GDC08: Requiem devs focus on variety
The MMO market has proven itself to be notoriously difficult to break into. There seem to be very few slices of the pie available, what with Blizzards' baby gobbling it all up. But Gravity Interactive believes that they might have the secret for success: Variety. We sat down with Gravity's Mario Fernandez Jr. to discuss their plans for their Havok-powered MMO offering: Requiem: Bloodymare.
The developers seem to be taking a scattershot approach with the fantasy action entry, giving a variety of different experiences to keep the game fresh for players.
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The first way the game will be evolving is a DNA system, which will allow players to swap a variety of different abilities into five separate slots. Some combinations will also provide a secret sixth ability, which they're hoping will encourage gamers to play with their abilities and find the combo they like best.
Players will also have control of different beast forms that will level separately and have separate sets of gear. The idea is that players can have a completely different play style with their beast form, for example, players who play as a melee class can have animal focused on casting.
The characters won't be the only thing changing, the entire game world will transform for two game hours (about 15 minutes) each day into a nightmarish version of itself with tougher enemies and a darker landscape.
What we saw of the game was kind of a mixed bag. The character models and animations are really detailed and look great, but the environments were pretty underwhelming (though, admittedly, we only saw a couple of areas). We were also kind of put off by the game's "mature" aesthetic, which seemed tantamount to buckets of blood and plentiful topless females.
In the end, the success of the game will probably be dependent on how willing players will be to experiment with the game's surprisingly deep leveling and combat systems. If you want to give it a whirl, keep an eye out for beta sign-ups on the game's official site.
