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Dungeon Lords - First Look Preview
Derek dela Fuente
18/05/2004
Bill Mooney sits down and talks us through this interesting RPG/FPS hybrid...
Designed, written and developed by award-winning computer game author D.W. Bradley (Wizards & Warriors and three of the legendary Wizardry titles) and Heuristic Park, Inc., Dungeon Lords, which has been in development already for 2 years, is panned for release in Europe towards the end of 2004 and offers up a slightly new angle for gamers.
Dungeon Lords merges a number of gaming styles - with the fluidity of an action style control system and the depth and details of an epic fantasy role-playing game. Gamers will be able to journey through a land of ancient castles and dungeon lairs to engage in real-time tactical combat with a variety of deadly foes. It's not just about the battles though, as magic spells and hundreds of powerful weapons and artefacts play a huge role in the game.
Itâs distinguished and detailed look, along with a strong storyline and compelling gameplay, should appeal to a wide range of game player across a number of genres. Derek dela Fuente spoke with Bill Mooney, Producer, about the team behind the game and what delights will be on offer!
Dungeon Lords features an abundance of personal missions and quests, along with numerous other characters to interact with. A variety of extensive skills and special abilities are available to customize the hero from a variety of races and multiple class specialisations. The simple and intuitive design will suit role-playing gamers and action fans alike and supports cooperative multiplay.
Bill explained that Heuristic Park has been tuning and refining the Dungeon Lordâs play dynamics for quite some time, but still anticipate finishing the game in August. A large amount of time, of late, has been spent working on incorporating cooperative multiplayer into Dungeon Lords, for up to eight players. He continued on with the overall vision for the game, followed by the background and objectives to Dungeon Lords!
âDungeon Lords has been created and specifically designed to appeal to a broad game base; we want RPG fans, who love large detailed worlds, grand stories and customisable characters, and we want people who may never have played an RPG but who enjoy fighting games. Dungeon Lords combines the depth of a D.W. Bradley RPG with an accessible and fun combat interface that offers action fans an intuitive way into the RPG. At the same time, we have included features to simplify combat for hard-core RPG fans who may have less experience with action games.â
âDungeon Lords begins, thus: The great wizard, Galdryn of the Meadows, has been slain by a deadly conspiracy within the Circle of Mages. His chief ally, Lord Davenmor, now struggles to save his kingdom from the dark forces of the conspiracy and the onslaught of Lord Barrowgrimâs army of marauders. Lord Davenmor has promised his daughterâs hand in marriage to Lord Barrowgrim to quell the invasion, but her heart belongs to another and after learning of her fatherâs pledge, she has vanished. Sensing treachery, Lord Barrowgrim has sent his army once more to destroy Lord Davenmor and raze the kingdom.â
âDungeon Lords takes place in a world that incorporates many classic âsword and sorceryâ themes but expands the palette to include unique gameplay elements. The player is part of a grand story, and has a pivotal role in resolving the destiny of an entire realm. Additionally, there are numerous side-quests and special missions available to players based on race, gender and class, but throughout the game there is an overwhelming objective, which is always clear.â
To a number of gamers who are not au fait with some of the industry figures it appears that the gameâs central visionary and game creator, D.W. Bradley, has been making great RPG games for 25 years. He is the lead writer and programmer for Dungeon Lords and is involved in almost every facet of the game on a daily basis.
Dungeon Lords looks a very distinguished piece of code and uses a proprietary engine, which supports many advanced features, including DirectX 9.0 specific features such as pixel shading. Players with high-end cards will see some astonishing effects, particularly outside, but Dungeon Lords is specifically designed to allow players with different hardware or last generation 3D cards to enjoy the game as well.
One aspect of the game when you first see it running is the huge and very detailed players within the game that cut a suave and very enticing look and feel that will pull you into the game immediately. When you see the fighting and combat scenes some will marvel at the amount of details, ambient lighting and great use of cinematic views. Although some may say that crossing two genres â“ action and strategy - could weaken its appeal this is a very jaundiced view as Dungeon Lords offers a full experience, as Bill went on to point this out.
âDungeon Lords offers a full role-playing experience, as seen by player interaction with other characters. Players interact with hundreds of NPCs, and these interactions are affected by player character attributes, prior actions, racial bias, and many other factors. Players also make choices that influence later interactions - there are visible consequences from choices made within the game. There are many situations that are not solved through combat, as a quick example, in Fargrove (the first town) there is a NPC inside a bunker house who wonât open the door to a special area of town unless the player has âjoined the ranksâ by befriending another NPC (whose whereabouts will remain undisclosed for this interview!) â“ combat does not factor in this, itâs a matter of the player earning the friendship of the NPC.â
âDungeon Lords has an extremely sophisticated yet simple combat system. Players use a keyboard mouse combination in combat that is very similar to classic shooting and fighting game controls. This set-up allows the player to fight in real-time, and by combining four simple directions players can execute many different kinds of moves. Players can perform slashes, overhand swings, jabs, parries, blocks, dodge and jumps instantly. Players can also join these moves together to create much more powerful combination moves, and even have the ability to make development choices which open up new and much more powerful moves such as backstabs and double-attacks.â
âDungeon Lords also has a very sophisticated camera system as you mentioned briefly earlier. Players can alter the camera or not as they choose, but it is a full 3D camera that can be rotated completely during the game, or that can be set to a particular distance. Players who find the combat difficult can also hit a single button which freezes the Y-axisâ”what this means is that players will be able to fight without having to worry about the camera moving up or down. This option is also changeable on the fly. And mouse movement control is completely configurable during gameplay to suit player preferences.â
Players at the start of the game will choose their hero from among 8 races and 2 genders, and will choose different faces, hair styles, skin tones and equipment. Players will also set characters up in the classic attribute-based system, and will assign bonus points to basic abilities, as well as assign proficiencies in skills such as battle, movement, magic, negotiation and many other areas. As players gain experience, they can continuously improve these attributes and proficiencies, and they will also unlock new possibilities as they make certain choices during the game.â
Bill continued on with details about injury, and environmental and body detection handling.
âDungeon Lords is consciously designed to be played with a minimal interface presence during gameplay. We want players to experience the game world and the action, and to that end we limit immediate information only to health and experience and do NOT require any sort of targeting reticule. Healing, casting magic, and invoking special powers are all handled very easily and quickly within the interface so that players are not continually distracted from the action by such basic RPG operations.â
âEnvironmental factors are very important for conveying moment to moment events, particularly sound. Enemies can detect and be detected solely by auditory factors, which can vary depending upon player race, equipment and specialisation, as well as secret passages and the like.â
So as you can see Dungeon Lords offers all the classical elements of a number of gaming styles, along with its own innovations and mix â“ which offers up a unique brand of interest. Bill finished the interview by summing up.
âDungeon Lords has all the classic elements of a great RPG. The game world is very large, and all environments must be completely explored if players wish to discover all possible quests, weapons, enemies and possibilities. NPC interaction is massive - there are hundreds of NPCs and thousands of possible interactions. There are many âpuzzlesâ in the game, each taking a different form â” we have spent a great deal of time balancing puzzle intricacy and innovation to make the game challenging as well as enjoyable and accessible for players who may have very little experience and/or interest in puzzles. We feel that there is truly something for everyone in Dungeon Lords, from an epic 40 hour plus single-player campaign to multiplayer cooperative play to a deep and involving combat system that rewards strong fighters without unduly penalizing other players.â
âWe hope that these answers help, and want to tell players to look for us later this year!â
