E3 2002: Lionheart impressions

Today at E3, we visited with Black Isle Studios and took a look at its upcoming role-playing game, which is being developed at Reflexive Entertainment. Lionheart will be a single-player role-playing game that makes use of Black Isle's S.P.E.C.I.A.L. (strength, perception, endurance, charisma, intelligence, agility, luck) attribute system, which originally appeared in Fallout. However, unlike Fallout, Lionheart will be a fantasy-themed game that takes place in 16th-century Europe, so the game won't have firearms of any kind.

Lionheart takes place in an alternate version of Europe that's been changed considerably because of an alternate result of the 13th-century crusades. At the end of the third crusade, King Richard the Lionheart of England gathers some of the world's most powerful artifacts and invokes a profound religious prayer intended to aid the king's armies in defeating the Muslim general Saladin. But instead of helping Richard's efforts, his prayer invokes a cataclysm--one that nearly destroys the world and has dire consequences. As a result of the cataclysm, magic is introduced to the world, and sorcery takes the place of industrial revolution.

The game itself has already been in development for about eight months, but it's got a ways to go. We were able to watch a lone player character do battle with a few shambling zombies--combat currently takes place only in real time, and Black Isle currently has no plans to implement a turn-based combat option. Though we didn't get a chance to see an adventuring party at work, Black Isle plans to let players recruit up to three nonplayer character companions at a time, though they won't be under direct control. Instead, players will direct their party members by speaking to them, just as in Fallout. And as in Fallout, player characters won't begin their lives as a predefined character--instead, they will begin as a character with a certain set of skills and perks. Skills can be increased each time a character gains an experience level, as well as perks, which are additional special abilities that can give them bonuses to fighting, magic use, and favorable reactions when speaking with other characters. Characters who have advanced to very high levels will also be able to earn "uberperks"--exceedingly advanced special abilities that may give characters powerful and very specialized abilities.

Lionheart is scheduled for release this winter. We'll have more information on the game as soon as it becomes available.