Loki Hands-On Preview

As far as real-time action role-playing games go, there are a few titles that stick in the mind from days gone by. Diablo was, of course, one of those, whereas Titan Quest is a more recent example. In August, we'll see another in the hack-and-slash genre released, Loki. This game seems to be trying to round up the best bits of many fantasy games and pull them all into one place. Whether or not developer Cyanide will succeed is something we'll find out nearer release time, but for now, Loki's beginning to come together, so we took delivery of the latest build and jumped straight into the game.

First up, the game's a fantasy RPG that relies heavily on exploration, character levelling, enemy smashing, and loot grabbing. The story goes that Seth, the Egyptian god of chaos, is causing mayhem and that the other gods need a hand in bringing him back under control. Your character becomes that helping hand, so you embark on your adventure across four separate environments: the world of Norse legends, the Aztec world, ancient Egypt, and ancient Greece. Each area also has a character tailored to that theme. You can actually play the different environments in any order you like, but you'll need to complete them all to unlock the final quest, which will lead to the conclusion of the game.

Although there are four different settings, the version we played had only the Norse warrior available as a starting point, and aside from choosing a name, there were no customisation options around his appearance. We were set down outside a small village, and the first quest-giver was our character's father. He was clearly less than impressed with our warrior, compared to his brother--who's off fighting in a war--and sent us on a mundane mission to collect some furs from a nearby trader.

But by the time we returned to the village, it was under attack, and after running about killing the invaders, the father was one of the casualties. However, before drawing his last breath, he warned us of the trouble that lay ahead and packed us off in search of the god Odin.

From there on in, you're plunged into an adventure that's packed with the exploration of environment tiles not unlike those found in the likes of Neverwinter Nights. Each section contains an area that's partially generated at random, so that no two adventures are ever quite the same, but the key targets and objectives remain consistent.

Dispatching enemies is as simple as running up to them and left clicking them. This initiates a basic attack, which for the Norse warrior is related to the weapon you're using. You can equip a number of different items, including one- or two-handed weapons, shields, and various pieces of armour. As you'd expect, some of these pieces of equipment will drop as loot from monsters that you kill, while others will be found in treasure chests in encampments or other places of interest along the way.

Enemies will attack on sight and are clearly marked on a minimap that's positioned in the top corner of the screen. When you start out, you'll only have basic creatures to fight, such as wolves, but as you level up your character and move into new areas, your adversaries will become significantly harder to kill. What's more, you'll rarely have to face enemies one at a time, so right from the start, you'll get used to some fairly frantic mouse-button clicking as you try to take out the opposition before your health bar reaches zero.

You can recharge your health during battles by using potions, although out of battle, this will happen quite quickly if you just stand still for a few seconds. This means that while the fights are generally quite frenetic, there's actually very little downtime, so you can clear an area in just a few minutes.

While there is one main quest thread that you'll follow throughout the game, there are also plenty of little side quests that will give you some diversions. On the whole, the ones we encountered didn't seem to have a major significance on the direction of the game, but they did yield extra experience points and rewards.

As you develop your character, you'll gain experience levels. Each one allows you to allocate a number of points into various statistics, ranging from strength and dexterity to intelligence and vitality. These have a direct impact on your character's ability to fight and cast spells, as well as influence other aspects, such as your number of hit points.

You can also level up in a parallel set of skills, which works out in a similar way to the talents in World of Warcraft. These skills are obtained by gaining experience in your faith bar, again through killing enemies. These skills enable you to specialise in certain areas, each of which is related to a specific deity of whichever race you're playing as at the time. For example, your Norse warrior can choose skills from the Norse gods. Initially, only Thor's set was unlocked for us, but later, there are also sets for Tyr and Odin. Some skills concentrate on specific weapons, while others provide special attacks or buffs to your character. You can reset them at any time for a small fee in gold, and there are also several levels of effectiveness to most of the skills.

As you'd expect, there are also merchants that are ready to buy your hard-fought spoils, as well as sell you vital supplies. One of the more interesting aspects of Loki is the blacksmith, a non-player character who allows you to disassemble pieces of equipment you don't want into their constituent parts then combine those parts with new ones to forge new items. In this way it's possible to put together a massive number of different weapons, and you can add in runes as well to add magical powers. It seems to be a comprehensive system, although it seems quite complicated in terms of working out the best combinations, and clearly there's plenty of room for experimentation.

The single-player game aside, there are also some ambitious plans for multiplayer gaming. For a start, there is the inclusion of the increasingly popular cooperative mode, which allows you to group with up to five others and play through the game together. There's also a duel system, which allows you to pit your character in a one-on-one arena battle with another player, as well as a team mode where two groups of up to four characters will fight.

Additionally, there's a mode that will cater to some group raidlike action, where up to six players can take on a variety of challenges against the game's monsters. All of the online modes contribute to online rankings that will allow you to compare your performance against other Loki-minded individuals.

Overall, Loki looks like it's going to be a large game, with plenty of content to get through for both solo and group adventurers. The visuals in the game are also looking nicely polished. Although there are still some slight issues with camera views and character pathfinding, on the whole, the game seems almost done. If hack-and-slash games are your bag, you'll want to keep an eye on this game. We'll have more when the game ships in August