Gods & Heroes: Rome Rising Interview

In what is now probably one of the most challenging and overbearing game genres in terms of investment and the actual development, the MMOG genre, there are only a few upcoming titles that truly caught my attention in the last year or so. One of them is Mythic's Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning, and the other, Perpetual Entertainment's Gods & Heroes, a game that simply stands out with its exceptional visual style and intriguing gameplay mechanics.

As a huge fan of the genre, I was very excited to learn some new details about the game directly from its creators. Read on.

Doing the ole' Brad Pitt jump on 'im.

That's two daggers, reptile! Count 'em!

Does the game feature an underlying story, and can you tell us a bit more about it?

(Answered by Lead Designer - Stieg Hedlund)

Gods & Heroes is very rich with story, and there are dozens of story arcs and plot threads that you'll come across in the game. The main back story first has to do with the way in which the Olympian gods, with whom all of the heroes of our game are aligned, gained hegemony over the cosmos:

There was a mighty battle between these gods and the Titans. The titans had mysterious sorcerers fighting on their side who were called the Telchines, whose power was so great that the Olympians could only manage a stalemate. Until, that is they called upon Hercules to come to their aid. This mighty demigod was able to turn the tides of battle, allowing the Titans and their Telchine allies to be defeated and banished forever.

... Or so it was thought. Now it seems that the power of the Telchines has returned and working against Rome in various covert ways, including abducting the heroes of Rome so that heroes from the mortal realm can't thwart their second bid to defeat the Olympian order.

There are six classes in the game: Gladiator, Soldier, Scout, Rogue, Priest and Mystic. Can you give us a clearer definition of how a Soldier will be different from a Gladiator. What are the main gameplay differences?

Soldiers are more what people think of when they think of a typical warrior: strong fighters who can hold their own in hand-to-hand combat, made to absorb a ton of damage from enemies, and able to give it back as well. We've added a lot more specific stuff that draws on both the historical military of Rome and the type of gameplay that we've created for Gods and Heroes, so the flavor of our Soldier class is quite new.

Gladiators are less about disciplined fighting and more about individual style-they more specialized fighters and can use a variety of unique fighting tactics and weapons to not only do damage to opponents, but to disable them as well. Specific styles are drawn directly from the real gladiatorial types of ancient Rome: you can specialize in net and spear similar to the Retiarius, or fighting gloves to fight like a Pankrationist (Pankration being an ancient art combining boxing and wrestling). Additionally, the Gladiator has some ability to heal members of his own party.

There are 12 Gods in the game. Two per each of the six classes. Can you give us an example of how a selection of a different God within a class will change the gameplay experience for the player?

Right from the beginning of the game things will be different; the agents and emissaries of your god will require you to perform certain tasks on his behalf and if you successfully complete these tasks, you will be rewarded in various ways, including in some cases, the ability to call upon the powers of your god. Each god has different powers that go along with his personality and areas of influence, moreover these traits are matched with the classes that can choose that god, so Apollo, god of archery is a natural choice for the Scout class that deals with ranged combat, and many of the powers that Apollo grants you affect those abilities-together, of course, with abilities that reflect his aspects as a sun god and a god of curing plagues....

The other thing many of the quests given by gods reward you with is standing with your god. If you have low standing your ability to call upon their powers is limited, so you have to try to keep your standing high, which can be done this way or by making donations to the temple of your god.

In regards to itemization, what sort of item types you plan to have in the game (e.g. superior, epic, etc.), and how hard will it be to acquire the most prestigious item type?

There will be 7 items types from poor items to mythic ones that present a whole lot of very cool stuff for players to find in the world. The highest tiers of these items will certainly be very hard to come by, generally as drops of quest rewards for high-level instance play in groups-though there are other ways...