By Quintin Smith on March 14th, 2011 at 10:22 pm.
Mm! Reader Lars “Best” Westergren writes to inform us that Playstation Network strategy title Hoard will be available for purchase on Steam on April 4th, according to Destructoid. This one sounds cute- a sort of negatively charged RTS where you prevent the human settlements around your hoard from developing by attacking wagons, burning farms, snatching princesses and generally brutalising settlers, all while trying to let the towns grow just enough so that you get a nice stack of gold when you do tear them apart. And look! That’s an 8/10 Eurogamer review, right there. A juicy pullquote from that and a video await after the jump.
Here’s what classically beautiful ex-Eurogamer editor Kristan Reed thinks of Hoard:
So, with score-chasing concerns, (and, later, fellow dragons to compete against) Hoard evolves into a curious strategy-shooter hybrid, when diligent use of power-ups and racking up your multiplier becomes all-important. You also have the delightful option of capturing squealing princesses and holding them to ransom (also present in a dedicated princess ransoming mode), while also roasting any daring thieves that try to make off with your gold. Cheek.
With its immediate sense of fun and slick controls, Hoard hooks you in right from the off – whether in campaign mode or competitive multiplayer – and it’s also a formula with a surprising amount of depth. Terrorise a town without laying it to waste, and the populace will actually send you gold for your merciful benevolence. Harsh but fair, just how we like it.
And here’s a video of some co-op. Wow. It is very arcade, innit?
awesome! seems a better fit to PCs than consoles.
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So I’m guessing on co-op you protect the same hoard? With harder difficulty the more people are in on it? Sounds good, plus you get to be a Dragon.
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Very cute! Very tempted to want to play this in co-op.
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I like the look of this, but then I did always think Smaug was one of the better characters in “The Hobbit”.
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I hope the PC one will have more of a multiplayer community. I bought the PS3 version because I was very excited about playing in MP, but no matter what different times I tried I can never find any other players =/.
It’s rather boring in SP.
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Cell-shaded fantasy setting, cute enough and with some personality…
Now I see what Elemental should have looked like.
Besides, looking forward to this game, seems interesting
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I think its interesting they chose to show the world as existing on a nice pine tabletop. I don´t think I´ve seen that kind of board game perspective outside of actual card to computer ports like monopoly etc, or (stretching) micro-machines.
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R.U.S.E. had that. Sort of.
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At least one of the Total War games displays the map on top of a wooden surface.
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This looks really fun. I also like the tabletop boundary, it definitely beats the “invisible wall” method. I do hope that you can rotate the camera though; the video looks kind of strange with all the roads, etc. skewed to the right.
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YES!
I was hoping this would turn up on the PC. I was thus far only looking forward to picking it up on the PSN, but now it looks like I have a better option. Whoo.
This, for me, is a day one purchase. It looks like a lot of fun, indeed.
Dragons, after all. Plus I dig that tabletop ambiance.
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I have to say that I didn’t see much in the way strategy in the description or reviews but I did see a fun little co-op shooter with a bucket of charm. So yeah, I dig it.
Also, anyone else reminded of the original Actraiser flying levels?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RcLD6MF7QLg (skip to 2:20 for the bit I mean)
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Aw, don’t make me long for a game type that doesn’t come around all that often :(
Other than Actraiser the only other action/rpg/city builder I can think of is Dark Cloud…
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Three words.
Little King’s Story.
http://uk.wii.ign.com/articles/100/1005964p1.html
This, Super Mario Galaxy and Okami pretty much justify the Wii’s entire existance as a serious console. Super Mario Galaxy may very well be the best game of this generation.
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Looks really nice! Love the art direction they’ve taken..
Now just let me play something other than dragons and include randomly generated maps (maybe this is already in? Haven’t read the review) and I’ll be all set!
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I hope not. I mean, why dilute something like this? The only thing that would make that okay is if the other playables were as awesome as dragons. I mean, we already have enough games where we play as humans that are so boring and uninspired that they might as well be tax attorneys (I’m looking at you, Dovahkin), so why do that to this game?
Let’s have one game where the playable options are really, really fun and not diluted by dullness.
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Dilute? Tss. Judging from the trailer, I see about of 6-8 hours gameplay, tops. Probably worth it still though of course. But variation is key for games like this.
And of course I meant different monsters (giants, for example). No idea where you got “play as humans” from.
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Well it’s about time.
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This looks ace.
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Agreed. Save for the creepy princess voices. o_o
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