GDC & The Year of the Hack n' Slash

With this year's Game Developer's Conference behind us, I have to ask: What happened to this thing? It wasn't so long ago, say in 2007, when the GDC was the premier forum for game creators to gather in one place and talk about doing what they do best. It's always been an industry insider event, with the blogging community and gaming press taking any interest only because tantalizing news of upcoming games and developments would invariably sneak into a keynote address or design theory seminar.

This year, it seemed like the GDC show floor was as much about developer talking shop as it was a platform for companies to shamelessly tout their products. Between the self-aggrandizing keynote presentation from the Xbox Live team, Cliffy B. prancing around with a GoW Lancer and Peter Molyneux's endless hyping for Fable 2, I began to wonder if the death knell of E3 was perhaps premature, and that conference's functions have merely been displaced over to GDC.

I may complain that this increased drive for marketing is rather diluting the essence of the GDC (that is, can we all just stop selling something for a couple days here?), I'll also admit my pleasure for having this opportunity to learn more about some of my most awaited games of 2008. Whereas last year was undoubtedly the Year of the Shooter, 2008 is beginning to look like it could well earn the label of the Year of the Hack n' Slash (read: Diablo clones!).

Hit the jump for my breathless anticipations...



Too Human Highlights:

• Right thumbstick attacks


• "Smart" camera


• "Smart" inventory system and intricate skill trees


• No loading


• 4 player co-op


• Epic story told through real-time cinematic cut scenes

I did not attend GDC and I would be gullible enough to believe there were seminars titled "A Fireside Chat with Dennis Dyak" and "Peter Molyneux Talks About Talking About Games... Specifically His Games". Mr. Dyak really caught up on lost time and more than made up for Too Human's disasterous showing at 2005's E3. I don't think I listend to a post-GDC podcast that did not include a lengthy segment about Dennis Dyak and Too HUman, and that's a very good thing. From the latest indications, this sci-fi/Norse mythology action-RPG is shaping up to be a solid title, if not an outright sleeper hit.

Too Human is just one among a trio of top-shelf action-RPGs slated for release later this year. In my humble opinion, I'd say it is looking to be the most promising. The other two games are Sacred 2 and of course, Fable 2. Aside from the pure awesomeness of the Xbox 360 finally getting a boost in this neglected genre, all three of these titles are different enough from each other to warrant their own special attention. Sacred 2 is the most traditional one of the bunch, with a beautiful graphic engine depicting a rather typical fantasy setting. The previews make it out to be a pretty straight-forward iteration of the original Sacred, which was itself a competent Diablo imitator back in the day. Uninspiring and unambitious perhaps, but it looks undeniably fun. Sacred 2 promises a gigantic world (6 hours of real time walking to move your avatar from one end of the map to the other), drop-in/drop-out 4-player co-op, enhanced mounts, new playable characters and all the standard skills trees and loot drops you can shake a broadsword at.


Fable 2 Hightlights:

• Contextual one-button combat


• Making babies and raising a family


• Dynamic and persistent changes, even in co-op


• Drop in/drop out co-op


• Gambling on XBLA, transfer money into Fable 2

On the other end of the spectrum sits Fable 2, a fantasy styled RPG that promises a lot of innovation and induces much trepidation among followers of Peter Molyneux's spotty career. In short, the man likes to promise the world and ends up under-delivering time after time. I don't think the Fable games are ever billed as action-RPG romps, but from the looks of Fable 2, the combat system definitely seems very action-oriented. Molyneux had previously demonstrated the game's much vaunted "one-button" combat. This is actually more interesting than it sounds as a staggering number of moves can be pulled off depending on if you hold down the button, tap it rapidly or time it to coincide with an enemy's attack. It's all very contextual, and very cool, if they implement correctly. I could easily see combat still devolving into frantic button mashing if the monster AI is too aggressive or one-dimensional in their attack patterns.

Speaking of AI, Fable 2 also touts an emotionally-grounded sub-game of sorts in the way it will allow you to fall in love, give birth and start a family. And let's not forget about that dog, your ever faithful companion who will shower your avatar with unconditional affection all through out the game. I like this effort to sprinkle the standard RPG experience with some "life simulation". Granted, I don't expect any of these interesting features will be explored with much depth (let's face it, raising a family is challenging but makes for pretty boring grist for gaming) but that fact it will be included into a conventional action-RPG makes me happy for the genre as a whole.

Too Human sits quite comfortably between the conventionalism of Sacred 2 and the innovation of Fable 2. Technologically, I think the only thing linking these 3 games together is the fact that none of them will feature many loading screens, if at all (oh right, and they all tout online co-op!). Certainly anyone who covered Too Human during GDC commented on the game's single load screen, followed by a full 30 minute of seamless action. At it's core, the game is not really doing anything mind-blowing. It's still a hack n' slash in the vein of the Diablo games, set in a sci-fi interpretation of the Norse mythologies. For me anyway, my attraction to Too Human comes from the sum of all its myriad refinements to the genre. The inventory and skill tree systems look superb. The combat controls are straying away from the norm by mapping primpary attacks to the right thumbstick a la Geometry Wars. I also dig the bio-mechanical look of the graphics. They are somewhat generic, however, I'll admit that were the developers to play the Norse mythology straight (featuring the requisit vikings), I'd be much less interested in Too Human.

The sucess of any of these three games hinges on very different factors. For Too Human, they just need to release the damned thing already. Given the 10+ year gestation period, Silicon Knights had also better bend over backwards to ensure the game is polished to a dazzingly, no scratch that, BLINDING sheen. Gamers will expect nothing less than a bug-free product with minimal glitches in all departments. All the addictive ingredients are in place for solid action-RPG. If Dennis Dyak and Co. drop the ball now and fail to add the necessary polish to their baby, consider them doomed.
Fable 2 also faces some very high expectations. In truth, every time Lionhead Studios chief Peter Molyneux opens his mouth, expectations for the game are ratcheted up a few more notches. I predict that if they release the game and exclude a few of the more ambitous features, it will still do very well. They would only risk reaffirming the notion that Molyneux dreams big but falls short in execution. So long as Fable 2 improves significantly upon Fable 1, not even long-time fans will be able to hold a grudge against it.


Sacred 2 Highlights:

• Mounts


• Drop in/drop out 4 player co-op


• Multiple character classes with light and dark paths


• Massive world


• Little to no loading

Sacred 2 benefits by having the lowest profile, thus garnering the lowest expectations. My only hope is they nail down the overall FEEL of the combat. The original Sacred (a PC only game) was a decent crack at the tried and true Diablo formula, but the most disappointing thing about it was that the combat felt very slight and floaty, like you weren't even hitting anything despite the columns of old-school damage numbers flying up every time you successfully hit an opponent. It really detracted from the combat, making it boring activity, which is never a good thing for a hack n' slash game. The few game play videos I've seen so far don't inspire much confident that Ascaron has finally licked this issue, but I'll have to reserve judgement until a playable demo is released.

Despite my reservations, I'm absolutely giddy for the release of all three games. I do believe the worst case scenario would be to have only 1 of these games turn out right. Even if that happens, that one game is guaranteed to provide hours of hacking and item-looting fun.

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