RPS on Din’s Curse & Demon War

Posted by Rampant Coyote on March 8, 2011

All I can say is, it’s about time…  Rock Paper Shotgun reviews Din’s Curse and Demon War:

Wot I Think — Din’s Curse: Demon War at Rock Paper Shotgun

The verdict? “I prefer Din’s Curse to Torchlight. Pop that in your pipe and smoke it.”

Yeah. Me, too. And I really liked Torchlight. For about the twenty hours it took to play it, win it, play it some more, and get bored. I got my money’s worth out of it. But I have several characters in Din’s Curse, and a couple of them have more than twenty hours in each.  I’m nowhere near bored with it.

Here’s a tasty excerpt from the above review:

Foremost in my mind, though, are the towns where I made the awesome mistake of cranking up the monster level away from “normal” and towards “hard”. Playing a game like Din’s Curse where you’ve got everything to lose is one thing. Playing it on a hard difficulty setting where you will, in all probability, go ahead and lose it makes for a fascinating experience.

It’s awesomely bleak, and a real test of will. Pushing deeper into the dungeon is as slow and tiring as tearing through its composite sod and stones with your bare hands, and all the while you’re getting messages in your chat ticker announcing your failure. He’s dead, she’s hungry, the bad guy is winning, and you’re down there with dirt packed tight under your fingernails and an imp gnawing at your ankle. Nobody said being a hero would be easy. But I’ll tell you something- when you finally do hit your stride, and you pick out some armour that gives you the right resistances, and you arrive at that enormous bad guy and- Jesus Christ- the game’s decided that he’s four times as big as any monster you’ve ever seen, and you go toe to toe with him and fell him with a final, desperate blow from your sword- that’s everything dungeon crawling can, and should be.

And to the commenter who’s immediate response was, “Why isn’t this game on Steam?” – he’ll have to ask Steam. They aren’t an open market, and they reject a lot of quality indie games for their own mysterious reasons. I know getting a game up on my website is even more byzantine, because a lot of it depends upon how busy I am with other things…  Those who live in glass houses and all that. Still, while I’m grateful to Steam for introducing hardcore gamers to many indie games, I wish people would be more willing to buy directly from developers and affiliates. Yes, I’m biased, but not only does that more directly reward the developer, but it also sets up a closer relationship with the developer and customers that is valuable for both — and not just because it’s easier for the developer to push out expansions and updates to his direct customers.

But I digress.

Anyway, I’ve not played Din’s Curse in multiplayer yet.  Has anybody here done that? (Besides Steven, if he’s reading this… 😉  ) How well does it work? My guess would be “fun as hell,” but scheduling time to meet up with friends online and play can be tricky.

I have played the hardcore more game, though. Now THAT is an intimidating way to play. Din’s Curse can be outright punishing at times, particularly if you fail to prevent a boss monster’s rise in power.  In hardcore mode, death is permanent — game over, start a new character. When you are racing against the clock, or hit a teleport trap, it’s easy to find yourself surrounded, pinned, and unable to escape or effectively fight off an attack. Throw in a bunch of totems that raise the monster’s power, and a boss who not only does the same but can kill you in three hits on his own, and things turn sour very quickly. Whereas in Diablo 2 you can afford to take things slowly and methodically with a hardcore character, you may not get that option in Din’s Curse. If you are too cautious the enemy WILL come to you.  Or at least to the town you are supposed to save.

Once again, while the game isn’t necessarily everyone’s cup of tea, it’s is a great example of a major reason I get excited about indie RPGs in the first place.  It’s the uniqueness and willingness to go out on a limb and push the boundaries a bit in new and interesting directions.

Filed Under: Indie Evangelism - Comments: 2 Comments to Read



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