Malevolance - Sword of Ahkranox

[Yskonyn]

This is an indie game that's in beta for quite a while now.
It's an hommage to old-school dungeon crawlers like Eye of the Beholder. You create a hero character and then go into the world from 1st person perspective. Movement is grid based and turn based and here comes the good part;
The whole world is procedurally generated and on top of that persistent (and infinite)!

Every 'first find' gets logged by the game, so the first time you find a cool cave, for example, there will be a sign 'Found by Yskonyn' for all other players to see. There are also certain places where you can leave items.
For example you find a stone henge with a little altar in the middle where there is a certain item. If you take that item and place a sword back, the next player who will pickup your sword will see 'Yskonyn's Sword II' (or something similar).
I thought this is a nice touch and binds the playerbase in a fun way. You can become a legendary character whose name everyone chants! ;)

The game is pretty unforgiving though. There is no mob progression tied to your level. So you can run into mobs you just cannot defeat at your current level. Part of the excitement is to find out wether you can or cannot take on a specific enemy.

There's loads and loads of loot to find!

It's still a little rough around the edges, but a very fun game for those who enjoy the genre and like to really explore.
Take a look at their website: http://www.malevolencegame.com/
Here's a listing of several Let's Plays: http://www.malevolencegame.com/forum/forums/the-lets-play-collection.25/

You can download the demo from the website. It's the full game, but character saving is disabled.

[Greybriar]

Here's a warrior demonstration from the game:

[Yskonyn]

Thanks for sharing. It looks like an old build though.
The battle effects are less pixelated and the enemies now have more animations.
Also note that the big UI as seen here can be gotten rid of in the options and be replaced by a much nicer small UI.

[Huw the Poo]

Thanks Ysk, it sounds brilliant and I will check it out tonight at home.  No mob progression is good in my opinion; its presence was partly what ruined Oblivion.

[Tpek]

Interesting find, thanks.
I'll give it a look.

[Yskonyn]

Be advised its not feature complete yet.
The dungeons are very fun and well done, but the landscape above is devoid of life except
For trees and the various settlements, strongholds and temples you will find.

More than anything is technically an interesting game, with its infinite lands and procedurally generated items, dungeons, settlements and mobs.

The game gets updated frequently and the dev team is a bunch of friendly, down to earth and approachable people.
The mingle with the crowd at their forums quite often too.

Despite it being rough around the edges, I do find it a fun game and the excitement of not knowing what you are going to find next doesnt get old easily!

[Nefaro]

Do they have the town shops filled out yet?  Last time I played, most of the town stuff was unfinished, and you couldn't enter the stores, guilds, etc.

I also recall the beginning being very difficult, yet when I looked on the forum people were complaining about how easy it was.  They must've been quite experienced and knew exactly where to go and what to do.  I was having a tough time continuing along in a dungeon without having to run for my life regularly.

They really needed to do something with the terrible-looking outdoors graphics.  The trees & grass were a big eye sore but everything looked fine when you were in a dungeon.  ???  The gameplay has tons of potential, however, and it was entertainingqss even while unfinished.

[Yskonyn]

Yes, stores and guilds work.
You can even barter for lower prices, which you should always do as the system doesn't fully work yet. ;)

If they populate the lands with enemies, just like the dungeons then the exploration gets less dull. But they have lots of plans still for the game. So I am curious to see where they bring it. For now I am already having fun!

[Tpek]

This is indeed a pretty tough game (tried the demo).
Also, it's very very 90's-ish in its looks.

[Tpek]

Damn, this game is hard...
I just keep dying.

I run into an ogre here, or an insta-death pit-trap there...

[Yskonyn]

Yeah, Ogre's are instant flee as far as I am concerned. At least until you have some decent gear.

[skeptical.platypus]

This showed up on Steam Early access over the weekend for $19.99. Looks pretty impressive. Have any of you played it recently?

[Tpek]

I'm still waiting for my Steam key (bought it some time ago).

[Nefaro]

This showed up on Steam Early access over the weekend for $19.99. Looks pretty impressive. Have any of you played it recently?

Not recently.   It was far from finished when I played it last year.  Looked like it would be quite awhile before it was feature complete.