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RPGDot Feature: An interview with Arkane Studios about Dark
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Garrett
 
 




Joined: 13 Jul 2001
Posts: 74
Location: Munich, Germany
RPGDot Feature: An interview with Arkane Studios about Dark
   

We had the chance to do a loooong chat with Raphael Colantonio & Julien Roby from Arkane Studios and learned some interesting things about their upcoming project Dark Messiah of Might & Magic. The interview can be found <a href="http://www.rpgdot.com/index.php?hsaction=10053&ID=1212">here</a> and contains three brand new screenshots as well!<blockquote><em><b>RPGDot: So how is the 'damage system'? Can you cut off a leg for example and how would that affect the opponents (fall over/ jump away...)?</b> <br> <br>Julien: You can put your opponent in various states depending on your actions: you can stun him, disarm him, knock him down, make him slide on a frozen ground? <br> <br> <br>Raphael: Also, using the environment is a very important part of the fighting gameplay. <br> <br> <br>Julien: Yep, basically you can grab a barrel and break it on your opponent's head, or make a platform to collapse on him...but the NPC can also use these tricks! <br> <br> <br>Raphael: Using hazards, terrain, but also physical objects that happen to be here. You can actually trigger some really cool chain reactions. <br> <br> <br>Julien: The Cyclop will grab barrels and even other NPCs and will throw them at you. The goblins will try to use traps if you happen to be at the right place at the wrong time.</em></blockquote>
Post Thu Mar 02, 2006 11:22 pm
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dteowner
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Joined: 21 Mar 2002
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Location: Third Hero of Erathia
   

"Julien: For example the main difference to a RPG a la Arx would be that these tools are not statistics driven but their use will depend on the player's real time action."


Sounds like a fantasy FPS with a slightly beefed-up story, to me. I realize they never advertised that this would be like M&M10, but I had hopes.
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Post Thu Mar 02, 2006 11:24 pm
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Dhruin
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Joined: 20 May 2002
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Location: Sydney, Australia
   

Great chat, Garrett. I wish it was more RPG-oriented but it sounds like a fun action game.
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Post Thu Mar 02, 2006 11:59 pm
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This is pretty much an action/adventure game that they like to call an rpg and if they say this is immersive how can it be immersive when you are pretty much set on a line and told to move along it. It definetely isn't an immersive game and you can't really compare it to thief since in thief you can't just run through every area swinging your sword around.
Post Fri Mar 03, 2006 12:21 am
 
noah
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Joined: 31 Dec 2001
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Location: MD
   

Lots of good information here.

However, many of RPGDot's questions and statements seemed more like passive-aggressive ways to complain to the developers that Dark Messiah is not a stat-based RPG. This ultimately came across to me as a little rude and unprofessional.

Dark Messiah has been announced for some time now, and I have a very had time imagining that the interviewer was not aware of the general gameplay mechanics for a game they were about to give an interview about!

...I could be wrong though.

All in all, I enjoyed the new information.
Post Fri Mar 03, 2006 12:27 am
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Roqua
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Joined: 02 Sep 2003
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quote:
Originally posted by noah
Lots of good information here.

However, many of RPGDot's questions and statements seemed more like passive-aggressive ways to complain to the developers that Dark Messiah is not a stat-based RPG. This ultimately came across to me as a little rude and unprofessional.

Dark Messiah has been announced for some time now, and I have a very had time imagining that the interviewer was not aware of the general gameplay mechanics for a game they were about to give an interview about!

...I could be wrong though.

All in all, I enjoyed the new information.


I disagree, they mentioned rpg first, and he seemed to like what they were saying. You don't do an interview with a site called rpgdot and not expect rpg questions. Would anyone agree to do an interview with hotpornsexDOT and think they are unprofessional when they ask hot porn sex questions? Its not like this site hides that they are an rpg site.
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Post Fri Mar 03, 2006 12:43 am
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noah
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Joined: 31 Dec 2001
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I seem to recall RPGDot covering games such as Thief, System Shock and Bioshock - those aren't exactly pure RPGs either.

My point mostly being, I knew from the moment they officially announced DM that it wasn't an RPG. I never assumed it would be, nor was confused at any point that it might be. I seem to get this impression from other people as well.

I just didn't really see any point in some of the questions and comments in the interview, other than the interviewer mostly wanted to say: "Hey, I don't like the fact that this game is not an RPG."

Just my $0.02
Post Fri Mar 03, 2006 12:53 am
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Dhruin
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No, they didn't say it was an RPG but the interviews they did after that referred to RPG elements. You might have been clear exactly what they meant but I sure wasn't, so I'm very glad those questions were asked.

I don't want to speak for Garrett but he knows the folks from Arkane fairly well and the interview was done live (not by email as is common), so I'm pretty sure they weren't bothered by the questions in any way.
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Post Fri Mar 03, 2006 12:59 am
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Roqua
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Joined: 02 Sep 2003
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quote:
Originally posted by noah
I seem to recall RPGDot covering games such as Thief, System Shock and Bioshock - those aren't exactly pure RPGs either.

My point mostly being, I knew from the moment they officially announced DM that it wasn't an RPG. I never assumed it would be, nor was confused at any point that it might be. I seem to get this impression from other people as well.

I just didn't really see any point in some of the questions and comments in the interview, other than the interviewer mostly wanted to say: "Hey, I don't like the fact that this game is not an RPG."

Just my $0.02


I agree that it isn't an rpg, but rpg is a pretty ambiguous term to most rpg fans. Some people think any game with rpg elements are rpgs. Some think any game with stats are rpgs (and this game has them).

Put it this way—if rpgdot was going to do an interview with the Grand Theft Auto makers, would it be unprofessional for them to ask about the rpg elements?

This game obviously has some rpg elements, and if they want to reach the cross genre markets, and appeal to people that only thought of it as an action game, is not answering these questions the smart move?

If anything this interview, by asking the questions it did, invoked interest in rpg fans. I don’t consider Arx fatalis in any way, shape, or form a rpg. But this interview made me remember that it was a fun action game, and DM will probably give me more of that type of fun. And now I know there will be some rpg elements in it that makes the game appeal to me even more. Is it an rpg? No, not even close in my book. But as long as it doesn’t have jumping puzzles (that stupid lava rock jumpe crap in AF still makes me angry thinking of it), I’ll might get it. I wasn’t even thinking of this game at all before this.

I still have a moral objection to the game that makes me not want to get it no matter what. I do not like when IP’s are used it seems just to spurn the fans that made the IP popular. The people that made an IP popular shouldn’t be crapped on by the IP being twisted into something it should never have been. If Gothic 3 was made with TB combat and had full character creation and a party from the start I would love it, but I would side with the fans that said this isn’t Gothic 3 and the devs are screwing us. You just don’t change an IP into something different than what the fans that made it popular would want it to be.

But seeing as there doesn’t seem to be much of a backlash coming from the M&M fans (and I’ve never been a huge M&M fan at all), I feel like I would be wasting my anger on DM for those reasons when I could save all my rage for FO3.
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Post Fri Mar 03, 2006 1:20 am
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The reason why there might not be any backlash is because there hasn't been a good Might & Magic game since 4 and 5. From 6 and up it was crap and the only thing with Might & Magic that was still good (for other people but not for me) is the Heroes of Might and Magic series.
Post Fri Mar 03, 2006 2:27 am
 
noah
Eager Tradesman
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Joined: 31 Dec 2001
Posts: 35
Location: MD
   

All good points above. Perhaps I was just reading too much negativity into the interview on my end...
Post Fri Mar 03, 2006 3:30 am
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Dagar
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Joined: 05 Mar 2004
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quote:
Originally posted by Anonymous
The reason why there might not be any backlash is because there hasn't been a good Might & Magic game since 4 and 5. From 6 and up it was crap and the only thing with Might & Magic that was still good (for other people but not for me) is the Heroes of Might and Magic series.


IMO Might & Magic 6 was the best of the series... by far!
Post Fri Mar 03, 2006 4:53 am
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Acleacius
King of the Realms
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Joined: 24 Dec 2002
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Great work guys/gals keep it coming!
Post Fri Mar 03, 2006 5:24 am
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Garrett
 
 




Joined: 13 Jul 2001
Posts: 74
Location: Munich, Germany
   

quote:
Originally posted by noah
Lots of good information here.

However, many of RPGDot's questions and statements seemed more like passive-aggressive ways to complain to the developers that Dark Messiah is not a stat-based RPG. This ultimately came across to me as a little rude and unprofessional.

Dark Messiah has been announced for some time now, and I have a very had time imagining that the interviewer was not aware of the general gameplay mechanics for a game they were about to give an interview about!

...I could be wrong though.

All in all, I enjoyed the new information.


actually i did really know little about the game until the chat, but as you may know i have a very good relationsship with raphael and julien since arx (and teh guides i wrote) - so it had nothing to do with being rude and i doubt raphael or julien did take any offence, at least they haven't told me so
i was merely approaching the interview from a different angle as i loved arx very much
Post Fri Mar 03, 2006 9:13 am
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quote:
Originally posted by Garrett

actually i did really know little about the game until the chat, but as you may know i have a very good relationsship with raphael and julien since arx (and teh guides i wrote) - so it had nothing to do with being rude and i doubt raphael or julien did take any offence, at least they haven't told me so


About the interview itself, personally, I didn't reckon anything as rude. If you had watched the first trailer and knew the fact that they are using HL2 engine, you wouldn't have expected that Dark Messiah was going to have gameplay even remotely similar to that of traditional M&M series even before reading the interview. Only complaint

quote:
Originally posted by Garrett
i was merely approaching the interview from a different angle as i loved arx very much


Probably, Thief series, too? If Arkane Studios manages to do the job like Looking Glass Studios did, Dark Messiah may turn out to be an interesting FP action game with a character development system. Simply forget about M&M since it is only for marketing purpose.
Post Fri Mar 03, 2006 9:34 am
 


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