How do you translate a worldwide role playing franchise that's more than 30 years old into a portable experience? In the case of Dungeons and Dragons Tactics, Kuju Entertainment and Atari's upcoming RPG, you start by including source material from the Player's Handbook, Dungeon Master's Guide and Monster Manual from the 3.5 edition ruleset. You follow that up by creating a new world to set your adventure in, so you're not bound by the established plotlines and stories from popular realms like Greyhawk, Eberron or Forgotten Realms. Finally, you focus on combat and exploration, so that the hardcore and the newcomer to the D&D style of play can enjoy the title.
One of the things we were shown when we sat down with the alpha build of Tactics was the character editor for the game. While you can automatically choose from pre-stocked characters, you'll be able to create as many characters as your
memory stick can hold for the game, giving you an incredible amount of flexibility in your party choices. Up to six characters can comprise your party in Tactics, and you'll be able to build these party members from all of the core races and classes available in the standard game, such as monks, druids and bards. Included in Tactics are two new psionic classes as well: the psychic warrior and the psion, which can add mental warfare to the ranged, magical and melee attacks of the other characters. You'll also have to option to auto-select each character's stats, feats, and other attributes if you're not familiar with D&D.
One thing that was pointed out to us was that the alignment of the primary character you choose to represent your party plays a large role in Tactics. Not only will the outcome of the game be affected by the moral direction of the character, but certain quests will be available or removed based upon which one of the nine alignments characters happen to be. Considering that there are a number of quests included within the game (27 core quests to the story and 41 in all), there should be more than enough for players to explore as a chaotic good, true neutral or lawful evil character, among others. In fact, Kuju is aiming for an experience that should last players at least 30-40 hours long, especially if they're only trying to blaze through the title.
As you explore the game, you'll constantly travel through a number of massive maps. In fact, you'll scroll across multiple screens as you explore the fog of war that disguises enemies on the level. You'll also discover plenty of nice details, such as dynamic lighting during underground exploratory sequences. Casting light spells or equipping torches causes illumination to spill and bounce off walls and project realistic shadows, which will help you determine if a corner is clear, or happens to be hiding a monster. Creatures in the game will actively use the fog of war and darkness to perform ambushes and flanking maneuvers, so you'll sometimes need to be on your guard as you explore. You never know if you're going to simply turn a corner and walk into a troll or a beholder.
As we stated earlier, the game is governed by 3.5 edition rules, which can be somewhat daunting to novices. The tutorial level that we checked out explained many of the mechanics of the game, such as the spinner interface for giving characters commands and maneuvering them around a map. By selecting one option on the wheel, you'll reveal additional options. For example, selecting move can unlock sneaking, guarded advances and other movement choices for your characters. During normal moments, players will be able to move as often as they'd like, but as soon as battle arises, the game is based on the standard rules of initiative. Again, the spinner wheel will allow you to choose separate attack options in battle, such as being able to choose Cleave or Bash feats or attacks of opportunity if an opponent tries to escape.
Of course, constantly sitting through battle animations after a while may start to get a bit stale. Fortunately, Kuju has provided a feature known as Chess Mode to help players power their way through the game without sitting through animations. If you trigger Chess Mode, you basically select your command and allow the game to perform its die rolls and checks in the background, simply displaying the result of what happened after that turn. There is definitely a trade off, especially with some of the spells that happen to be included in the game and the impressive particle effects from spells like Magic Missile and Fireball. Speaking of spells, magic users will be able to gain access to all of the deadly level 9 spells, including Power Word Kill. In fact, while you can beat the game with characters that reach level 15, it's theoretically possible to reach level 20 at the end of Tactics.
We discovered a number of changes that have been made to the
game since the last time we saw it a few months ago. For one, there will no longer be downloadable content available for the game after it hits shelves. Kuju finished off all of the additional downloadable quests and content early, and rather than put it up for download, they decided to include it on the UMD. While this means that releasing extra content isn't likely for Tactics, Kuju isn't totally ruling it out.
We also found out that there will be up to 6 player co-op available for Tactics via Ad Hoc, so if you can gather five of your friends together, all of you can command the fate of a specific party member. Fortunately, you won't be forced to wait for your friend to return if they have to leave for some reason; you will have the option to assign any character during multiplayer games to another person so that you can continue your journey. Along with that, players can engage in versus play via four separate modes: Last Man Standing (aka deathmatch), Dragon Kill (which is as dangerous as it sounds), Gladiator (arena battles) and Treasure Hunt.
Linear Mode
