Depths of Peril
Another Diablo clone but with an interesting twist.
Depths of Peril is a single player action RPG developed by a small independent developer known as Soldak Entertainment. At first glance it looks like yet another Diablo clone. But Depths of Peril has some unique features that really set it apart from other Diablo clones and put it into a category all by itself.
There are four character classes to choose from. The familiar warrior, rogue, priest, and mage. Once you’ve chosen a class, difficulty level, covenant name, and set a few other parameters your character is placed in a house that resides in your home village of Jorvik. The house is yours and will be your covenant’s base of operations. Your house contains a bookshelf to store tomes that you’ll find in your adventures. These tomes can add bonuses to the stats of your character and any other recruit in your covenant. There is also a "stash" to store items you’ll find throughout the world. There are four pedestals for relics. Relics are magic items that affect everyone in your covenant at the same time so they can be very powerful. And finally there is your Lifestone and covenant gate. The covenant gate is a quick way to travel between your home and your last location within the world using your teleport stone. This works exactly like the Stone of Recall from Neverwinter Nights. Your Lifestone is the health of your covenant. Your character and all of your recruits are soul bound to the Lifestone. This is what allows you to resurrect when you die or heal up quickly if you’re badly injured.
There’s plenty of questing, fighting monsters, and finding treasure but where Depths of Peril really gets interesting revolves around the idea of covenants. Aside from your own covenant there are up to five others in the village of Jorvik. And every single one of them wants to be the most powerful covenant in the village. So covenants will actually compete for the various quests that are available from the various NPCs (vendors and such) situated throughout the village. You might actually catch a character from another covenant in the act of rescuing somebody that you were supposed to rescue! But it doesn’t stop there with covenants. You may find yourself competing with other covenants for recruits. You can recruit up to five henchmen to join you in your covenant. These henchmen can actually accompany you on your quests and so forth.
Covenants are measured by three parameters: influence, money, and taxes. These parameters will constantly be changing depending on what your covenant and the other covenants do within the world. And with the click of a mouse you can constantly check on these rankings to see how your covenant is measuring up. You can also form alliances and trade with other covenants and even start rumors about them! And if absolutely necessary you can actually raid another covenant’s house. During a raid the objective is to destroy said covenant’s Lifeestone. Doing so destroys that covenant. But the same can happen to your covenant if you’re a Lifestone is destroyed! Ultimately the main objective is to become the most powerful covenant in the village. With so much going on at the same time this isn’t an easy thing to accomplish. While all this is going on you still have to keep the village safe by fending off attacking monsters.
On a side note, an interesting touch is how if you ignore certain monsters threats (by putting off solving certain quests and so forth) it will allow certain "boss" monsters to grow in power, gather an army, and attack the village in force. So the world in Depths of Peril is constantly evolving and the choices you make can have lasting effects on it.
As your character advances in levels you can build up your base stats and customize your character with a large selection of different offensive, defensive, focus,and bonus skills. The skill trees, and the way they function, is very similar to that of World of Warcraft. In fact, there are even shortcut bars at the bottom of the screen that you can drag your most commonly used skills, items, and potions into just like in World of Warcraft.
So now we come to the important question. How accessible is Depths of Peril? I’m happy to say it’s very accessible. The game is almost entirely mouse operated. Just about every operation does have a keyboard equivalent but can also be done with the mouse as well. The game will block out KeyStrokes in full screen mode but fortunately there is also a windowed mode and you can make the window just about any size you like. In windowed mode KeyStrokes functions perfectly. The shortcuts bar at the bottom of the screen requires you to press the corresponding number key on your keyboard to activate whatever skill, item, or action you have dropped in each slot. Or you can right click a slot itself to activate it. Obviously it would be easier if left clicking could be used to activate slots in the shortcut bar but with a resizable window and KeyStrokes it’s not too much of a problem. Right clicking is done by pressing the command key on your keyboard and clicking although other than the shortcut slots right clicking isn’t used too often. Also, it’s occasionally useful to press the action key on your keyboard while you’re out adventuring in the world. This will reveal all the items that your character is able to pick up within view. So whether you’re using KeyStrokes, Switch XS, or any other kind of adaptive equipment and software Depths of Peril is a game you should be able to play and play well.
I found Depths of Peril to be a fast-moving and very entertaining game. There’s also a good bit of re-playability here as its dynamic world is different each and every time you start a new game. Depths of Peril is available for both the Mac and Windows directly from Soldak Entertainment for $29.95. There is also a free demo for both Mac and Windows available on their website.
Check Soldak Entertainment’s website here for Mac and Windows system requirements.
Paul Natsch
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