Shadow Realms Interviews
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We have rounded up a couple of interviews concerned with BioWare's latest project, Shadow Realms, an online 4v1 action-RPG developed by their BioWare Austin studio.
First, PC Gamer chats with general manager Jeff Hickman about alpha invites, the game's structure and the classes:
The classic BioWare storytelling will definitely show up in Shadow Realms, which mixes a modern day Earth setting with the more classical fantasy world of Embra. But as Hickman explained, the story and adventure parts of the game will be separated. "You're going to get the feel of a BioWare game and a BioWare story, just like any other," he said. "Story with choice, story that hopefully evokes emotion in people, betrayal, saving your love, romance options." that story will be told through singleplayer experiences, but the bulk of the game will be spent in the 4v1 shadowlord mode, where four players team up to take on a quest, and one player fills the D&D role of a dungeon master trying to stop them.
"As you're getting your story missions, they're developing the backstory of the game, and you come to these cliffhanger moments," Hickman said. "I've read probably the first 30 episodes now, and each one has this awesome cliffhanger moment where you're making a choice and the episode's done."
Hickman said BioWare is still experimenting with how long each episode should be, trying to find the right mixture of story and gameplay. The developers also want each adventure sequence to be replayable with different hero combinations, specializations, and shadowlords. Finding that balance is part of the reason BioWare will start allowing players into the game at the alpha stage of development.
While GameSpot reveals that the game might eventually come to consoles:
Speaking to GameSpot at Gamescom, Hickman was surprised by some early reports indicating the game was a PC exclusive, saying, "I saw some reports coming out yesterday saying [Shadow Realms] was exclusive to PC, which nobody ever said...there is nothing that says that if the fans want it, and everything goes well on PC, that we don't push it to console. It's a Frostbite game, so it's straightforward, and we can do it if we want to."
