The Swordhaven Kickstarter has launched!

The Kickstarter for the upcoming low-key Baldur’s Gate I-inspired RPG Swordhaven: Iron Conspiracy has launched. I backed it for 15 euros, which grants me a digital key for the game when it comes out, but not much else. The Kickstarter is at this moment around 19% complete. To me it looks like they will make it, however, I’m not a Kickstarter expert. I sure as hell hope they do make it because I tested the demo that you can find on their Steam page, and it’s good. It’s very charming and plays superbly into the low-level adventure feel.

Charming to the max
The visuals are not the most impressive, but it’s appealing enough and fit the setting. The combat, the few fights I got involved in was enjoyable. It’s easy to see your action points and to calculate how much any form of movement, and attacks will use. I picked the “En Garde” skill for my sword-wielding hero, which allows for an attack with minimum damage, but gives you a 50% parry for the next enemy attack. The skill worked well, and it gives me confidence that genuine thought has been put into the design already.

Other than that, there seems to be a focus on making the RPG free-form. You can stealth, pick locks and pickpocket whoever you want, and even attack them. It gives me serious Gothic vibes. Dialogue is snappy, and well-written, and not to forget amusing. But what impressed me with the dialogue, is that you need to actually introduce yourself to the NPC to know his or her name. When you hover over the NPC before learning his or her name, the game gives you nothing, but as soon as you have learned its name, the game shows who that NPC is. Very nice flavor stuff.

On the visual front when it comes to immersion (also known as gaming-autism) is that as of now you can’t sheath any weapon, and it seems you can’t walk. It looks a bit weird having your hero pointing his sword in everyone’s face, but I’m sure, or at least hopeful that this will be remedied. Walking is a crapshoot in any game, however. Some games let you walk, but most ignore this function, at least when you play on a keyboard.

Overall, I’m impressed with the demo. I hope their Kickstarter succeeds, and that the rest of the game follows that tiny bit of game that I played because it was truly enjoyable.

Thanks for reading.

/Thomas