Old-School RPG Inquisitor Goes Beta After 13 Years

Fanghawk

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Old-School RPG Inquisitor Goes Beta After 13 Years

Inquisitor will feature 150 hours of play, huge environments, and torture.

For better or worse, games with long development times garner a lot of attention among the industry. Whether looking at <a href=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/118439-Valve-Valve-Time-is-a-Compliment>the latest Valve title or <a href=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/118500-Gearbox-CEO-Duke-Nukem-Forever-Is-Exactly-Like-Half-Life-2>bemoaning Duke Nukem Forever, games that take nearly a decade to make become near-myths in their own right. Now another such title is coming to our attention. An English-translation of the old-school RPG Inquisitor has just achieved beta status, racking up a stunning total development time of thirteen years.

"The game brings you, a medieval inquisitor, to a gloomy world full of heresy, betrayal and devilish plots," reads the game description. "You will hunt for perpetrators of the most atrocious crimes and you will meet a lot of cunning enemies. You will find yourself in the midst of a powerful conspiracy striving to destroy even the foundations of the thousand-year old Empire. As one of the three main characters you will explore all the mysteries of this depressing world and gain reputation of a fearless inquisitor and a witch hunter. Carry out dozens of secondary quests and develop your potential in order to face the more powerful and dangerous enemies and challenges. And remember-everything you do depends just on your own choice!"

Inquisitor previously launched to great critical success in Central Europe after ten years development back in 2009, after which the developers spent the following three years translating the game to English. From the sounds of things, that amount of time was certainly required; the original script is reported to be 1500 pages long, and one review stated that the game took 150 hours to complete.

The game has been compared to The Witcher, another European-made RPG, for its emphasis on an alternate feudal universe, difficult moral decisions, and long-term consequences for the player's actions. On those scores, it's very possible that Inquisitor will be far darker and more controversial than The Witcher ever was, as the player will be fully equipped with torture devices, including a rack, strappado, pillory, and iron maiden to punish and question your enemies.

While I'm not certain how I feel about the tone, based on the game's trailer Inquisitor has the old-school RPG feel down pat, and the 1.2 million square miles of environment will have more than enough content for the dedicated player. Fans of old-school games like Baldur's Gate, or the more contemporary Legend of Grimrock, will likely want to check out Inquisitor to see if it made good use of those thirteen years.

Source Rock Paper Shotgun

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antipunt

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So I'm guessing the reason why it took so long to make was because of it's story length/quality?

Should be interesting. Dun see much of that nowadays
 

Lectori Salutem

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I remember coming across some gameplay footage on youtube one or two years back. I was quite disappointed it had no English release, so I think this is awesome :D
 

Gennadios

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Before watching the trailer I was expecting Torment.

It looks like an ARPG and by the stilted and jittery motions I doubt the gameplay itself will be any more fun than the other indie ARPGs I've made the mistake of buying. Shame the 9 years of development didn't go into making this into a tactical rpg of some kind, may have been tolerable if they took a page out of Black Isle's playbook instead of Blizzards.
 

-Drifter-

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Hopefully the people doing the translating aren't the same people who put this trailer together.
 

BreakfastMan

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Looks good and all, but a 10 year development time? What the hell took them that long? I mean, I get it is really big and has a lot of content, but many other games that had just as much content were developed in half that time. :/
 

Doom972

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Reminds me of the first Diablo - when it was more about atmosphere and less about items.
 

Gitty101

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One to keep an eye on most definitely. Should be good if they've put as much emphasis on story and atmosphere as they say they have.
 

80Maxwell08

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Gennadios said:
Before watching the trailer I was expecting Torment.

It looks like an ARPG and by the stilted and jittery motions I doubt the gameplay itself will be any more fun than the other indie ARPGs I've made the mistake of buying. Shame the 9 years of development didn't go into making this into a tactical rpg of some kind, may have been tolerable if they took a page out of Black Isle's playbook instead of Blizzards.
Looks can be deceiving. A lot of people who see Divine Divinity say it looks like a Diablo clone but the people who actually play it say it resembles more tactical games like Baldur's Gate. Unless someone comes in here and has played this game the best course of action appears to be wait and see.
 

Gennadios

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80Maxwell08 said:
Gennadios said:
Before watching the trailer I was expecting Torment.

It looks like an ARPG and by the stilted and jittery motions I doubt the gameplay itself will be any more fun than the other indie ARPGs I've made the mistake of buying. Shame the 9 years of development didn't go into making this into a tactical rpg of some kind, may have been tolerable if they took a page out of Black Isle's playbook instead of Blizzards.
Looks can be deceiving. A lot of people who see Divine Divinity say it looks like a Diablo clone but the people who actually play it say it resembles more tactical games like Baldur's Gate. Unless someone comes in here and has played this game the best course of action appears to be wait and see.
I've played two of the DD games and they were quite good. I'm not knocking the ARPG playstyle itself so much as the fact that unless a sprite-based game has top-notch artists and animators, it'll choke on it's own vomit and die.

Each model in this game only looks to be able to face in 8 directions, meaning the combat will be a clusterf*** of misalignment and watching your melee character jitter and sputter their way to an enemy slinging magic missles for 33% of your health per hit.

I've played this game before, can't be bothered to remember the name but the tagline was "Played any good books lately?" The story wasn't good enough to overcome the poor gameplay, I doubt this time will be any different.
 

80Maxwell08

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Gennadios said:
80Maxwell08 said:
Gennadios said:
Before watching the trailer I was expecting Torment.

It looks like an ARPG and by the stilted and jittery motions I doubt the gameplay itself will be any more fun than the other indie ARPGs I've made the mistake of buying. Shame the 9 years of development didn't go into making this into a tactical rpg of some kind, may have been tolerable if they took a page out of Black Isle's playbook instead of Blizzards.
Looks can be deceiving. A lot of people who see Divine Divinity say it looks like a Diablo clone but the people who actually play it say it resembles more tactical games like Baldur's Gate. Unless someone comes in here and has played this game the best course of action appears to be wait and see.
I've played two of the DD games and they were quite good. I'm not knocking the ARPG playstyle itself so much as the fact that unless a sprite-based game has top-notch artists and animators, it'll choke on it's own vomit and die.

Each model in this game only looks to be able to face in 8 directions, meaning the combat will be a clusterf*** of misalignment and watching your melee character jitter and sputter their way to an enemy slinging magic missles for 33% of your health per hit.

I've played this game before, can't be bothered to remember the name but the tagline was "Played any good books lately?" The story wasn't good enough to overcome the poor gameplay, I doubt this time will be any different.
Well then don't play this I guess. I don't really have anything else to say.
 

Ftaghn To You Too

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The Iron Maiden didn't exist, damn it all. It was put together as a museum piece.

And Strappado isn't an object, it's a technique!

What, the game? It looks awesome. I wish isometric RPGs would come out more often.
 

thiosk

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"to be loosed out of his prison"

Is that even remotely correct? What?
 

viranimus

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Nov 20, 2009
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While this might hold potential... Really? More isometric games? Cmon.

I know graphics are not the most important thing but really they do account for something.

If its priced higher than 15$ USD.. No way in hell. Otherwise.. I MIGHT give it a shot, as long as its not exclusive to steam with their little shenannigans.

Given its age can it auto qualify for GOG?
 

Ftaghn To You Too

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viranimus said:
While this might hold potential... Really? More isometric games? Cmon.
No! Nonononono, you get all the shiny new RPGs and your Skyrims and your New Fallouts.

All we want is a good isometric RPG. Don't take this away from us, you monster.