Swords ‘n Magic and Stuff

Sometimes on AggroChat we inadvertently sell each other on the games we are playing. On this weekend’s show Tam threw a topic on the trello that I couldn’t pass up, because initially I thought he just wanted to talk about generic fantasy tropes. However apparently it was instead a topic about the Steam recommendation system sending him in the direction of a game named Swords ‘N Magic and Stuff, which exudes a significant amount of charm. I checked it out during the show and it reminded more than a little bit of Cube World, which is a pretty crunchy voxel exploration game. What ultimately made me pick the game up, is knowing that Tam very much does not go in for the Minecraftian style graphical thing and if he was interested them probably it was worth noting.

First points scored for the game is that it has a really interesting character creation system. The characters themselves are extremely stylized but at the same time are capable of expressive characteristics. Right now you have Human, Dryad, Faun, Moon Elf and Sun Orc to choose from with their own color variations available. In practice what this really meant to me was general human, woodgrain character, has ram horns, can be purple and has tusks and horns. I ended up gravitating towards the Orc and made one with rusty red skin and dark green hair and beard. The game scores big props with me for being entirely genderless so you have access to all the same bits and can fiddle with them until you get something that makes you happy. I even got the over the eye scar thing that I seem to love so much and always choose when it is an option as well as a rather high quality braided beard.

The game starts you off on a ship heading to an island in order to seek your fortune. Ships make for an excellent starting point, given that you are in a relatively confined place which makes for easy to follow tutorials. You go through the paces of having the simple interactions of the game explained a bit, and are walked through an early example of a quest where you fetch something that another character can’t get to. Once you have looted anything that isn’t nailed down, you can proceed up on the deck of the ship where you have arrived at the island in question. The captain wants to talk to you about the matter of settling up for your journey, and introduces you to the first few quests which involve going and procuring some dizzy juice for him.

Questing seems to be very much of the “If you give a mouse a cookie variety”, as so far other than a quest to find some glasses they all appear to branch out significantly. In order to get the Dizzy Juice, the tavern keeper asks you to clear out a cave and in order to get into the cave the person standing guard asks you to fetch a mug from inside. Inside the cave there are three crabs and a mug that you can loot, which then allows you to retrace your steps back to the guy who loaned you his key, and back to the tavern keeper who wanted you to clear the cave out… and then back to the captain who gives you a second quest to reserve a room at the inn. As I spread out through the island, many of these quests involved doing sub quests to retrieve something else, which in itself often requires you to get something in order to do it. For example I am being asked to get a candle for a picnic, and in order to get that I need to get some honey combs for the candlemaker… which it seems requires me to have purchased a sling shot to knock them down.

The combat system is fairly straight forward, but one that it very much feels like the deck is stacked against you. Every thing I have encountered so far deals significantly more damage than I am capable of. Additionally there is no health regeneration, so you need to carry with you a fairly ample supply of healing potions which I am hoping at some point I will be able to learn how to craft. Using a weapon increases your skill in that weapon, which seems to increase your likelihood for critical strikes. There is a crafting system that I have not interacted with much, but it allows for you to upgrade your weapons if you gather the resources to do so. Right now I have largely focused on a sword and shield because these were the first weapons that I got access to.

While combat seems a bit uneven at times, one huge boon is the fact that death seems to largely be meaningless. When you die you go into a spirit world similar to that of World of Warcraft, but where it varies greatly is that a timer starts ticking down. When it completes you will be summoned back to life at the nearest shrine, which in the case of early exploration seems to be right near the docks in town. While you are in the spirit world with the timer ticking down you can free explore and scope out dangerous areas, which is pretty cool. The initial island itself seems fairly small, but I did notice there was a ferry that I am guessing will take you to other islands. In some ways the game reminds me of a more combat focused “The Touryst”, because it has a similarly interesting lighting engine.

At this point I have not really spent much time in the game, but I don’t want to dig in too deeply given that it is a pretty fresh early access title. I want to get together with Tam and try out the multiplayer, so we can see how exactly that works. This was the product of a fairly successful kickstarter, and looking at the various stretch goals it seems like there is going to be a lot of interesting things added in over time. That said there already is a lot here, given that there appears to be a fully fleshed out cosmetic system and from the looks of it maybe even a housing system. I find I really like the art style, and once I get a hang of the combat I think that will become a little more fair feeling. I think mostly it is just getting used to bringing up your shield at the exact moment of the attack rather than my usual of holding the shield in front of me… waiting for an attack and then striking.

Right now the game is roughly $20 on Steam, but like I said before is in early access so your mileage may vary depending on your proclivity for early access titles. Right now I plan on poking my head into the game off and on to continue to exploring it in small doses. I am intrigued by what is there enough to keep playing, but I do hope that a more functional map is in the works. Right now you can bring up a sketch of the island but you can’t seem to scroll in or anything. As is usually my case I will likely write again in the future about my adventures, especially if I can find a time when Tam and I can get in and kick the tires for the multiplayer functionality.