Stranger

Written by Jason Cisarano  on May 15, 2007

Hands-On Preview: Can a dash of RPG and a pinch of RTS create a recipe for success?

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It's easy to pigeonhole most games into well-established categories. When gamers approach a classic RPG like Baldur's Gate, they know something of what to expect, even if they haven't played the game before. They know they'll build a small party of adventurers, engage monsters and enemies and amass treasure and experience points in order to develop their characters. Meanwhile, an RTS like Rome: Total War promises a very different experience by focusing on large armies, multiple formations, and strategic considerations. Few games cross the boundaries in a significant ways, but Stranger, the upcoming release from Fireglow Games (developers of the Sudden Strike series) will combine RPG and RTS features in one package. Players will be able to customize individual characters while also building a larger army to conquer territory while also using diplomacy and trade to build alliances.

The current demo focuses on the RPG side of things by starting the player as a solo, relatively inexperienced crossbow expert named Steigar. He's one of three playable heroes in the game, each with his own particular specialties. In addition to being hell with a crossbow, Steigar also has a knack for healing spells. Mordlok's magic focuses on attacks and even raising the dead. And Kagar's magic is more defensive in nature. All three were exiled to the hostile world of Kront after a run-in with the law back home. One of the three used a form of forbidden magic, but since no one could determine exactly who committed the crime, all three were sent packing. Understandably, they start the game on bad terms. It isn't until much later that they realize that the only way they'll make their way home is to put their differences aside and cooperate.

At first, though, Steigar finds himself alone, ankle deep in a stream and carrying only his crossbow and a suit of armor. The game interface looks nice and is very customizable, with two mini-maps, a stats display, an inventory window and more to show all sorts of information about the PC and NPCs under the player's control. For instance, the player can change the scale of the mini-maps, change the colors of friendly and enemy units, and choose not to display ground textures as preferred. Or, the player can close the mini-maps, action interfaces and displays to reduce clutter and maximize the view of the playable area.

Moving to the south, Steigar finds his first potential allies, a tribe of Trongo warriors. Although Stranger will have something of a linear storyline moving from one level to the next, it generally doesn't dictate how the player should play or where he should form alliances. Steigar could choose to fight the tribe, hire them as mercenaries, or befriend them. Alliances aren't set in stone once formed eitherЧthey can shift based on choices the player makes later in the game. In this first mission, the diplomacy interface shows the Trongo tribe along with their current opinion of Steigar. One quick way to improve this relationship is to transfer crystals from the player inventory to the tribe. More about the crystals in a minute, but suffice it to say that they're one of the primary forms of currency in Kront. Since he's new to the world, though, he has none, so in the beginning he'll have to take up the quest the Trongo offer: rid the waters near the village of the spider-like Melgvants. Once Steigar defeats enough of them, his standing with the village will go up and they'll pay him with a few crystals and some cash.

Once he's amassed enough money and crystals, Steigar can hire individual Trongo to build a party or even an army. Each tribe has a certain number of members willing to work as mercenaries, so it seems like different levels will be geared toward different type of gameplay, RTS or RPG. On the RTS side of things, some missions will allow to hire an army of several dozen soldiers for a given battle. The interface includes the usual RTS commands for formations and attack postures for control of the army in battle. Armies may include tamed monsters with special skills, like spiders for wall-climbing and birds for aerial combat. It doesn't look like these armies will carry over from one map to the next, however. Along the same lines, the player can use these mercenaries to conquer existing fortifications or to inhabit ruined castles, build them up, and make them into strong points.



Besides crystals, combat brings rewards in the form of experience points and feat points. Experience points build automatically towards advancements in level, weapons skills, and hit points, and in the demo maps, Steiger moved quickly up through several levels. Feat points, on the other hand, are harder to come by. The demo consists of two related maps and several hours of gameplay, but in that time, Steigar earned less than a half-dozen feat points, even though he fought nearly every nearby beast in sight. Feat points can be spent to gain specific skills in areas like combat, magic, and even sight distance. Every character in the player's control earns experience and feat points, so it's possible to hire some mercenaries and mold their skills as preferred before taking them into the fray.

Beyond being used as currency, crystals are the basis of the magic system in Stranger. There are three colors of crystals, each with its own traits and associated magic. For instance, green crystals are fundamental to Steigar's healing magic. Once he learns the correct spells by spending feat points, he can use the green crystals to heal himself or a group of other characters. Even without knowing any spells, a character can benefit from crystals simply by equipping them. Having enough crystals a particular color can make a character immune to magic of an opposite color, so it's wise to share crystals between the members of an adventuring party to protect them from enemy threats. Crystals are the most common drop in combat with the beasts of the demo levels. The various types of crystals will be a large part of Stranger's crafting systemЧit will be possible to create magic items by combining a crystal with a standard weapon.

Magic in Stranger is unique in that it doesn't flow from the characters but from the land, and certain areas are more tuned in to that magic than others. There are several sects of magicians in the world that devote their lives to accumulating crystals and studying the magic associated with them. These magicians are the most powerful beings in Kront, since they not only control the flow of magic, but often also control hordes of beasts, ghouls and men. Conflicts between the sects can lay waste to cities or even entire regions. Although the heroes will certainly come in contact with these magicians, it's not clear exactly how much the heroes might be able to ally himself with these mighty beings.

The multiplayer system looks like it will feature the RTS side of the game, and it will feature several different gametypes. There will be the usual symmetrical battles in which up to ten players will begin with the same resources and will then have to work fast to build an army and battle it out. Asymmetrical battles will give different players different goals which may not actually have anything to do with one another. Players will work towards their own goals while trying to block opponents. And the mini-campaign mode will have stories with several objectives across a few maps.

On the graphics end, the demo looks good, recalling some of the old-school 3D isometric view RPGs like Fallout or Baldur's Gate, but with all the latest lighting and shader effects. There's plenty of detail in the world, with plenty of flora and fauna and general УclutterФ to give the sense of a real place. The magic effects look good and include some subtle glow effects to keep things looking otherworldly. And the game has surprisingly low minimum system specs for a modern game, supporting video cards back to GeForce 4400 and Radeon 9500 and requiring only 512 MB of RAM.