Keep in mind that this is a preview of an unfinished game (v.9) and as such, some details may change in the final launch game. Also, some features (such as multiplayer and other in-game details) that are either not yet working or not working properly.
Controls
A few things about the controls. Movement is carried out with analog stick, which actually works very well. Your character's speed is very fluid. All attacking / blocking actions have a good response with a damage number rising up from your hit and a pleasant hit sound, unlike some games where you feel like you're hitting dead air even though graphically you can see that you're hitting the enemy. Using health potions is done with the Left shoulder button and Power potions can be used with the Right shoulder button.
Pressing Start brings up a list of commands such as 'save game', options and exit. Saving the game takes literally 1 second (160kb+ file). On the 'start' menu there is also a 'Recall to Aven' option. This is the first town in the game. This feature is there to quickly take you into or out of areas, it will only hold the location of the last place you visited.
The options screen has game options, controller options and sound options wherein you can dictate whether you want to see damage text, mouse speed and other options. The controller setup is TBD in this preview build so I can't comment, but I also can't imagine wanting to change the controls, they're very well layed out and intuitive. One thing you may want to change is the sound levels. Again, this could very well change in the final build of the game, but the music get's old really quickly as it doesn't change often the few areas I've been. Fortunately you can control the character volume, footsteps, interface, 3D environment, weather and music.
Attacking is done with the X button, while talking is taken care of by the Square button. Somewhat strangely, even though you initiate talking with the Square button, once you've reached the last screen of conversation, you have to press the Circle to exit the conversation. As can be expected, it is possible to flip the camera around. This is accomplished by pressing the Right shoulder button and then the D-pad. Moving the D-pad up/down zooms in/out and left/right rotate in the corresponding direction.
Character Setup
The first thing you will want to do is create a character. There are 4 character types. The character skill description is taken directly from the game.
Alchemist
Alchemists employ the use of eldritch science and its untold capabilities in their exploration of the dangerous outer territories.
Druid
Druirds are dedicated preservationists who harvest the unseen powers of nature in their crusade against corruption.
Knight
Knights practice an ancient form of combat that has been perfected through the passing centuries.
Berserker
Berserkers are the embodiment of unbridled fury, force and bloodthirsty vengeance.
Customizing your character
Upon selecting your character class, you can select from 3 skin tones, 4 hair styles and 3 hair colours. Then you are allowed to distribute 10 attribute points amongst 4 standard qualities - strength, intelligence, dexterity and stamina. Your character name can be up to 19 letters/spaces long even though you are rarely (if ever?) referenced by your name in the game. After setting things up, you are given a choice between starting a single player game, join multiplayer or host multiplayer. Unfortunately for this preview release, the multiplayer functionality does not yet work.
Select Screen
Pressing Select brings you to a view of your character and the equipment they are wearing, as well 6 areas - weapons, armor, items, stats, quests and I was pleasantly surprised to find an ability upgrade path screen, more on that in a bit. Pressing the Left/Right shoulder button will flip through the 6 areas. On these screens, you use the analog stick rather than the D-pad to select items and options. This simulates a computer's use of the mouse for navigation.
*Weapons*
Similar to some 3D dungeon games, the weapons are shown as the actual amount of space that they take up, so a sword takes up 4 blocks of space while a club only takes up 2.
*Armor*
Similar to the weapons page, the armor takes up a variety of spaces. The 'Ruined Soft Leather Tunic' that you start out with has a weight of 8.0 and takes up 9 spaces (3x3) while the leggins take up 6 spaces (2x3). In this way you will be limited to what you can carry, but your carrying capacity can increase by levelling up and obtaining certain items. It is unclear whether your weight affects your attack / movement speed.
Also, some items / armor require a certain level or skill class before you can use them. For example, the 'Worn Wire Stitch Sleeves' are usably only by a Knight class and the Writhing Shield requires your character to be level 8. When you cursor over an item, you get to see not only it's attributes (+10 Armor), but also how much it weighs, how much it is worth (ie, 28 gold) and any special additional attributes (ie, +8 Strength on the Writhing Shield).
*Items*
The items page is self-explanatory. Each item has a weight and gold value and cursoring over each item gives you this information as well as the item's effect.
*Status*
On the status page you are given your stats -- Health, Power, Melee Damage, Ranged Damage, Strength, Intelligence, Dexterity, Stamina, Armor, Resist Fire, Resist Cold, Resist Poison, Resist Lightning and Resist Magic. Cursoring over each stat and pressing the Square button gives you a short description of what statistic represents.
*Quests*
The quests page makes it really easy for you to know where to go next. It gives you details on the location and mission to be accomplished. It is also possible to get sidequests which get you better armor or items.
*Ability Path*
This is where things get interesting. Over time your character will be able to upgrade their capabilities. With the berserker character that I chose, the first level of abilities were 'Block' which adds extra damage to all blocks, 'Melee Attack' which adds extra damage to all Melee attacks, and 'Rend' which gives even more attacking power. When you are ready to take one of the abilities you press the Triangle button and then select a position (from 8) in your D-pad to assign the ability to. For example, soon after starting you will be able to use the 'Rend' ability. By setting it to the 'left' button on the D-pad, you can initiate a Rend attack by pressing left on the D-pad and pressing the attack button. As your character improves you will gain access to stronger and more interesting abilities. An example is the berserk character's final Ability Upgrade, 'Infect with Madness', which requires level 25. This ability will make an enemy your ally for 7.5 seconds as well as upgrading their damage to 150% and healing them. The obvious downside is that after 7.5 seconds you have to deal with a healed enemy, but this gives you an idea of the interesting paths that you can take your character.
In Game
You start the game out in a tavern and battle a few large spiders and then quickly learn from tavern patrons that there is a pest control issue with large spiders called 'praetox' suddenly becoming violent. Graphically the game feels like it's missing some of the anti-aliasing that non LCD TV's benefit from. Thus, the graphics have visible polygon lines and aren't as smooth as you might initially expect. This could of course have something to do with the fact that it's a preview build. Regardless, you quickly get used to this. Remember, this is a portable gaming device we're talking about here, the level of graphical quality still easily beats anything else on the portable gaming market. After playing for a bit, I really began to appreciate the level of quality in the game.
While moving around, the top-left corner of the screen houses your status guages (experience, magic, health) and there is a small map in the top-right corner. When you level up, you can press the select button to allot a few points to the set of 4 core skills (strength, dexterity, etc).
One silly gripe that I had was the fact that the environment is not destructible. What is a hack 'n slash without the ability to smash up barrels and boxes? You are able to smash certain objects such as jars, but in general most objects are no go. Aside from that, the environments are very nice to look at. The first town is a little drab, but once you get out the woods, mountains and some of the monsters really give you a sense of the graphical beauty.
The game is very well paced, with not so difficult monsters to level you up while you learn how to get around and get a feel for things. When battling, some enemies drop items, with some even dropping weapons and armor. Some of these items can even be attached to weapons / armor for added effects. For example a Wind Totem will give +10 INT if attached to armor or have a Force Blast effect with slightly increased critical hit if attached to a weapon. In this way each game will be unique and your gaming experience will also differ from that of others. This should balance things out well with the linear adventure. Not to mention, it'll be fun to compare your characters and items with friends when multi-playing to see what everyone else has.
Impressions
The loading times in the game are on par with what I've heard and seen for other games. Entering towns and dungeons typically results in a 10 second or so load time. As others have indicated and experienced, this sounds like much than it actually is. In practice I actually found the loading times to be a pleasant break -- it provides a few seconds to give your eyes and fingers a stretch.
The amount of information available from each item points to a robust and deep catalog of items, weapons and armor. I managed to find a hidden 'Summon Item Dialog' screen which allowed me to give my character any item from the game. Don't expect this debug screen to be available (or at least so easily) in the final launch. This provided me with a quick opportunity to see how many items there were in the game -- I stopped counting after 100, and was only on the B's! Not to mention, each item can have two extra attributes attached. For example, a sword can be ruined, worn, fine, exquisite, weak, dependable, warped, fierce, heavy, light, superior, faulty. Depending on this prefix, the primary quality (ie, strength) of the item will fluctuate. There is also a wide array of postfixes for an item, such as infection, static, ash, flame, frost, stone and plenty more. Thus, you might one day find an Exquisite Bronze Sabre of the Frost.
After further inspection, it appears that this list of items is only the weapons in the game. I estimate that there must be well over 1,000 items in this game, separate from the fact that each weapon/armor can have a variety of attributes attached to it. This incredible assortment will truly appeal to many and will provide for an extremely interesting and unique single player game, and I'm sure you can imagine the possibilities with a multiplayer game. Even with all of the items, game play feels very balanced and not overwhelming.
In the past I've never found myself enjoying this type of game, but I was pleasantly surprised and quickly got into the adventure and story. A small part of this can be attributed to the portability factor, but the rest is thanks to the pleasant response, controls, pace of the game and the attention to balance. Untold Legends: Brotherhood of the Blade is shaping up to be a very impressive launch title that you should definetly check out, even if you're usually not into the hack 'n slash genre. But that's enough from me, I need to find out what's behind all these spiders...
They really sent you preview games just by running a website?, (and it is a very amazing website-thankyou), but damn you are lucky if they chose you because of your kickass website. I didnt think sony searched the web for personal websites to send out demos, lol.
Hey captain, i was just wondering did you get the preview just for running this website or were you somehow involved in the production of the game? Also who'd you speak to to get a copy, was it just the developers, sony or what? Btw sweet review.
It's a great game, it certainly isn't for everyone (NeedzABetter), but no one game is for everyone. Like I said, I'm usually not into this type of game at all, but I haven't been able to put it down since I got it. The adventure is decently sized, there are loads of weapons and areas. All in all, a really good game.
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