By Danny
"Ralsu" Gourley
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/340">Red
Stone is a 2D free-to-play fantasy game from K2 Network. The
graphics are decidedly old school, but could the
style="font-style: italic;">Diablo-like click
and kill gameplay and story be worth a look? I had to find out more, so
I downloaded the title and spent an evening exploring the world.
Download and Installation
Before downloading any game, it's always best to check out the system
requirements, but the
system requirements for Red
Stone are so low that even a gamer with a bargain bin
computer can play the game. If your computer can't play
style="font-style: italic;">Red Stone, you
should buy a football and go outside.
class="down_client_scheck" border="2"
bordercolor="#6c7990" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0">
2000 Pro SP4
XP
9.0c compliant
disk space
border="1">
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/44779">
style="border: 0px solid ; width: 200px; height: 150px;" alt=""
src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/44779/preview">
Scaryamy
was in the world ten seconds before somebody was hitting on her.
Gamers can download Red
Stone as an installer from a few different mirrors. The
download is 578MB, and the install size on my hard drive is 1.3GB.
Installation was very quick and pain free, as the installer
did the work while I watched. After a few minutes of patching the
client, I was ready to log in and play.
Character Creation
style="font-style: italic;">Red Stone puts a
very different spin on its classes. While there are archetypal classes
such as Warrior, Priest, and Thief, the game throws some real
curve balls. For instance, how many games let players choose Demon as a
class? And Red Stone
goes further, matching the classes up in pairs to give the player
flexibility. the Priest class is paired with the Fallen Angel. While
the former has the stereotypical heals and revive spell, the latter
sports some Necromancer-like attack spells. But then, the Necromancer
is another class that is paired with the Demon.
If my descriptions are confusing to the reader, it is partly
because it is confusing for the starting player. The character creation
screen gives a cursory explanation, but it is hard to get a real
understanding that you are creating BOTH a Priest and a Fallen Angel at
the same time until you are playing the game.
My six-year old daughter was watching me play, so I created a
Princess character that I let her name Scaryamy (Scary Amy). That meant
I was also getting a Little Witch, too, but I did not comprehend the
impact until I had played for a few hours. I had no customization
options. I just got to pick a name and get to work.
Interface and
Controls
Red Stone
keeps things simple on purpose. The goal is to not turn away any gamers
because of an overly complicated system. To that end, the interface is
familiar to anyone who has played a hack 'n' slash game or another
massively-multiplayer online game (MMOG).
A couple of skills can be assigned the to left and right mouse
buttons like any good action game. The skills selected show up
appropriately on the left and right sides of the screen at the bottom.
border="1">
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/44780">
style="border: 2px solid ; width: 200px; height: 150px;" alt=""
src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/44780/preview">
It's easy
to find a quest. Just look for the exclamation point.
Like most MMOGs, a skill hotbar (well, two hotbars of 5 slots
stacked) sits on the left side of the screen. Above it is the chat
window, where some other user immediately started flirting with my
character the moment I landed in the tutorial section.
Over on the bottom right next to the right-click skills are
the menu buttons. The open windows for Ability (what I normally call
attributes), Equipment, Skills, and the usual. Each of these menus can
also be accessed by one of the function keys. Above the menu buttons is
a row dedicated to storage.
The bottom center of the interface is dominated by a red stone
(see what they did there?) that indicates the player's health. Beneath
the red stone is a meter that fills up as the player fights. A full
meter can be used to run in stead of walk or to unleash special attacks.
The minimap in the top right corner of the screen reminded me
of games I played on the Sega Genesis in 1992. It is simple but
effective. Characters who have a quest for the player have a piece of
parchment with an exclamation point floating above their heads.
Searchable items glow on mouse over.
Controls in Red
Stone are just as simple as the interface. Left-licking
moves around the character. Clicking on an enemy with either button
attacks it. Double-clicking characters and items interacts with them.
There's
more to Red Stone.
Continue
to page 2.
To read the latest guides, news, and features you can visit our Red Stone Game Page.
