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Preview - Telepath RPG: Servants of God
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- Category: News
- Published on Wednesday, 08 February 2012 20:50
- Written by Rick B.
Video game RPGs have been a strange beast. Role-playing games in the early days of videos games weren't really RPGs at all. You simply played a character and leveled up stats. More current RPGs give choices and consequences to those choices. Thus becoming a more real role-playing experience. Telepath RPG tries for a similar approach, or at least the illusion of it.
Telepath RPG: Servants of God is a top-down perspective, strategy RPG which combines a decently compelling story with solid, if simplistic, grid-based combat. You play a young man by the name of... whatever you chose it to be. One of the opening scenes sees you and your parents imprisoned by the Cultists, worshipers of the god Yawah. The Cultists have gained much power in your home town of Ravinale and have begun to overthrow the currently established government. As a side note, Ravinale doesn't roll off the tongue well so I have stuck to calling it Rivendell(yes, the one from Lord of the Rings). The new totalitarian government rules with an iron fist and a small group of people are fighting back. Your journey begins when the resistance breaks you out of your prison cell. The base idea has been told many times, but an eclectic cast of characters has made it interesting so far.
I am honestly surprised by the amount of dialogue in Telepath RPG, and at how well it is presented. Ideas are explored that most games ignore, such as how it feels to take someone's life and how it is represented inside the mind. See, an important part of Telepath RPG is the main character's psychic ability. Essentially the use of the mind and in regards to story, the ability to read minds. Other characters and NPCs have psy powers as well, so it isn't exclusive to your main character. As I mentioned in the opening paragraph, your character is able to make choices during the game. Most are simply different branches in the same dialogue tree, but some have an effect in the world. Example, one of the early choices has you dealing with an abusive husband. It's trivial to the overall plot(to my knowledge), but it's a choice to be made none-the-less. And that's the real problem with Telepath RPG's decision making. As far as I can tell, none of it makes a tangible difference to the world or the story at large. Though in comparison, I have the same problem with the majority of the choices that can be made in Skyrim, and that's a AAA title. I'm hoping the final product will have more choices with more story altering effects. It could also be I haven't reached far enough into the game to see those repercussions.
Combat wise, it is a simple beast. Your merry band of resistance fighters enter into grid-based combat like many other strategy titles. Each character has a number of movement points, one chance for skill usage(including attack), and can rotate directions for free. More damage is done if attacks come from the side or behind, and certain attacks are performed at range. If you've played a strategy RPG before, you know how it's going to work. Unlike most RPGs however, there are no items. You don't get better weapons and gear. Instead, you level up your various skills by using them. Sadly, it is unclear exactly how much exp is gained per usage or how much more is needed to reach the next level. Your characters also don't level up in the typical fashion. Your skills do, but stats(strength, psy power, and psy defense) are increased by spending gold to train. You gain new abilities by the same method. It should also be mentioned it is made abundantly clear that character death is permanent. There is a character that can revive fallen comrades, but I did not test what occurs when that particular character would fall in battle. I was able to keep everyone alive during my time with the game, so it is quite possible dead characters are no longer part of the story. What consequences and story changes that brings are unknown.
While the combat itself is a straight forward affair, the back end stats and skills are lacking explanation. In the beginning, you assign points to psy power, psy defense, aptitude, and personality. These stats are explained there, but not when you are given another bonus point later in the game. By that time I had forgotten how each was going to affect my character. Even with the explanation in the beginning, it is unclear if psy defense increases that character's defense, or if it is only for defensive psy powers. A tutorial option is available from the main menu which sheds a little more light on the subject, but I shouldn't need to exit back to the main menu to have something explained to me. There was also a point when the trainer asked a question and I had to choose my response. It was not mentioned that this choice would determine which psy powers were available for my character to learn. Randomness can be welcome, but not when I'm essentially given a choice how I want to develop the main character, but that choice is then randomized. It could have at least been said “this option for ice powers, this one for fire, etc.”
Telepath RPG: Servants of God has promise. Combat is basic strategy RPG affair but still requires you to think a couple moves ahead, and the story is made interesting by a colorful cast of characters. I'm also particularly fond of the card game found within the game. Unfortunately, Telepath RPG currently suffers from what many indie games suffer from. The developer knows what's going on, but it doesn't always mean the player does. Hopefully these simple issues can be resolved or clarified before release.
Telepath RPG: Servants of God is created by Sinister Design. You can find out more about the game and pre-order it over at their website - http://www.sinisterdesign.net/
Trailer
