By Jim Rossignol on March 8th, 2012 at 4:00 pm.
We’ve been a-rambling about War Of The Roses before now, but this is the first chance for the world at large to see the game in action. The Medieval melee combat game is reportedly the most expensive project ever undertaken by Swedish publisher Paradox, and it’s also a big deal for its developer Fatshark, who have built the thing from the ground up. It’s looking fairly solid, too.
And ouch. I get the feeling this might just work, although I really, really wanted to see that archer shoot the knight from his horse… And the lack of group melee footage is a bit of a shame – it’s a lot of 1v1 stuff in there. I’m also surprised that the animation isn’t a little more fluid. Being fussy again, aren’t I?
08/03/2012 at 16:04 Alexander Norris says:
Ah, I thought that looked a lot like Lead & Gold (a fun little game, and very pretty – shame it’s dead for lack of a community).
08/03/2012 at 16:04 Bluerps says:
Gruesome.
08/03/2012 at 16:54 JB says:
It is dark.
08/03/2012 at 17:31 Ross Angus says:
.. and yet sunny. This is set in Britain, right?
09/03/2012 at 11:11 Harlander says:
It must be in one of the three weeks of nice weather we get a year.
08/03/2012 at 16:08 McCool says:
Ooh, is this thing available totally in first person, or is that just for archery? It is unclear in the video. That’s the sticking point for me, I’m afraid. If it is first person, then rather lovely looking, isn’t it?
08/03/2012 at 16:33 Gimvi says:
If it is anything like Mount and Blade you will be able to switch between first person and 3rd person with any weapon.
08/03/2012 at 16:37 Stevostin says:
Yes but is it ? Same question here, same motivation. First person melee combat is the thrill, although not half as handy at TPV.
08/03/2012 at 16:44 CaptainWhappin says:
Its first person melee combat, like Age of Chivalry.
Edit: Oh shit, now that I watch again, it looks like 3rd person. Well thats ass now isn’t it.
08/03/2012 at 17:02 DrGonzo says:
It’s the developers of Mount and Blade, which had both first person and third person combat. It will almost certainly have first person, and almost certainly be the best first person melee combat game ever made. After all Mount and Blade still holds that crown.
08/03/2012 at 17:04 sneetch says:
It’s definitely 3rd person, it says it on their website.
Even the 1st person archery looks like it’s from the viewpoint of a man standing really close to the archer rather than from the archer’s viewpoint (both arms are on the very left of the screen).
09/03/2012 at 00:39 Mattressi says:
There’s a crossbow shown in there too and it’s clearly first person (not someone standing to the side). I really hope they fix the viewpoint when drawing a bow, because it’s absurd to be pulling the string back while hooking your head around to the other side to aim. And I agree with the first/third person toggle button; I’m quite sure they’ll implement it.
The rest of the footage looks quite nice, though.
08/03/2012 at 20:31 Valvarexart says:
I would wager that you press a button to switch. I do agree that first-person combat is much more thrilling. It would be much better if they forced it, in my opinion. But that’s just me.
09/03/2012 at 03:18 bear912 says:
I definitely saw a first-person crossbow in there. Not sure if anything else will be first person, but there’s that, at least.
08/03/2012 at 16:08 Chizu says:
But will there be a trading system?
So I can finally trade my Kingdom for a Horse.
08/03/2012 at 16:34 Pop says:
You’d have to divide the horse up into smaller “micro-transactions”, but essentially yes.
08/03/2012 at 21:23 Maldomel says:
Divide the horse? You mean horse meat? My kingdom for a good steak then!
08/03/2012 at 16:12 SexualHarassmentPanda says:
Please be as good as Mount & Blade! I’d love to enjoy a game of that calibur without the graphics looking like ass.
08/03/2012 at 16:24 Duckee says:
Please just be a meatier version of Mount and Blade! If this is not a RPG and a medieval sim I will cry.
EDIT: I am crying. From looking at the initial impression again, which I had forgotten about, it is a third person action game online with some progression. ARGH
08/03/2012 at 16:46 CaptainWhappin says:
Its an… FPM(?) Like Call of Duty but swords and shit. Play Age of Chivalry and you’ll see.
08/03/2012 at 16:47 Mad Hamish says:
I believe the game you’re looking for Duckee is Mount & Blade 2. I’ve read that the multiplayer section of this will be more like Battlefield crossed with M&B.
08/03/2012 at 17:05 DrGonzo says:
Nooo! Should have guessed that when I saw the press X to execute bits. Not interested in that kinda thing. Strangely I already thought of Mount and Blade as Battlefield but with swords.
08/03/2012 at 16:16 MuscleHorse says:
Fussy you are. It’s only pre-Alpha footage so I’d imagine the fluidity will appear with future versions.
Looks a lot of fun, if not a little silly. Jumping from a roof in a metal can would probably ouchie your innies.
08/03/2012 at 17:17 Blaq says:
I’d say that’s being more than just fussy. The game is looking great for pre-alpha, looks a lot like a large budget polished Mount & Blade. Mmm.
08/03/2012 at 16:17 rockman29 says:
That was awesome :)
08/03/2012 at 16:25 kulik says:
Please no crosshair for ranged weapons.
08/03/2012 at 16:26 Njordsk says:
A guy with a 20kg package on him jumping from a roof. YAY, best way to break both of your legs.
Looks alright anyway.
08/03/2012 at 16:29 reggiep says:
We agreed long ago that realism in video games takes a back seat to fun.
09/03/2012 at 10:37 RizziSmoov says:
You mean for ease.
Realism is fun for some.
08/03/2012 at 16:34 Vinraith says:
“We”? Speak for yourself, a reasonable amount of realism is fun.
08/03/2012 at 16:48 InternetBatman says:
I’m not sure if he is jumping from the roof, his body is parallel to it.
08/03/2012 at 16:26 Glottis1 says:
Stabbing guy 3 times in face should do it.
08/03/2012 at 18:58 Orija says:
Shouldn’t make Yo Momma jokes on the battlefield.
09/03/2012 at 06:50 sidhellfire says:
I wonder if I can stab him more times for a good measure, or is it fixed animation. Could be annoying if people started to think that I can count only till three.
08/03/2012 at 16:28 alexheretic says:
The coups de grâce are a little trailerific. Looks like the sort of thing made to produce wows, but ending up causing many more sighs in-game.
08/03/2012 at 16:29 Khemm says:
To think that such an amazing concept will be wasted on a multiplayer oriented game.
I’d totally pay a stupidly high amount of money for something RPG-y similar to Mount and Blade mixed with Gothic. A world to explore, character progression system, quests revolving around saving virgins, saving or slaughtering peasants, storming castles, gaining fame and money to fund a castle of my own, acquiring my opponents’ lands, solving disputes via diplomatic means and so on…
08/03/2012 at 17:24 Drakedude says:
Bro, you need to take a little (i say little… :L :P) Embers of caerus to the mind heart and soul. Google it’s vision :DDDDDDDDDDDDDD.
08/03/2012 at 18:17 Blackcompany says:
I’m with Khemm on this one. Yet another multiplayer, online, PVP brawl. Whether its swords or guns or bows or what ever doesn’t even really matter any longer. Pretty soon devs are going to find the online gaming arena so saturated that their games go unnoticed and their plans sink like a ship with a hole in the bottom. Its got to happen, given the number of games in the market.
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Meanwhile the single player games of late are, well…less than compelling. A huge niche exists for deep, immersive single player games in a wide variety of genres. Just sitting there, it is, waiting for someone to fill it. And no one will, because they all see the MMO/Online battle market as more profitable.
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But the sad truth is that the online market is overcrowded. Its a bubble, its going to burst soon, and its going to leave a lot of devs hurt bad when it does, because they focused all their time on that bubble with no contingency plans.
08/03/2012 at 23:58 Runs With Foxes says:
People have been saying this since Counter-strike.
09/03/2012 at 11:54 Derppy says:
I want to fight players who have a genuine change to fight back, rather than bots programmed to miss me and not block my hits on purpose.
M&B is the only proper medieval multiplayer combat game there is and it’s very outdated. I welcome this game with open arms and hope it has a deep combat system and some sort of siege mode.
09/03/2012 at 06:51 sidhellfire says:
If you do not want to play with other people just join an empty server and off you go!
Or just be shut.
08/03/2012 at 16:32 man-eater chimp says:
If there was a bit more oomph in the fighting it would be perfect. I doubt swinging a sword through someone would be that easy. But that’s just me nit picking though, looks awesome!
Paradox do seem to be churning out games at the moment.
08/03/2012 at 16:36 Blackcompany says:
Would be nice if the game had some substance to go with its style. I mean…ok, a respawning online battleground might be fun. For a while. But personally, I see myself leaving for deeper waters pretty quickly.
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But to each their own.
08/03/2012 at 16:50 iZen says:
Err…wait a sec. Anyone else stumbled across many of the animations (especially moving) looking like a direct copy from Mount&Blade? Also a few of the combat anims. This essentially looks like a Mount&Blade graphical overhaul. Wich isnt totally bad, just feels a little stolen…
And tbh, walkin anims in MB werent one of the features worthy copying…
08/03/2012 at 16:56 ankh says:
The violence! It is glorious!
08/03/2012 at 17:29 Kinth says:
I live in Lancaster i wonder if i will get to see a Ye Olde rendition of the town! :P
08/03/2012 at 17:31 linzhanpo says:
http://15.cc/3zal8
08/03/2012 at 17:33 Ross Angus says:
I wonder if it’s taken any ideas from Shamus Young’s theory of dueling in games.
08/03/2012 at 19:05 Reapy says:
Neat read there, but I think that person hasn’t really played any games that have had good dueling in them (mount&blade, jedi academy etc etc), and the focus seems to be overly much on an RPG type of combat rather than action oriented.
That post also seems to describe a game system that he worked out in his head without following it to conclusion or play test it. As an armchair designer in my head also (constantly thinking of game ideas), I find that I write stuff like that, but when i start putting it to paper or have tried to code it, I find that sentences like what he has are just too broad and not specific enough.
Even just to continue nit picking, his saber lock mechanic is decidedly one sided and uninteresting. If stamina drains equally for both parties, the guy starting with the most stamina automatically wins, there is no tradeoff. If I have more stamina I start a lock and the guy has to back off or he will fall over with no stamina left. Article is full of good start points but he doesn’t take them to conclusion.
Either way, thanks for the link, liked the read :)
Warband is nice in that you get some of the fighting game mechanics (the ultimate dueling games in a sense) without the need for hype reflexes or memorizing huge move lists. War of the roses looks like it is taking what warband has and adding/changing it to its own flavor, only time will tell how it lands.
08/03/2012 at 20:50 Blackcompany says:
Agree with some of these points. But the auto-block and focus meter…this is no better than the current system, really. No worse, certainly…but no better.
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As for the Stamina bar…slowly getting my combat mod tweaked in Skyrim until combat is more about stamina than health. Once I get it there, I think I will likely just increase weapon damage across the board, with a game setting, and let her rip.
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If you make attacking and blocking use stamina, give NPC’s intelligent combat styles and increase their odds of countermoves, such as blocking, power attacks and bashing, to continue the Skyrim example, then you can make combat quick and violent. If the NPC has a fair chance to win, and can make all the moves the player can utilize, then you can dramatically up weapon damage and get things over with quickly.
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The first significant mistake kills. Period.
08/03/2012 at 18:08 boywithumbrella says:
What’s with the strange archery perspective? is he drawing the string to the shoulder of the arm holding the bow? Or does the camera for some reason detach from the head while drawing? It looks very weird in any case…
08/03/2012 at 19:22 wodin says:
Was excited. A historical Mount and Blade. Also being from Lancashire. But oh no here we go it’s Multiplayer.
Just watched the vid. Is it the same developers as M&B? As I was very surprised on how similar they look. I notice recently poor animations in a few games even ME3 (odd floaty walking and sudden super fast mincing). After seeing some great ones in Witcher 2 it’s a shame. A fair few games have you playing murdering men but who run in a very camp I’m free kind of way.
08/03/2012 at 19:24 Davie says:
Looks like a very pretty Mount and Blade, and I really can’t see how that’d be a bad thing. I wish they had the slightest interest in singleplayer though.
08/03/2012 at 19:49 Sami H says:
Wake me up when Dark Messiah 2 gets announced. And yes, I am aware of the new game from Arkane :)
08/03/2012 at 20:52 Blackcompany says:
Dark Messiah felt a little too…contrived…for me. Loved everything but the combat. Always seemed I either kicked some Orc into a too-convenient spike wall…off a too-convenient cliff…or used some other equally-contrived method to end the combat.
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Or…I died.
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But then, as we have already established, I’m just not a super-fast-twitch kind of guy, either. So…that could be my own fault, too.
08/03/2012 at 20:17 Brothabear says:
Heh I hope to see you assholes ingame oneday. If its anything like M&B (except with swinging animations that work) then you will all have to answer to my morningstar!
09/03/2012 at 06:53 sidhellfire says:
Flails! I’ve heard it comes with flails.
08/03/2012 at 20:24 cosmicolor says:
This looks pretty cool, I hope I don’t end up like I ended up in Mount and Blade where I would swing at people when I thought I would hit only to miss hilariously.
09/03/2012 at 01:36 theodacourt says:
Go Lancashire!
09/03/2012 at 11:48 SupberUber says:
If built from the ground up means in-house engine, much time could have been saved by using the U3 engine. Similar, stiff animations. Looks the same too