This game is made by two men, Sami Maaranen and Erkka Lehmus, and has been a long-term project of Mr. Maaranen. While the game resembles almost nothing like it did back in it's infancy in the 90s, every step has been an incremental improvement via a fairly steady stream of new patches. The latest version, 3.11c released in november 2008, was used for this review.
The first word that comes to mind playing this indie rogue-like game is Survival. Set in an iron-age, mythical landscape bearing a close resemblance on Finland, even finding food can be an adveture on it's own.
You start like any other rogue-like game: create a character. This time though you get plenty of selection options, being able to affect the birth-tribe, stats, skills and starting scenario as well as secondary quests. Some of these are tutorials of sorts, giving you good items at start and familiarize you with the game world and mechanics.
The music is appropriate for the mood and time period of the game, reminding me of shamanistic drumming and primitive music. The voices are clearly done by an amateur and the always upcoming 'haah!' when you find something unexpected does get to your nerves after a while. The sound effects tend to suffer from the same problem as well, but they fulfill their purpose adequately.
Then the good bits. The game itself is coloured top-down view, with different forms of landscape easily distinguishable. While the graphics are by no means at professional level they are clear and consice, unlike many other rogue-like games.
The game mechanics take a bit of getting used to. While everything is extremely intuitative and fairly easily found, for any speedy gameplay you will have to learn the quick selection buttons for the different actions; pressing s and then k to climb might take some getting used to, but is a lot faster than opening the skill screen and then rolling down to the skill. Luckily, the game developer has taken this into account and each skill is clearly marked with the quick button as well as enhanced by the extensive in-game help-screens. As with other rogue-likes, the game is turn based, giving ample time to consider your alternatives in a sticky situation. And sticky situations there will be: most of the time your main armour will be animal leather or furs and spears, clubs and bows your main weapons. The most logical source for them is clear: the wilderness around you is filled with materials and animals. However, bears and lynxes tend to fight back with extremely sharp claws and the other humans you meet are not keen on you trying to steal their suff.
Which brings us to combat. The combat is nicely done, with different hit locations and damage types. But the part I like most is the fact that your total mobility, a percentage score, dictates your actual speed. Every item you carry lowers this, sickness and wounds are applied to it as well, just like hunger and lack of water are. Once your mobility hits close to zero, you cannot stand, only crawl. And once low enough, you become immobile. Better hope you have plenty of water and food nearby, as well as being a good doctor, if that happens.
Magic, unlike in most fantasy games, does not play a significant role in combat. Magic is based at invoking the old Finnish folk-lore gods or spirits in a leisurely manner. Most incantations are hard to come by and deal with mostly boosting your changes at tracking animals, making a fire, cathing fish or aim to simply please the local spirits. Using magic is by no means a necessity, though summoning a giant fish to act as a raft can be a big help in a tight situation.
But that might bring up the point of the game. If combat is mostly against animals and magic does not play a major role, what is the objective? For the game to take so many factors into account, going as far as giving each piece of clothing an warmth value, surely the must be a point to it? That's just it. It's the ultimate sandbox. The point is to have fun. There are lakes, hills, occasional mountain and a cave, some villages. No two maps are the same unless you choose to save one for later use. No ultimate objective is set, though secondary objectives can be selected at the beginning of the game. These vary from making a fire to travelling to the northenmost corner of the land to building your very own cottage. While this might seem boring to some, taking care of your immediate needs takes enough time for the new players: Hunting requires not only good tracking skills, but the ability to actually kill the beast once found. Alternatively one might take up fishing, trapping or picking berries as primary source of food.
And food is required. This need is exemplified during winter, when most animals are all but impossible to find and the coldness keeps sapping your strenght away. Think of Survivor TV-series, but with no teams, dozens of competitors strewn all over the place, set at the iron-age north and the price of losing is the permanent death of your character. There is fun in that and there is challenge in that, neither of which is limited but rather enchanced by attention to detail the gameplay mechanics have.
While there are undoubtedly many things that suffer from the lack of professional dev-team, the game is extremely addictive, fun to play and most certainly unique. It plays on Windows, Linux and, with an emulator, on a Mac as well. And at 3 dollars/2 euros price for a single game version, or 55 USD/35? for lifetime access to all versions, both past and to come, the price isn't even high. In fact, 2 euros for all those dozens and dozens hours of gametime per character, the game is more than worth it and since it is available as an internet download, you don't have to wait for a mail. Buy It!
The first word that comes to mind playing this indie rogue-like game is Survival. Set in an iron-age, mythical landscape bearing a close resemblance on Finland, even finding food can be an adveture on it's own.
You start like any other rogue-like game: create a character. This time though you get plenty of selection options, being able to affect the birth-tribe, stats, skills and starting scenario as well as secondary quests. Some of these are tutorials of sorts, giving you good items at start and familiarize you with the game world and mechanics.
The music is appropriate for the mood and time period of the game, reminding me of shamanistic drumming and primitive music. The voices are clearly done by an amateur and the always upcoming 'haah!' when you find something unexpected does get to your nerves after a while. The sound effects tend to suffer from the same problem as well, but they fulfill their purpose adequately.
Then the good bits. The game itself is coloured top-down view, with different forms of landscape easily distinguishable. While the graphics are by no means at professional level they are clear and consice, unlike many other rogue-like games.
The game mechanics take a bit of getting used to. While everything is extremely intuitative and fairly easily found, for any speedy gameplay you will have to learn the quick selection buttons for the different actions; pressing s and then k to climb might take some getting used to, but is a lot faster than opening the skill screen and then rolling down to the skill. Luckily, the game developer has taken this into account and each skill is clearly marked with the quick button as well as enhanced by the extensive in-game help-screens. As with other rogue-likes, the game is turn based, giving ample time to consider your alternatives in a sticky situation. And sticky situations there will be: most of the time your main armour will be animal leather or furs and spears, clubs and bows your main weapons. The most logical source for them is clear: the wilderness around you is filled with materials and animals. However, bears and lynxes tend to fight back with extremely sharp claws and the other humans you meet are not keen on you trying to steal their suff.
Which brings us to combat. The combat is nicely done, with different hit locations and damage types. But the part I like most is the fact that your total mobility, a percentage score, dictates your actual speed. Every item you carry lowers this, sickness and wounds are applied to it as well, just like hunger and lack of water are. Once your mobility hits close to zero, you cannot stand, only crawl. And once low enough, you become immobile. Better hope you have plenty of water and food nearby, as well as being a good doctor, if that happens.
Magic, unlike in most fantasy games, does not play a significant role in combat. Magic is based at invoking the old Finnish folk-lore gods or spirits in a leisurely manner. Most incantations are hard to come by and deal with mostly boosting your changes at tracking animals, making a fire, cathing fish or aim to simply please the local spirits. Using magic is by no means a necessity, though summoning a giant fish to act as a raft can be a big help in a tight situation.
But that might bring up the point of the game. If combat is mostly against animals and magic does not play a major role, what is the objective? For the game to take so many factors into account, going as far as giving each piece of clothing an warmth value, surely the must be a point to it? That's just it. It's the ultimate sandbox. The point is to have fun. There are lakes, hills, occasional mountain and a cave, some villages. No two maps are the same unless you choose to save one for later use. No ultimate objective is set, though secondary objectives can be selected at the beginning of the game. These vary from making a fire to travelling to the northenmost corner of the land to building your very own cottage. While this might seem boring to some, taking care of your immediate needs takes enough time for the new players: Hunting requires not only good tracking skills, but the ability to actually kill the beast once found. Alternatively one might take up fishing, trapping or picking berries as primary source of food.
And food is required. This need is exemplified during winter, when most animals are all but impossible to find and the coldness keeps sapping your strenght away. Think of Survivor TV-series, but with no teams, dozens of competitors strewn all over the place, set at the iron-age north and the price of losing is the permanent death of your character. There is fun in that and there is challenge in that, neither of which is limited but rather enchanced by attention to detail the gameplay mechanics have.
While there are undoubtedly many things that suffer from the lack of professional dev-team, the game is extremely addictive, fun to play and most certainly unique. It plays on Windows, Linux and, with an emulator, on a Mac as well. And at 3 dollars/2 euros price for a single game version, or 55 USD/35? for lifetime access to all versions, both past and to come, the price isn't even high. In fact, 2 euros for all those dozens and dozens hours of gametime per character, the game is more than worth it and since it is available as an internet download, you don't have to wait for a mail. Buy It!