Posted on 19. August 2010 19:20 by AdamWaters
So I'm sure you have read our quick blurb about what we intend the game to be, but I'm sure that everyone wants to know more about how we intend the game to be played. To do that we have to first take a look back at some of the influentual games of our time and decide what features we loved, what features we hated, and how it's going to influence Warlord: Tears of Taltos as we move forward. Each week I'm going to continue this article until it results in some of our first gameplay footage.
The first Real Time Strategy game I ever played, and probably my first encounter with creatures known as Elves, Orcs, and Fantasy as a whole. Warcraft 2.
I imagine this game was many gamers introduction to RTS. The screams of my blazing 56k modem would let me connect to a friends computer and test my newly discovered Orc Grunt rush attack against his Alliance Keeps. We loved every moment of the game, it was new, it let us think and strategies evolved from lunch room discussions. The sweet sound of death and decay eating away an enemies farms as your Bloodlusted Ogres bashed his Knights into a bloody pulp. It was beautiful.
There was a lot to love here, but there are some serious stand out traits that I love to see in video games to this very day.
1. A game that isn't too serious. I love finding that hidden nook in the corner of the map where some funny encounter plays out. It lets you know that you're in on the joke. Too many clicks on an Orc when you're bored and the dialog stops getting serious and it starts getting silly. The perfect mix between serious when axes are hitting faces, and silly when you are bored with finding that enemies last peon.
2.The diversity in units and colors were amazing. An array of goblins strapped with explosives, trolls with blue mohawks, fat fleshy orgres, and dark mysterious death knights all made the Orcs stand out from one another. The alliance was much of the same with feathery griffons, armor clad knights, blonde haired elves, and those damn mages.
3. The UI was incredibly easy to use. It's archiac by today's standards, but there is something just beautiful about how simple it was. There were only a few things to choose from for each unit, and that was all you needed. Move, Patrol, Attack, Guard. Then you had your special commands for your wizards. Sheep, Blizzard, Fireball. So simple, but the depth at which you could use them was damn near limitless.
Despite all of the love I have for the game, there were some serious flaws. I'm sure you're saying of course there are the game is 15 years old, but there are flaws that are being repeated even in recent games.
1. The long wait before action. Watching that little peon hammer away at a strong hold, waiting for the next peon to be created, building a barracks, ugh. So boring.
2. Ships. Not every level had a place for them, and when they were useful they were annoying. Looking back I kind of hate that they wasted resources on something that wasn't fully utilized. More flying units or spend some time balancing the other units and making them different would have been prefered. I guess there is a reason we haven't seen a return to sea warfare by Blizzard.
3. Sameness. Both factions were mirrors of each other. No true differences except for the spells, and Orc spells kicked way more ass. To make the game dynamic it has to have variety.
Next up, is a game that many of you probably aren't thinking of as an RTS....