E3 2001: The RPGs
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Torn uses an advancement system that's skill-based and strong on personal configuration-as might be expected from members of the original Fallout team. Main characters will not only have statistics and a host of skills to improve, but over-arching motivations that determine how they interact with the world around them: making a huge sum of money, protecting one's clan, destroying evil wherever it is found, etc. You will find multiple solutions to any given quest, depending upon your main character's configuration, increasing replay value; and, of course, plenty of NPCs to consider for your party who bring their own agendas, relationships, and quests. (If this sounds like déjà vu after reading about Arcanum, above, that's good: you're keeping up. Some of the Fallout folks left BIS to work on Arcanum, so there are similar mindsets involved.) Think of Torn as combining BG2's apparent non-linearity and self-driven NPCs with Fallout's detailed personal configuration system, and you'll get a sense of how very much you can tailor each play-through to bear your personal stamp. While Torn isn't an AD&D product, that shouldn't cause problems for any serious RPGer. (After all, good novels are usually derived from worlds created by their authors, not out of those licensed from large corporations.) Its world is (original)-in other words, a mix of familiar stuff, like dwarves and elves, with some races and creatures that use the same stats, but appear (new.) The magic system produces many of the same results we've gotten out of all these games (blasting, summoning, healing, etc), but it feels unique, and that's what counts in the end. There are four major (magical realms) of Summoning, Order, Chaos, and Alchemy, in turn influencing the Five Elements of Air, Fire, Water, Earth and Time. The Alchemical Realm, for instance, is used to identify and repair items, imbue a target with elemental affinities (making a person fire-resistant, or giving a sword a flame attack), and build powerful compound potions. A character who has the Artisan skill and Alchemical ability will be able to enchant items with Chaos or Order magic. Remember how in the Fallout games, the more good and evil actions you committed, the higher your positive or negative karma, and the stronger the bonuses you derived? Well, with alchemical magic, a neutral karma actually helps, so that a high level alchemist who has a gray soul will actually be more powerful than a zealous do-gooder or a cackling sociopath.
I hope to do a more thorough preview on this game in the near future. In any case, we'll all be able to see how Torn fares by year's end.
Pool of Radiance is another RPG about which so much has been written over the last year. It's more linear and less character-rich than BG2, but given everything else that looks good in this game, the sales are certain to be high. And that's precisely why Ubi-Soft, a company which doesn't (do) RPGs, purchased it when SSI/Mindscape folded. Rumor has it that another AD&D game is in the works, but don't expect to hear much about this until after PoR hits the retail shelves in September.
Bethesda Softworks first came to prominence in 1994. The company offered cheap wages to its programmers in exchange for a degree of creative control over the product, and the first results were Elder Scrolls: Arena. This RPG, like its 1996 successor, ES: Daggerfall, was notable for its first person realtime RPG action, character configuration, largely non-linear world, on-the-fly random dungeon formation, and epic scope. It also let you create enchanted items, configure new spells, and work up the pathway of a variety of guilds, though the graphical engine was seriously aging by Daggerfall's release. The major drawback to both games were their lack of detail. True, you could join a particular faction or guild in any province, but aside from the repetitive quests, there was no inter-factional politics; and despite the differences in appearances between cities, they were alike beneath the skins. The balance among guilds, factions and races was static, and the only thing that truly changed over time was you, yourself.
It's been a long time coming, but ES: Morrowind's release is nearly at hand (Note: The screenshots on the right are E3 visuals from Morrowind). The game is expected to release in the last quarter. It finally provides all the detail that ES players have sought. Your actions and allegiances among three factions and up to ten guilds (with another nine guilds you can't join, but can interact with) determine how Morrowind's citizens feel about you-and each other. It will be possible to win the game in various ways for a variety of factions, utilizing dozens of skills. There are thirty cities, and hundreds of wilderness sites and dungeons, each of which has been personally designed (thus preventing the (this seems familiar) feeling which crept up on dungeoncrawlers in the earlier games).
Morrowind will also be released with an Elder Scrolls Construction Set, the same tool that has been used to construct the game, itself. You'll be able to modify Morrowind in any way you see fit-enabling new dungeons, creating new items, changing skills and missions.
