The demo for N-Space's Diablo-style action RPG was released in Europe this morning. As has become common practice with 3DS demos this trial provides a relatively small glimpse into the game and has a bizarre play limit (in the case of Heroes of Ruin 6 shakes is considered appropriate, 7 shakes and you're just playing with yourself).
The demo immediately drops you into the character select screen, with two characters on offer. One a forgotten member of the Thundercats (Vindicator), the second a roguish nomad (Gunslinger), each of which have their own stats; Might, Vigor (speed?) and Soul (Health?). As the Thundercats suck and because Clint Eastwood is the man I of course chose Gunslinger.
The quest included within the Demo tasks you with defeating a forest spirit who plans to use her undead legions to unleash war on the World of Veil. Short as it was, I believe the demo did a good job of giving an overview of the game. There are at least two optional objectives, for instance, that you can complete prior to making your way to the boss; the first being to collect materials for a special weapon, the second being to destroy a spiritual tree which is an additional source of power for the boss.
During the demo, I believe that I levelled up twice and this led to stat boosts and also allowed me to equip better equipment. As with Diablo and games of that ilk there are lots of equipment drops (much of which might not be usable by your class or at your current level). For those items you don't want or can't use, however, you can simply stand over an item and press down on the D-pad to sell it there and then, which is a cool little feature. Comparing equipment also seems to be relatively easy as selecting the equipment menu will bring up several options for different types of armors (i.e. head, shoulders, torso etc). In these sub-menus you will find all the relevant equipment for that body part and numbers will show in red, white or green to indicate stat differences (Red of course being a drop, green showing an increase).
There are also assignable skills in the game. As the Gunslinger I started off with a move called 'Explosive Retreat' which throws a grenade forwards as the character rolls backwards, which was quite handy, and another called 'Blaze Wave' in which the character dumps bullets from both handguns in a horizontally arching movement to cover as much area as possible. For this second move I was able to upgrade it such that enemies could potential catch on fire. I also opened up a third slot and purchased another skill which allowed me to lasso enemies, which usually slowed them down but could on occasion stop them in their tracks.
Overall, based on the Demo I thought Heroes of Ruin was promising. The one big dissappointment for me was that the game...well...it looks terrible. The character models are acceptable (not great), but the textures in the game generally are akin to those you might expect to see in an N64 game.
In my experience games which aren't the best technically can often look worse when in natural environments and outdoor areas. Perhaps because natural environments are supposed to be quite detailed, with grass, leaves etc. a game's visual issues can often be exaggerated when such areas are shown. I mention this because while in one of the few indoor temple-like structures found in the demo the game didn't look as bad. In other words, I hope that this demo is not representative of the game's visual capability generally.
I'll be interested to hear more about this game ahead of it's release next week.
Did anyone else play this? What did you think?
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