Nortar
Arcane
- Joined
- Sep 5, 2017
- Messages
- 1,417
Grawalkers kickstarter offered such a nice blend of Jagged Alliance and Bureau 13 so I could not help but crack open my piggy bank.
And now it’s finally available for backer’s early access.
After 4 years since kickstarter campaign the game still looks and feels like it's still in early stages of development. So what is there to see.
There are 9 classes:
7 different races:
Races have positive and negative traits, like extra extra skill points, additional abilities and vulnerabilities.
Character development is pleasantly complex. There 7 attributes and a lof of abilities and skills.
The stats are not less complex than in D&D or SPECIAL:
The sheer number of abilities and skill is impressive.
Abilities are classified as Combat, Physical, Mental, Social, Racial, Supernatural and “Others”
Skills - Physical, Social, Mental, Magical, Combat
Note the Social skills on the screen shot. This kind of implies a more complex gameplay then just tactical combat.
There's both Deception and Persuasian, with even deeper (and potentially redundant) segregation of Deception on bluffing, conceal motive and disguise.
But I suspect that some if not most of such skills would sooner or later get on the chopping blcok.
For example, there’s a Drive skill with sub-categories ranging from cycles and trucks to boats and airplanes...
Oh and ther's Magic! Which has Arcane and Divine kinds.
The most important part.
The combat has an honest point-based system, not move+action popularized by nuXcom, with dynamic initiative system (stats + 3d10 at combat start);
There’s a decent number of tactical options, - such as crouching, overwatch, different stances, different attack modes. Some of them are not yet implemented though - crouch button does nothing at all, for example.
Ammunition takes inventory space and has weight, and there are different kinds of ammunition for each weapon. Magic spells use energy points.
Weapon names suggest there could be some kind of attachments/upgrade system.
Enemy enemies posses different kinds of damage resistances, but the AI is dumb.
More precisely, it feels as it’s absent altogether. So it’s another area for future improvement.
All in all the game could have become a masterpiece. If only the devs had more time and money, or maybe talent.
In the current state I doubt it can reach it's full potential within reasonable timeframe.
TL/DR
Pros:
And now it’s finally available for backer’s early access.
After 4 years since kickstarter campaign the game still looks and feels like it's still in early stages of development. So what is there to see.
There are 9 classes:
- Agent - social skills and stealth experts
- Arcanist - arcane spellcaster
- Armsman - melee-weapons specialist
- Diviner - divine spellcaster
- Martialist - unarmed brawler
- Scout - tracking and hunting specialst whatever that means
- Slayer - supernatural creatures
specialistkiller - Soldier - firearms specialist
- Survivor - some sort of a jack of all trades
7 different races:
- Cambion - demon offspring
- Dhampir - half-vampire
- Faechilde - fae offspring
- Hunterborne - super-human mutants, “nature’s response to supernatural threats”
- Nephlim - angel offspring
- Wolfkin - half-werewolf
- Human - half-human x2
Races have positive and negative traits, like extra extra skill points, additional abilities and vulnerabilities.
Character development is pleasantly complex. There 7 attributes and a lof of abilities and skills.
The stats are not less complex than in D&D or SPECIAL:
- Might
- Agility
- Physique
- Intellect
- Awareness - governs senses and hand-eye coordination
- Willpower
- Presence - works as charisma
The sheer number of abilities and skill is impressive.
Abilities are classified as Combat, Physical, Mental, Social, Racial, Supernatural and “Others”
Skills - Physical, Social, Mental, Magical, Combat
Note the Social skills on the screen shot. This kind of implies a more complex gameplay then just tactical combat.
There's both Deception and Persuasian, with even deeper (and potentially redundant) segregation of Deception on bluffing, conceal motive and disguise.
But I suspect that some if not most of such skills would sooner or later get on the chopping blcok.
For example, there’s a Drive skill with sub-categories ranging from cycles and trucks to boats and airplanes...
Oh and ther's Magic! Which has Arcane and Divine kinds.
The most important part.
The combat has an honest point-based system, not move+action popularized by nuXcom, with dynamic initiative system (stats + 3d10 at combat start);
There’s a decent number of tactical options, - such as crouching, overwatch, different stances, different attack modes. Some of them are not yet implemented though - crouch button does nothing at all, for example.
Ammunition takes inventory space and has weight, and there are different kinds of ammunition for each weapon. Magic spells use energy points.
Weapon names suggest there could be some kind of attachments/upgrade system.
Enemy enemies posses different kinds of damage resistances, but the AI is dumb.
More precisely, it feels as it’s absent altogether. So it’s another area for future improvement.
All in all the game could have become a masterpiece. If only the devs had more time and money, or maybe talent.
In the current state I doubt it can reach it's full potential within reasonable timeframe.
TL/DR
Pros:
- Interesting setting and character concepts
- Complex attributes and skill system
- True turn-based combat
- Decent number of different firearms, cold weapons and magic
- Serious lack of polish. The early access is more like playable alpha.
- No music and sound effects to speak of
- Acid colors on battlefield
- Will be stillborn without significant additional funding