With
Nosgoth being unveiled today, I can finally share the awesome secret I had to safe guard the last few months. I was invited over to Square Enix London to participate in a community event to test Nosgoth. Follow Nosgoth on twitter for more updates, visit the official Nosgoth site and see the trailer on YouTube.
For all of you worried that Nosgoth is multi-player game, George Kellion reassures, that they are fully aware of Legacy of Kain being primarily sp games and would like to do an sp game in the future. Simon Woods also wrote an excellent article regarding the bad reception on numerous sites.
The following is my account of how I perceived
it from the day we got the emails, until the day of the event. If you
want to know how Nosgoth actually plays and what it offers as a game,
visit Bazielim´s awesome in-depth analysis of the game on the LOK Wiki. Also, check Lucinvampire´s blog article on Nosgoth and the newest interesting addition is by Blincoln on TLW.
Where
to even begin... It all started with the rumours of a new LOK game
being in Steam database and rest assured, it was confirmed. We got a new game after so many
years, it almost seemed unbelievable at first. It appears we have not
been forgotten as it might have looked like on the outside, which was
proven by the existence of Dark Prophecy and Dead Sun games, Guardian
of Light LOK DLC packs, recurrent easter eggs in TR games by Crystal
Dynamics... It seems there was always something during those long
years, though our heart´s wishes haven´t been fulfilled - to get a
new game which wasn´t canceled for a change.
When I
got the first email saying I was chosen to participate in an upcoming
Nosgoth event and be one of the first people to try it out, I
couldn´t believe what was I reading – and the reaction was
according, spend like 10-15 mins walking and jumping around the room
in joy. Months past and everything was being setup for the event
(thank you Umah, George and everybody else involved) and the big day
came closer and closer. Then about a week before the event, the list
of people attending was revelead and I couldn´t believe it at first
– Blincoln, Tenaya, Ardeth, Divine Shadow, Vampmaster, the Hylden,
Bazielim and other LOK fans were attending as well. It was like
reading an A star movie cast list, all the legends I have been
looking up to through these long years all would be participating in
one event, now that´s what I call an epic meeting.
With
everything packed into my backpack (I went only lightly since it was
just two nights), my best friend picked me up and drove me to the
airport. The flight to Vienna took only an hour and soon we were
landing and the next flight was pretty short too. A slovak woman was
sitting in front of me on both flights and her husband later helped
me to get a ticket to metro and get on a correct train. It took about
an hour of tube travel and then I arrived at the Wimbledon station.
Luckily the Broadway is pretty much one long street so finding the
hotel wasn´t too difficult.
When I
went into the hotel I passed a group of people of which I was
suspicious might be THE LOK fans, but I wasn´t sure, so I rather
went upstairs and dropped of the backpack to my room. I couldn´t see
anybody in the hallway upstairs, so I went back down to the lobby and
when I looked more closer, I started to recognize some of the faces.
First one I spotted Umah and I couldn´t believe my eyes I am meeting
her in person. I was so shocked to find them all standing there in
front of me and right away, Umah introduced me to Tenaya, which I was
really looking forward seeing as I haven´t heard from her for so
long. Then I greeted with Blinc, Ardeth, Mike, Vampmaster, Jeffers,
Divine Shadow, The Hylden and Ber who arrived just after me. I
couldn´t stop smiling, as it all just seemed so unreal, all of us
LOK fans in one place in one moment of time. One could almost await
some huge paradox occuring right there... Luckily the only thing
being erased from existence were pizzas that night. Finding the right
place to sit with food and being able to talk proved to be a
challenge on the busy street of Broadway, but in the end we found
space for all of us and stil being able to eat our food. We discussed
various things from LOK universe and had lots of fun pointing out the
stuff we found funny or interesting (hit of the evening was Kain´s
figer pointing and the consequent Mind the Gap meme). I was very
amused by Divine Shadow who was very talkative and lots of people
made some very interesting observations that night (which I can´t
seem to remember unluckily).
After
our appetite was satiated we went back to the hotel and since some of
us were not going to bed yet, Divine Shadow offered we could use his
room to meet up in there. So eight of us gathered, occupying every
single space (was pretty tight xD). The Hylden showed us stuff he has
been working on, a new high poly Kain model which looked really good,
Vampmaster his success with exporting armatures for models out of
Soul Reaver 2, Tenaya her new amazing design she made, while I showed
a playable demo of Soul Revenant. It was lots of fun and we talked
until late night. When the Hylden was falling asleep on Divine
Shadow´s bed, it was about good time to say good night and retreat
back to our rooms. I wish I could have gotten sleep that night, the
bed was really comfy but I was so full of adrenaline, thoughts and
expectations for Sunday, so I couldn´t fall asleep at all...
Then
the time came to invite us to the Nosgoth room with huge posters and
screens with Nosgoth logos, and eight computers. The huge poster had
three figures on left and three on right, each side tinted with
appropriate color. When I saw the winged one, I wondered if that
could be a Razielim, but wasn´t really sure. The other two I´ve
thought are humans at first since they were missing the pointy ears
and didn´t have visible fangs. They turned out to be Turelim and
Dumahim (which kinda reminded me of Kratos, lol). Humans seemed to
specialize in long distance weapons. While settling in I noticed more
LOK fans joined from UK which were not with us the previous night. I
was especially happy to meet Bazielim from the famous LOK wiki and
finally being able to thank him personally for his awesome work on
the site. I also met Omega, Ammon, Moesph, and the ever-enthusiastic
Lucinvampire. It was really awesome to be among people as excited as
I was about the whole event. When everything was set, George showed
us presentation of the game, which we could have seen before anybody
else could. It consisted of a trailer, showed us the new Nosgoth map,
and Nosgoth key features. Full of anticipation the game testing began
afterwards. I played the match later on, so I just observed how
others play in the meantime. Graphics pretty impressed me and from
what I´ve seen it seemed fun. When it was time, I sat next to Trevor
and he explained the game controls and gameflow to me. It wasn´t
difficult to get into, however, I kept pressing wrong keys at times,
especiallly Tab instead of Q for the special abilities. I play lots
of mp though I still sucked when playing as vampires at first. My
favourite class quickly became the Dumahim, which I would compare to
the Hunter from Left4Dead games. I´ve tried others as well, but I
always found myself wanting to play as Dumahim. Razielim were
interesting to play as but as the Hylden pointed out, the camera made
it hard to see and assault victims from the air and I particularly
didn´t like the way flying initiated. Overall though, I wish I could
spend more time with each class as it seems with certain combinations
of classes you can achieve some interesting strategy. When we played
as humans I think it was better as we all tried to stick together in
a group and take the vamps on which worked. Too bad the session was
so short, I would have liked to play it much longer. The top 8
players then had a match against each other and 4 best won awesome
BBI Kain figures (was so envious, but they totally deserved them).
After
the prizes were given, we had some cool chats with members of the
staff. I was really interested to hear Jay talk about Soul Reaver and
how he´s been part of the company for so long (even longer than the
furniture there xD). And at the end we could ask questions about the
game and although not all of them could have been answered at the
time, it was fun. It seems they know what they´re doing, since
Psyonix has a decent portfolio of mp games and the promise of more
custom stuff later in the development sounds like a good idea. All of
us also got some Nosgoth goodie bags consisting out of a Nosgoth
branded bag, two mouse pads with motifs for humans and vampires and
a poster.
Then
it was time to slowly leave SE and some people had to leave earlier
like Divine Shadow and Ardeth, Ammon, so they´d catch trains. The
rest of us took couple of photos in front of the Square Enix desk and
then invited George and Trevor over for a drink. Pub was really just
across the street so we all settled in and connected tables together
so everybody would fit. We tried to pry out of Trevor some more info
about Nosgoth, but alas, even after three beers he wouldn´t let too
much on. I finally got the chance to talk to Umah after all this time
and it was really great evening knowing her and also thanks to the
charming company of Bazielim.
When
it got late the rest of us went to the hotel after grabbing some food
and stayed for a while in the lobby. Knowing it was the last hours of
being together, we stayed up as long as we could that night. I think
saying goodbye was one of the hardest things I ever had to do,
knowing I won´t see my friends for who knows how long. It was
amazing especiallly because most of us met first time in our lives
and had so much fun time together talking and reflecting about the
series. I am really glad I was chosen to participate in this event as
it gave me an amazing, once in a lifetime opportunity to see SE
London HQ, meet SE staff and primarily, strengthen the bonds between
us LOK fans. It really makes me happy that there are many people who
still care about Kain´s legacy...
After
going to bed and sleeping for like an hour or two, since had to wake
up at 5.30, took a shower, packed everything and left the hotel at
six. With the sense of leaving something great behind me, I departed
for the tube and got on the flight. We arrived in Vienna 10mins later
as we should have been, which didn´t give much time to stand around
since my connective flight was only 30mins apart... Running like
never before I reached the plane just in time, totally exhausted,
since the gate was located out of all things on the other side as we
came in... Luckily when I arrived at the airport, I caught the bus
just right on time and got home. It took some time to absorb all of
what happened and and to sort out all the memories... It´s for
granted that such day cannot be ever forgotten.
