Roman All Over

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GDC day #1 delivered a two-hour hands-on experience with Gods and Heroes; a title being developed by Perpetual Entertainment and marketed by Sony Online Entertainment.

The lovely and talented Debysue Wolfcale of Sony Online Entertainment escorted our group into the Perpetual Entertainment offices in downtown San Francisco and briefly summarized the state of the game, currently in closed beta to the press in attendance. Both Sony and Perpetual are genuinely excited about this title and with good reason.

The pedigree of the development team might be the best kept secret in the industry with team members like Chris McKibbon who previously was Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer of the EA Canada Studio, Chief Operating Officer and General Manager of the Origin Systems Studio, and General Manager of Programming and Production for EA.com, as well as Steig Hedlund who was the lead designer of both Starcraft and Diablo II.

Public exposure of the game has been relatively limited so far with showings at E3 2005, E3 2006, CES and Comic Con being the most notable public displays. The embargo on information may be about to end and the gaming community is in for a Herculean sized treat.

The hands-on session in which I acted as photographer and comedy relief while Jeff Woleslagle displayed his videography talents and Cody Bye played, yes played the game for almost two hours was over all to quickly. The Perpetual team were happy to answer not only the well formulated, thought provoking, from the hip, rise to the occasion questions that I asked, but also the far less important ones asked by the other press in attendance.

Gods and Heroes is unique in that it allows the player to control a number of minions that act as a squad supporting the hero during his quest for glory, phat lewt and levels. It's a bit like my journey through GDC with my staff. Cody is my tank. Jeff is a healer and Nicole is crowd control. These minions come from three main support groups, infantry, skirmisher and spellcaster. Depending on your choice of class your minion choices would differ. A tank would likely choose a healer or a nuker as their first minion while a player who enjoys playing a healing class would probably make a tank their first choice. As you fill out your ranks you can add additional minions to suit your playstyle.

Chris McKibbon, Perpetual's President and charismatic leader was emphatic that Gods and Heroes was a title that could compete with the big name games and the big name IPs (Intellectual Properties) that were coming down the pipe in the next 12 to 24 months. It was clear that much like World of Warcraft the game delivers an intuitive gameplay mechanic that even a MMOG neophyte could jump right into and enjoy, with enough subtle nuances that a hard-core player will be able to spend plenty of time min/maxing their minion choices and God powers should they enjoy that aspect of the game.

Unlike games that are tied to a specific IP with the resulting background and storyline restrictions this title is afforded a virtually limitless palette of mythology to work with. This rich backdrop, written and retold over the centuries might well be as perfect a setting as a game could have. Everyone has a frame of reference to draw upon while they experience this game. Seeing a minotaur or cyclops or a God was a powerful experience based not only on my love of mythology, but on what might be some of the best art direction yet seen in a MMOG. Mike Hines, the art director and former artist on URU has done an impeccable job putting the face on Gods and Heroes.

Even the low level starting area that we were walked through had an epic feel giving even those of us in the press who see these games day in and day out a "Wow, now that was cool" feeling. The title will launch with a level cap of 40 and a focus on Player versus Environment (PVE) play. Chris McKibbon stated that there are already another 10 levels of content in production and that Player versus Player (PVP) play would be part of the first expansion.

I hadn't seen this title close up and personal since E3 of 2005 which meant I went into the demonstration with little in the way of expectations. I was thoroughly impressed with the current state of the game, or at least with the portions that we were allowed to view.

Gods and Heroes is a title that I know I will be buying when it launches late this summer.

Cody Bye and Jeff Woleslagle will both be writing far more eloquent and in-depth impressions of the game over the next couple of days. They paid far better attention than I did and both enjoy vocabularies at least forty times the size of mine. I'll point you in their direction when the copy hits the live servers. Until then, start fashioning your toga and watch Gladiator a few times. Rome is rising once again in the summer of 2007.

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Last Updated: Mar 13, 2016

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