Depths of Peril

The Good
Much as I discovered this game after playing Din's Curse and wanted to find out about the world of Din, I couldn't resist putting up a review of Depths of Peril after reviewing Din's Curse.

This is Soldak's first offering, and as such, it had to flesh out the world of Depths of Peril, a world thrown into conflict by rampaging monsters, warring factions and hordes of the undead. The story doesn't stand out too much from the standard fantasy fare, but the level of detail is admirable, and to Soldak's credit, they figured out a unique way of parceling out bits of information: short stories about the world can be found in tomes while adventuring, and each one gives you an attribute bonus. I found this to be a terrific way to make you care about the books you find, unlike the soporific volumes in Baldur's Gate. Of course, nobody requires that you actually read the books, but I really enjoyed them.

The game is similar to Din's Curse, or I should say Din's is similar to this game, since this game came first. This game also belongs to the action RPG genre, though Depths offers a couple of twists on the basic formula. Wizards play much as in other Diablo-likes, but rogues, warriors and priests recharge their mana-equivalents (momentum, rage and faith, respectively) in a different manner. For example, rogues gain momentum by killing enemies while priests recharge their faith by praying. This gives the click-fighting a different feel than other ARPGs.

What makes the game really unique though, is the open world in which it takes place. You play the part of a member in a 'covenant' (clan) of barbarians, defending the barbarian town of Jorvik against invaders while at the same time battling the competing covenants. Your most precious possession is the lifestone to which all barbarians in your covenant are bound. It allows you to regenerate when you die, but each rebirth strains the lifestone somewhat, and the strain from continuous deaths can place the stone in jeopardy. Your goal, other than defending the town, is defeating other covenants by destroying their lifestones or alternatively, allying with them. In order to accomplish this you recruit members to your covenant by carrying out quests. Your fellow covenant members can adventure with you one at a time, which gives a multiplayer feel to the game. They are also useful for defending your lifestone and for raiding the other covenants.

Speaking of the other covenants, they won't take your attacks lying down. They'll create alliances, break them, fight with you and amongst themselves, and go out into the world to try solve quests before you do. As can be imagined, this gives a very 'realistic' feeling to the world. You could be traveling in the Sinking Desert when suddenly you'll spot a member of another covenant fighting monsters, perhaps even getting into trouble and needing your help.

Other than the other covenants, the world is the real star here. Much of the mechanics from Din's Curse are here, though they aren't as fully developed yet. Bosses will gather minions and start causing trouble in the countryside. If left alone, they will usually cause even more trouble, for example by kidnapping your vendors. They won't wait for you -- they constantly work on strengthening their forces and causing mischief. It's not quite the hectic pace of Din's Curse -- the town is packed with powerful barbarians after all, rather than the squishy, easily slaughtered humans of Din's. In this game, you aren't the only hope against the forces of darkness. Rather, you're one of several groups wishing to prove themselves worthy in the brutal barbarian struggle for survival.

The graphics of Depths of Peril seem to me much easier on the eyes than Din's Curse despite this being the earlier game. They won't win awards in this day and age, yet they have a vibrant, colorful quality to them that really works for me. The city of Jorvik has a rustic, peaceful feel to it while the surrounding countryside blends colors in a way not really seen anywhere else. Each section of the countryside has its own native flora and fauna (usually fatal to you) and the occasional dungeon level breaks up the cheery mood with a dark, foreboding atmosphere.

I should reiterate that I'm not that fond of action RPGs in general, though after liking both this game and Din's Curse maybe I should reconsider that statement :)

The Bad
Since I arrived at this game after playing Din's Curse which is fairly similar, I noticed both its advantages and shortcomings vis a vis that game.

The first issue you might come across is the uneven difficulty level. Due to the random nature of the game, bosses are often ridiculously strong. I had one boss who just constantly hung out with another boss in the same area, and the two of them formed an unbeatable force. This has been improved in Din's.

The next thing you may notice is that all of the areas are squares. Rather than producing randomly shaped areas, the countryside consists of square maps as in X-Com 1, with passageways between each square. This bothered me initially until I realized it would be very hard to generate a landscape randomly that wasn't arranged in this way. Ultima 7, for example, had a hand-crafted world map that resembled real geography, but that would be very hard to do in a randomly generated terrain. Maybe we can hope for it in Depths 2.

The dungeons in the game are minimal and a little annoying compared to Din's Curse, but that's not a fair comparison since Din's entire focus is dungeons while here they're an extra.

Making friends with other covenants is all about selling them your junk, or at least the junk that they want. While this takes a common element of ARPGs (selling junk) and turns it into something more interesting, I would have preferred making friends in some other way, perhaps questing.

Finally, the ugly face of balance rears its head. Some skills in the skill tree are very powerful while others are near useless. This is a common problem in all RPGs, though.

The Bottom Line
You don't often find RPGs with dynamic worlds, or with AI players that actively dog you and compete with you. You certainly wouldn't expect to find these things in action RPGs. And yet, Depths of Peril together with Din's Curse are games that provide a world that feels both urgent and dynamic. While Din's excels in its own sub-niche, DoP also offers AI factions and an epic feel that gives it a unique flavor all its own.

Whether you're arriving at Soldak's world for the first time, or you played Din's Curse and you want to learn more about the background and experience another twist on the same unique formula, you can't really go wrong with this game.