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Latini nominis gelidi

  • Stoic
  • 07/10/2014 04:23 PM
  • 1285 views
INTRODUCTIO

In Arcem Miseria is Late Night Studio's (husband and wife team Anaryu and Krisanna) 21st game on RMN! It was developed in Unity for the 2014 Indie Game Maker Contest and playtime lasts about a hour although that might vary depending your puzzle solving skills. It's a 3D Steampunk RPG with combat in the vein of old Bioware RPGs like Baldur's Gate and Neverwinter Nights.

Now that all sounds good on paper. But is it fun? Engaging? Is the story worth a damn? Well, read on and find out!

FABULA

We begin with Benjamin's grandfather telling him and Madeline (Ben's friend?) a story after Ben has gotten the two into some trouble. The Grandfather introduces the story as "In Arcem Miseria" or Tower of Misery. It's about a boy who distanced himself from his family and then died in an accident. He awoke in front of a tower and heard a voice from the top exclaim that any who enters and braves the tower's challenges will be brought back to life. After the story is introduced, you wake up as Benjamin in front of the tower.


Beautiful cinematic shot of the tower

You meetup with Sonellia, a young girl in front of the tower. She begs you to take her with you. Ben eventually agrees to take her along as long as she doesn't get in his way. I'm guessing that Sonellia is supposed to be some alternate version of Madeline.

Inside, you're introduced to these naked alien looking creatures that are sort of wondering around aimlessly. They discourage the player from continuing but other than that don't serve much purpose. I get the impression that these creatures used to be human but were unable to progress past the first floor of the tower and devolved over time.

At the end of the first floor, something grisly happens which changes the dynamic of the game in an interesting way. As you ascend the tower, the game cuts to black where the characters in "the real world" interact. The story enfolds and more parallels between the real world and the dream world are established.

At the top of the tower, you encounter the demon queen. The ending is presented in a confusing manner and even after beating the game twice I'm not entirely sure what happened. Here is what I think was going on (in spoilers of course).

It seems at some point in the real world, Ben and Madeline were gravely injured during one of Ben's adventures. Even though the grandfather is telling the story of the tower, it seems like Ben is actually experience it and that Sonellia is Madeline. After the demon queen "kills" Ben, Sonellia discovers she never really lost her body and returns to her girl character model. The grandfather then tells her that the boy didn't die but had lost his hope. The screen shakes and the last line is "I am awake".

So did Ben and Madeline really "die" and ascend the tower to win back their life? Was it all a dream framed in the story the grandfather was telling? And what was that bit about losing hope? Did the grandfather lose hope or Ben? Why did Sonellia return to her human body in the end? I'm really unsure but I'd be interested to hear any theories. Maybe I'm just being dense here. I'll probably ask Anaryu later for the real answers.


I think IAM succeeds in creating an interesting world but fell short of presenting a satisfying story.

LUDO

IAM has a top-down style camera with point-and-click controls that are used for movement, environment interaction and combat. You can switch between the two characters and also toggle whether or not they auto-follow. In general, the path-finding is good and so solving puzzles by switching between the two characters flows fairly smoothly. Each floor of the tower also has a unique theme which keeps things interesting.

The first floor of the tower has no combat. The initial obstacles introduce you to the character switching mechanic by providing doors that require one character to stay behind and turn valves (switches) to open/close the doors while the other travels through doors to turn on previously inaccessible switches. You can only have so many switches active at once (something to do with the steam pressure), so you need to toggle them on/off to navigate the character through the doors. You're also introduced to "timed switches" that turn off after X seconds later on.

From a design perspective, this approach makes sense but the initial puzzles are a bit tedious. It's not entirely obvious which switches connect to which doors or that a switch may be timed or static. Maybe a few more visual cues are needed.


Battles can get pretty busy

On the 2nd level, you're introduced to combat. There is no tutorial and you're just thrown into the mix with the controls displayed on top via white text. You left click an enemy to start attacking it and press "X" to bring up your skills.

Make sure to have each character left-click the enemy or you won't auto-attack. Even if an enemy is hacking away at your partner, they will just stand there until you switch to them and left-click the enemy. This should be more automated. Also using a skill on an enemy doesn't keep you auto-attacking. You still have to left-click.

Skills cost points to use and you can see how many points you have displayed under your health as circles. There are also 4 different attack characteristics. Ben uses Range/Frost attacks and Sonellia uses Melee/Fire attacks. Each has skills that buff the other's attacks which gives a sense of teamwork between them.

When selecting skills, the action will freeze and you'll be able to select your target. Some skills have an area-of-effect so you'll want to group up enemies if possible, although they tend to move around if they're getting hit a lot. Like MMOs, attacks have a short delay before they're cast. You'll be able to see enemies casting skills as well which gives you a chance to move out of the way of certain attacks.

Unfortunately, the controls start to fall apart in combat. Trying to move a player to where you want them can be unresponsive or, at worst, put them in a loop of running back and forth. I found myself constantly battling the controls in later battles where moving out of the way of enemy attacks becomes more imperative. One encounter, I was trying to cast one of Sonellia's skills but she kept running back-and-forth down a hallway while poor Ben was left to fend for himself. The only time I lost an encounter was when the controls went haywire.

Another element of the 2nd floor is that you need to collect piles of coal to feed into boilers that increase the pressure in the pipes allowing you to activate more switches and open closed doors. There is no feedback for collecting coal piles. I think just having a counter somewhere showing how many you have out of the total would be helpful.

The 3rd floor introduces beam puzzles that transport the players to areas that are otherwise inaccessible. These puzzles are pretty fun and sometimes set you up for solo encounters. The 4th floor which I think is the best visually plays with lighting.


"Beam me up, Sonny!"

I enjoyed the puzzles. There was enough variety to keep them from getting repetitive. I can't say as much for the combat; especially early on. I wonder if the game would have been better if it focused more on the exploration and puzzle aspects than the combat.

ARTIS ET MUSICAE

The steampunk world is beautifully realized in this game. You have the rotating cogs, steam shooting out of the vents, nightmarish but also cartoony enemies. It all comes together really well.

The music helps immerse you in the world. The composition is done by the talented Joel Steudler and rather than go for a bombastic score it's fittingly a haunting and atmospheric soundtrack.

Sound design in general is good. Cogs and steam blowing out of pipes really adds to the ambiance. But some areas could use more audio feedback. When the main door opens to the tower I don't remember there being a sound. Also collecting coal piles doesn't have an effect. A sound when you're being transported by the beams would be nice. Basically, there is a lot of work that could be done here. I feel the lack of sounds in some sections really takes away from the impact of the scene. It just feels kind of flat.

Overall though the presentation of the game is very strong and succeeds in creating a cool surreal dreamworld.

CONCLUSIO

In Arcem Miseria is a cool little game. I feel it's lacking a lot in polish right now and a few game design changes (like auto-attack) would go a long way in improving the experience. But it's engaging as it is.

If you take the time to read this review before the contest ends, make sure to head over to their contest page and give the game some love! It deserves more attention.

Posts

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I fully agree with everything in this review, thanks for taking the time, especially with so much detail!
NeverSilent
Got any Dexreth amulets?
6280
Hmm... I had actually planned to review this game soon, but I doubt there's anything left to say now. You even gave the same score as I had in mind.
Very nice review, ArtBane, and thanks to Anaryu and Krisanna for creating this potential-rich gem of a game.
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