Depths of Peril caught my eye for its similarities to Siege of Avalon and Civilization. “What the heck?”, you may ask. The simple point-and-click action RPG system, fighting, getting experience and loot gameplay is nicely incorporated in the entire diplomacy and aspiration to conquer the world, just like in Civilization. Curious? Keep on reading.
Depths of Peril allows you to create a character from one of four available classes: Warrior, Priest, Mage and Rogue. In typical RPG form, you accept quests, kill things, level up and improve your stats and skills. But not automatically.
When you level up, you will gain a certain amount of attribute points and skill points. Attribute points can be distributed among your character’s stats (strength, intelligence, dexterity and such). Skill points are reserved to a very interesting skill “tree”. Ok, not really a tree, since they are all available from level 1, but a series of pages with different types of skills: buffs, spells, passive skill and others than belong to your character class (type of armor and weapon you can use, for example). The thing is, skills not only cost skill points, they cost money as well, so invest wisely.
There are five opposing factions in the world, and since all are barbarians (yourself included), they are all trying to take over the city of Jorvik, which really has no leader. Like in Civilization, every now and again one of them will come knocking at your door with some offer or making demands. Keeping diplomatic relations is a major part of the game, so, like in Civilization, you can aim for peace and trade routes while you build up your ranks, and when you’re ready for war raid the others or wait until they attack you. Whoever is left standing in the end, wins, so your primary goal is to empower your covenant.
Depths of Peril seems like an MMO at times. It may be a single-player campaign, but it’s not all about you. There are other factions that come into the city to trade, vendors that attack monsters, other NPCs that can be rescued and recruited. As you go out exploring and killing monsters, you will find plenty of loot that you can use for trading with other factions, but also other characters that can join your party. You can only have one other party member with you at any given time, but you can switch between the ones you have, manage their basic equipment and level them up. You can have up to four guarding your covenant, so it’s important to make them as powerful as you possibly can, so that they can defend you.
One thing I liked in the game was the variety of monsters. There were plenty of familiar things like zombies and skeletons, but lots of original designs, such as some creatures that seemed made of mud and would split into smaller ones when killed.
There are also Champion, Elite and Legendary creatures that are usually part of quests and will put on quite a fight. But monsters sometimes form their little alliances as well,which will have an impact on the world. If you don’t deal with them quickly enough, a small uprising can start a snowball effect and have consequences all over.
For the completist gamers, there are other things to make your play time even longer, such as maps that lead to buried treasures all over the world, and several books to find with plenty of stories to read.
Depths of Peril is a very dynamic game that requires you to pay attention to pretty much everything, from identifying loot drops to managing covenant member’s equipment, diplomatic relations and timed quests. It’s a pretty busy game with lots to do, and one that I am really enjoying.
Special thanks to Steven Peeler and Soldak Entertainment for providing a copy of this title.