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Shifters Preview

Warriors of Might and Magic is back, with a new name. We have impressions.

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Alleron makes a fine beastman.
Alleron makes a fine beastman.

Shifters is the spiritual sequel to last year's Warriors of Might and Magic, though you won't find the classic series' name, nor any reference to its world, anywhere in the game. 3DO seems to be distancing the series' console offshoots from its PC counterparts, and Shifters is the latest manifestation of this. Warriors' masked hero Alleron is still the leading man, however, and the roster of villains he faces is largely composed of foes from his past. The core gameplay remains the same, though, despite the dropping of the moniker--Shifters is a combat-heavy 3D adventure game in the spirit of its predecessor, though its focus is a bit different. Alleron, as the game progresses, will be allowed to shapeshift into a variety of forms, each with different abilities and statistical characteristics. The build we're currently playing lets us change into undead, genie, and beast forms, all of which have differing subforms that can be released as you progress through the game.

Behold the undead grunt.
Behold the undead grunt.

Those familiar with Warriors of Might and Magic will feel right at home with Shifters. Alleron is back, albeit heavily armed and armored, and he moves in largely the same way as he did before. The game's current control scheme maps attacks to the X button, with the circle serving as a combo modifier. You jump, meanwhile, with the triangle button, and you execute spells with the square button. The shoulder buttons are reserved for auxiliary functions: blocking, sneaking, targeting, and interaction. Overall, the gameplay is very fast and loose; Alleron combos pretty quickly, and, at least from what we've seen, the enemies seem to be applied on the levels with a heavy hand. Shifting through your forms and swapping spell effects is relatively simple too, which adds to the beat-'em-up-like pacing. It works like this: You have two "inventories," one of which lists your potions and items, the other spell effects. To access either one, you press the D-pad in the appropriate direction and scroll through it with the right analog stick. When you've found the spell or item you want, you stop and press the square to activate it--or, in the case of a potion, you press down on the D-pad to quaff it. Spells such as fireball, bless (a straightforward "shield" spell), and light were included in our build, and if the previous game is any indication, the final product should include a good number more, many with more powerful effects. In the potions department, we found standard health/mana potions, as well as ones for invisibility, strength, and speed.

Alleron in battle with a genie, and an undead shaman.
Alleron in battle with a genie, and an undead shaman.

Shapeshifting, though, is the game's focus, and the demo build gave us a good feel for that. Shifting, basically, is a spell effect, and you have to have a certain amount of mana to perform it. Provided you do, you can assume any of the other forms available to you and turn back to Alleron at will. From what we've seen so far, each form has attack routines unique to it. When in the first beast form, for instance, Alleron incorporates a head butt into his combo. Further, you'll come across certain areas in the environment that can be traversed only when in a certain form. In the sultan's palace area, you'll come across a cellar enveloped by poisonous gas. Only in your undead form are you able to pass through it without keeling over.

Scattered through the environments will be objects called protos. These are what let you build up the forms you can shapeshift into. Each category (beast, undead, and so on) has four subforms that you can unlock, each of which is incrementally more powerful than the last. Beginning with basic grunt forms and ending with powerful mage or warlock forms, the progression lets you lightly customize each of your different creatures you'll shift into, which could theoretically provide for a bit of replay value. Protos, in any event, grant you "form points," which you can distribute amongst your various forms. If you favor the undead forms, you could beef those up in lieu of a more even distribution.

Shifters features a fairly nice realtime shadow system.
Shifters features a fairly nice realtime shadow system.

Those who have played Warriors of Might and Magic will likely have some complaints regarding its graphical presentation. In Shifters, 3DO seems to be addressing some of the issues, though we're hoping for quite a bit more progress than what's evident in the current build. The frame rate seems, for the most part, more consistent, though it still seems to get pretty low when the lighting, fog, and enemies permeate the area. Things do seem a bit sharper overall, though we've spotted low-res textures more often than we'd have liked to. Likewise with the animation--Alleron's attack routines seem to be a bit more fleshed out, but his enemies' still leave a lot to be desired. Some of the AI seems a little sketchy at the moment, but 3DO has admitted that there are some issues in this department, so we're hoping that they'll be resolved before the final code is committed.

We'll have more on Shifters for you as soon as it becomes available. At this point, the game's discrete systems seem a whole lot more compelling than its actual execution. Given some more time in the shop, though, it could very well emerge to be something to look out for. Keep your eyes here for the latest.

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