At EVE Fanfest in Iceland, CCP showed the first footage of vampire MMO World of Darkness to a roomful of fans. It was more target footage than a representation of what the game looks like right now – it’s still far from release – but it’s the first tangible indication we’ve had of what this long-anticipated game is going to be like.
It looked super-stylish, embracing the sultry swagger and urban grime of modern vampire fiction. The player character – a female vampire – began by sucking a bystander dry in a rainy back alley, before striding past a True Blood-esque bar and leaning up against a railing whilst other vampires leaped across the American-style city rooftops in the background. The movement is agile and fast, almost spider-like; World of Darkness will be a very movement-centric MMO, aiming for something close to Assassin’s Creed’s city free-running.
Only the briefest glimpse of combat was shown – I saw the protagonist-vamp kick another off a rooftop before he could charge up a power, slashing his throat and, once again, sucking him dry. The footage ended just as the rest of his gang turned up and a fight between four player-character vampires was about to go down.
It’s a game that embraces vampire vanity and fashion as well as urban grime, gothic architecture and the necessary backstabbing.
A few of World of Darkness’ core ideas were very much in evidence here. It’s a game that embraces vampire vanity and fashion as well as urban grime, gothic architecture and the necessary violence and backstabbing. McDonough explained last year that World of Darkness is built around three themes: the sandbox (enabling players to form friends and then betray them, and opening up the world for them to shape and dominate as they will), the coffeeshop (social interaction), and the themepark (player-versus-environment: the stuff that the developer provides, rather than the players).
Over the past year, they’ve been working mostly on the coffeeshop aspect. It was hinted that there will be companion apps to keep you engaged in World of Darkness’ world when you’re not playing – perhaps mirroring the in-game smartphone, which glowed briefly in the vamp’s hand at the beginning of the demo.
Despite the developer’s entreaties not to film the demo and put it on the Internet, typically someone broke trust and the footage is out there – but CCP’s Chris McDonough made it clear that they are not ready to start talking properly about World of Darkness yet, and it will still be a long while before they are. Release-wise, the game won’t be out before the end of 2014, but it’s encouraging to know that progress is being made.
Keza MacDonald is in charge of IGN's games coverage in the UK. You can follow her on IGN and Twitter.
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