Gods and Heroes: Rome Rising Preview

E3 2006 First Look Preview

The look is fantastic, but then the folks at Perpetual knew that. There is sort of a silly grin that seems pervasive among the dev team members when someone watches the cerebrus toss around a would-be hero like a rag-doll, from one mouth to another before slamming that hero to the ground, slack-jawed with the deer-in-the-headlight eyes.

Gods and Heroes: Rome Rising is a visual treat, but it is balanced with deep, rich gameplay and “thousands of years of story” material, according to Perpetual co-founder and president Chris McKibbin. “This is the first frontline title to be set in this fiction.”

Gods and Heroes is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game. Players are the son, or daughter, of a god, and as such can ‘inherit’ godly powers as they level up. But be forewarned – gods are fickle and your status with your patron god can twist away if you take the wrong quests or do the wrong ‘favors’ for opposing gods.

Where G&H also moves away from the typical game is that each of the class in the game is a pet class, and the combat is squad based. As you accomplish quests, you will get minions who will serve as your followers. You can outfit them, and they will level up with you. You can also open up a screen and create your own formations, in addition to the preloaded ones, for combat, and then issue orders to certain elements of your squad. And while there can be up to eight members in your squad, at higher levels you can get some mythological creatures as part of your squad.

But the look of the combat is what makes this game immediately noticeable.

“We wrapped the whole thing in what we think is the most visceral combat system ever,” McKibben stated.

The user interface is pretty standard, using drag and drop to make for a customizable and intuitive experience. There will be a housing function, of sort, which is instanced and post launch plans call for the camp to be customizable as well.

With very tactical game mechanics, sterling visual elements and classic mythology motifs, Gods and Heroes is shaping up to be an MMO well worth checking out. Beta is just around the corner and, depending on how the beta goes, the projected launch is in the fall. This is definitely an MMO worth getting excited about.

For All E3 2006 Previews