The Chosen: Well of Souls Preview
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The Chosen: Well of Souls is the latest action role-playing game from Polish developer Rebelmind, who is also responsible for Space Hack and Grom. The Chosen has been in development for years, but I'm not sure if it was ever officially released (Rebelmind's web site gives mixed signals, and a search for Frater, the game's European title, didn't result in anything). However, I can say for certain that The Chosen is coming soon to North America, thanks to publisher Meridian4. Meridian4 sent us the latest build of the game, which appears to be all but complete, but cautioned us that the Polish-to-English translation is going to get a facelift (the game has a fairly literal translation now, with all of the unintentional humor and confusion that such translations provide), and that all of the spoken dialogue is going to be re-recorded.
Meridian4 also sent me a manual, but this is one of the parts of The Chosen that needs to be re-translated, and so I'm a little fuzzy about the game's premise. From what I can tell, some dastardly evil sorcerer out there wants to take over the world, and to generate an army, or perhaps just to create confusion, he's opened up several Wells of Souls, which have given a horde of nasty creatures access to our world. Standing in the way of the sorcerer is the Alchemists' Fraternity, of which you are a member. That means, as the campaign progresses, you have to fight your way to these Wells of Souls and close them down, and then no doubt take the fight to the sorcerer himself.
When the game opens up, you get to select one of three characters: Tong Wong the Warrior (a melee fighter), Elena the Hunter (a ranged fighter), or Frater Simon the Monk (a magic user). However, despite each character having a class, The Chosen basically uses a classless system, and so the character you select is more a statement about how you intend to play the game rather than a restriction to that playing style. For example, Elena starts out with the highest dexterity, which makes her the best suited for ranged attacks, but there isn't any reason why you couldn't develop Tong Wong or Frater Simon that way instead.
Each character gets 27 skills, divided up into three categories: offensive, defensive, and other. About 25 of these skills are the same for each character, with only a couple being unique. For example, all characters get the (intimidation) skill, which slows down nearby enemies, but only hunters get the (piercing) skill, which allows arrows and bolts to pass through targets, and only monks get the (mana regeneration) skill, which increases their mana regeneration rate. All of the skills give passive bonuses, but you can only have one skill per category active at once, and so you have to choose carefully which skills you want to specialize in.
Gameplay in The Chosen is about what you'd expect. You left click to move and attack, and you right click to cast spells, and you use the keyboard to access a few hotkeys (such as H to quaff a healing potion) and to move the camera. Nicely, from what I saw of the game, the combat is tougher than what you might expect, so you have to pay more attention to what you're doing, and Rebelmind did a nice job in mixing up the enemies and environments you encounter, so the game stays fresh. On the other hand, if you die during your travels, there isn't any way to run back and retrieve your corpse; instead, you have to load your game, which gets a little tedious, especially since auto-saves appear to take place at fixed locations rather than after fixed intervals, and so you can lose a lot of progress if you're not careful.
I spent about 10 hours playing The Chosen. That was enough time to sample each of the characters and to take Tong Wong a ways into the campaign. From what I can tell after playing that amount of time, The Chosen has two things going for it that separate it from the pack: how the companion system works, and how you can upgrade your equipment. I'll discuss each in turn.
The companions in The Chosen aren't like the companions in most other games. They're not semi-developed characters who add anything to the plot or even interject dialogue at random times. They're simple followers, but they're interesting followers, because there are three types of them. The simplest of the followers are the people you rescue during the campaign. They stay with you until they die, or until you move on to the next map. You can heal these followers with the (tend) skill, but they don't gain experience or improve their skills.
Next up are (helpers.) There are two types of helpers: Golem, who is a slow-moving melee fighter, and Neferkar, who is a flying ranged attacker. You can only have one helper with you at a time. Helpers gain experience and can be developed to improve their hit points and damage, but you can't heal them, and when they die, you have to use a special scroll to revive them.
Finally, there are demons, who can only be summoned for a short period of time. Demons have to be captured first (they guard the Wells of Souls, and so that's where you can get them), and their summoning works like a spell, and so using them requires a certain amount of occult knowledge, the primary attribute of magic users. Demons are very powerful, but it requires a lot of faith to summon them, and so they're typically only used for important battles.
The other thing that makes The Chosen interesting is how you're allowed to transform your equipment. The inventory page includes a (melting pot) button where you can combine items. If you add a weapon to an item, you increase the armor or damage of the item, but you reduce its durability. If you add a piece of armor to an item, you increase its durability. If you add a scroll, you reduce the requirements of the item. And if you add a potion, you reduce the transformation cost. You can also transfer magical bonuses from one item to another, and so, for example, if you find a crappy weapon that gives (2% deadly strike,) you can add that bonus to your good weapon, assuming that the bonus is not already there (bonuses can't be combined; only the best one is taken).
I liked the way the equipment transformations worked. They allow your equipment to grow with you, so you can tune it to your needs, and they actually give you something to spend your money on, which is usually lacking in role-playing games. Transformations are expensive, especially if you're trying to add a powerful bonus to an item, and so The Chosen's economy is actually tough, and you have to make decisions. Do you use an item in a transformation and spend money, or do you sell it and make money? Do you save up for a transformation, or hope that something good drops from the creatures you kill? Do you buy a ring (which I never saw drop), or do you increase the durability of your weapon or armor? It's always nice when a game makes you ask questions, and the answers aren't obvious.
The version of The Chosen I played was complete in that it contained the entire campaign, but I stopped playing after I closed the first Well of Souls. I'm guessing that's about a quarter of the campaign, and from what I saw, everything worked pretty well, and the battles were well balanced. The Chosen isn't going to have state of the art graphics, and it's not going to tell a deep, detailed story, but for killing an assortment of unusual creatures, and for building up your character, it seems more than capable. Look for The Chosen to hit store shelves in early October.
