Bethesda Unveils New Co-op Dungeon Crawler 218
Bethesda Softworks took advantage of the recent Game Developers Conference to take the wraps off a new game called Hunted: The Demon's Forge that they're partnering with development studio inXile to create. It's planned for the PC, Xbox 360, and PS3, though no release window has been set. It's a third-person action game with a swords & sorcery setting, and it features two heroes as they fight their way through monster-filled dungeons. The game is designed such that two users can play together online (no split-screen), each controlling one of the heroes. ShackNews summed it up thus: "From what I saw, Hunted rolled up ideas from a number of different games to create its modern reinterpretation of the dungeon crawl. There was the raw action appeal of wading through waves of goblins, spiders, and related denizens. The skill system and weapon upgrades bring in the character development side from a role playing game. And the co-op design with its warrior and archer dynamic introduces the reward of playing together like an MMO."
Can't quite pinpoint... (Score:4, Insightful)
I read some of the previews of this game and I am cautiously optimistic but a couple of worries:
1. "the raw action appeal of wading through waves of goblins, spiders, and related denizens" sounds an awful lot like Dynasty Warriors/Musou series and while I understand some people are into that, and that's totally fine, I find the games terribly boring. I could be reading too much into the phrasing here, but it's hard to pinpoint what this game is trying to do exactly.
2. To me, the current gold standard for a dungeon crawl is Demon's Souls. How are they going to top DS's brutality and innovate features?
Re:Oooh, shiny! (Score:3, Insightful)
So... (Score:5, Insightful)
Why can't I play with my buddy on the couch (Score:5, Insightful)
The game is designed such that two users can play together online (no split-screen)
Well why the fuck not? Online is great and all but I become increasingly annoyed by the fact that I can play with my buddy who is 300+ miles away but the instant he comes over to visit we can't play without doing some wacky setup with extra TV's and consoles. Seriously is it that hard? I've dealt with splitscreen multiplayer since the NES so why is it so hard to find now?
No Split Screen? (Score:3, Insightful)
Dear Game Developers: Please bring back split-screen play as a standard. While Borderlands is great, we won't be playing it forever.
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My wife and I play on the couch; video games, too.
Re:No Split Screen? (Score:1, Insightful)
It seems that with the rise of games a social medium, devs are forgetting that "a bunch of people in a room" is more social than a fucking chat room.
*grumblemumble*
Are you kidding? (Score:4, Insightful)
2. To me, the current gold standard for a dungeon crawl is Demon's Souls.
I'd say that the current gold standard for a dungeon crawl is Diablo II. Nothing else released in the past 10 years has even come close.
Re:Why can't I play with my buddy on the couch (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:How many games (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Diablo Clone (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Bethesda top Demon's Souls? LOL, No... (Score:2, Insightful)
Easy. Like other recent Bethesda RPG projects, there will probably be a mod kit. Want the game to behave more like Demon's Souls and less like a traditional modern western RPG? You can make a mod for that.
Extensibility very nearly always beats what you can come up with in-house.
Re:Are you kidding? (Score:1, Insightful)
And yet Diablo 2 is a watered down rogue-like game with better graphics and all thinking removed.
Re:Bethesda top Demon's Souls? LOL, No... (Score:0, Insightful)
All the mods in the world couldn't save Oblivion and Fallout 3.
Re:Gaaahh!! WHERE'S ES:V? (Score:1, Insightful)
Morrowind's combat sucked [youtube.com] and the NPCs just stood around with nothing better to do than wait for your player to come talk to them.
Re:Diablo Clone (Score:3, Insightful)
"Diablo clone"? The proper term is "roguelike".
Well to be serious for a moment, as a lover of both Nethack and Diablo II, I'd say it's worth distinguishing between these two genres. The things that are commonly called "roguelikes" are clearly aping rogue, and the Diablo Clones with their emphasis on real-time combat are clearly aping Diablo, by intent if nothing else. Diablo clearly owes a huge debt to Rogue-likes, but I wouldn't say it is one simply because it shakes up some of the fundamental gameplay principles. Even nethack is just adding much loved complexity and nuance on the same frame.
So, just like (to pick a random awesome example) Super Metroid was in a very real sense just an expansion of basic 2d platformer/shooter ideas from games like Castelvania and Contra, but it modernized and in the process shook up the concept enough to create something new and itself something that would be specifically replicated in the future.
Re:So... (Score:4, Insightful)
Like Gauntlet, only with RPG stats and more power-ups?
Holy shit, yes!
I've been trying to figure out what it was that Diablo brought to the table as far as genre is concerned over roguelikes. What else was it drawing influence from?
Then you come along and say what should have been obvious. Diablo = Rogue + Gauntlet. Randomly generated levels in an RPG based around leveling up and equipping your character, combined with a real-time button masher throwing yourself against an endless horde of largely identical enemies. And thus was the "Diablo clone" genre born.
Re:Oooh, shiny! (Score:3, Insightful)
The reason they found it necessary is that they've designed WoW more and more around mind-numbing repetitive grinding of intolerably easy dungeons. They need to stop pushing the "kill this same guy once a day for the next week and we'll give you a piece of gear" design and go back to "work a little bit on this long difficult quest chain."
Re:Are you kidding? (Score:1, Insightful)
I mean really, who DOESN'T buy a Scroll of Disguise Self As Artichoke just on the off-chance that they'll meet a creature that will mercilessly slay them on sight but is mortally afraid of artichokes?
Re:Another Diablo (Score:3, Insightful)
For a two player game, two player split screen sounds appropriate.
I'd love to play this game with my boyfriend, but alas, we have only one TV, one xbox, and - if we purchase it - only one disc.
So, unless the single player is singularly compelling, I can write this game off my list already.