Van Hemlock

Okay gang, you know the drill:

Shadowbane: Free Trial

(Be sure to use the correct portal (/us/ /uk/ etc), as the freebie CD Keys will only work with the right region’s registration. Took me a while to figure this out.)

• Duration: 14 days
• Client: Retail + First Expansion (~500MB)
• Credit Card Required: Yes

Well, after all that Bene Gesserit ‘Fear Is The Mind Killer’ mantra nonsense a few weeks back, it turned out that I needn’t have worried at all; the game places new characters on a ‘safe’ island, and only recommends leaving at level 20. After a few monster whacking sessions, it became immediately apparent that in the fourteen days provided, I would be very hard pressed to make it to level 20, and indeed, get to see or take part in virtually any of the features that set Shadowbane apart from the rest of the Everquest-style bunch. So what was I able to get from my time there?

Three Good Things:

• Diversity:

  The first thing that struck me was the sheer variety of races available on character select; devil people, grey shadow people, winged demon people, and even the existing ‘standard’ fare (elves, dwarves, half elves, etc) are given a fresh and new slant, all brooding and full of menace. This level of diversity is continued on to server selection, where, contrary to the usual, each server, (shard, whatever) is actually a different world map with different towns and continents. Certainly once in there, you quickly realise that these are all made up with different combinations of ‘Generic Forest Tileset 1’ and ‘Snowy Wastes Tileset 3’, the idea that your server is a unique and different world is actually quite a comforting thought, as opposed to the production-line mirrors of Everquest or Star Wars: Galaxies. A nice touch.

• Brooding:

  The general feel of a world in the Dark Ages came across well. The burned and shattered starting villages, the gloomy forests and swamps, the remote gypsy caravans and muddy downtrodden half-ruined cities all came together to create an ambience of brooding malice that fit well with the basic premise of the world; warring factions struggling for power. The music in particular worked well with this, and despite knowing that I was a on an island where no PvP was allowed, I still felt a bit on edge for much of the time as a result.

• Guilds:

  Now I’m inferring a lot here, as I never really got to a point where I could experience it first-hand, but Shadowbane seems to have some of the most comprehensive support for guilds in any MMO. I found vendors stocking whole town deeds; blacksmiths, towers, walls, temples, etc, complete with guards, trainers and shopkeepers. Unlike many online games, where the guild is purely a social thing, Shadowbane embraces the guild as a powerful force that can impact heavily on the game world itself. The world map is covered in the various shield icons of player-based factions and guilds, and, presumably, these cities and forts are fought over on a regular basis. The idea that your guild can make a difference is always a compelling one, and the ‘game of thrones’ provided by Shadowbane must be a very good way to exercise that need for objective recognition. Shadowbane seems to provide a great many tools to cater to the political and commander types of player, which you’d be hard pressed to find elsewhere.

Three Bad Things:

• Stamina:

  As well as the usual Red Points (Health) and Blue Points (Mana/Energy/Etc), in Shadowbane, you also have Yellow Points (Stamina). These function exactly as in Diablo II, i.e. go down when you run everywhere, and force you to a crawl when exhausted. Worse still, combat specials seem to use these Yellow Points. I created an Elf Rogue newbie and found that I had a huge pool of Blue Points that I never used at all, while at the same time, my Yellow Points were always running out at the worst moment. The crowning glory was the realisation that in combat, if you run out of Yellow Points, your character simply gives up completely and just stands there, not even hitting with the auto-attack. “You and me both,” I thought. On the whole, the idea of Stamina, while possibly a necessary PvP balancing lever, just annoyed the hell out of me.

• Dated:

  Shadowbane is getting on for three years old, and to be honest, the years have not been kind. I’m sure in its day, it was quite revolutionary, but now it just seems really primitive. I try not to judge on Pixel Shading and Particle Effects, but I generally only ignore that kind of thing if the gameplay itself is captivating enough. It wasn’t. Compared to present titles, it doesn’t really hold up, which I suppose is fine if you aren’t just a casual visitor like me. Technically it seems to have trouble too; notably the ‘seamless’ single zone world it uses. Any non-zoned game like that (SWG, AC1/2, WoW, etc) is going to be a bit juddery at times, but travelling any real distance in Shadowbane is quite frustrating, as the cryptic spinney icon in the top corner that I took to mean ‘Loading’ seems to have real trouble keeping up. Monsters, NPCs and players often appear behind you as you run about. Pathing is non-existent as well, and I had no end of fun entering and leaving buildings – you click somewhere outside of the building, and your character will just walk into the nearest wall and stop. I actually ended up stuck inside a wall at one point. Clumsy...and I don’t mean me. I’d imagine this makes for eminently exploitable mobs. Add to all that a UI that isn’t entirely on your side and a lack of tutorial, and all in all, Shadowbane is a game that takes a lot of work to appreciate, and not in a good way. (I've no idea if any forthcoming expansion intends to give the engine an overhaul, but boy does it need one)

• Purpose:

  My real main problem with the game though, is that your little half-vampire, or demon-kin, or whatever, is born into the world, and beyond being given the somewhat lofty and abstract goal of ‘Crush Your Enemies’, ‘Claim A Throne’ and ‘Rule The World’, is basically left to it. For the raw newbie, this is a bit too far on the ‘open ended gameplay’ scale, and you have to entertain yourself. I could find no quests, missions, discernable NPC factions or back-story, and only the vaguest hints about what life was like on The Mainland, and how, and who, I could help. There was no tutorial, no greeter, nothing; not even the customary explanatory note in my inventory – “Hail, Soandso! Orcs killed your parents! Go talk to Quest_NPC_1 who can help you start a new life!”…that sort of thing. So, presumably, I’m to just wander about beating on monsters until I reach level 20, use this portal thing, and then swear lifelong fealty to the first person who shows any sort of kindness (i.e. doesn’t KOS me). I can totally understand that a game whose basic premise is Team-based Outpost Capture PvP probably doesn’t feel the need to try very hard on the PvE Content front, but I couldn’t even play it like a game of Counter Strike either, there being a significant (longer than 14 days) time investment required to even get started on the ganking, and much longer to get good at it. Obviously, I needed to join a guild, but any players at all were thin on the ground, let alone recruiters, and anyway, I’m a newbie, and know no-one. In short, why am I here?

So all in all, I came away with two main impressions; firstly, that fourteen days is probably more of a hindrance than a help with Shadowbane, and not really a useful guide to the parts of the game they are trying to sell. ‘Well, duh!’ I hear you cry, but so far I’ve found the two week trial to be quite representative of the main game in most cases. Not so with Shadowbane. Secondly, that much of the real distinctiveness of the game is buried very deeply; castle sieges, PvP raids, template tweaking, global domination, and so on; all of which are aspects of the game that a newbie won’t see for a very long time, if at all; after all, a crown can only sit on one head at a time. Shadowbane may reward those who put the time and effort in, but on the basis of my limited experience, it didn’t really seem to matter what the destination was going to be like; the journey just wasn’t that fun.

Final Verdict: Inconclusive, but probably not for the casual gamer.

So what next? Well, Operation Cheapseats has been somewhat complicated by the fact that I’m currently going through an EVE Online phase at the moment. I’d cover the free trial for that, (14 days, no credit card), but I’m not a newbie there at all, so it’d have to be a totally different sort of review. So what I’m looking for this time, is something light, very casual, and if at all possible, can be played at the same time as some of the more tedious bits of EVE. I suspect Puzzle Pirates might fit that bill…

(As a side note, it wasn’t until trialling Shadowbane that I felt compelled to go and sign up with another MMO…make of that what you will…)