Original URL: https://www.theregister.com/2014/06/06/game_theory_fantasy_gaming_round_up/

Fantastic fantasy four-way fling – and family-friendly fun

Just escaped a cave of dragons? This is what you've been missing

By Lucy Orr

Posted in Personal Tech, 6th June 2014 13:59 GMT

Game Theory I'm 300 pages into Brandon Sanderson's Words of Radiance from The Storm Light Archive and I have decided it’s the best fantasy book I've ever read. On Sunday nights I drag my eyes from the page to watch the fourth series of Game of Thrones – I’m all about fantasy at the moment, just call me Lucy Targaryen, Mother of Ferrets.

Diablo: Reaper of Souls

A better class of hero in Diablo III: Reaper of Souls

The gaming world has always had a foot firmly in the realms of make-believe and lately I’m feeling pleasantly overwhelmed by the multitude of illusory worlds on offer. Whether it’s the ability to explore the new Adventure Mode in Diablo III Reaper of Souls to become the heroine of a watercolour world; ride some barrels in LEGO: The Hobbit or quest along side my friends in ESO, a fresh dynamism has been breathed back into the fantasy gaming genre.

Even without the Reaper of Souls expansion, Diablo now plays better than it ever did before. The removal of the auction house and rebalancing of the games loot distribution has worked wonders.

Diablo: Reaper of Souls modes

Adventure mode: the world itself is your battlefield

With bugs fixed and a fresh fifth act for the campaign, the expansion adds a new hero class, the Crusader, with a level cap of 70 and a new artisan, the fat-bottomed Mystic. I can gamble my blood shards for new gear and pop into randomised dungeons called Nephalem Rifts but what I am most excited by is the hack and slash fest that is Adventure Mode.

Before I can play Adventure Mode I need to complete the new fifth act of the campaign, which includes some new environments and enemies. I have to halt Malthael – basically Sanctuary’s version of the grim reaper – from using The Black Soulstone to commit heinous acts and destroy the world. But hey, after South Park: The Stick of Truth this is a cinch, even in the new Torment mode.

Diablo: Reaper of Souls difficulty

Game difficulty invites masochists – click for a full-size image

With Adventure Mode, the old grind and repeat for better loot/gear has been replaced by the ability to jump to any waypoint on the map. Completing sets of bounties, which are quick hit quests (10 to 15mins) woven from the lore of the campaign, reaps satisfying rewards. Late game, now has a definitive purpose and with the introduction of bounties I feel the buzz of always chasing the legendary loot.

Nephalem Rifts are unlocked by collecting Rift Keystone fragments. Five fragments gets me in to a randomly generated dungeon, legendary gear is my reward for combating tough enemies. I found there was so much loot dropping that I had to constant just drop items I didn’t like the look of to make room in my stash. Awesomely, the majority of the Loot that does drop is much more advantageous to my character. Yay, for Loot 2.0.

Diablo: Reaper of Souls – Nephalem rifts

It's all rough and tumble in the Nephalem Rifts

Loot 2.0 fixed Diablo and Reaper of Souls, whereas Adventure Mode is the cherry on the cake. It doesn’t matter if you’re casual player or a committed legendary loot grinder, Diablo III: Reaper of Souls now has something for everyone.

Child-ish game?

Ubisoft's Child of Light is a stunning RPG sidescroller. A girlie fairy tale, full of whimsy that is as enchanting as it looks. Created using Ubisoft’s UbiArt engine, which in theory can render illustrations playable, the game is a wealth of beautiful hand-drawn 2D landscapes.

Child of Light

Child of Light has a delightful graphic style

Child of Light features exquisite blushing blossom trees, floating villages held aloft by inflatables and gigantic bramble forests with thorny walls, that if I bump against I take damage. There’s even a dwarf village where the inhabitants have been turned into crows and I need to traverse a well to save them.

Family friendly fantasy frolics

I play Aurora, a puckish, flame-haired princess of Austria, looking a lot like Studio Ghibli's Ponyo. Appearing to the world to be dead, Aurora travels like an apparition through the mystical surroundings of Lemuria. She is given the task of searching for the lost sun and moon in order to be returned to the despairing King.

The refined character models show great attention to detail and monsters swoop through the surroundings like threatening paper cutouts from a Lotte Reiniger animation.

Aurora floats around just like The Light Princess in the Tori Amos musical and this movement adds to the ethereal feeling of the game. The dialogue is recounted in poetry and prose much like a musical and the game benefits from Coeur de Pirate’s brilliant otherworldly score.

Aurora is accompanied by a sprite named Igniculus, a small ball of blue flame – reminiscent of Calcifer from Howl’s Moving Castle – that can be controlled by the right stick or a second player. Igniculus helps me to blind enemies, so I don't have to fight them or he slows the enemies in combat and heals me.

Child of Light – Igniculus

Burning ambition: Igniculus, the blue ball of flame, stays close to Aurora

I found that slowing down the enemies is key to combat. Meeting characters as I travel through Lemuria, such as happy and sad Pierrots and my favourite Robert the medieval archer mouse – straight out of Mouse Guard – are just a few of the honourable escorts.

Child of Light’s turn-based combat is the weakest part of this game. Albeit interesting and based on a time bar – where you can knock back your enemies chance to attack – it can stretch out for a considerable length of time. I can imagine players of a younger age getting bored with the constant to and fro.

Child of Light – Fireball

Fireball combat – click for a larger image

Switching characters for the best kind damage against different enemies is vital. I had an especially long battle against a Griffin and to shadow women, that seemed it would never end until I swapped into the right character. I found the puzzles diverting and enjoyable, such as moving light and shapes onto the correct symbols to open a door, and Aurora entering a school room and giving the teacher an apple in exchange for a shovel, but where to dig? (no spoilers).

This is a game that has had some significant feminine input from the likes of Brie Code, the Ubisoft lead programmer for Child of Light. The result is an all-round female friendly fantasy game that’s also an innovative piece of art. Some might argue that the game play is secondary to the aesthetic but I disagree, as I feel they make a diverting combination.

Bricks and clicks

Universal appeal is prevalent in the comedic fantasy revelry embedded in LEGO: The Hobbit, and making me snigger is something Travellers Tales does splendidly. When I was about seven, my dad would force us to go camping in Scotland and to soothe the midge bites at night my sister would recite The Hobbit from memory. This is the level of dedication my family has to Tolkien.

Lego The Hobbit

OK girls, sit down and I'm going to test you reading The Hobbit from memory

The basis of my lifelong love of everything fantasy stems from this introduction to the world of middle earth and The Hobbit deserves a decent gaming adaptation. The Peter Jackson films continue to do justice to this awesome source material and I'm glad to say Travellers Tales has produced one of the best LEGO games so far.

Delayed gratification

It's strange how LEGO The Hobbit doesn't feel like it's trying too hard and somehow it seems almost natural that everything could be made of LEGO – including Smaug and a truly impressive roster of characters, OK mainly dwarves. Just like most other LEGO games, it's about co-operation and characters constantly buddying up to complete puzzles and tasks.

Lego The Hobbit – don't look down

Don't look down

I installed the game on PC but made sure to play with a friend using controllers. I’d say this is the best experience you'll get from this game. Luckily, Travellers Tales seemed to have fixed the bugs that sometimes popped up with their dynamic character/camera focused split screen, which proves to be an infinitely better way to deliver a multiplayer experience than a traditional split screen.

LEGO: The Hobbit confusingly ends at the same place as the second film of the trilogy, so has a sense of being unfinished. There’s not even any kind of “and next time” ending to indicate when we might get to play the rest of the story. I think Travellers Tales probably has some DLC waiting in the wings. Maybe since there’s so much LEGO about at the moment with The LEGO Movie and The LEGO Movie Game, it would have been better to wait and release The Hobbit as a finished product.

Lego The Hobbit – a barrel of fun

Lego: The Hobbit – a barrel of fun

The Story Mode of the game really feels short but, of course, like all LEGO games, even when I finish Story Mode I am told that, hey that’s only 21 per cent of the game complete. Bonus missions and side quests are as abundant as they should be in a world with the scope of Middle Earth and not just studs I'm collecting in this game – Travellers Tales employ the use of gems, timber and Mithril blocks as currency.

Like LEGO LOTR there has been so much talent and money invested in creating the films that Travellers Tales, in some ways, has had an easy job of it by simply adding its own charm to an already award-winning franchise. The voice acting is taken directly from the films with the only added narration coming from Christopher Lee, which certainly adds a real sense of comic gravitas to the storyline. Even without the third act included, there’s just no trolling LEGO: The Hobbit.

Scroll player

Probably looking more true to Tolkien's vision of Middle Earth is The Elder Scrolls Online. This atmospheric MMO looks astonishing on my Alienware 18 with the settings on maximum. I would have liked to continue playing on maximum settings but found the combat got a bit laggy, so was forced to compromise.

Elder Scrolls online - Nord

The revenge of the Nords

I started questing as a Khajiit, as that was the race I enjoyed during the beta but rolled the class Nightblade, instead of Dragonknight. Getting severely beaten, I decided it was time to toughen up and have played the last 20 levels as a Nord Templar, who's all about smashing stuff, whilst wielding two-handed weapons. I used a combination of critical charge and aedric spear to finally beat nasty dinoasshole gutsplitter, who I just couldn't defeat while playing a Nightblade.

The Templar's heal ability was a godsend. The Templar acts much like a priest with AOE and loads of DPS. There are only six available slots for special attacks, healing and suchlike, unlike World of Warcraft. So putting skill points into passive abilities is a clever move, so they don't fill up the few slots that I have.

Elder Scrolls online - Breton in Stormhaven

Candle magic

I invested most my skill points into soul magic, so I could fill up soul gems to keep all my magical items powered up and give myself resurrect on site instead of at a shrine. Combat is exhilarating and keeps me on my toes, as I have to be constantly moving. The first person combat is one of the real strong points of the game although, early on I did encounter some infuriating server lag issues.

Werewolf world

As a Nord, I have been crafting lots of heavy armour at the blacksmithing station, as only medium armour seems to drop as twilight falls I love watching the glow of the furnace reflected on my scared and brutal face. Crafting provisions such as soups and beers is also worthwhile and a nice immersive feature of the game.

Elder Scrolls online - Stros M'kai

Scenes with different atmospheric colours adorn the gameplay

I ended my beta preview by saying this would be a totally different experience when a million players come online and it was refreshing to suddenly find so many players questing alongside me. Joining a guild is very easy and for PVO essential but if you don’t want the commitment of a guild finding a PUG is just as simple to help out on those multiplayer dungeons, as I found out battling spiders in Spindleclutch.

The Alliance war PVP map is gigantic and especially so if you don't have a horse, so start saving your gold! There are missions to compete in Cyrodil, such as kill twenty players. However, getting assassinated by an invisible night blade every time I'm there, I have yet to kill anybody. Be warned: join a guild or get ganked.

Elder Scrolls online - Spider battle

Spin tactics: battling with a spider

ESO is not only beautiful incredibly atmospheric, the unpredictable shifting weather and the changing hues of the landscape by day and night are a feast for the eyes and there’s even aspects of the game dependent on the cycle of the moon. This all adds to the feeling of discovery and exploration.

The most immersive and satisfying part of playing this game, and a great game mechanic, is levelling, as I discover each new town and its damsels in distress or priests in despair. I felt elated after stopping a werewolf infiltration at Aldcroft. Yet was careful not to get bitten on the full moon and avoided becoming a lycanthrope.

Elder Scrolls online - Aldcroft

Watch dogs: is that a full moon breaking through the clouds?

The main quest line seems small in comparison to the rest of this game’s almost overwhelming content. Fast travelling using way shrines to location I have discovered before and is convenient but I also picked some rewarding quests helping strangers by not doing this and taking the long road.

If ESO wasn’t pay-monthly, I would recommend it to everyone, as it's a great addition to The Elder Scrolls franchise. For gamers to pay – and continue to pay – it would be great to see some kind of mod ability, although I’m not sure how this could be implemented in an MMO. Still, being able to mod my armour would be awesome, as one of my quibbles is that most players look very samey at the moment. Another annoyance is being spammed by gold sellers, which is always a drag, especially when they are prone to using caps lock. Fortunately, since writing this piece, I haven’t been spammed in the last week.

Elder Scrolls online - battling snakes

Snake charming

I am really looking forward to some friends and family investing in ESO, as I feel this will truly complete my experience in Tamiril, but dragging my sister away from farming purples on the Timeless Isle is going to be hard. Hopefully, in the next expansion, there will be added races and classes – once I get to the soft level cap of 50 with my Templar, I am looking forward to the chance to play an over-powered sorcerer. Suddenly, the wait for the new World of Warcraft expansion Warlords of Draenor doesn’t seem so long.

Fantasy finale

There’s enough gameplay with in these four games to keep me busy until the next fantasy title that I'm really looking forward appears: Mordheim, an epic turns-based game from Focus Interactive. A Warhammer fantasy spin-off, this game will be huge with giant rat men battling elves and other heroes of the empire. It’s not exactly Necromunda but personally, I can’t wait. ®