Since this is getting officially released in a few days I figured this deserved its own thread. This game is what a lot of people wanted from Diablo 3 (minus big budget polish and plus minor to major de-sync issues). Sporting what has to be the richest build system in a modern dungeon crawler this game is a beast. With the ability to respec fully being prohibitively expensive I would say this game is basically a middle finger to casual players. While anyone can come up with a build capable of rolling through most of the game on normal difficulty, by the last act you will regret not putting some thought into your build. In fact, a lot of the best builds that get posted on their forums outright say that the build is basically worthless in normal difficulty and you'd do well to run in public groups or with friends.
Any way, if that doesn't turn you off you'll probably love this game. Essentially there is a huge sea of interconnected passive skills to take and based on which class you choose determines where you start. Basically one giant skill tree that every class shares. I've seen a build where the marauder class (basically your two handed meat and potatoes warrior) rocks dual wielding wands and just fucks up endgame content. Your starting position and class don't effect what you can do with the class. There are no item restrictions based on class, they're all based on stats (that you can pick up in the tree) and level.
The story is well done and never gets in the way of you having fun. You're a criminal being exiled to Wraeclast where basically everyone assumes you will do an immediate, un-noteworthy death. The character information is given to you by the characters themselves (ALL greatly voice acted), detailing what they did, why they did it, and how they plan on just fucking shit up on their path to revenge. So without spoiling anything, the ship crashes and you start your frantic clicking from there.
The interesting stuff is that as you level you don't get active skills and there is no currency. Instead, as you quest and kill monsters they drop skill gems (also unrestricted the same way items are) and other oddities that you can use to barter with NPC merchants or other players. They range in respec tokens (for one passive skill tree point.. the foreseeable max is like 90 to 100ish passive skill tree points) to identify scrolls, to randomizing loot quality, and adding random magical properties. There's a lot more, but basically these weird items add up into an odd sort of economy for the game. There's a lot of randomness to the skill gems, but if you're careful with quest rewards you can get most of what you want.
What separates this game from Diablo 3 for the most part (besides meaningful skill builds) is the atmosphere and combat. Wraeclast is a fairly depressing place. While the towns are populated by people who are understanding of the exile' predicament everyone else wants to kill you. The main antagonist is Piety who is kind of like Hitler if he had access to necromancy. Suffice to say, when the game wants to get bloody and disturb you it doesn't pull any punches. The last level available in the open beta had you descending into a temple and as you got lower the experiments she's doing (and the enemies) get more and more fucked up. I think this level alone wins for the most disturbing things I've seen in gaming. The idea that the boss at the bottom of the temple isn't even the game ending finale still fascinates me. I'm excited to see the levels they're adding and the actual finale.
Also the music is top notch.
There are also 'seasons' where the devs create alternative 'leagues' where players compete with each other over time (ranging in time from minutes to hours to days). Winners and participants who do well enough get points that get them free gear. The league system also lets them play with the game's rules without compromising the core game or its economy.
What truly makes this game special is that it's entirely free and the microtransactions are entirely cosmetic. There's no buying inventory space, but if you want to leave cool footprints or make your weapon glow, they'll gladly take your money. It's an entirely level playing field. One could suggest that you can't look truly unique or bad ass without shelling out $5-$15 but this game is decidedly one where that doesn't really matter. If you have to throw on this lame looking wolf head to get the bonus you need to get past a boss then god damn you are going to do it and have fun while doing so.
The graphics are a little dated but the art direction in this game is all but flawless (I think the marauder and templar characters look goofy no matter how bad ass the armor you put them in is). The biggest problem in this game is basically un-fixable according to the devs. There is a REALLY long forum post that I'll bet will be getting like a million hits this week when this game goes live on Steam that explains what de-sync is and why it has to part of this game. Basically the combat is fast paced and requires a lot of communication client side and server side and even a gigantic company would have to limit how often this communication gets handled. It goes into why this isn't an issue in Diablo 3, and goes so far as to call the combat comparatively slow paced and almost all the attacks are AoEs which apparently makes things simpler.
The problem ends up with your character kind of rubberbanding through the environment under certain conditions that I can't really put into words. The only thing to say is to just be careful while in battle and you'll eventually learn how to almost never get boned by de-sync. If you Leeroy Jenkins yourself through dungeons you're going to rubber band and the monsters CAN and WILL keep hitting you until you're dead. I'd have made a note here about you not creating a hardcore character until you've mastered avoiding de-sync, but hardcore characters get moved into the non-HC league when they die. I think the biggest tips I can give to avoid de-sync are to never let yourself get surrounded and to be careful moving through doors when you're near enemies in a dungeon.
So in summation - if you don't mind complications then this is probably the best free to play game ever released.
Any way, if that doesn't turn you off you'll probably love this game. Essentially there is a huge sea of interconnected passive skills to take and based on which class you choose determines where you start. Basically one giant skill tree that every class shares. I've seen a build where the marauder class (basically your two handed meat and potatoes warrior) rocks dual wielding wands and just fucks up endgame content. Your starting position and class don't effect what you can do with the class. There are no item restrictions based on class, they're all based on stats (that you can pick up in the tree) and level.
The story is well done and never gets in the way of you having fun. You're a criminal being exiled to Wraeclast where basically everyone assumes you will do an immediate, un-noteworthy death. The character information is given to you by the characters themselves (ALL greatly voice acted), detailing what they did, why they did it, and how they plan on just fucking shit up on their path to revenge. So without spoiling anything, the ship crashes and you start your frantic clicking from there.
The interesting stuff is that as you level you don't get active skills and there is no currency. Instead, as you quest and kill monsters they drop skill gems (also unrestricted the same way items are) and other oddities that you can use to barter with NPC merchants or other players. They range in respec tokens (for one passive skill tree point.. the foreseeable max is like 90 to 100ish passive skill tree points) to identify scrolls, to randomizing loot quality, and adding random magical properties. There's a lot more, but basically these weird items add up into an odd sort of economy for the game. There's a lot of randomness to the skill gems, but if you're careful with quest rewards you can get most of what you want.
What separates this game from Diablo 3 for the most part (besides meaningful skill builds) is the atmosphere and combat. Wraeclast is a fairly depressing place. While the towns are populated by people who are understanding of the exile' predicament everyone else wants to kill you. The main antagonist is Piety who is kind of like Hitler if he had access to necromancy. Suffice to say, when the game wants to get bloody and disturb you it doesn't pull any punches. The last level available in the open beta had you descending into a temple and as you got lower the experiments she's doing (and the enemies) get more and more fucked up. I think this level alone wins for the most disturbing things I've seen in gaming. The idea that the boss at the bottom of the temple isn't even the game ending finale still fascinates me. I'm excited to see the levels they're adding and the actual finale.
Also the music is top notch.
There are also 'seasons' where the devs create alternative 'leagues' where players compete with each other over time (ranging in time from minutes to hours to days). Winners and participants who do well enough get points that get them free gear. The league system also lets them play with the game's rules without compromising the core game or its economy.
What truly makes this game special is that it's entirely free and the microtransactions are entirely cosmetic. There's no buying inventory space, but if you want to leave cool footprints or make your weapon glow, they'll gladly take your money. It's an entirely level playing field. One could suggest that you can't look truly unique or bad ass without shelling out $5-$15 but this game is decidedly one where that doesn't really matter. If you have to throw on this lame looking wolf head to get the bonus you need to get past a boss then god damn you are going to do it and have fun while doing so.
The graphics are a little dated but the art direction in this game is all but flawless (I think the marauder and templar characters look goofy no matter how bad ass the armor you put them in is). The biggest problem in this game is basically un-fixable according to the devs. There is a REALLY long forum post that I'll bet will be getting like a million hits this week when this game goes live on Steam that explains what de-sync is and why it has to part of this game. Basically the combat is fast paced and requires a lot of communication client side and server side and even a gigantic company would have to limit how often this communication gets handled. It goes into why this isn't an issue in Diablo 3, and goes so far as to call the combat comparatively slow paced and almost all the attacks are AoEs which apparently makes things simpler.
The problem ends up with your character kind of rubberbanding through the environment under certain conditions that I can't really put into words. The only thing to say is to just be careful while in battle and you'll eventually learn how to almost never get boned by de-sync. If you Leeroy Jenkins yourself through dungeons you're going to rubber band and the monsters CAN and WILL keep hitting you until you're dead. I'd have made a note here about you not creating a hardcore character until you've mastered avoiding de-sync, but hardcore characters get moved into the non-HC league when they die. I think the biggest tips I can give to avoid de-sync are to never let yourself get surrounded and to be careful moving through doors when you're near enemies in a dungeon.
So in summation - if you don't mind complications then this is probably the best free to play game ever released.
(((
