Sword Coast Legends Previews
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A fistful of new previews have reached the web for n-Space and Digital Extremes' upcoming Dungeons & Dragons CRPG Sword Coast Legends, courtesy of the game's showing at this year's GDC event.
GameRevolution:
Dialogue choices will play a major role in how other NPCs react to your party. At one point in the demo, your party meets an informant in a tavern and which dialogue choices you pick for the Irish-voiced character, Tam Olefsson, can affect his overall attitude. That said, the informant seems to be a part of a major questline so we'll see if it really matters in the long run. Where you can influence the story more is in choosing whether to save a character, like Sir Banagar, a knight who is sent to capture your party earlier in the game. If you do, he will appear later in the story and can be recruited as an AI-controlled ally against the hordes of undead and one giant zombie ogre. Outside from that, you'll hear plenty of well-placed banter between your party members in the downtime while traversing between battles.
In our demo, we were told that the adventure creator will be very accessible and easy to use, giving you the ability to create encounters in minutes. You can create adventures and put them out there for others to play, or DM in real-time, and there will be a rating system so that you can find a DM that matches your playstyle. There definitely seems to be a lot of potential here for your weekly gaming group that just doesn't seem to be able to get it together to create a fresh new adventure experience every time, as well as an opportunity to find like-minded players on the internets. Furthermore, Sword Coast Legends will support full-fledged campaigns, which the devs will be discussing in the near future.
Sword Coast Legends is among the most promising video game releases we've seen for the RPG space in recent years. The game is a true return-to-roots for D&D cRPG fans and, if delivered properly, offers a unique gameplay mechanic that greatly extends longevity of the title. The graphics and aesthetics are befitting of a D&D RPG and, while not employing thrilling visual effects technology, are appropriate and not overbearing. For a game like this, we much prefer the clean, unified aesthetic with simpler graphics technology to a game that over-invests in visuals.
And GamesRadar:
While dungeon masters are omniscient, their powers aren't limitless. Just as a mage requires mana, the dungeon master relies on 'threat'. You start out with a lot of it, but nearly everything the DM does requires some, from spawning enemies to setting traps. A good dungeon master will earn more threat by providing a suitable challenge for players, one that pushes them to the edge without resulting in a string of party wipes.
