GDC10: Erebus hands-on impressions

This year's Game Developer's Conference featured a ton of free-to-play titles, and one of the most intriguing was Erebus: Travia Reborn, a classically inspired dungeon crawler with retro graphics and a distinctive Diablo-esque feel. We sat down for a hands-on demo with the developers from Outspark and came away enthused about trying the full version of the game when it releases later this year.

This free-to-play MMORPG, as its subtitle suggests, is inspired by the Korean game known as Travia, but has been heavily modified for western audiences. "We've updated the graphics, changed game play, added in faction warfare, new classes and skills, and rebalanced the game, making a ton of changes. Erebus is a really unique dungeon crawler for North American and European audiences," said the Outspark team.

Hit the jump for our impressions as well as the teaser trailer.

Erebus features a 2D isometric camera style with a fully 3D world. The game attempts to combine the best in old-school design in terms of dungeon crawling with modern instancing techniques and large maps that are not room-based. The map areas were also designed without player caps in order to facilitate large scale PvP battles and party-based action. In addition, the Erebus client is a paltry 160MB download, enabling players to get started very quickly and also keeping the system requirements low. Outspark commented that the game runs exceptionally well on laptops and netbooks, and the performance, taken together with the free-to-play model, are two aspects of the game that should appeal to a broad swath of players.

Combat and skill usage is unique, as there are only four stats that your character can raise, and certain items require certain stat levels. Additionally, the player must initially activate a skill and then right-click to use it, resulting in the ability to spam special attacks as long as your mana holds out. Movement is point and click, so players weaned on WASD may find it a bit of an adjustment, whereas those of us who grew up with Diablo and its many clones will feel right at home.

PvP factors heavily into the design of Erebus, and Outspark unveiled a number of different ways to indulge in the play style. Faction versus faction plays a large role in the game's PvP battles, as well as 50 on 50 guild wars and higher level maps that feature free-for-all player killing. Future plans call for server versus server warfare in order to bring large-scale PvP to everyone rather than just a handful of the top guilds. Speaking of guilds, they are player-owned and will level up, progressively allowing greater membership numbers. Guilds can also own villages and will be able to enact taxes over all transactions in the village.

Outspark was also enthused about their dueling mechanic. "Our duel system is great, where if you're grinding and another player is grinding, you can challenge that player and the two of you will be teleported to a private map, so it's not in the middle of the mobs. Also the way that it works is that it can be your party versus another party, you can challenge them and put up items for wager, and go to your own private map and fight it out," the developer commented.

Outspark also has a plan for controlling the griefing tendencies that often accompany FFA environments. Their system makes use of what they are tentatively naming Moral Points. In a nutshell, random player killing will decrease your moral points, making you more likely to drop inventory items when killed in PvE or PvP. Other players will be able to see that your behavior has made you a target and will be free to attack you on the chance that you'll drop desirable gear.

While much of the game's focus revolves around PvP, PvE players have plenty to do as well. The current build of Erebus features 400 levels which Outspark describes as "top to bottom, what we're working on right now is expanding it sideways and making sure that there's plenty for all the players to do in the beginning and the endgame and all the different level caps." Items and equipment can also be enchanted, broken down, and recombined, including critical damage drops that can be melded to make superior quality weapons. Additionally, Outspark told us that though the game will feature a traditional cash shop, it will also feature rare monster spawns that will drop cash shop items, "so you have the ability to be a non-paying player and have access to the same advantage."

The game's lore is also extensive and has been completely reworked since the original Travia. The basic premise is that of humans fleeing an evil being named Erebus. Over the course of their flight, the tribe washed up on the shores of a land called Travia and encountered ancient races of orcs, elves, and other genre stalwarts, with the malevolent Erebus still hot on their heels.

Erebus' closed beta starts this week, and Outspark has targeted late May 2010 as their release date.