The premise is sound, a world that has been over-saturated with arcane magicks, scientific manipulation, black arts and war finally gets what it has had coming, a really screwed-up land. Having been manipulated by magic and science, the world of Ethegia has creatures that never should have been roaming the countryside messing up everything and everyone. In this game, you aren't trying to save the world, its a foregone conclusion that things have been screwed up so badly there's no bringing it back, but you can survive in it and do some things that are somewhat beneficial to you and society.
Yes, you can't talk about an MMORPG without mentioning World of Warcraft. Yes, the bar has been set by WoW and many developers have tried and failed to come up with another "as popular" online game like it, and while the recent Conan MMORPG has infused some neat things into the genre, for the most part, the games all seem to be the same. Now don't think I don't know about Star Wars Galaxies and any of the other ilk that more or less robs you of $50 bucks and then only holds your attention for a little while. Which is all the more reason I was pleasantly surprised with Requiem. The game has some deeply rooted horror elements going for it (in a Clive Barker visual sort of way) and while the blood flows as red as in other games, it seems to hold a bit more of your attention here thanks to the grotesque malformations that you run across and the means of dispatching foes. And game called Bloodymare had better have something to do with both blood and nightmares, and in this case, the truly dangerous and more powerful adversaries come out as the sun goes down in this real time world.
"Man! I just washed this shirt!"
The game is set up on a slightly different albeit familiar way. You pick your race of three selections, the human looking Turans, the over pumped and superiorly built Bartuks and the semi-demonic looking Kruxena. You can pick either the male or female model of each race and then choose all the other (sometimes frustrating) options to make your character unique to you. These characters are created rather than born through the twisted sciences that have pretty much mutilated the world.
Like many games of this type you will benefit from hanging outside of one of the many starting points and basically building your character up by whupping up on the local baddies. Almost every encounter will result in both gold and/or items being found which you can then go into the city and buy better equipment; yeah, yeah, yeah, we've heard this all before. Its a staple in almost every RPG (leveling up) and nothings different here. In fact, you can also join guilds and get jobs from many of the (NPC) people you encounter in the towns. And like other games, you will develop quests and be required to join up with other adventurers to complete them. In fact, almost immediately you will find objects and artifacts that are lying around waiting for you to get that quest to complete.
"You mean to tell me she doesn't have a boyfriend?"
The high point of all of this is the actual fighting of said creatures. Like I said, they don't call it Bloodymare for nothing. Limbs will fly, heads will roll, torsos erupt in viscus fountains. This holds a lot of weight with some gamers as the boring toll of fighting monsters for the sake of fighting can get old. Experience is dealt out fairly, with some big quests providing some big rewards. And it looks pretty good too, since the game has a decent engine powering it (Havok) the action comes at a good pace. Shading as the day turns to night and then the eventual nightmare time with fog rolling in and the really creepy looking things come out to play is well established. Pays to have a hot video card to take advantage of all the wonderful hues of red that appear and the design of all characters is done with modest aplomb and zest. The view can be adjusted with the simple use of the mouse wheel to allow for a large field of vision or small depending on how you like your third-person-viewed games.
The audio does slip a bit with tired and uninspired monster death cries and less sound effects than you might expect. Oh sure, there is plenty of hacking and smacking, but a complete absence of voice work becomes really noticeable early on and things don't get any better from there. No hero music or anything to get the heart pumping, remember this is supposed to be a horror-themed title, yet the only thing scary is the lack of noises.
"Hey Bert, I think she's giving you the eye...."
The big thing that Requiem has is the DNA modeling system which allows your character to begin tweaking their own DNA for taking advantages of strengths and weaknesses. Its an unusual idea that actually works pretty well fleshed out. The other thing Requiem has going for it is the acquired ability to transform into a beast. After completing the possesion beast ability quest you can transform into your own walking nightmare of death and destruction at random opportune times.
While teaming up with other real-time players is a must to complete big quests, others will be happy to know there is a combat arena where 4-on-4 up to 16-on-16 can compete in coliseum-style battles for honor and really good equipment. Sooner or later you will be asked to come jump in the arena, this is the next big portion of the game's multiplayer capability. I thought it was an inventive and decent way to keep things going.
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