If you’re more of a hardcore MMO player and don’t mind things like “solo developer” and “early access,” take a peek at Reign of Darkness, which just launched on Steam this week. The one-man Unorthodox Studio says the 3-D MMORPG “hearkens back to when players had to play a game to figure things out with a short learning curve” and that the game isn’t just another clone. Instead, it looks like more of a grimdark MMORPG with a focus on tab-target play, dungeon-running, and theory-crafting, “based on classic D&D principles & concepts, where every attack is a virtual roll of the dice.”
Just based on the videos alone, this Unity game has been in development quite a long time; the oldest video for the title is from six years ago. The dev says it’s in a playable state right now with plenty of content, though it’s missing some specific mechanics and storytelling and strategic aspects.
“The game is currently a vertical slice of the core game-play and mechanics(and more of both to come). There are approximately 30 quests, randomly generated items, 120 skills/abilities, Werewolf Shape-shifting, 2 public zone/areas and 3 private dungeon/instances for players to find. Once located, dungeon/instances are designed for solo or team play with a maximum of 5 team members, and are always set to the players level or team leader’s level (+3 or -3). Which allows players to reach the maximum level of 100. Attempting to enter a dungeon/instance provides an option box window to the player allowing them to select the difficultly of the dungeon/instance (which also affects the rewards).”
The alpha version costs $19.99 on Steam; Unorthodox expects it to be in an early access phase for around a year.
