Thunderscape is SSI's first title in their new game setting, the World of Aden. SSI has taken a holistic approach to developing Aden, planning concurrent release of its series of computer RPGs along with a pen-and-paper game using the same rules and background.
Perhaps the best part of this game is its setting. Ten years prior to the beginning of the game, Aden was a peaceful land. Its people engaged in a variety of noble pursuits, including an interesting craft called mechamagic, which combines steam-age technology with magic. Unfortunately, as is so often the case in these stories, the sun was blotted out and an evil force descended upon Aden in the form of the nocturnals - hideous creatures of pure malice.
Since then, war has raged between the good people of Aden and the nocturnals. Now, the nocturnals have seized a key strategic position - Vanguard Keep in Skelon's Pass, the location of the magical engines which generate the Shield, a wall of force that keeps the nocturnals out of the pass. For years, this has been the only defense against a massive invasion of the Northlands by the forces of darkness, and now it has fallen. A valiant band of knights is all that now prevents the nocturnals from seizing a major portion of the civilized world - and they can't hold out forever. While they form a last-ditch defense against the invasion, someone must penetrate Vanguard Keep and restore the Shield. Guess who?
This may well be the coolest background story I've seen in an RPG. Unfortunately, the gameplay is lackluster. With the exception of the smooth-scrolling 3D engine (the bumps and dips in the ground are particularly nice), Thunderscape doesn't really break any new ground, and actually falls a bit short in some areas.
Take combat. While the interface for telling your party what to do is quick, painless and easy to use, combat graphics and sound are weak. Fire a gun and you see an animation of . . . an arrow! Kick a monster, and see . . . a sword swing! Guess the art budget ran out before they could finish drawing the combat animations. Call me a purist, but in my opinion, what's the point of doing graphics like this if you're not going to do it right?
Then, there's sound. It's irritating. I've never been so bothered by the sound in a game before. The monsters are grating - bees manage to buzz, yet not sound so much like bees as the guitar track of a Nine Inch Nails tune. Most of the sound effects are like this: too annoying, not realistic enough. It sounds like the audio engineers inhaled a lot of nitrous before rooting through their library of samples.
Oh, and let's not forget the thunderclap. Whenever you bail out of a game screen, you get a clap of thunder. This happens even when you are buried deep in a cavern, insulated from the sounds of the outside world. It's not environmental sound, it's just a cute special effect (thunder = Thunderscape - get it?). This would be okay, if the sound weren't so huge and intrusive. Holy Broken Fiction, Batman! After a few hours of playing this game, I wanted to drive to the producer's house and rip his face off with my teeth. Doesn't anyone who playtests for SSI tell the developers how annoying these stupid little things are? Worse, when I turned off the sound effects SPECIFICALLY so I wouldn't have to listen to this aggravating MISTAKE, it shut off all effects EXCEPT the damn thunderclap! Someone at SSI must have a really twisted notion of what "cool" means.
Perhaps Thunderscape's greatest sin is that it sets you up with a great storyline and then follows through with gameplay that simply makes no sense. A commando mission to retake the keep is a great idea, but are these characters the best that the good guys can muster? A bunch of morons who can barely swing a sword or cast a spell? Especially when experience seems so easy to come by (the starting characters go up about six levels within three hours of gameplay). Worse, the first thing that happens is that you encounter the Captain of the Guard of Vanguard Keep. With this guy in your party, why do you have to wander randomly through a series of caverns to get where you're going? One would assume he knows how he GOT there FROM the Keep - I should hope he'd have something of a clue as to how to get BACK there. And weren't you in a DREADFUL hurry? Perhaps it's just me, but this seems inconsistent. It gives the game the feeling that the storyline is just an excuse to tack on a typical dungeon crawl.
We've seen some really nice innovations from SSI in their RPGs before. Unfortunately, it looks as though they're done with that, and are now just hoping to coast on their past successes for a while. Too bad. Thunderscape has a cool background, a worthy quest and a terrific 3D engine. Unfortunately, there are so many elements of this game which clearly haven't been given much thought, it renders the overall presentation merely mediocre. If you're looking for a typical role-playing smash 'n bash (kill a monster, go up a level - yippee), Thunderscape does an okay job. If you're looking for something more, however, save your money.
