Preview: Shadows: Heretic Kingdoms – Steam Early Access

Spiders and Demons, oh my!

Shadows: Heretic Kingdoms by bitComposer and Games Farm is a fantasy action-RPG that was released under the Steam Early Access banner mid-June. I’d played it quite a lot at the time, but with the roll-out of a hefty update last month it allowed me the opportunity to return to the Shadow Realm and see what’s changed.

It’s an isometric game in the vain of Diablo or more similar to, if you’re familiar with, the classic Dungeons & Dragons RPG’s like Icewind Dale or Boulders Gate. Shadows is also the next instalment in the Heretic Kingdoms series and follows on from the events in 2004’s  Kult: Heretic Kingdoms (or Heretic Kingdoms: The Inquisition as it was known in North America).  Although lore is spread thickly throughout the game and loading screens thankfully a knowledge of past epic events are not essential to appreciate playing the game.

The crux of the game is this:  you play a soul swallowing demon known affectionately as the ‘Devourer’. The upshot of eating souls apparently is that you are able to bring them back into the mortal realm as your meat puppet to do your bidding. Some questions soon arise as to whom is controlling whom but for the most part the land of the living is certainly the more interesting and narrative driven.

Starting the game you’re introduced to your spiky demon before selecting one of two deceased heroes (although another, a mage called Evia will be added when out of Early Access) each with unique skill set, back story and full recorded dialogue.  These are:

• Kalig, the Bandit King of Thole. A melee warrior through and through.
• Jasker, the “Wild Boar”. A hunter who users his bow-and-arrow for ranged attacks.

As you play you can toggle between the shadow world of the Devourer or mortal realm of his puppet(s) each having a differing enemy type. This does have its advantages as being a demon allows you to gain access to different areas or more importantly escape a tricky situation. Some enemies are also attackable in both realms, so it is important to navigate both frequently.

For the first hour I found my experience with the game quite boring and repetitive. Each of the quests in and around the city town Thole, for which accounts for I’d say 70% of Act 1 (e.g. the entirety of the early access game thus far) was battling just two types of spiders in the land of the living and two varieties of demons in the shadow realm. It was only around the last third of the game did more enemies appear and was treated to in total around twenty (being generous) monster types, including the end of quest chain bosses.

As I crawled around a catacomb or cellar I also encountered a speckling of puzzles and traps to hinder my traversing of the environments. Some being quite simple such as a broken bridge which my mortal ‘puppet’ was unable to pass and solved by stepping into the Devourer’s shadow realm while others appeared more Indy-esq with flame jets, spike traps or having you locate the correct sequence of stone slabs to step on or be burnt to death by lava.

Giving Games Farm some credit, once you’re familiar the surroundings and premise of the adventure is was quite entertaining. Levelling up your characters to spend points on skill trees for each party member was good, as also was also buying or looting new weapons and armour.

As soon as the game had found its stride, I left the city and entered the ending area of the game called ‘The Outlands’ – or as I refer it ‘The Grind’. The Outlands outside the city purely consisted of fighting your way across and survive the hundreds of repeated enemies. Nomads, scorpions, maggots and the undead. Rinse and repeat. Some of these creatures were also seemingly unkillable and would resurrect themselves once defeated unless you went into the shadow realm to kill the master. It was only through a combination of baby stepping my way around the map, frequently saving/loading and exploiting (glitching) the range of some of the characters weapons I was I able to progress.

Death of a meat puppet was insignificant as these characters can be resurrected, but death to your demon character would be a complete game over and you’d need to return to a previous save point which, if ill timed, led to some frustration.

On the plus side you could pad out your party (maximum of four plus the demon) with characters saved or defeated during your time playing the game. Some were unlocked at the end of side missions while others through the the main quest line. These allowed for some variety in your group from a hulking armoured zombie, a small quick bomb throwing Goblin-type creature or Zaar the tiger-man who is able to attack using, naturally, his animal furiosity.

At this moment the game utilities a generous inventory system, so much so that management wasn’t required (or I’ve not hit the limit yet) as well as items like iron or creature parts appear to suggest the presence of crafting elements but not yet implemented.

[vsw id=”vMC9vXPQJzs” source=”youtube” width=”640″ height=”360″ autoplay=”no”]

Production for graphics and visual effects are very high. Special mention has to go to the team having to create two versions of each map, one shadow and one mortal. Music and audio is the same, although additional variety of sound effects would be appreciated. As mentioned previously, the game does take pride in offering full local talents for what appears to be the entire NPC population of the game – not to mention the best Doctor Who, Tom Baker, lending his gravitas. Although it must be said that not with his usual expected gusto as the voice of the “hooded figure” which you frequently encounter.

If you’re a fan of the classic role-playing games of yesteryear and looking for something more literary than Diablo’s often hack-and-slash, I would recommend  Shadows: Heretic Kingdoms. Act 1 game me around 4-5 hours of thorough game play so with additional areas being released the (current) asking price is certainly worthy. Days are still early but the game does have potential and most importantly with early access the development of the game appears to be on track.

Shadows: Heretic Kingdoms is available for £22.99 from the Steam store now. A further large patch is expected in early September and a full release of Book I (Devourer of Souls) in November, and a supplemental update (Book II: Age of Demons) in February.