Gods & Heroes: Rome Rising Preview

Players will be allowed to control their squad using both traditional and user-created formations; to fully customize their squad (which might include minions like Minotaur, Cyclops, and Automaton), in addition to the fact that each class in the game will have its own special combat moves and finely tuned animation, as well as a set of powers. Finally, the game will feature over 1,000 story-driven missions. These will range from the standard "fetch and return" and "Kill all the snakes on the plain" quests, to the more epic ones, where you must join a war already in progress and help the Roman forces advance or perform special feats during battles. Moreover, players will embark on quests given to them by the gods, and even quests to get the aforementioned minions into their party. These quests will naturally be harder and more complex, but will also offer greater reward in the form of loot (and, well, minions themselves). These quests will likely involve foes like the Medusa, Chimera, Cereberus and the Hydra among others.

I'd hate to be the guy doing her... hair.

Ahh, surrounded by women. And that blue thing.

To battle monsters like the terrifying lady with snake dreadlocks, you will use powers granted to you by the gods. Gods like Apollo, who will give buffs to range units, and Minerva, who will grant power to the melee/healer hybrid class. In addition, a choice of your god patron will further influence the specialization of certain classes. Take Priests for example: Depending on which god the player pledges allegiance to, Pluto or Juno, the powers and curses at your disposal will make a difference to your playstyle. The abilities associated with Pluto will be more sinister, whereas Juno's will be just as powerful, but slightly less Necro-oriented if you will.

While most of this information may not sound spectacular on paper, I can't stress enough how excellent the combat itself looked on screen. It is gritty and visceral with an abundance of spectacular moves - something we're simply not used to seeing in MMOGs.

Providing that Perpetual Entertainment is a producer, publisher, and operator of networked multi-player and massively multi-player games for the PC and next-generation consoles that entered into a partnership deal with SOE. Providing, also, the fact that Gods & Heroes is being developed on their proprietary 3D engine, it remains to be seen whether the company will have enough resources to see this one through to the end, and release a stable and polished product. For me, this was the best new MMOG at the show (*cough* expansion packs present at the time excluded), and I really hope Gods & Heroes lives up to its full potential.

Look for the game in Winter 2006 (this will likely be pushed back to Q1 2007, however, as this is often the case with release dates announced around E3 time).