Just played the demo

[D-Fens]

It is so good. Can't wait for the full game. Just hope they add voices to all units.

[BadBreath]

I just finished the demo myself. It was ok I guess, I am not sure if I am getting it. I have to say the menu structure looked very outdated.

As for the demo content, I could not help the elderly wizard since I could not operate the lever.

BB

[Faust]

Any chance at getting more of a description about likes and dislikes?

[D-Fens]

On top it plays just like warcraft 3 or Lords of Everquest, no real change (except for buildings, comming to that later), at least not in the demo. No traditional resource gathering, you collect dragonshards, which all units can do, and that goes direct to your stash, no need to transport it within the game. You get some gold to, but that was mostly from breaking barrels and enemies, and is collected the same way. You pay for uppgrades with experience.

I like the role-playing aspect underground, it is a nice change from the traditional RTS. It's like an easy version of Icewind Dale, kill monsters, loot chests, check and disarm traps, except it seems like if you lose a unit underground, you can replace it with a new one from above. At least in the demo.

I didn't quite get the building part of the game, but it seems easy enough. Limited space to build on means building comes up, units come out, building comes down to make way for another. I like the walls around the buildings gives them a little protection.

I hope this was useful.

[Faust]

Yes, that was useful. Any clue about the story and how that plays out? Is it at all compelling? My brief experiences with Warcraft or Stracraft indicated that the story was only an essentially meaningless backdrop to the rts in those Blizzard games.

[D-Fens]

The story seems to be standard, a powerful artifact that everyone wants. There will be 3 playable "races". Order of the Flame, an alliance of humans, dwarves, halflings and warforged. On the evil side we have the Umbragen, they consist of dark elves, beholders, mind flayers and other nasties. Last we have lizardfolk, and as far as I know, are som form of guardians to this artifact. The story seem to play second chair to the new "RTS on top; RPG under ground" concept.

[Mister Popo]

I was a bit disappointed to be honest, the story seemed to take a backseat, and I can't say that the enemy units were reacting very clever, but it could be that this is just for the starting levels. I have to say that I liked the graphics, although it wasn't very revolutionary.

I knew that the building system as it was announced initialy was dropped, but I really missed something new in that area. Sure, the leveling up of buildings does have a certain newness, but the hole building hive idea has been done by Kohan with a more satisfying implementation. I was looking forward to those bonusses you could give units.

But again, it was a demo, a very unsatisfying one. But I will probably buy the game.

[Mad Mac]

It's worth mentioning that they didn't actually do away with the building bonuses, they just changed the system. In the newest version, you have the option to build special (expensive) buildings called monuments, which take up a building spot and provide huge bonuses to all unit types created by surrounding buildings. This gives some additional depth to building layout, and also gives players the ability to enhance their units with cash instead of xp.

Also, in order to build higher-level units, you need to place several buildings of the same type, filling up an entire block in order to get the highest level. The combination of these two factors add to strategy, as you have to balance powerful units vs a wider selection.

As for why the nexus system was removed, it was functional in the earliest beta version, and frankly, it didn't work. You just ended up with all your units carrying a random assortment of minor improvements based on what buildings you had up, because it was too complicated, and the individual bonuses to small, to be worth strategizing around. It was also so complicated that there was only a handful of testers who even understood how it worked, and even knowing wasn't an advantage. It was extremely messy.

The actual gameplay is quite nifty when you get into it, if only because of the insane number of abilities availible to each faction. Each race has 10 "captains" each of which has 5 levels of power and 3+ abilities, making your armies like an assortment of mini heroes. Add in the fact that all of the captains can be built from the start, hero bonuses, (you only get one hero, but can build a new one if it dies) monuments, levels, and items, (which can be given to any unit) and juggernaughts, (build as many as you can afford) and the number of options is actually quite staggering. It's a fun game.