Hey this is SilverKnight's contributing buddy Jeremy here. Today I'd like to talk a little bit about Diablo-like games and the "curse" of scifi hack-n-slash.
Any gamer worth his or her salt should instantly have memories pop up when you say the word "Diablo". Of countless hours spent grinding to get your Necromancer just a few more points in Corpse Explosion, of linking up with friends and making new ones on Battle.net as you went for a raid against Duriel in Hell difficulty, and how fun a simple hack-n-slash could be when done right.
Diablo was, itself, a revival of an even older computer game tradition; that of the Roguelike game. So named for Rogue, one of the more famous of this iteration of ASCII games low in technological sophistication, but high in fun and enemy-killin' goodness. Diablo gave the Roguelike tradition a graphical interface, good sound, and brought it into the modern era...it was a winning formula.
Since Diablo II, dozens of games have tried to copy the formula, earning the name Diablo clones among the industry. Some have been somewhat successful and enjoyable in this venture (Dungeon Siege 1+2, Titan's Quest), but none have quite achieved the same success. Of special note, I'd like to briefly discuss what seems to be the Sci-Fi curse regarding Diablo-likes (or neo Roguelikes if you prefer).
Case in point, let's look at the recent release of two anticipated science fiction hack-n-slash type games; Space Siege (by makers of the successful Dungeon Siege games) and Too Human, the highly-hyped scifi take on the Nordic Ragnarok cycle for the Xbox 360. Both of these games, but notably Too Human, received positive press and hype before their release; with the PC game coming from a company (Gas Powered Games) that had proven its abilities in the hack-n-slash market before, and the Xbox 360 one having stunning visuals, addictive gameplay, and a great storyline in its previews.
The buzz reached a crescendo when both were released a couple weeks back and gamers such as myself anxiously awaited critical reaction. Could this finally be the scifi rpg answer to a GOOD hack-n-slash? The verdict? A resounding "meh". Unbalanced, repetitive, lacking in character development, these were some of the terms used for both games. Space Siege, especially, was critically panned receiving an IGN score of an embarrassing 6.4. Too Human did a bit better but overall the mood seems to be one big let-down. So I ask you to comment; why does the scifi side of hack-n-slash seem to be cursed? Is it a setting not conducive to that type of gameplay, or have companies just not put the effort into design that they have into the hype?
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