BioWare has been telling us, "You've Been Chosen." But is it to battle the monsters, or become one yourself?
The famed RPG creators announced that the game that has been teased for the last month is called Shadow Realms. It is an online action RPG where players battle against the monsters of the Shadow Legions, who are invading modern day earth from another dimension called Embra.
One of the twists of Shadow Realms is the villain challenging the four online players is a fifth player, controlling a Shadowlord. The Shadowlord can summon monsters, cast spells and lay down traps to oppose the players.
The teasers showed the heroes of the game coming into their power. The heroes can be of six different classes with different abilities, straight out of a "Dungeons and Dragons" game: Warrior, Assassin, Wizard, Cleric, Ranger and Warlock. This is no accident.
"Shadow Realms has its genesis in old school 'Dungeons & Dragons.' When I first started designing BioWare RPGs back in the 90s, what drove me creatively was the desire to give players the experience I had while playing pen and paper games as a youth. The great storytelling, the feeling that anything could happen -- these were experiences that you couldn't find in any other game. And the great thing was that these adventures never had an end," said Jame Ohlen, the lead designer of Shadow Realms, in an online post.
Ohlen added, "BioWare RPGs have successfully replicated many of the things that made classic tabletop games fun: powerful storytelling, being able to create your own character, leveling-up that hero to achieve the heights of fantasy power, and tactical combat against a fantastic array of monsters. But the stories always come to an end and AI systems can't replace the creativity of a human Dungeon Master. Shadow Realms aims to change that."
It remains to be seen how successfully the four-versus-one structure replicates the feel of a tabletop roleplaying game. One thing is certain, BioWare is not the only company pitting players against each other. Microsoft's Fable Legends has a player controlling the villain against the other players' adventurers. Beyond RPGs, Turtle Rock's Left for Dead zombie shooter and its upcoming Evolve shooter has players controlling monsters trying to kill the other players.
Shadow Realms is currently only announced for PC, for release in 2015. You can sign up for an Alpha test on the official site.
