[PC] Shadow Realms (Bioware/EA)

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A teaser trailer, released without a great deal of context via what appears to be a viral marketing campaign. Not the sort of thing I’d normally bother you all with but what little context there is does capture the imagination. First of all, it’s a BioWare teaser and it doesn’t look like part of an established series, unless it’s a very peculiar Jade Empire reboot. Second point of interest is that it looks like it might be marketing for a horror game about a man wearing a hoodie, which places it in an established genre. Edit: Could these nightmares be the first hint of the Failbetter/BioWare collaboration? Delicious.
The main draw is the tagline though – “What really happens when we sleep?

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From the storytelling experts at BioWare comes Shadow Realms™, a new 4v1 story-driven Online Action RPG with dynamic co-op missions in a constantly evolving BioWare world. Join an ongoing adventure with new episodes released frequently. Experience the thrill of making your own choices as to the path you take through the story, uncovering new mysteries and revealing hidden twists unexpectedly as you progress. Fight as a modern-day Hero who suddenly awakens with magical powers and is pulled into a dark realm and centuries old battle. Team up with three other Heroes in adventures facing off against a fantastic array of demonic bosses and supernatural creatures in a raging war against the Shadow Legions to save all of humanity. Summon all your powers as you prepare to battle a player-controlled Shadowlord, who possesses the ultimate weapon – the human mind.

The power is yours. You’ve been chosen.


Key Features

EXPERIENCE EPISODIC STORYTELLING

Enjoy the excitement of a constantly evolving story as new cliff-hanger episodes are released regularly with intriguing characters and impactful choices, letting you and your friends speculate on what comes next, much like your favorite TV series.
DISCOVER A NEW MODERN FANTASY WORLD

From the dark alleys of Paris to the gothic towers of Embra, adventure through an immersive new BioWare world where machine gun wizards and bomb squad clerics rule the day.
FIGHT DYNAMIC CO-OP 4v1 MISSIONS

Team up with three other Heroes in story-driven adventures packed with fast-paced tactical combat against a player-driven Shadowlord who controls creatures, sets traps and changes the environment itself, making the adventure and the battle different every time.
DEEP COMBAT CUSTOMIZATION
Deep character and combat customization options offer you the ability to build and progress as a powerful Hero and Shadowlord uniquely suited to your play-style and one that sets you apart from the crowd. Earn and choose from a broad set of abilities that you can mix regardless of class offering a very deep and diverse set of options.
You’ve got choices and the freedom to play your way. The power is yours.
Be one of the first to play the Closed Alpha and give us your feedback!

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Hi, I’m James Ohlen, a veteran of BioWare and lead designer of games such as Baldur’s Gate, Star Wars™: Knights of the Old Republic™, Star Wars™: The Old Republic™ and Dragon Age: Origins. I want to introduce you to the latest game from BioWare, Shadow Realms.


Shadow Realms has its genesis in old school Dungeons & Dragons. When I first started designing BioWare RPGs back in the 90s, what drove me creatively was the desire to give players the experience I had while playing pen and paper games as a youth. The great storytelling, the feeling that anything could happen - these were experiences that you couldn’t find in any other game. And the great thing was that these adventures never had an end. A good Dungeon Master could keep a story going for months or even years.

BioWare RPGs have successfully replicated many of the things that made classic tabletop games fun: powerful storytelling, being able to create your own character, leveling-up that hero to achieve the heights of fantasy power, and tactical combat against a fantastic array of monsters. But the stories always come to an end and AI systems can’t replace the creativity of a human Dungeon Master.
Shadow Realms aims to change that.

It is a game that finally fulfills that fantasy of a never-ending RPG where the players meet up regularly to keep their epic adventures going for as long as they want. All the enemies, traps and challenges are squarely in the hands of another player, who controls them just like a Dungeon Master. The monsters and villains are smart and unpredictable, making every battle a test of strategy and power. Best of all, everyone gets to enjoy a story that plays out like their favorite TV series, but where they decide the fates of its world and characters.

Shadow Realms isn’t just hearkening back to those early BioWare PC games—it’s finally bringing the magic of tabletop RPGs to the digital realm.


James

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Gameplay disse:

Shadow Realms is a multiplayer action RPG ‘dungeon crawler.’ Set in both modern day Earth and the parallel world of Embra, Heroes harness the most powerful abilities of both worlds to reach their greatest potential. Shadow Realms has flexible RPG style character progression and customization that allows the player to choose their Hero’s powers, whether that means shooting a gun, wielding an axe, or casting fireballs. Every match is comprised of four Hero player characters that can be any combination of six classes with countless combinations of abilities and equipment. Together, these Heroes fight their way through different Realms (both on Earth and Embra), finding treasure, dodging traps, opening secret doors, discovering lore, and completing story-driven objectives along the way. But all the while, a fifth player – the Shadowlord – is opposing them.

In tabletop RPG sessions, the Dungeon Master (DM) does not see the game world differently than the Hero players. While they do have perfect knowledge of the tactical situation, they still interact with the game world in the same way as the players – with pens, papers, and imagination. And if they are a fair DM, they play by the rules. With Shadow Realms, we decided that the Shadowlord should interact with and see the gameplay world in a similar way to the Hero players – albeit with better tactical knowledge.

Just like the Hero player characters, the Shadowlord character has broad progression and customization. However, their objective is to stop the group of Heroes by haunting them, setting traps, casting spells, summoning monsters, and controlling any monster in the level. And by controlling monsters, I don’t mean a top down clicking to direct monsters. The Shadowlord is not a disembodied character affecting the world from outside and “above” the game, so to speak. They are in the mix with the Hero player characters for the entire dungeon crawl sharing the same 3rd person over the shoulder camera and control scheme. The key difference is that the Shadowlord remains unseen until they possess a monster, cast certain spells, or choose to reveal themselves.

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Class Overview disse:

Warrior
Equipped with cutting-edge tactical gear from Earth, the Warrior excels when going toe-to-toe with enemies, crushing them with brute force. The adrenaline of close quarters combat fuels their ability to withstand damage.

Assassin
The sleek and mobile Assassin uses the cover of shadows to deal lethal amounts of damage. An expert in acrobatics, the Assassin dashes into melee range to quickly dispose of enemies and dodges back out to avoid any retaliation.

Wizard
Think of the Wizard as the smartest kid in class, who uses their mind to bend the elements and alter reality to take out enemies or benefit allies. A master of the arcane, Wizards burn and electrocute any hostile foes unlucky enough to cross their path.

Cleric
The Cleric channels the newly found magical energies through both modern and fantastical weaponry to both deadly and restorative effects, as the tactical situation may need.

Ranger
Rangers use their gifts to call the beasts of Embra and Earth to arms against the Shadow Legion. Combined with the tools of modern warfare and keen senses, they are a force to be reckoned with.

Warlock
Warlocks challenge the Shadowlord with their mastery of the darkness. They dabble in the arts of binding demons and conjuring volatile powers for the greater good of Earth and Embra.

Shadowlord
The mysterious Shadowlords reign over the many forces of the Shadow Legions. Their powers and forms vary greatly, but all have domain over the Heroes adventures, and all are bent on the destruction of Earth and Embra.

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Portus Magnus disse:

E assim começam os clones do Evolve

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kimgage disse:

"EPISODIC STORYTELLING" - Não gosto disto, de resto parece-me bem.

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Cunha Esteves disse:

Tendo em conta que é online, não estou a ver outra forma de fazer a história

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kimgage disse:

Nao fiz quote há melhor frase, problema é este, "The game will be released episodically.", basicamente vai ser fragmentado em DLCs... que até agora só era habitual ver em jogos single player, não sei se vai funcionar bem, é esperar para ver...

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February 9, 2015

Today I’m sharing some important news about Shadow Realms and our BioWare Austin studio.

We’ve made the decision to not move forward with development of Shadow Realms. We fully recognize that this news is disappointing to some of our fans, so I want to explain more behind this decision.

While the team did amazing work on the game concept and we got lots of great feedback from our fans at events and through other game testing, right now there are other projects for the team to work on within the BioWare studios for the coming year and beyond. We’ve got an incredibly talented team here at the Austin studio, and they are excited and already deep on new projects within the BioWare family, ones that will make some great BioWare games even better.

These include additional ongoing enhancements to the award-winning Dragon Age: Inquisition, as well as the next game in the Mass Effect series and other new IP.

But the biggest focus for our team in BioWare Austin will be on Star Wars™: The Old Republic™. As every Star Wars™ fan knows, this is a massive year in the Star Wars universe. We have some great plans for expanding this epic game this year, and look forward to sharing the news about those plans with our players in the coming weeks.

For all the people that registered for the Shadow Realms Closed Alpha, we’re working on a way to say thank-you for signing up. To all those players that gave us feedback at Gamescom and PAX, and those that shared their thoughts and impressions in the past months, we thank you for being part of the conversation.

Jeff Hickman

General Manager, BioWare Austin

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