Monthly Archives: December 2013

Baldur’s Gate II: Enhanced Edition Review

By Jordan Hall (ApocaRUFF)

 

Introduction

Baldur’s Gate II is a classic RPG that originally came out back in 2000. Sequel to the very popular original Baldur’s Gate, this game continues the epic story that unfolded for us in the first game. Other than a continuation of the story, the game includes improved graphics and features, but still retains the team-based combat that is so fun with these type of RPGs. The Enhanced Edition comes with better functionality and improved settings for modern-day computers and screens, allowing the game to be played on wide-screen monitors without any stretching. Baldur’s Gate II has already proven itself to be a great game and it’s awesome that we have a chance to play it all over again in this Enhanced Edition.

 

 

Customization

You don’t get much physical customization for the characters in your party. You can change the armor and weapons, which will change their appearance to a degree, but that is about it for cosmetic changes without the use of mods. Most of the customization comes from choices made as your characters develop and level up. Each character starts with a sort of role, but from there you can change and develop the character to your needs. Honestly, I would rather have this level of skill and stat-based customization over the generic classes that offer little-to-no-choice and cosmetic customization that most modern games offer.

 

CharacterScreen

I love the amount of detail and freedom you get with your characters.

 

 

Graphics

The graphics in Baldur’s Gate II are 2D. While playing, you can definitely see the love and care that went into crafting the maps, as there is tons of detail in the world art. Characters are a bit of another story, and they seem almost blob-ish compared to the other artwork in the game. I guess this was done for technical reasons at the time, but also because the game is played from a distant isometric perspective and you wont really need to look closely at any of the characters during the game (and I suggest you don’t, because they’re damn ugly up-close). With the enhanced edition, the graphics have been made to fit with the larger wide screens that we now tend to use, so there isn’t any stretching or massive black borders, which is great as that is something that usually plagues older games when played on modern computers.

 

Graphics

This re-sized JPEG wont show the detail as well as the full 1920×1080 PNG image, but will give you a glimpse at what’s there.

 

 

Controls

I believe the controls in Baldur’s Gate II: Enhanced Edition have been tweaked a bit to make them more user-friendly compared to the original version, but have been left alone for the most part. Similar to other 2D RPG games from this era, movement is point-and-click. You will be using the mouse for a lot of things, but there are also keyboard commands that can be used to make things faster and more efficient. For example, even though you can pause the game via the UI, you will probably often be using the space-bar to pause instead. Speaking of UI, the Enhanced Edition has done a slight re-design of the UI to make it more slim and pleasing to the eye, but it still looks quite similar to the original game.

 

 

Co-Op

Baldur’s Gate II: Enhanced Edition offers a pretty neat take on multiplayer play. You can have up to four people in your party, and that means you can play with up to 3 other players. When playing co-op, you invite people to take control of your characters to adventure with you. This is pretty cool, but there are a few things that can be a bit annoying. Such as when one of your friends talks to an NPC (often a shop), and you can’t do anything but sit there and wait. However, the fun that is offered from playing this great game with some close friends far outweighs the negatives.

 

 

Gameplay

What made these games such a memorable experience and turned them into classics is the unique gameplay. Instead of being a hand-holding story-on-rails adventure, you are expected to figure out things by yourself, explore, and to make hard decisions. There is often more than one way to do things, and you may be finding yourself in a position where you need to decide to show mercy, to kill someone without a second thought, or maybe just let someone else do as they please while you turn a blind eye. All these choices end up having not only an effect on the outcome of the game and your character, but they also effect how you feel about the game. It truly is your story, and you get to choose if you want to be the hero or the villain.

 

Choices

As far as the choices go in the game, this is a light example. But almost every encounter has at least three choices you can make.

 

This game is based off of Dungeons and Dragon mechanics, so if you’ve ever played any version of DnD, you’ll be familiar with this combat system (at least to a degree). If you haven’t played DnD, it’s quite similar to the combat found in games such as Neverwinter Nights and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (not the TOR MMO, the single player games). At its core, you have a party of fighters at your disposal. You get to decide what formation they enter the battle in, who they attack, and what abilities they use. The combat has the appearance of being real-time, but in reality it is turn-based. You are able to pause whenever you like to re-evaluate and change tactics if things aren’t going as well as you hoped. In short, the combat is in-depth but still has an intense edge.

 

Combat

Even what seems like a simple battle as a lot of opportunity for strategy. For example, I could run back behind a corner so the enemy archers can’t take free hits on my guys, luring them to their deaths one-by-one.

 

The game isn’t all about combat. Like I said, you’ll be expected to make choices. On top of choices, there are mysteries to solve, both of the mundane and the arcane. You might find yourself needing the help of your thief to find traps and disable them. There is a lot in this game that requires you to use your brain and your imagination. That’s part of the reason why it’s such a fun experience, you aren’t constantly killing things.

 

 

Baldur’s Gate II takes place soon after the first game, so for the full effect you’ll want to have played the first Baldur’s Gate beforehand. However, if you’re like me and haven’t played the first Baldur’s Gate, that’s no problem as the game does a very nice job of informing of you of the events that happened previously and introducing you to the game and it’s mechanics. By time you get half way through the game, you’ll feel like you actually did play the original Baldur’s Gate. The story itself is pretty incredible, mostly things to the constant choices you’re forced to make. Of course, the epic scale of the story lends a very helping hand, and the occasional voice acting is superb as well.

 

Story

I tried to talk them out of attacking me, but they wouldn’t have it.

 

 

Conclusion

In conclusion, I’ve got to admit that playing Baldur’s Gate II: Enhanced Edition was an amazing experience. I thoroughly regret not having played the original versions of the games earlier. It combines a great story-telling experience with personal choice for a mind-blowing experience. Sometimes I could feel the line between reality and game blurring, which is something extremely rare for me. The character progression and combat system were incredibly nice and has once again solidified my love for games based on the Dungeons and Dragons framework. All-in-all, this game was superb and the Enhanced Edition just made it even better. I would highly suggest anyone who enjoys a great story and a fantastic game check this out.

 

 

Features: 3/5 – Not a great many features, but what is there is done incredibly well.

Customization: 4/5 – Great character customization.

Graphics: 3/5 – Detailed for a 2D game.

Controls: 4/5 – Surprisingly smooth.

Community(Co-op): 2/5 – While it was OK, there was a lot to be wished for.

 

Overall: 4/5 – A fantastic game.

 

Aura Kingdom’s Endgame Brings Players Together

Aura Kingdom_Healing Wounded

Gather up some friends to take on the best of what Aura Kingdom has to offer! Aeria Games, a leading global publisher of free-to-play online games, has released more details on what players can expect for endgame content in the highly anticipated massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG), set to begin Founder’s Beta on December 16th.

 

One of players’ primary motivations throughout Aura Kingdom will be adding to their ever-increasing collection of the battle companions known as Eidolons. While several Eidolons are granted at certain level milestones, the rarest and most powerful will require dedicated groups of adventurers to track down together. Bosses in high-level dungeons will have chances to drop rare key fragments, which will unlock access to new Eidolons once players have collected enough.

Aura Kingdom_Wooden Tracks

Players are also encouraged to foster their communities with guild towns. Established guilds that have advanced to a high rank will have the opportunity to create these towns which only their guild members can visit. In addition to all the helpful services and NPCs an ambitious adventurer needs, guild towns can also spawn unique Eidolons that require a group of guild members to defeat. Much like dungeon bosses, these Eidolons have a chance to drop key fragments that can eventually enable a player to summon them as their own.

 

For those in search of a different kind of challenge, high-level players can engage in organized, 5v5 player vs. player (PvP) matches. Groups will be able to queue up for these Arena matches throughout the day, facing an opposing team in a deathmatch battle. In addition, players can also queue up for Battlefield matches at particular times each day. Battlefields are also 5v5, but feature a capture point-style game mode over vastly different terrain.

Darkout Beta Preview: A Different Kind of Terraria

By Jason Parker (Ragachak)

Darkout Preview 1

 

Allgraf Studios has put together an interesting take on the “Build and Survive” model of PC game.  The genre really got its start with Minecraft, where you build a 3D world that fits your vision, while avoiding villainous, sometimes exploding creatures that seek to undo all of your hard work.  This idea was remastered with the game “Terraria”, which also is a survival building game; the difference being it is 2D instead, a side scrolling building game.  While this season there are other games of the same variety coming out, Darkout really stands apart.  Alone on a dark, foreboding planet, you, as the player, must create shelter and survive against alien creatures that thrive in the dark, and falter in the light. As I am not a seasoned player of games like “Minecraft” and “Terraria”, my ability to craft buildings is fairly laughable.

 

Limited Creation, Infinite Enjoyment

The character creation for Darkout is very simple.  While this can be a downer for some players, that is not really what we are here for in this game.  The customization comes from what you decide to build on the planet’s surface.  In terms of housing you can choose to hollow out a spot in a mountain side, and hide from the creatures like a mole person, or build a Titanium Death Fortress atop said mountain to make a statement to the foolish aliens looking up at you in fear.

In character creation, you pick your name, the color of your suit, gender, and the “Difficulty”.  This is a very important feature, so I do not advise skipping it. The choice between builder and standard will change your gameplay substantially.

Darkout Preview 2

As seen in the picture, “Builder” is a mode where you have unlimited capacity to build to your heart’s content.  In “Builder” you do not have to research or farm materials.  Your only limit is your imagination.  You do however still have to make the space for your home.  This can be used as a practice run to figure the game out, or, if you are like me, simply not any good at combating angry, dark alien creatures.  “Normal” difficulty is just that: the regular game.  I began on “Normal”, and thanks to the tutorial, I got moving in fairly rapid speed, only dying to the fiery crash site that is your pod twice.

 

Some Call It Slums, Some Call it Nice

The game’s brief tutorial teaches you how to farm for lumber, and craft wood blocks that you need to begin your first functioning house.  However, there was some form of minor glitch, or perhaps I simply could not fathom instructions, and I spent the better part of a couple of hours simply trying to get a door to open and close!

I came back later, and magically, everything started working. Not one to complain, I began the arduous task of building my home, constructing walls, and a floor, because you have to have somewhere to stand.  The end result of my first attempt is as follows:

Darkout Preview 3

Certainly not my proudest moment.  This is where I learned the most valuable lesson in the game: the darkness is not your friend.  I restarted, and tried my hand at another bit of geography, to make a home. I had a much better idea, and the landscape was not conducive to building.  I wanted a cave!  And why shouldn’t I? The ground is far more resistant to a barrage of alien hordes than anything my inept hands could produce.

Darkout Preview 4

It’s not much, but I call it home!  From here, I had a solid door (that actually opened and closed!), a bed, and my combinator!  The combinator is one of the items that allow you to forge materials that you will need later. In the above screenshot, it is the glowing item that I face away from. This is not your sole method of turning raw materials into usable goods; there is also a forge, as well as other sources that turn raw material into bars of metal that you can shape your future home with.  From here, I went on to wander into the unknown, in search of adventure, and inevitably found death.

The crafting menu is very easy to use, and a Quick Tutorial guides you through the basics of using it.  There is a crafting menu, and a research menu, where you discover new technologies such as building materials, raw resources, and things of that nature.  One thing I did find that was very frustrating was you do not necessarily know what you need to start researching an item until you have the necessary resources to make it. There is a “hint” feature you can hit once every five minutes, but to me it was vague. It would say “You should get some vines”, or things like that.  Research takes time, but once you have the knowledge, you can go farm up the correct materials to start making bigger and better homes.

Darkout Preview 5

It was a bit of a task to take a screencap of me fighting valiantly, as I wound up taking several where I met a grisly end, a crimson mist the only reminder that I existed at all.  One thing that can be daunting, is when you die, you respawn wherever you crash landed.   To combat this, when you build your home, you can build a bed. This allows you to rest and recuperate, as well as give you a better respawn location, especially useful if you built far off into the distance like I did.

 

Let There Be Light

One of the most amazing things about this game is both a game mechanic and a graphics feature: the light.  I cannot stress how lovely the lighting features are.  The planets exude a soft violet light that immediately fades away if you choose to dig them up.  This light can be a boon, to help you fight off alien creatures, but can also be a hindrance, because you cannot build around them. Luckily you start with light rods that can be wielded as a weapon or placed as a light source.  Simply having it out in your hand will give you a radius of blue light to see with.

The enemies you encounter are normally shrouded in darkness, and without proper light, this can mean a quick end to your adventure.  There are floating jellyfish which shoot cones of thorns, wolves with sonic blasts, and little angry imps that jump and throw things at you.  Most of these hit fairly hard.  However, you can use your light to make them weaker, then go in for the kill.  There are a variety of ways you can attack in the early stages of the game, such as bow and arrow (and better yet, when you have tar, fire arrows!), you can use a torch, or a light rod.  When there is a forge, and metals, you can start making swords, and things of that nature. I had the most luck with a torch or a light rod, personally.

 

Darkout Preview 6

Database, Database

There is a sort of story to Darkout.  It is not necessarily obvious at first, other than you have crashed on a strange, dark planet, and you have to survive this harsh new world.  Scattered throughout the land are small glowing crates that you can smash.  These contain a variety of items of use, such as weapons (where I found my bow), raw materials such as ore, or even containers, like glass jars or barrels, which you can use to put liquids in (like tar, to make fire based items).  Hidden within these are also canisters, which contain blueprints for items, or data logs that contain important tidbits to the story.  Collecting these will give a broader insight on what you were up to before the fateful crash that led you to this dark, foreboding world.

 

Darkout Preview 7

Final Verdict:  Great (4/5)

All in all, while frustrating to start, this game was ultimately very rewarding.  I did a stint in the “Builder” mode, to create something that I thought was kind of neat, using a variety of tools and materials, to show you the sorts of things you can make if you put in the time.  To those people who enjoy to build and survive, this game will not be one that disappoints.

 

Graphics: 5/5

I was very impressed with the graphics for Darkout.  Compared to the simplistic variety that Terraria offered, and the clunky, blocky graphics of Minecraft, Darkout stands out above its peers.  While the personal character looks simple, the layout of the land is wonderful. The flora and fauna are beautiful, and the lighting effects wow me every time I see something different in them.  Visually, it does not leave me wanting.

Controls: 3/5

The controls were pretty standard for a PC title.  WASD, et cetera.  I found them a little stiff at first, and some of the jumping mechanics can be very blocky and unforgiving.  Combat is a little rough at the start, but you adjust to how the game plays with little difficulty. Not amazing, but certainly not impossible to use.

Features:  3/5

The features for the game were not groundbreaking when compared to its peers.  You can however, build some pretty fancy things, some of which is not in this particular build.  Elevators, anti-grav, power generators, portable generators, and the thing that stood out to me the most: A JETPACK.  That was very awesome.  A little hard to use, but very fun.

Community: 4/5

The community for this game is pretty strong on the Internet.  When I had problems looking for something, or finding a particular resource, I did not have to look far. There are several forums across the Internet, and even on the Steam community itself, where I can find the answers to the problems I have at any given moment.

DV8: Exile

DV8: Exile is a free to play browser-based strategy game. Build and protect your own base with turrets, traps, and other gadgets, while building an elite squad of units to attack others. Each unit has its own characteristics and can be controlled individually. New units can be introduced into the fight at any time, and multiple players can battle it out simultaneously in real time, increasing the competition.

Original Blood

Original Blood: Tales of Eternal Blood (also known as Moonlight Online) is a free-to-play dark fantasy MMORPG. Set on earth after a great war between humans, werewolves, vampires, and demons, players must choose their faction and rebuild the land while maintaining a fragile inter-‘species’ peace.

Vampires harness elemental energies and possess astounding abilities of speed, equilibrium and power. Beneath their ashen faces and piercing crimson gazes lie mysterious and profound forces. Descended from the purest and most noble bloodlines, vampires are proud and lonely fallen angels of the night.

The natural enemies of vampires, werewolves are fearsome beasts with amazing restorative powers. Their ability to explode into a berserker fury increases their attack power against vampires, fueling gripping PvP battles that feature the colossal clash of claws and fangs.

Not to be taken lightly, humans are powerful beings in their own right. King Cruz received blessings from all the gods for destroying the Dark Dragon, endowing his people with great intelligence and courage. With its many schools of might and magic, the Monarchy of Cruz has raised generations of legendary defenders.

Elsword Begins 9 Day Countdown for Ara the Nine-Tailed Fox

Elsword Ara Incoming

Kill3rCombo has begun a nine day countdown to the launch of the long awaited Pole-arm wielding nine-tailed fox girl, Ara, the newest character to join the elgang in Elsword.

Ara combines blinding speed with powerful strikes and an interesting take on the awakening system that unleashes her true potential. We’ll be keeping an eye on learning more about her as her launch nears, but in the meantime you can visit a special Facebook event for a chance to unlock a 50% exp boost medal!