Wrath Unleashed Preview

The strategy game has seen some interesting changes as the genre has evolved on consoles. Gameplay has become more complex and moved away from the simple elegance of the board games whence the genre sprang. However, Wrath Unleashed, the upcoming strategy game for the PlayStation 2 and Xbox, from LucasArts and The Collective, offers a new wrinkle to the developing genre. The title features hybrid gameplay that uses the old-school simplicity of classic strategy games, combined with an accessible fighting engine, and serves it up in a tasty visual package. We had the opportunity to put a preview version of the Xbox game through its paces to see how the unique game is coming together.

The story behind Wrath Unleashed focuses on a power struggle between demigods, with some sibling rivalry thrown in for good measure. Creation has been undergoing some serious upheaval ever since the world was destroyed during a conflict between the forces of chaos and order. Four squabbling demigods continue the strife. While it was bad enough that the world was destroyed, the quartet is still bickering as the four strive for the power to become full-fledged gods. As you'd expect, each demigod has his or her own agenda and, not coincidentally his or her own unique affiliations. On the side of light order, you'll find Aenna, a scantily clad demigoddess with the elemental affinity of water (which, we expect, explains her thonglike outfit). Her light chaos counterpart is Epothos, a more sensibly dressed demigod whose elemental affinity is fire. Representing the dark forces is Durlock, another sensibly dressed male whose elemental affinity is that of the earth. Rounding out the quartet is Helamis, representative of dark chaos, whose elemental affinity is wind (as signified by her skimpy outfit). Each character leads a unique army, made up of fantasy creatures like dragons, unicorns, cyclopes, giants, and genies, into battle as they fight "to get their godhood on." Each unit features unique attributes that you'll have to carefully manage during battle to ensure victory. For example, unicorns are teleporters capable of crossing gaps in the board.

You'll find three main gameplay modes in Wrath Unleashed--wargames, versus, and team fighter--each with its own unique game options. Wargames is the heart of the title and offers battle, campaign, and tutorial options as well as an army builder feature. Battle is a skirmish mode that lets you set up a fight against up to three opponents who can either be AI- or human-controlled. Campaign is basically a story mode that follows the demigods on their quests to achieve the ultimate promotions and become gods. Each character has his or her own set of four chapters--which are sequentially unlocked--detailing his or her quest for godhood. Once you complete a chapter you'll unlock the god incarnation of each of the characters, who, as you'd expect, are each substantially more powerful than their demigod counterparts. The tutorial consists of a series of missions designed to familiarize you with the basics of gameplay. The army builder option lets you create your own fighting force by mixing any combination of creatures together in small, medium, and large configurations that you'll be able to save to either the Xbox hard drive or to a memory unit for use against friends. The versus mode is a two-player fight against the computer or a friend in which you can customize victory conditions so that they are tied to a set number of wins or to a time limit. Finally, team fighter is a co-op mode that lets you and a friend take on the AI in a customizeable battle that lets you tweak team size, unit limits, arena location, and length of time.

As far as the actual game mechanics go, Wrath Unleashed features two distinct types that complement each other nicely. There is standard turn-based gameplay and, surprisingly, there's 3D fighting. While you'd think the combination wouldn't work very well, Wrath seems to pull it off. The core element in battles is a pretty straightforward turn-based rule system that should give old-school gamers, particularly those who remember the classic Archon, a bit of déjà vu. The action is set on a variety of different-themed boards broken up into squares. Chunks of the land the board is set on will offer unique elemental affinities that will help and hinder your army based on its affinity and that of your opponent's. For example, Aenna's forces have an advantage in water-based areas, such as oceans, swamps, and ice. You're basically allowed one action per turn. Actions can range from casting a spell with your demigod or magic user to moving characters on the board. Each board has unique structures that you capture by occupying them with your creatures. In addition, you'll find mana vats which will cough up valuable mana at the start of each turn. The more you have, the faster your mana store will increase. For an added mana bump, you can also make use of magic amplifiers which not only boost the mana you earn during each turn but also allow any of your minions to cast magic like a pro. Magic is a unique component of gameplay as, unlike most modern games, you'll have to use it sparingly, since mana doesn't grown on trees in this game.

You'll usually have two spellcasters in battle, your deity and a secondary mage, who won't be able to cast quite as many spells. Your deity will be able to cast a variety of offensive and defensive spells. The three key spells are: resurrect, which lets you revive one of your minions if they've been defeated in battle; wrath, which instantly kills an enemy unit; and transform land, which lets you change the elemental affinity of squares on the board to that of your own. Your secondary spellcaster has many key offense and defensive spells but lacks the ability to resurrect or cast the wrath spell.

The second type of gameplay in Wrath Unleashed is 3D combat, which kicks in any time you move a minion to a square occupied by your foe. The game shifts from its overhead view to a 3D arena that reflects the terrain type of the square you're fighting on. The clashing critters are laid out at opposite ends of the arena at the start of the battle--in standard fighting game fashion. Your health bars appear in the top corners of the screen. You're given direct control of your minion during these sequences and are able to use heavy and light melee and magic attacks. Combinations of the various attacks will produce assorted combos and special hits that dole out significant damage. In addition, you'll find that the arenas themselves will come in handy, as each contains environmental hazards, like concealed spikes and lava pits, which deal damage to you and your opponent. The key is to obviously maneuver your enemy into harm's way during a fight. Finally, you'll also be able to make use of a mystic barrier that forms the walls of the arena. Slamming or being slammed into the wall serves up respectable amounts of damage. However, while there is a solid 3D engine running the battles, you'll still be kept in check by the creatures' various strengths and weaknesses. For example, it will be highly unlikely for you to beat a fire giant or a cyclops with a standard unicorn or a centaur.

As far as control goes Wrath Unleashed makes use of two simple layouts that are easy to pick up. In the board sequences you'll mainly rely on a cursor that you'll move around the board with the left analog stick. The A button lets you select whichever unit you have the cursor over. Once selected, you're able to move your unit or cast magic--if capable. The B button backs you out of selections, and the Y button calls up an info screen that fills you in on the creatures, terrain, or structures on the board (depending on what you've highlighted before calling up the menu). The left and right triggers let you pull back or zoom in on the playing field, while the black button pulls the camera back to a 2D view of the field. Finally, the white button lets you skip a turn. During the 3D fighting sequences you'll make use of a pretty traditional control scheme. The left analog stick moves your fighter around the arena. X and A serve as your heavy and light melee attacks, respectively, while Y and B cover heavy and light magic assaults. The left trigger lets you perform your fighter's unique special magic attack, and the right trigger blocks and strafes.

The graphics are a stylish collection of eclectic designs that take some interesting liberties with familiar mythical creatures. The most striking graphics feature is the design for the unicorn, which has its horn coming out of the lower lip. The designs for the various gods and demigods are interesting, although they do mine some familiar territory. (Interestingly, the female deity contingent shows a considerable amount of skin.) Animation is well done, with each of the creatures sporting unique bits of animation that lends them some nice touches of personality. For example, the cyclops carries a captive human in a small mesh sack that he'll "eyeball" postfight. The demigod and god characters move well, with their individual movement offering a hint of their various personalities. For example, virtuous Aenna doesn't shake her moneymaker nearly as much as bad girl Helamis does. The assorted special effects used for magic are well done and offer some creative visuals to represent them.

Audio is almost as well done, with strong music and voice but thin sound effects. The game's soundtrack features a good assortment of orchestrated pieces that offer enough pomp and circumstance to fit the proceedings. The voice acting seems to be coming along pretty well. The various demigods sound fine and match their individual temperaments. The game gets a boost of mythic "cred" thanks to the inclusion of Mako, a fixture of action movies, who mines his role in Conan the Barbarian for inspiration as the game's narrator. The only area of the audio that could stand to improve a bit is the audio for the creatures. We'd like to hear more of a dramatic difference between the various monsters.

Based on our preview version, Wrath Unleashed is coming together pretty well. The gameplay is solid and the graphics feature a unique style that keeps the well-known mythic creatures in its roster quite fresh. The only blemish on the action comes from the lengthy load times as the game transitions from the board segments to the 3D fighting arena. Considering the game isn't due until early next year, we expect that The Collective should be able to make the load times more manageable by the time the game ships. Anyone looking for a solid strategy game that tries some new things will want to keep an eye out for Wrath Unleashed when it ships early next year for the Xbox. A PlayStation 2 version of the game is also slated to ship at that time as well.