Silverfall Preview (ign.com)
- ign.com -
November 17, 2006 - Silverfall, a Diablo-style dungeon clicker, charges players the defense and development of a like-named city. You create your human, elf, troll, or goblin character, customize their hair, skin, and face and set out into the world of Nelwe to slash baddies. Each race has particular leanings. Elves, for instance, tend to be stronger with magic, but you're not required to develop them that way. As you deliver death to your opponents, you'll be able to unlock new skills and customize your attacks and defense. You won't be alone, either. Eight companions are scattered around the game world, and up to two can join you as you venture into the field.
The companions can't be directly controlled, but they can be given general AI behavior patterns like aggressive or defensive. These guys can be equipped with items for your inventory, so there are ways to customize them to your liking. Each companion has their own strengths, and should you decide one of your party members isn't meshing so well with the rest of the group, you can head back to town and switch them around. We were told the co-adventurers would have their own storylines as well, and allow you to access secondary quests otherwise not available.
November 17, 2006 - Silverfall, a Diablo-style dungeon clicker, charges players the defense and development of a like-named city. You create your human, elf, troll, or goblin character, customize their hair, skin, and face and set out into the world of Nelwe to slash baddies. Each race has particular leanings. Elves, for instance, tend to be stronger with magic, but you're not required to develop them that way. As you deliver death to your opponents, you'll be able to unlock new skills and customize your attacks and defense. You won't be alone, either. Eight companions are scattered around the game world, and up to two can join you as you venture into the field.
The companions can't be directly controlled, but they can be given general AI behavior patterns like aggressive or defensive. These guys can be equipped with items for your inventory, so there are ways to customize them to your liking. Each companion has their own strengths, and should you decide one of your party members isn't meshing so well with the rest of the group, you can head back to town and switch them around. We were told the co-adventurers would have their own storylines as well, and allow you to access secondary quests otherwise not available.
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It seems all characters in the game are intertwined with Silverfall's theme of nature versus technology. As you develop your own character, you'll start to lean to one side or the other. It's your choice which way to go, and different skills are unlocked depending on the direction you take. For instance, focusing on nature unlocks shapeshifting abilities while pursuing technology allows you to wield sophisticated armaments. These kinds of skills are mutually exclusive, so you need to be sure what abilities you're chasing before doling out skill points. Favoring nature or technology not only affects what kinds of skills become available to you, but also how the game's principal city of Silverfall develops. Depending on what kinds of side quests, of which there are 200, you accept and complete, the city will undergo visual changes and vendors will sell different items, among other things.
The rest of your character's skills are organized under two main categories, combat and magic. Within combat you can choose to emphasize melee, ranged, or technique abilities. Magic offers up elemental, lights, and shadow options. Elemental tends to be geared more towards the offensive, light includes healing and passive skills, and shadow incorporates invocations and debuffs. As you pump skill points into lower level abilities in each of these categories, more powerful spells and skills open up, allowing you to tailor your character to whatever role-playing itch afflicts you. A representative from Monte Cristo, Silverfall's developer, pointed out that even the lower level abilities can still become extremely powerful with the proper skill point allocation.
The rest of your character's skills are organized under two main categories, combat and magic. Within combat you can choose to emphasize melee, ranged, or technique abilities. Magic offers up elemental, lights, and shadow options. Elemental tends to be geared more towards the offensive, light includes healing and passive skills, and shadow incorporates invocations and debuffs. As you pump skill points into lower level abilities in each of these categories, more powerful spells and skills open up, allowing you to tailor your character to whatever role-playing itch afflicts you. A representative from Monte Cristo, Silverfall's developer, pointed out that even the lower level abilities can still become extremely powerful with the proper skill point allocation.
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For those who prefer to game with others, Silverfall offers a number off multiplayer modes. Cooperative play for up to eight players is an option, though you'll need to play with the same people the whole way through, which could cause organizational issues. Depending on how many people are in the game, enemies scale up in difficulty and number. Smaller scale team fighting modes are available as well, also supporting up to eight players. Thankfully the game gives you the option to export your solo character and use them online, eliminating the need to build up separate characters. To further expand gameplay, the game will ship with an editor that allows players to write their own storylines, craft environments, and drop in monsters. These can then be played through with others.
Though the game's visual style may lead you to believe it's cel-shaded, it actually isn't. The characters of the game are merely surrounded by a black outline, lending the illusion of cel-shading. From what we saw of the game, it has some decent graphics. The standout elements were the lighting effects when running through dim cave systems and some cool water animations. Monsters seem to widely vary in size, with some huge enemies accosting your character, and most of them had interesting designs and smooth animations.
Silverfall is launching next week in Europe, and is currently scheduled to release in the United States this coming February. Check below for updated direct-feed movies from Silverfall's latest build.
Though the game's visual style may lead you to believe it's cel-shaded, it actually isn't. The characters of the game are merely surrounded by a black outline, lending the illusion of cel-shading. From what we saw of the game, it has some decent graphics. The standout elements were the lighting effects when running through dim cave systems and some cool water animations. Monsters seem to widely vary in size, with some huge enemies accosting your character, and most of them had interesting designs and smooth animations.
Silverfall is launching next week in Europe, and is currently scheduled to release in the United States this coming February. Check below for updated direct-feed movies from Silverfall's latest build.
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