey, you've played the Frayed Knights pilot, so you know that I know all about awkward interfaces... ;)
Some of the issues I've had included accidentally trading items in mid-combat (Woops! How'd that happen?), accidentally taking a movement action instead of a 5' move (if there's a way to take that back, I'm listening), and so forth. Some of that is due to artifacts of the game system, I understand, but it would be better to have, say, a confirmation menu when you are trading an item.
But I started having fun even before I knew what I was doing, and that says something.
Some of the issues I've had included accidentally trading items in mid-combat (Woops! How'd that happen?), accidentally taking a movement action instead of a 5' move (if there's a way to take that back, I'm listening), and so forth. Some of that is due to artifacts of the game system, I understand, but it would be better to have, say, a confirmation menu when you are trading an item.
But I started having fun even before I knew what I was doing, and that says something.
I certainly agree. I haven't been able to stop playing. I almost gave up on the demo right off the bat, mostly because of the font issue (especially bad on my wide screen). But I'm glad I stuck with it, and then bought the game.
One other minor problem: gathering the loot after a battle is tedious, especially when you start getting into large battles (and your inventory is already full). This part needs work. At the very least, a masterwork item, or one of an exotic material, should be obvious from the title (color-coded, perhaps?), without having to bring up the detailed description each time. Really, the entire treasure interface is awkward.
But that's a minor annoyance. The game is really a lot of fun. And although it's quite challenging, it hasn't been frustratingly difficult. That's an impressive achievement in itself.
One other minor problem: gathering the loot after a battle is tedious, especially when you start getting into large battles (and your inventory is already full). This part needs work. At the very least, a masterwork item, or one of an exotic material, should be obvious from the title (color-coded, perhaps?), without having to bring up the detailed description each time. Really, the entire treasure interface is awkward.
But that's a minor annoyance. The game is really a lot of fun. And although it's quite challenging, it hasn't been frustratingly difficult. That's an impressive achievement in itself.
There is a powerful secret to using 5-foot step to non-insanity inducing effect: Hit the "M" key. It just works so very well...
In general, I found that I almost always left the top right actions menu open either to remind of hotkeys or easily select with mouse clicks---very, very rarely did I "hide" it down to the crossed swords icon.
I believe much thought was put into the whole OGL thing ahead of time and in the initial stages---way too many hours of people working otherwise.
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In general, I found that I almost always left the top right actions menu open either to remind of hotkeys or easily select with mouse clicks---very, very rarely did I "hide" it down to the crossed swords icon.
I believe much thought was put into the whole OGL thing ahead of time and in the initial stages---way too many hours of people working otherwise.
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