Silverfall Impressions - Early Game, Gameplay, Character Development, Story

Action role-playing games generally let you guide a character through a world while repeatedly running toward (and from) and hacking away at monsters that drop fabulous treasures. The genre has a long and storied history, including such games as Diablo and Dungeon Siege. French studio Monte Cristo has teamed up with publisher Atari to turn out a brand-new game, Silverfall, which will try to offer hack-and-slash action that's just as fast-paced and addictive as in any other action RPG, while also offering excellent graphics, a huge world, and an open-ended skill system that encourages you to play through the game multiple times.

Silverfall apparently has some kind of story, but Monte Cristo's Jehanne Rousseau was very tight-lipped about the details for fear of spoiling it for us. What the project manager did reveal is that Silverfall is the name of a massive royal city that is razed to the ground at the very beginning of the game, a casualty in a world being torn apart in a struggle between the forces of nature and the rise of technology. Over the course of your adventures, the city will be rebuilt as you eventually make your way to the throne.

Whatever the case, the story will give you the excuse to create a new character from one of four playable races--human, elf, goblin, or troll--and specialize (or generalize) your character's development using the game's flexible development system. You'll also meet up to eight different companions who can follow your character, though at any given time, you'll be able to travel with a party of only two--your created character and one follower. Different characters may require you to perform a side quest before you can gain their services, but once they do join you, you'll be able to direct their advancement, and you may be able to influence them in other ways.

Rather than being stuck with a preset character class, Silverfall's characters can develop along three major branches of skills: combat, magic, and "other"--a line of miscellaneous skills that also includes various racial abilities unique to your characters' race. As you defeat the game's many different monsters and complete the game's quests--which include about 25 hours of gameplay for the "main quest" to restore the city, along with dozens of side quests--your characters will gain experience levels, along with four skill points and four attribute points (to spend on abilities such as strength and intelligence) that can be spent in any way you choose.

Rousseau was quick to point out that players will be able to buy back any skill points they've purchased, and that the different skill trees will offer attractive bonuses to just about any kind of character--so you will be encouraged to experiment. In any case, the actual gameplay will be simple and accessible--you'll be able to load up two quick-use skills to map to your left and right mouse buttons (along with additional hotkey shortcuts). According to the project manager, Monte Cristo hopes to make a game that anyone can play, but one that role-playing veterans can really delve into and enjoy.

In addition to choosing skills for melee combat, ranged-weapon combat, elemental magic, and healing sorceries, your characters' "other" skill tree will include "alignment-based" skills. Unlike in other role-playing games, alignment won't determine your characters' ethical outlook--instead, it determines whether your character is a disciple of nature or a student of technology--and in fact, your choice of alignment will affect both the relationships you have with your teammates, which side quests are available to you, and even the rebuilding of Silverfall itself.

The skills will grant your characters special powers and the ability to use specific items intended only for characters of one alignment, and they can even change your appearance--Rousseau suggests that you'll be able to add mechanical parts to your characters' bodies and play through the game as some kind of half-human, half-robot construct. Considering the many different skills available for different types of combat and magic skills, racial skills, and alignment skills, Silverfall should hopefully offer some good replay value, since you can not only choose different followers, but also different skills, quests, and alignments.

It won't hurt that Silverfall will look great, if what we've seen is any indication. The game's vast overland environments are picturesque and feature excellent shader and lighting effects to create reflective and refractive water, convincing torch lights, and some very menacing monsters. The game's world will be varied, offering grasslands, deserts, swamps, and various towns of different alignments, and it will be huge. Rousseau suggests that it will take a long time to cross from one end of the world to the other, but fortunately the game will have a quick-travel option that will let you jump to different locations you've already explored on your world map--and various locations will even have merchants to buy up your loot and other amenities, so you won't always have to keep coming back to your hometown if you don't care to. Hopefully Silverfall will live up to its promise and deliver a great-looking, open-ended, and addictive hack-and-slash game when it ships in the US in February.