E3 06: Gods & Heroes Impressions

LOS ANGELES--Sony Online and Perpetual Entertainment's upcoming massively multiplayer online role-playing game, Gods & Heroes, was on display in full effect at E3 2006. Perpetual representatives described the game as "an MMO action-adventure" set in Roman times, with mythological overtones. You'll be able to choose from six different classes, including gladiators, soldiers, priests, and mystics. Player characters are actually descended from gods, so over the course of the game, you'll do missions for your gods and receive special god powers from them that can be used in combat. The god powers we saw in effect included a lot of area-effect attacks, including a "spear storm" from the god of war, Mars, a lightning storm from Jupiter, plus a multiple tornado spell as well.

The action in Gods & Heroes seems to focus a lot on player-versus-environment content, with mythical monsters as the primary enemies in the game. In our E3 demo, we noticed such beasts as satyrs, centaurs, minotaurs, cyclops, the Hydra, and Gorgons like Medusa. Where Gods & Heroes sets itself apart is in its combat, which has some very personal and visceral animation. The gladiator class in particular seems right at home in doing wrestling and grappling moves like body slams, or driving weapons into enemies' bodies and then kicking them off the blade. There are lots of jumping and flying strikes. Mobs will also do similar moves, like centaur warriors skewering you on the end of their polearms and then lifting you in the air. All this combat is learned with experience via a skill tree so you can customize your character, and the moves are also very dependent on weapons as well. Combining weapon and move customization with god choices and class selection allows players a lot of differentiation between players.

The biggest differentiator though, is the ability to command small NPC squads in the game. At the highest levels, a single player can command up to eight NPC minions. So a small group consisting of just a few player characters can have full armies of more than 30 characters. This makes it easier to run epic-scale raid content, as you don't have to worry about trying to cobble together 30 or more actual players. You'll be able to pick up minions from towns and other areas, and choose them from a few different basic archetypes like healers, magic users, archers, and skirmishers. Commanding your squads can be done unit by unit or collectively as a group--this way you can set up an encounter to have your infantrymen tank a monster, while healers keep them upright, and you and an archer attack the mob from a distance.

The areas you'll explore in the game include both persistent world areas and instances, starting right from the city of Rome, which itself will house combat areas. As you venture out of the city, you'll encounter more mythological creatures, and eventually find fantastic areas like Hades, which is an actual instance in the game for players to fight through. Quests vary in their objectives depending on their source. Roman leaders and NPCs that send you on quests will get you glory with Rome. Quests from your gods will get you new god powers and more favor with your gods, while personal quests further your own storyline, which varies depending on which gods you've aligned yourself with.

Gods & Heroes is currently scheduled for beta testing this summer, with a planned release toward the latter part of the year.