Arts & Entertainment

Controversial RPG set for release

By: Paul Saleeba
The Daily Cougar

In the world of online role-playing games, none has been more controversial in the last five years than Shadowbane, the first player-versus-player based game. In what has been described as a weird blend of SimCity and Dungeons and Dragons, players adventure in a post apocalyptic fantasy world, where they can build cities, destroy other playeris cities, and defend them.

Unlike other online games where monster bashing and leveling are the core of the game, seizing and building cities is the core of Shadowbane. Players can band together in guilds and form city-states in pursuit of wealth and land. Shadowbane executes this concept beautifully, with epic battles between hundreds of players defending their homes for hours of frenzied battle, raids and counter attacks. 

Despite using a 5-year-old game engine, it looks great. Characters look great, with graphics comparable to the recent hit Morrowind. The cities players build are vast, with individual homes, smoking forges and wizard towers. Monsters, though only a secondary diversion, also look great. Dragons are massive, fearsome beasts, not to be trifled with, giants tower and the undead hordes are truly fearsome rotting hordes. 

There are no zones, just theme fields, like blighted areas, ruined cities, burned-out farmhouses, vampire domains and dragon infested.

Character customization is excellent. Shadowbane requires players to level up, but this is a relatively quick process with a cap of 70 levels. Most players find they stop after 40 or 50, about two weeks of hardcore play as opposed to a year or more in Everquest. 

Leveling is not so much a chore as something to do in between battles. Players assign their character a race out of a diverse bunch including the Tolkien standards ­ Humans, Dwarves, three kinds of Elves and some originals including the near undead Shades, Minotaurs, Centaurs and Birdmen. 

From this point, players choose one of four basic classes, fighter, mage, rogue or healer. AS basic class grants a character general powers, while a profession gives players specific powers and new weapon choices. From there you can customize your character even further with traits and disciplines. Disciplines are skill sets, which give your character a personal touch, from a dragon slayeris skills to lycanthropy. 

The game is set to release March 25 for Mac and PC. The game is still in Beta testing, and most technical kinks have been worked out. All that remains is class balancing. But as far as this writer is concerned, its ready to ship and ready to change the world of online gaming.

Shadowbane

Developer: Wolfpack Studios

Publisher: Ubisoft

The verdict: Shadowbane looks great, and is a lot of fun to play.
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