If you’ve ever played an action game on a console and wished that they would make more games like that for the PC, now’s the time to sit up and pay attention. The final major game showcased at the Gamania Game Show was Core Blaze, a gritty-looking action MMORPG focused on detail and freedom more than chain combos and stage scores. MMOHut joined press from around the world to defeat the great Liang Qu, and get a feel for what Core Blaze is all about.
A World of Choice
The development team of Core Blaze wants to emphasize freedom to play the game in the way that best fits your style, and that starts with weapon choice. There are four weapons available in the game: sword and shield (designed to tank), great sword, dual blades, and the bow. Weapons determine your skills, but you are not locked into a specific weapon "class;" you can instead change weapons freely in between battles, allowing you to prepare the best strategy for your next encounter.
A Changing World
Freedom means more than class choice, though. Freedom also means the ability to explore the world and find new quests, items, bosses, and areas never seen before. Each world area is subject to weather and time, meaning that as days and weather pass, the areas and even bosses accessible to a character will change. For example, a river may flood during rain, raising the water levels and making it possible for a character to access a new cave, or a boss may only appear at night. This exploration also changes as characters grow stronger, and gain new skills and items that allow them to access areas previously unreachable and unseen.
Into the Darkness
After teaming up into groups of four with other game show attendees, we headed into the twisting caves that hid Liang Qu, a massive blue-tiger like beast that called the place home. Core Blaze is visually impressive, with high quality graphics and environments that look lifted straight from a console RPG like Castlevania: Lords of Shadow. Dim, flickering lighting, twisted creatures, ledges and old looking ladders and wooden structures were scattered throughout the environment, creating environmental challenges for both exploration and strategy.
Fighting our way back to the boss took some time; even regular enemies weren’t simply blown over by a party of four. More challenging than the enemies, however, was the environment itself: learning how to jump up onto a rope ladder "just so," managing careful scooting along ledges and hauling ourselves upward carefully, and learning how dangerous diving into a pool of water could be all took an extra amount of time and patience. Once we did arrive at Baihu, the boss wasn’t disappointing: several times taller and larger than any in our party, the beast leapt between us, even using cave walls to execute aerial attacks; he would also stop and flap his short wings while breathing to create a deadly field of damage around him. Dodging, kiting, and clipping his back legs while he was distracted was all key to victory.
Items Count, Too
One thing we noticed immediately with Core Blaze was that it also had a robust item system. Items play a key role in your adventures, from potions (which are invaluable, due to a lack of heals via other means) and other buff items to grenades and ropes. Items can also have synergy; for example, oil can be poured on the ground and then lit on fire with a torch, creating a burning trap for enemies who would dare cross.
Freedom Only Goes So Far
Core Blaze’s major flaw at the Gamania Game Show demo was striking: the control system was incredibly awkward. While basic attacks were bound to simple keys (left or right clicking, A or B on the control pad), items and skills were much more difficult to use. On the game pad, using a skill (or item) required holding down a bumper button, which would bring up a three part menu in the lower left. Each skill/item could be assigned to one of twelve slots, and these were broken into three groups of four. Using one, then, required selecting a group by moving between them with a directional pad, and then pressing the appropriate button on the game pad itself to activate. The controls for this were even more awkward through the keyboard, as it required moving the mouse in the direction of the skill you wished to use before clicking to activate it. While we admit that the game’s controls will expect some familiarity in actual play, it still seemed that this system was far too slow, requiring too many steps for an action game that requires quick thinking and reaction.
Not Quite There… Yet
Core Blaze was more than visually impressive: the amount of detail put into game environments, skill use, item synergy, and enemy interaction was almost as deep as we’ve ever seen in an MMO. The development team is ambitious, and aiming for a truly deep experience of action gameplay. The amount of teamwork required in the game will be interesting to see in a live environment: we’re told that solo players will need to maximally prepared and will see some restrictions in gameplay, as even exploration may occasionally require the assistance of a teammate. Core Blaze has a powerful core gameplay that will appeal to the hardcore MMO gamer; we only hope that controls are simplified to some degree to make the game’s action more appealing.
The Gamania Game Show (GGS) took place this year on Sept 8 and Sept 9 in Taipei, Taiwan. Press from around the globe, including MMOHut, were invited to take a hands-on look at the game company’s four new games in development – Dream Drops, Langrisser Schwarz, Tiara Concerto, and Core Blaze – as well as other products.
Screenshots of Core Blaze at the Gamania Game Show:
