Silverfall

On one hand there is nature, pure and sweet; on the other is technology, a little greasy, mechanical and hard. Together they find a commonality in the land of Silverfall.

Silverfall is a role-playing title from Monte Cristo Games, to be published by Atari, and will be available on the PC in mid-March. The game is a bit akin to titles like Diablo II in that it is a rich hack ‘n slash, full of monsters, drops, quests and diverse environments. But the game takes a departure in the way that the skill progression is handled.

GameZone.com was recently sent a preview build of the game, and hopped right into the action.

Because there is both nature and technology, players can choose the path they wish to pursue. This will have a bearing on the way the game plays out. Choose technology and you will have access to items like guns. Stay the path of nature and you will feel a tiny bit cleaner about the whole process.

The skills are divided into a couple of groups, though there are three icons; there is ranged, melee and magic. The magic is divided into elemental and shadow. As you level, you can move attribute points around and specialize in certain skills. How you invest your points is paramount to your success in this game – which is dependent on the type of character you are playing.

For those that remember the carefree days of a game like the original Asheron’s Call, where you could basically create your own class, you will immediately recognize the freedom that Silverfall allows.

The game has the usual assortment of races that seem to pop up in most fantasy titles. There is not a lot of initial customization that you can do, but the meat of the game begins after the main city of Silverfall is overrun by demons, and what is left of the population is forced to flee. As a member of the refugee party, your job is to become the champion that solves the downfall of the city and corrects the imbalance.

It sounds easy, but while Silverfall does weave a bit of a tale, the focus of the game appears to be on building up skills and taking on the various undead and evil minions that have been unleashed. Killing monsters will acquire loot … well, this part is relatively standard to fantasy hack ‘n slash titles.

Graphically the game does a fine job. You can move the camera around and zoom in for a close-up of the cel-shaded graphics. The game will require a PhysX card to pull the top-drawer graphics from the game. Still, even without said card, the graphics are serviceable and have a certain charm that will set it apart from other titles, like the aforementioned Blizzard game.

Pathing is a bit of problem, though. The game uses a point-and-click movement interface that is antiquated but does manage to work. Still, moving around the map can be a bit of a problem at times in this build. There were times where the player’s character was standing near to an object but was told that the object could not be interacted with because it was out of reach. Moving slightly helped, but the distance between the avatar and the object seemed to be, more or less, the same. And the game did hang up, but this was a preview build, so that was to be expected.

The soundtrack of the game is a solid support for the graphics.

Silverfall is within a month of being sent to retailers, and so the major work is done. Fine-tuning is all that is left. At this point, this game is looking like a very strong PC RPG title that will not only create challenge but provide a lot of fun.