Offer to anyone interested...

I am currently downloading the Beta of "Gatheryn" and wanted to invite anyone who can spare the time here to do the same.

Why am I doing it? well, 2 reasons:

1. Its Steampunk and I'm a sucker for that stuff.

and more importantly...

2. Its made by HeroEngine, the same system powering SW:TOR. I'm downloading this so I can see how the system "feels", how it plays, if there are any major graphical, pathing or AI issues and hopefully getting a sneak peek into the way TOR may run.
Sure, the graphics are gonna be different, perhaps even a different style, but It'll give me an idea of how well TOR will run on my pc spec and the sort of problems I might encounter and preparing for them accordingly.

I intend to review this game and put my findings here but I'd love it if people could join me in this little endevour and give alternate reports.

TAKE INTO CONSIDERATION HOWEVER that this is beta, so the graphics might well not be finalised, the game may not have as much content/objects in as a full release, so don't expect it to be exactly like TOR...

For whoever's up for it, I'll be trying it real soon

I'll download it and give it a shot

I should probably point out I'm not planning on doing anything heavy-duty here, just explore the game and report back on how it plays.

Cheers Tando ^^

Character Creation Review:

Well, I opted for a typical victorian Gent and made a good 'ol boy called "Jonesy"



The character creation (for a beta) was quite customizable, though it does feel a little "rough around the edges". Considering the fact its not completed, you can forgive that.

Options Available:

Male/Female
Head:
Randomize
45x facial geometry options
16x hair styles (of which you can change colour and "shine"
7x facial hair styles (of which you can change colour, does not have to match hair)
Body:
Randomize
Skin colour changer
3x body sliders ('belly' 'weight' and 'upper body')
Clothing:
Shirt/Coat:
5x options plus colour chooser
Pants/Dress:
4x options plus colour chooser
Shoes/Boots:
2x choices plus colour chooser
Hands:
Only option on this is 'default'

The facial geometry is a nice option, a bit like the stuff you can do in Fallout 3 / Oblivion, but it all looks a bit "cartoony". To be honest though, that doesnt bother me much, it fits it ok with the style of the game, and also what we have come to expect from the visuals of TOR. Although it does have to be said that only 1 head type seems to be available on this beta release, so apart from changing the shape/size of face parts, its quite hard to not look at least slightly similar to everyone else!

In fact, the game allowed me to make quite a stylised gent, with large, protruding strong jaw, sunken eyes and quite an over-the-top forehead!

like so:



All in all, it was quite fun to do, with a fair few options which leads me to believe we can expect at LEAST this much from TOR, if not loads more options. (This is BETA after all, most of the options wont be available.)

The only real downside I would say is that the animation is not top-notch... It's not bad, its just a bit...er... "5 years ago". Considering this is meant to be a new game engine, I can imagine that its been a long time in development.

I'll add to this post with any differences between the male/female character creation and be back with an "in-game" review soon!
(I'll see if I can get a video or summat)

Would if I could, dependign on how fast I sort out my new PC I could be up by the 6th of Sept so might pop on then, what are the system specs for this LW I checked the site to no avail, might be a good indicator of what TOR might be

PrioryJK wrote:

what are the system specs for this LW I checked the site to no avail, might be a good indicator of what TOR might be

No idea PJK! can't find them anywhere :S

It seems to work fine though.

Gatheryn Review:

I could quite easily sum up Gatheryn in a single word if the review required it:

EMPTY.

Of players, NPCs, content, objects, enemies and quests.

However, I'll go into a little more detail....

The game shows potential for having a lot of content, but as of downloading the game and loading it up, there is virtually none. I played the game for 2.5 hours and, I kid ye not; I came across NOBODY.

You start (and I have yet to escape from) in a city on the Island of Elymia. There are a few NPCs dotted about an otherwise large and rather empty labyrinth of streets.

From what I can see, there are no quests, and I found no combat. Instead, dotted about the place are floating, rotating objects which when you click on them turn out to be mini-games (hangman, soduko, fishing). For the life of me I can't decide how this is meant to be "steampunk".

Some of the background items are quite nice and even look a little victorian, but they are sparsly populated about the city which consists of many faceless identical streets devoid of any life (you may see the occasional bench).

In fact, because you hear ambient noises of people talking but see nobody gives the whole thing a decidedly creepy feel.

Graphically, it's nothing special but also not massively bad - you can really see the difference between what Mindfuse (the people who made Gatheryn) and BioWare have done with The Hero Engine. For one, there is no dynamic lighting in Gatheryn. You get a small black block under your feet, and thats your shadow.
To give you an idea, here's a screenie:



Now compare that to a TOR screenie:



Quite a vast difference :S

Animation-wise, again its not too bad - the problem is, there's very little to do except walk, run, jump and /angry. The animation isn't jerky, and has no real issues to speak of. (Also on a side-note there is no lag, but hey, there's no people!)

It doesn't take too long before you feel like you're walking around in a ghost-town, there's nobody here and nothing to do. Depsite the huge amount of empty, open space inside the city you also soon begin to get an odd sense of claustraphobia. Unfortunately, one quick press of the "M" key to bring up the *cough* 'world map':



...and you realise there is not much to this place.

So, in earnest I do the only thing a decent victorian gentleman would: I roll up my sleeves, puff out my chest and jolly-well head for the hills.

Alas, there is no escape. The best you can hope for for an outside is the docks:




and guess what? there is nothing to do there either :S

So, in short...

* There are no classes.
* There is no combat.
* There are no quests (that I could find)
* There are mini-games which will keep you entertained for whole seconds.
* There are lots of empty streets populated by nothing and no-one.

However;

* The graphics are ok (if a little uninspiring) (this means it - and hopefully TOR - won't be graphics intensive)
* The animation is fine
* The sound is also fine (but creepy, who is that talking on the streets?!?!)
* I can't really comment on the gameplay because, well...there is none.

I'm not too sure what it was Mindfuse are trying to achieve with this - its certainly NOT an MMO because there is no character development and no multiplayer whatsoever, let alone "massively multiplayer!

The engine is, at its base level, sound however. Glitches are minimal, its not graphically intensive, the animation is smooth and from the differences between Gatheryn and TOR, its certainly very customisable.

Rating of Hero Engine: 8/10
Rating of Gatheryn: 2/10

Rofl, I thought there was something a bit odd about an open MMO beta and the way they were selling it, "Please please please come to our game!"

yeah, try "Empty Beta", not "Open Beta" :S

I'll pass....

lol don't blame you, Art... mind you - there isn't really anything to pass *on* (except maybe a pointless download)

Which reminds me, Tando - don't bother! lol

"Jonesy: Is there anyone here?" LMAO

That's a bit of a shame, that game. I love the steampunk stuff too. Still, thanks for the reveiw and the insight into HeroEngine. Sounds like if they don't sort out some content, there still won't be any people interested for the forseeable future.

Doubt you'll be running into these two with the place so empty, then!



"These aren't the automatons you're looking for..."

Redwatch wrote:

"These aren't the automatons you're looking for..."

woah! those two are ace!

Speaking of the SteamPunk genre, did you ever play "Arcanum: Of Steamworks & Magick Obscura"? Wish I knew where my copy went :S

Is that the one they use for some of the synthesised Recruit Training for US soldiers, Nord? I know one of the FPS ones is...

Its free and US Army have paid for the development the main goal is more requirement.