JediSoth
2013-03-08, 02:32 PM
My glee at the prospect of another single-player Ultima-style RPG developed by the man who practically birthed the CRPG genre knows no bounds.
I watched the LiveStream announcement for Shroud of the Avatar (http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/portalarium/shroud-of-the-avatar-forsaken-virtues-0) this morning and felt a twinge of excitement I haven't had in a long, long while.
So, based on what I saw so far, it's going to be a story-driven, single-player CRPG with an online component that will NOT be required for one to play through the story and beat the game. He plans for it to hearken back to the Old School RPGs where a quest giver might say "Look for the lady in the red dress in Trinsic", but the game won't have navigation arrows leading you directly to the person in question. Rather, your journal will be updated with the note that you should talk to that person, but the game won't show you how to get there or where she is, thus encouraging exploration. If someone offers you a family heirloom to buy food from you to feed their family, the game won't immediately tell you Good or Bad from your decision, but rather, you'll figure it out from other NPCs reactions to you (sort of like how Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar's morality system worked, albeit more sophisticated).
To say that Richard "Lord British" Garriott has been a huge influence in my life and creative career would be an understatement. Not only did he create the Ultima series (not to mention ALL the innovations in computer games...the boxed game, games with morality systems, games with "feelies" like cloth maps and coins, one of the first MMOs, etc.), but he followed his personal dream and followed his father into space.
I watched the LiveStream announcement for Shroud of the Avatar (http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/portalarium/shroud-of-the-avatar-forsaken-virtues-0) this morning and felt a twinge of excitement I haven't had in a long, long while.
So, based on what I saw so far, it's going to be a story-driven, single-player CRPG with an online component that will NOT be required for one to play through the story and beat the game. He plans for it to hearken back to the Old School RPGs where a quest giver might say "Look for the lady in the red dress in Trinsic", but the game won't have navigation arrows leading you directly to the person in question. Rather, your journal will be updated with the note that you should talk to that person, but the game won't show you how to get there or where she is, thus encouraging exploration. If someone offers you a family heirloom to buy food from you to feed their family, the game won't immediately tell you Good or Bad from your decision, but rather, you'll figure it out from other NPCs reactions to you (sort of like how Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar's morality system worked, albeit more sophisticated).
To say that Richard "Lord British" Garriott has been a huge influence in my life and creative career would be an understatement. Not only did he create the Ultima series (not to mention ALL the innovations in computer games...the boxed game, games with morality systems, games with "feelies" like cloth maps and coins, one of the first MMOs, etc.), but he followed his personal dream and followed his father into space.