 Wheel
of Time
Developed
By: Legend Entertainment
Published by: GT Interactive Software
Genre: Action/Strategy/RPG
Expected Release: Third Quarter 199
Wheel Of Time is directly inspired by author Robert
Jordan's series of novels of the same name, acting
as a prequel to this popular fantasy series. The unusual
thing about GT Interactive's press on this game, is
that rather than bragging up the Wheel of Time license,
and the rich fantasy world created by Robert Jordan,
the press material focuses on the multiplayer innovations
that Legend Entertainment is working on.
Gamers
will have the opportunity to play in a multitude of
multiplayer online matches.
-Arena: similar to Deathmatch your focus will
be geared towards pure combat and the strategic use
of artifacts.
-Citadal: in this mode an individual player
will be in possession of two seals. The goal of the
Citadal mode is to fortify your seals with the use
of traps and guards, while trying to retrieve two
more seals from your online opponent fortification.
-Team Play: this mode is much the same as the
Citadal mode of play, but instead of it being a single
player trying to protect the seals you form a team,
hence the name team play. Both of these modes are
quite similar to capture the flag.
There
are a couple potentially innovative elements being
developed for Wheel Of Time that are worth looking
at. One of them being the ability to customize your
fortresses with moveable walls, portcullises, pits,
spear traps, tilting staircases and different types
of creatures that serve to guard your structure from
your opponents.
Each
player will command three types of troops:
Grunts, strong but not terribly intelligent;
Captains, with programmable behaviors, who are formidable
adversaries, and the vastly tougher
Champions, equivalent to level bosses in other games.
Traps include spears, pits, tilting stairs, portcullises,
alarms, walls, and other devious devices. All of the
guards, traps and other devices are expected to add
strategy elements to multiplayer combat. The combat
is based on over 40 different types of artifacts;
each type conferring a specific magical ability to
its owner. A particularly nasty offensive spell can
be balanced by an artifact that shields against it,
cancels it out, or even turns its effect back on the
attacker.
The
developers claim that it is possible that, even after
playing this game over and over, players will still
encounter artifacts and strategies that they've never
seen before. In single player mode, you will be faced
with a story inspired by The Wheel Of Time novellas.
As your adventure grows you will be slowly introduced
to the dynamics and elements of the multiplayer game
play. Robert Jordan will be reviewing the materials
that Legend creates in order to make sure that what
goes up on the screen matches his vision of the world,
but Legend is writing the story and designing the
game.
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