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| Lords of Xulima by Mischief Maker 09/04/2017, 9:21pm PDT | ||||
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| Lords of Xulima is an epic cRPG.
I'm not using the word "epic" lightly here. Nor am I talking about epic story elements. I'm saying Lords of Xulima is huge, it's challenging on many levels, and it is LONG. You will not finish this in a weekend, there are no Lords of Xulima speedruns. Much like Might and Magic, Lords of Xulima is a project, and attempting to rush it will burn you out. But wow is it a rewarding project. The premise is an out-of-control war is raging in the lands while a civil war between the gods is raging in heaven. You play a Ranger named Gaulen who's visited in his dreams by the trickster god and tasked with gathering a party of heroes then sailing to the homeland of the gods, the forbidden Isle of Xulima, to tilt the war in heaven against the god of death. Xulima is home to a small civilization of humans whose culture is based on direct contact with the gods, as well as fantastic creatures that are the leftover results of earlier experiments by the gods before they created humanity. Exploration As I said, Lords of Xulima is epically long. Fortunately the designers made the island a very interesting place from a gameplay perspective. Every region has a different challenge to overcome. In one area you'll be reading riddle stones scattered through a vast plain, in another you'll be carefully sneaking around giant stationary mushrooms that far out-level you, in another you'll be wandering around the corpses of dead soldiers trying to find your way through the sleep spells of an enchanted wood. Likewise some dungeons are monster dens to be cleared, some lack any combat and instead are filled with teleportation puzzles, and some are garrisons filled with soldiers and deadly traps. There's always something new around the corner, and some of the puzzles were so challenging I had to take notes by hand to figure them out. You explore Xulima from an isometric perspective with Gaulen representing the whole party. The best comparison to Lords of Xulima's exploration is the map screen in Heroes of Might and Magic. There are random encounters, but you'll also find stationary groups of monsters blocking off treasure chests or alternate paths and you can mouse over them for an estimate of your chances in combat as well as showing a clearly defined zone of control to avoid. Interestingly, every map screen has a finite number of random encounters, and you get a bonus prize once you've cleared a map of all enemies. Exploration has a light survival mechanic. Your food supply is measured in time and the passage of time is based on the difficulty of the terrain you're traversing. It's totally worth the effort to stay on the roads. One of the most challenging parts of the game is wandering through a desert looking for a giant as your rations drain alarmingly fast on the deadly terrain. Fortunately Gaulen has several survival skills. He can replenish food stores from berry bushes that grow back over time, he can pick herbs that can be used to permanently boost the stats of his teammates, and so on. Combat One of the big weaknesses of Wizardry-style "blobber" cRPGs is the combat becoming repetitive, with the fighters and healers doing the same thing every fight and the one tactical decision being whether or not the wizards will burn through their spell power or just use their pathetic bonk stick this round. Lords of Xulima has an excellent tactical combat system that constantly has you weighing the merits of multiple options. I almost never sat back and autoattacked by way through a fight in this game. The trick is that every attack type in the game also carries with it a corresponding status effect. Swords cause bleed that damages over time , maces cause stun which shifts enemies back in the turn order, axes cause wounds that permanently reduce stats, and spells have even more intense status effects. Not only does it make for interesting tactical choices with fighters, like which monster would be most advantageous to delay with a bonk from the paladin's mace, but enemy-inflicted status effects make even the humble cleric's job interesting. Do you use a spell to raise your barbarian's hitpoints, or do you use a spell to staunch the 40 dmg/round bleeding that's been inflicted on him by cumulative raptor attacks? Your team consists of Gaulen plus five custom heroes from nine different classes arranged on a 4x2 grid. A character can only be in the back row, out of reach of melee enemies, if there is another character in the grid in front of them, otherwise they shift to the front row automatically. This happens for enemies as well. Fighters can only target front-row enemies directly adjacent to their cell, so re-shuffles of your team's formation are constant. But unlike an old wizardry game, the interface is simple and straightforward to use, with a generous belt of hotkeys for your favorite spells and consumables to make the process as painless as possible. Negatives The biggest weakness of this game is random shopkeeper selection and random container drops. This can easily lead to situations where you have a character with all his skill points invested into axes, but there are no decent two-handed axes to be found anywhere. The music is great, but the graphics are servicable at best, especially half the character portraits that are clearly kickstarter donors with medieval armor painted onto them. Gaulen himself feels like a third wheel the first 15 or so levels, sinking most of his skill points into crucial survival skills and it's only after he unlocks Poison Strike that he starts holding his own in battle. Consider creating a front-line character with a bow, then trading for Gaulen's axe when the game proper begins so Gaulen can shoot safely from the back row. Finally, like I said before, this game is epically long and can easily burn you out if you try to rush to the end. This is a game for sipping, not guzzling. In Conclusion Lords of Xulima is a modern classic of cRPG design, creating a world that's rich and vibrant with gameplay that keeps you thinking throughout its massive length. Beat this game and you truly have accomplished something great. Spanish developer Numantian games have really outdone themselves with this title. I can't wait to see what they're doing next! Oh... They're making a tower defense game... With zombies... Oh... |
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Lords of Xulima by 09/04/2017, 9:21pm PDT  Re: Lords of Xulima by 09/04/2017, 10:04pm PDT A solid review marred by its exclusion of "Deluxe Edition" analysis. 8.5/10 NT by 09/05/2017, 3:06am PDT I shall rectify the problem in the final draft. by 09/05/2017, 9:19am PDT Final Draft by 09/05/2017, 1:22pm PDT looks like fun. NT by 09/09/2017, 5:30am PDT Are any of the blue orbs located in new areas or did they just add them to NT by 09/09/2017, 6:57am PDT Added to existing locations. NT by 09/09/2017, 7:13am PDT Oh shit, I forgot it was $10 at full price. It's just 50 orbs. You can skip it. NT by 09/09/2017, 7:42am PDT When the price is ten dol-lars, YOU MUST SKIP IT! NT by 09/09/2017, 8:20am PDT Still planning on posting a new review every week? by 09/21/2017, 7:34pm PDT Yes - some IRL concerns have absorbed some weeknight, but yes. NT by 09/21/2017, 7:52pm PDT Re: Still planning on posting a new review every week? by 09/22/2017, 12:22am PDT |
