The Mage’s Tale is a great game that recently released for the Oculus Rift with Touch. Taking one of gaming’s most beloved genres — the dungeon crawler RPG — and adapting it for a modern audience with the power of VR is nothing short of magical. And what better developer to do it than inXile Entertainment, the studio with the creative minds behind the likes of The Bard’s Tale and Wasteland franchises? The end result is one of VR’s beefiest (over 10 hours of content) and most immersive games to date.
That being said it’s not without its faults. One of the biggest gripes players have had ever since launch is that the only movement options are square-based incremental movement, such as it was back in the old days of PC dungeon crawlers, and point-and-select teleportation movement. Gamers with established VR legs are yearning for a full, smooth locomotion option like the one added to Arizona Sunshine and the one that powers Onward, one of VR’s most popular multiplayer shooters.
Luckily the team at inXile have been listening and coming very soon (likely this week) the game will receive an update that includes the option for smooth locomotion. Brian Fargo, CEO of inXile Entertainment, confirmed as much to me in an interview late last week (and on Twitter).
“We’re listening to our audience,” said Fargo during the interview. “VR makes people more sensitive than usual to things like UI elements and immersion breaking features. For example, some people complained about the aiming reticle so we’re adding an option to remove that. We also are implementing smooth locomotion, which was by far the the biggest complaint, and decreasing the game’s load times.”
All of these are welcomed updates that will at worst give players more options and improve performance and at best dramatically improve the gameplay experience for those looking to get the most immersive gaming experience possible.
While epic fantasy role-playing games (RPG) like The Elder Scolls V: Skyrim VRmight be coming to virtual reality (VR) headsets in the near future, at present fans of the genre don’t have a great deal to choose from. Luckily inXile Entertainment has stepped in with The Mage’s Tale, a magic fueled adventure for Oculus Rift and Touch that goes a long way to make you feel like you’re an all powerful wizard.
You play an apprentice who’s just begun learning about how to conjure spells when the wizard who’s training you gets kidnapped by an evil sorcerer. With a trusty – and sometimes annoying – goblin like sidekick who floats around telling you how to do things whilst making derogatory remarks about how you’re ill equipped to take on the task of rescuing your master, you begin the journey to becoming a fully fledged wizard.
You start your adventure at a magical base of operations. This hub allows you to warp to each level – and once completed head back if you need to – as well as create the potions you’ll need to fight your way through dungeons and complete the task at hand. The potion side of The Mage’s Tale is a big aspect of the experience allowing you to chop and change your loadout as you see fit, with a myriad of different options as you unlock more ingredients. To begin with you’re only supplied with a basic fireball spell but as things progress ice, lightning and other elements come into play, all of which are needed to solve puzzles and give you a wide array of offensive capabilities.
inXile Entertainment has decided to go for the tried and tested teleportation method of movement for this VR experience. It works as well as any other title, with a reasonable range of movement all controlled with the right stick plus rotational snap movement. The left stick allows for much shorter, incremental steps should you need to side step out the way of an incoming arrow or other attacks.
Learning how to use both is vital when engaged in combat, at points you can be dealing with multiple enemies and using just teleportation on its own can be somewhat cumbersome. If you’re using a three-sensor setup you can teleport behind someone and quickly turn around, but with two-sensors you need to snap yourself round which can leave you defenseless for a moment. When you’ve got the hang of it, the combat does become a lot more fluid even though it’s certainly not perfect.
Whilst talking about combat, selecting your spells is a much easier mechanic to deal with. Holding down the B or Y button on either controller brings up a selection of four and you just wave your hand over the one you want. This means that both left and right-handed players are catered for. One downside is the fact that there’s no duel wielding, you can’t have a lightning spell in one hand and a fireball in the other which is a shame. On the flip side the hand that doesn’t have a spell can make a shield, so its not completely redundant.
The Mage’s Tale is massive, while the studio states there’s ten hours plus of gameplay you’ll likely finish it quicker than that. But that does depended on how much of a completionist you are as there are loads of little collectables to find. The videogame is littered with puzzles and thankfully inXile has managed to create quite a variety so you’re not just looking for a key, or repeating the same old tasks.
It’s a wonderful title to just walk around in, with the dungeons having a beautifully dark, dank, imposing feel to them. It’s not a horror by any means, actually most of the videogame is slightly camp and comedic in nature, even some of the enemies have a humorous aspect to them, evoking classic fantasy films of the 80’s like Dark Crystal.
One aspect that did curtail the enjoyment of The Mage’s Tale were the loading times. Now this is somewhat dictated by your PC’s spec, but any rig running VR needs to be fairly decent. Running a just above spec PC, most loading screens were timed at 2 – 3 minutes, fine to begin with when starting the videogame but this was consistent throughout. Get killed and it wasn’t straight back into the action, just a long pause while angelic celtic music played – beautiful the first few times, less so after a couple of loads. This also had an impact on gameplay, as nipping back to the hub to alter spells then became a chore, only doing so if really needed. This might not be the case for everyone but it will be for some.
Technical gripes aside The Mage’s Tale is a really good magical adventure that really puts you into the heart of the experience. The story provides hours worth of gameplay and the potion creation side adds even more fun, mixing and matching various items to see what they do. If you’ve been looking for a decent fantasy RPG then you can’t go too far wrong with this.
Sometimes I feel like I was born in the wrong decade. By the time I was old enough to really appreciate video games (born in 1990) I was diving headfirst into sprawling epic adventures from the Final Fantasy and Dragon Warrior franchises on consoles and learning how to fight my way through the unrelenting difficulty of the original EverQuest. That adoration moved on to other series as time went on, but one game in particular that stood out to me in my youth was Wizardry 8, released in 2001 when I was just 11 years old.
The Wizardry games took place from a first-person perspective and had you advance an entire party of adventurers through dungeons and catacombs and dangerous fields as you embarked on quests for loot and glory. While the Wizardry games aren’t technically related to The Mage’s Tale, they were quite similar to The Bard’s Tale, one of the most popular games of its ilk from that time period of PC gaming. If I’d been born 10 or more years earlier I could have played many of these games as they’d been released instead of years later.
As a newly created VR-iteration of the classic dungeon crawling formula, The Mage’s Tale has a lot of expectation riding on its shoulders. Not only is the game being created by one of the original luminaries of the genre, Brian Fargo’s inXile Entertainment, but it actually takes place in the same universe as The Bard’s Tale too, right between the third and (upcoming) fourth installment.
Other than existing mostly in first-person as you move an entire party through dungeons, the most prominent feature of these sorts of games has always been the movement system. You press a key on the keyboard or press a button on the screen with your mouse, and your view moves one square in the specified direction. In this way the games are almost turn-based. Instead of holding a key or pressing forward on an analog stick to move smoothly you move one square at a time as if you’re taking individual steps. The Mage’s Tale uses a very similar concept.
Using the Oculus Touch controllers you move your character through the world by tilting the analog stick on the left Touch controller to traverse the environment one square at a time. Alternatively, you can point and click to teleport through the world as well, which is common in many modern VR games. I found myself using a combination of the two features in most cases.
Movement is a big part of the game as you’ll have to explore ten different dungeons that each take about an hour each (making the game last approximately 10+ hours depending on how thorough you are and how much time you spend backtracking or experimenting with spellcrafting.) In that exploring you’ll do some basic puzzle solving and a bit of trap avoiding, but combat is definitely the main focus of it all. Personally, I’d have liked a few more puzzles spaced out in it all to mix things up more consistently but overall the balance is better than most games like this.
Being a mage, combat is mostly of the ranged variety in The Mage’s Tale. Things start out simply enough as you master the art of flinging fireballs and shooting lightning bolts but it doesn’t take long for the intensity and complexity to go up a few notches. Most of the attacks in the game are handled by targeting an enemy with your head-tracked crosshair onscreen and then letting loose the spell using one of your hands. The lack of free fire such as in The Unpsoken is missed at first, but the wealth of options quickly overshadows that initial gameplay disappointment and once you start maneuvering around levels and dodging attacks you won’t be wishing for more complicated controls at all.
As you explore the game’s various dungeons you’ll come across different effects that can be used to augment and create brand new spells. For example, would you like to shoot a giant purple fireball that seeks out enemies once it leaves your hand? Go for it. Or how about a big sparkling pink ice spike that you can control in the air by waving your hand like a magical conductor? You can do that too. It’s not exactly a limitless system, but it feels pretty close.
The biggest issue here is that when trying to select items for mixing into the spellbound cauldron the controls can be a little finicky. As great as the Oculus Touch controllers are we haven’t quite reached the point from a tech perspective where minute selections and manipulation are really possible so I found myself fumbling with ingredients from time to time. Some of the UI elements felt unfinished or ugly as well, such as the large letters on potion bottles that clearly label things but stick out a bit like a sore thumb. You can see an example in the screenshot above.
As you explore dungeons you’ll find plenty of enemies to fight, traps to avoid, and treasure to loot, but along the way you’ll also level up your character as well. In most cases this results in being able to choose how you upgrade your wizard and progress your abilities. By the end of the game I found myself truly feeling powerful and like I had learned a great deal in terms of not only my in-game powers but also in terms of how I handled myself in combat.
One of the most satisfying areas of the game is in how it handles boss battles. Most VR games of this type have only been able to pack a couple of hours of content with maybe one or two big boss battles near the end but in the case of The Mage’s Tale each of the 10 dungeons has a satisfying climax that requires you to memorize attack patterns and deftly navigate the environment to dodge attacks and setup your own responses. It’s nothing short of exhilarating.
Final Score: 8/10 – Great
The Mage’s Tale is one of the best examples of how to take a tried-and-true existing gaming genre and adapt it for the new VR medium. While it retains plenty of design decisions that make it clear where its roots lie, The Mage’s Tale iterates on principles that truly move the first-person dungeon crawler RPG subgenre forward in big ways. This is easily one of the longest and most involved adventures to grace the VR market thus far and is a must-play for RPG fans.
Stepping into The Mage’s Tale, a first-person dungeon crawler RPG that puts you in the enchanted boots of an apprentice mage, is a bit like jumping into your own personal ’80s sword and sorcery flick. With elemental magic at the ready, you get to experience classic dungeon crawler stuff like exploration, spell crafting, puzzles, and battle against a number of monster types—and all of it in the immersive realm of VR. While at times a little rough around the edges, The Mage’s Tale is a charming throwback that vaults you head-first into a dank and mysterious universe of inXile’s other series, The Bard’s Tale.
Developer: inXile Entertainment Available On: Oculus Rift (Touch required) Reviewed On: Oculus Rift Release Date: June 20, 2017
Gameplay
The evil wizard Gaufroi has kidnapped your master, Mage Alguin. As his apprentice, it’s your job to get him back by finding his powerful fellow mages, a quest that takes you through ten dungeons where you’re confronted with various puzzles, traps, and monsters—where there’s always a chest that needs looting at the end.
Walking into a puzzle room usually elicits a hint from your Alguin’s familiar, a magical goblin whose name I can’t remember. For the purposes of this review, he shall henceforth be known as ‘smarmy turd’ (ST for short).
image captured by Road to VR
ST is a constant thorn in your side, and tends to tutorialize puzzles and generally point out the obvious. He does however make the dank dungeons placed before you a little less lonely, so I guess he’s got that going for him. When not tutorialized by ST, puzzles are explained by a changing cast of ever-present talking wall monsters, who offer riddles to help you along the way. Puzzles tend to be fairly simple, but because The Mage’s Tale offers so many varied types, you’ll always be on your toes figuring out the next one (if ST hasn’t spoiled it already, that is). You’ll find yourself fetching missing parts to puzzles, looking through magical orbs to locate important runes, cranking machines, freezing water in pipes so you can light a torch that’s being dowsed; the variations are so rich, that even the smarmiest of turds can’t ruin it for you.
When you’re not cranking weird machines and blowing out walls to reach hidden chests though, you’re probably blasting away at the world’s many monsters. Enemy types tend to be mostly ranged, like archers and mages, so they usually keep their distance allowing you to block with your arcane shield or plink away with your magical abilities. There are however a number of melee fighters to watch out for later in the game including shielded goblins and hammer-wielding giants. Enemies don’t have health bars, so you usually end up blasting away with whatever appears to work best on each enemy type.
image courtesy inXile Entertainment
To my utter dismay, dual-wielding is not a thing in The Mage’s Tale. Oh well.
A big personal attraction for me to the game is spell crafting. I would have loved to find ancient books filled with spells, but unfortunately crafting is done entirely through trial and error, as your cauldron will unhappily vomit out bad combinations, forcing you to start over again until you find something that works. Because there are more than 2 dozen ingredients and over a 100 combinations, you’ll spend plenty of time mixing and matching until you get that perfect lighting spell that has both impressive range, rips health from your enemies when they die and tosses out confetti on the monster’s dead body.
image courtesy inXile Entertainment
Chests usually offer some sort of magical ingredient you can use in crafting, be it base elemental spells like lighting/fire/wind/ice, or a modifier like poison, extra recharge, or triple shot. My absolute favorite part of opening chests isn’t receiving points for upgrades, or new magical reagents, but tossing them into the awaiting mouth of my teleporting frog-buddy, whose name was mentioned once and forgotten forever.
Without revealing too much, the story line isn’t anything you wouldn’t find ripped from a Dungeon Master’s Guide, so don’t expect any great innovations in story telling here. But then again, that’s exactly you’re in for with The Mage’s Tale, a faithful classic that lets you fire lighting at wise-cracking goblins.
For those of you mashing ctrl+f and searching the article for ‘gameplay length’, you’ll see I finished in a little over 7.5 hours, a slight tick under the advertised 10+. I’m far from a completionist, so I don’t mind leaving the game’s many collectibles behind in the dark dungeons where they belong, so you may well spend 10+ hours collecting everything, not to mention trying your hand at mixing together ingredients to get better spells.
Combat can feel a little repetitive at times. This is dampened somewhat once you get a good number of reagents to add to your base spells and start to naturally rotate through different attacks instead of just picking the strongest one. Just like classic games of yore, combat can be a process of trial and error, so expect to get smashed a few times by a giant before you know his weak spot. To get a good idea of what combat looks like in The Mage’s Tale, check out the video below. And no, you can’t get a sword or any other melee weapon.
Immersion & Comfort
Relying on classic dungeon level design and an appropriate mix of irreverent campiness (a goblin told me to “kiss his ass”), it’s easy to like The Mage’s Tale, especially as it follows some well-established practices in RPGs that date back to the pencil and paper era of Dungeons and Dragons. Bringing those places to life, and in a grand way, is ultimately one of the coolest things about The Mage’s Tale. It’s truly a breathtaking adventure into the known unknown.
Despite this, one thing that I can’t quite get around is the game’s character animations. An otherwise good-looking game with a varied palette, awesome magical effects, and impressive architecture, The Mage’s Tale is blighted by its clunky and wooden characters, that when confronted in VR look just terrible. A competent swath of Scottish and English voice actors do their best to bring the characters to life, but I can’t shake the feeling that every NPC is actually chewing on a magically invisible potato.
Another gripe is the game’s ‘force grab’. Striving to make your life easier by giving you a telekinetic powers and saving you from constantly bending over and letting you get to items just out of reach, actually activating the force grab it is somewhat of a pain. Instead of using the omnipresent gaze-based cursor to highlight objects, you actually select the item by pointing your finger at it, which is extremely fiddly. It doesn’t sound difficult to grasp at first, but I can’t count the number of times I waved my hands to no effect at a nearby bottle or mushroom. Also, force grab seems to take precedent over natural object interaction, and trying to lift open a chest or grab one of the many collectible monster cages without critically highlighting it first, usually means your hand will pass right through it without the slightest bit of recognition of intent. Because force grab is usually used during downtime from battles, its more of a constant annoyance than a game-breaking feature.
wall monster riddles, image captured by Road to VR
During battle however, the game’s UI is remarkably intuitive, giving you access to either a spell menu with 4 selectable elemental spells, or an arcane shield that lets you reflect incoming arrows and enemy magic. You can access these on the fly, and mix and match your attacks/defense to the best effect. Popping the menu open and quickly shooting out a flurry of different spells is just so gratifying.
To the dismay of some players, locomotion is teleportation only, and is done by one of two ways; you can select the teleport spot and potentially move farther (and quicker) using your right thumbstick, or use your left thumbstick for a shorter blink teleportation. Even in close, quick combat, I felt ultimately very comfortable using either method. A snap-turn (aka ‘VR comfort mode’) exists so people using a two-sensor setup can adjust themselves for optimal hand controller tracking. As someone who owns a two-sensor stock Rift/Touch setup, I would highly recommend getting a third for better coverage, because it seems I was constantly facing the wrong direction at crucial moments.
Comfort-wise, I was very happy with The Mage’s Tale, but once battles really popped off and multiple enemies force you to go mobile, you really start to buck up against the limits of the locomotion style. Snap-turning and teleporting at high-speed can start to feel like a bit of a slide show, and while it’s ultimately comfortable, it certainly dampens the immersion. I hate to think how much I missed in the dark corners of the game by spamming the far-teleport button.
inXile developer Brian Fargo says in a recent tweet that The Mage’s Tale will be available on other VR platforms in 12 months.
As noted in our initial coverage of The Mage’s Tale, the game’s developer inXile Entertainment has a track record for keeping old-school RPGs alive. The Mage’s Tale, which takes place in the same world as The Bard’s Tale, is a first-person dungeon crawler reminiscent of Elder Scrolls and Might and Magic. The marriage of VR’s immersion and interaction with a potential vintage RPG experience garners a lot of anticipation and we now have a release date for The Mage’s Tale.
We’ll find out if inXile executes in a big way again on June 20 when it launches for Oculus Rift.
The Mage’s Tale takes place between The Bard’s Tale III and IV and provides players with a 10+ hour return to the world. Players can craft spells, solve puzzles, and fight creatures while exploring the 11 dungeons below Skara Brae that range from tombs to sewers.
“Our goal was to use the old school tried and true methods of game design and integrate that with everything that Virtual Reality offers. We wanted to get away from the VR ‘experience’ and create the kind of meaty and full-scale game that gamers appreciate,” says Brian Fargo, dungeon crawler expert and CEO of inXile Entertainment, in a prepared statement. The inXile team has some award winning pedigree behind their old-school RPGs (Wasteland 2 won Game of the Year in 2014 and Torment: Tides of Numenara will likely be a part of the conversation) so the potential for The Mage’s Tale is high.
If all of this sounds interesting, The Mage’s Tale can be pre-ordered on the Oculus Home store for a 10% discount off the launch price. The regular pricing is $39.99 and the game has Oculus Touch functionality.
Role-playing game (RPG) specialist inXile Entertainment (Wasteland 2, The Bard’s Tale IV) has announced the release date for its first virtual reality (VR) title for Oculus Rift and Touch, The Mage’s Tale.
The magical fantasy adventure will be released on 20th June 2017, exclusively for the head-mounted display. Starting today, the studio will be offering a pre-order discount for players, knocking 10 percent off the standard $39.99 USD price.
The Mage’s Tale casts players as a wizards apprentice. Their master Mage Alguin has been kidnapped by the evil wizard, Gaufroi, and to save him they need to complete a series of dungeons. From the sewers of Skara Brae to the living tombs of evil Charm, there are puzzles, traps and all manner monsters that aim to put an end to the quest.
Offering the ability to craft hundreds of spells, inXile Entertainment states the title should offer 10+ hours of gameplay, with a musical score produced and composed by Ged Grimes of Simple Minds. It features some of the top Gaelic singers in the world such as the Elidh Mackenzie, Fiona Mackenzie, Kathleen MacInnes, and Peigi Barker (voice of Merida in the film Brave).
“Our goal was to use the old school tried and true methods of game design and integrate that with everything that Virtual Reality offers. We wanted to get away from the VR “experience” and create the kind of meaty and full-scale game that gamers appreciate,” said Brian Fargo, dungeon crawler expert and CEO of inXile Entertainment in a statement.
VRFocuspreviewed the title during the Game Developers Conference (GDC) 2017 earlier this year, saying: “At this stage inXile Entertainment has a pretty solid experience on its hands. The basic ground work is there for a rich, exciting fantasy adventure, that mixes up wizard battles with an insane amount of crafting options for those interested in testing out their alchemy skills. For Oculus Touch owners, The Mage’s Tale is certainly one to keep on the radar.”
VRFocus will continue its coverage of The Mage’s Tale, reporting back with the latest announcements for the title.
Back in February inXile Entertainment announced its first foray into virtual reality (VR) development with The Mage’s Tale for Oculus Touch. At the recent Game Developers Conference (GDC) 2017, VRFocuscaught up with the studio’s Lead Designer David Rogers to find out more.
inXile Entertainment is the developer behind role-playing games (RPGs) like Wasteland 2 and upcoming title The Bard’s Tale IV, and its bringing that expertise to VR.
Rogers details the story behind The Mage’s Tale and its various gameplay mechanics which VRFocuspreviewed at the conference, saying: “At this stage inXile Entertainment has a pretty solid experience on its hands. The basic ground work is there for a rich, exciting fantasy adventure, that mixes up wizard battles with an insane amount of crafting options for those interested in testing out their alchemy skills.”
Checkout the interview below, and for further updates from inXile Entertainment on The Mage’s Tale, keep reading VRFocus.
Oculus has been keen to showcase the latest virtual reality (VR) content coming to Oculus Rift and Samsung Gear VR over the course of 2017. VRTV’s Nina Salomon has a video rundown featuring some of the biggest titles due to be launched.
Some of these titles you may already know about, while others might have slipped through the net. Rest assured none of them should be over looked.
Brass Tactics – VR Real-time strategy with clockwork/steampunk feel
SingSpace from Harmonix Music – ‘draw’ your music into the air, watch it react and dance in time to the beat. VR twist on classic music visualisations
Während der Oculus Game Days Europe standen die Oculus Touch Controller im Fokus des Events. Oculus wollte zeigen, wie vielseitig die Motion Controller für die Hände einsetzbar sind. Was bietet sich da nicht besseres an, als ein First Person Zauberer Dungeon Crawler. The Mage’s Tale ist genau das. Wir konnten das Virtual Reality Adventure RPG in London anspielen.
The Mage’s Tale – Zaubern wie Doctor Strange
InXile Entertainment zeigte im Februar bereits erste Screenshots vom Dungeon RPG Mage’s Tale. Nach einer kurzen Tutorial Einführung, die uns erklärte, wie man Zauber mischt und diese anwendet, ging es los ins erste Dungeon, um unseren entführten Meister zu befreien. Angekommen im ersten Dungeon findet man sich in einer düsteren und geheimnisvollen Umgebung wieder. Wasser sickert langsam durch die Wände und überall befinden sich mystische Runen und Statuen. So stellt man sich einen Dungeon aus den alten Dungeons and Dragons Pen and Paper Games vor.
Das Virtual Reality Spiel bietet alles, was man sich unter einem VR RGP vorgestellt. Hochleveln, looten, erkunden. Auch gibt es so einige Eastereggs und Witze, die auf die gute alte Zeit der Pen n‘ Paper Games anspielen. Im Spiel kann man sich entweder mit dem Analogstick am Oculus Touch Controller fortbewegen oder auf eine doch so beliebte Teleportationsmethode zurückgreifen.
Das Interface ist clever an die Hände gebunden. Auf Knopfdruck kann man so an beiden Händen verschiedene Zauber platzieren, vorausgesetzt man hat Kenntnis über die Sprüche. Diese greift man sich dann einfach und schon sieht man den Effekt an der jeweiligen Hand. An der einen Hand habe ich ein Schild ausgewählt, mit dem ich Projektile abwehren kann. An der anderen nehme ich den Feuerball Zauber. Ich fühle mich wie Doctor Strange, als ich die im ersten Level doch recht leicht zu besiegenden Gnome mit meinen Feuerbällen in die ewigen Jagdgründe befördere. Die auf mich geschossenen Pfeile wehre ich mit meinem Schild ab, oder weiche den Schüssen aus.
Schon bald folgt das Level Up und ich kann meinen Charakter verbessern. Hier stehen mir zwei Möglichkeiten zur Verfügung. Nach meiner Auswahl mache mich also weiter durch die Gemäuer. Begleitet werde ich von einem Lehrer, der mich in die Geschichte einführt und Tipps gibt, wie ich weiter komme. Auf der Suche nach Loot und Verbesserungen schlage ich mich durch, bis ich schließlich vor einem riesigen Mutanten stehe. Der Endgegner scheint mein Eindringen in seine Welt nicht gutzuheißen. Ich entscheide mich für die Flucht, doch bevor ich mich strategisch positionieren und meine Zauber an ihm anwenden kann, trifft mich seine gigantische Keule und ich bin tot. Game Over. Vom Spiel ich bin aber dennoch gefesselt. Leider endet meine ca. 30 minütige Spielsession hier.
Zaubersprüche können mit Crafting-System verbessert werden
Das Spiel sollte jedem Jäger und Sammler Spaß machen, der sich als Zauberer in finsteren Höhlen auf Erkundungstour begeben will. Gefallen hat mir dabei besonders, dass man seine Zauber auch mit bestimmten Items aufwerten kann. Als Beispiel wurde uns die Möglichkeit gezeigt, dass Feuerbälle die Fähigkeit bekommen können an Wänden und Objekten abzuprallen. Mit jedem Abpraller erhöht sich der Verursachte Schaden. Wenn man seinen Zauber geschickt aufwertet, kann man sogar einen Dreifach-Feuerball werfen. Das Crafting der Zauber findet dabei in einer großen Zauberschüssel statt, in die man die verschiedenen Tränke und Gegenstände gibt, die man während seiner Abenteuer sammelt.
Allem in allem konnte Mage’s Tale uns beeindrucken und wir hätten die Grotten gerne weiter erkundet. Vom Spielumfang versprechen die Entwickler etwa 10 Stunden Spielzeit, wenn man der linearen Story folgt. Mit Sidequests soll das ganze Spiel die Zauberer so ca. 15 Stunden beschäftigen. Im Sommer 2017 soll das fertige Spiel dann für Oculus Rift mit Touch erscheinen. Der Support für weitere Virtual Reality Brillen sollen aber auch noch folgen.
The 2017 Game Developer’s Conference (GDC) is now officially over. This year there was a ton of news and lots of great looking games for all manner of VR systems from the HTC Vive and Oculus Rift to the Gear VR and PlayStation VR (PSVR). One of the highlights of the week was undoubtedly The Mage’s Tale from inXile Entertainment, lauded developers of Torment: Tides of Numenera, Wasteland 2, and The Bard’s Tale IV.
During GDC week, we invited the team behind of The Mage’s Tale to our offices to let us do an exclusive Facebook livestream of the game in action. If you missed out on the action last week, you can watch it right now down below!
The 40-minute long gameplay video starts all the way back at the tutorial section of the game and runs through the first level of the first dungeon. The team is promising an approximately 10-hour long adventure complete with dozens of enemies to fight, spells to cast, and rooms to plunder. The action and gameplay is reminiscent of the classic old-school RPGs of yesteryear, albeit with a modern aesthetic and built-for-VR polish.
During my time with the game one of the elements that stood out the most is just how satisfying it is to throw a fireball in VR. It’s a sensation that’ been captured before — perhaps best by The Unspoken — but never has it been extrapolated to a massive, sprawling, first-person RPG adventure such as this.
What’s more is that it doesn’t just stop there as you’re able to carefully and creatively concoct spells of your own by mixing ingredients and effects together in a massive cauldron. Shooting rainbow-colored lightning bolts shouldn’t be this much fun.
The Mage’s Tale is currently slated for a summer 2017 release first on Oculus Rift with Touch and then other platforms later. You can read more about the game in our extended hands-on preview and original title announcement.
Will you be playing The Mage’s Tale when it releases later this year? Let us know in the comments below!
