Yesterday I told everyone that follows Undiscovered Tomes's Facebook page that I was going to have a "special feature" related to the latest Treasured Tome posted onto the site. I'd have it here either sometime last night or today.
And it's finally here!
The latest Treasured Tome, Shadowcursed, wasn't just a fabulous, well-written, engaging novella. Nope. It's a companion piece.
A companion piece for what, you ask?
A game. Specifically, it's the companion to a first person game mod that focuses on the concept of a thief, rather than a fighter. That game mod is called Requiem, and can be played for free by using The Dark Mod.
What exactly is The Dark Mod, you ask? Well, to quote directly from the site,
"The Dark Mod is a FREE, first-person stealth game inspired by the original Thief series by Looking Glass Studios. In it you play a hooded figure slinking through the shadows of a gothic steampunk city, hunting priceless valuables while avoiding the swords and arrows of those hired to stop you.
The Dark Mod was originally released Oct. 17th, 2009. The standalone version, TDM 2.0, launched in Oct. 2013." (source)Sounds pretty enticing, right?
While I love RPGs (role playing games), I'm not much for first person... mainly because I'm pretty bad at them. As in, I-don't-have-the-common-sense-to-remain-stealthed-when-necessary-and-I-can't-even-hit-a-stationary-target bad.
No, really. The last time I played a first person shooter was when I was in college, playing on a local area network (everyone was in the room with me), and the laughter over my mishaps was deafening.
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| Yep... I was that bad. |
The last time I played a first person anything was when I played the original Doom. On a console.
Am I showing my gray hairs? I am? That's fine... just remember that I prefer for people to refer to them as my "frosted tresses of experiential knowledge."
I'm not a natural first person gamer. At all.
But that didn't matter. You see, once you download The Dark Mod, you have the option to go through a training mission. It didn't really make me any better at first person games (that'll never happen), but it was a lot of fun, and it did teach me the controls.
After your download of the Dark Mod is complete, you can click on 'download missions', and search for Requiem. Select, download, and install, and you're good to go!
You play from the perspective of Bolen (The same Bolen as from the novella). After discovering a note from Hakar, telling you about an exciting job, you head out to find him and start on your quest of thievery, attempting to avoid people at all costs.
Requiem is fluid, has a spectacular environment, and the controls are easy to master. The sounds are well done, also, and a player can easily take cues from the auditory environment, as well as the visual.
And the storyline? Yep. That's great, too.
It isn't the same storyline as the novella, of course, but more of a parallel world. Different mission, same thief.
Please understand, I'm not just gushing about it because the game designer is an author whose work I reviewed and loved. The thing is, it's not just me. Requiem won a thief mod contest sponsored by Square Enix.
Wait. Let me say that again:
Square Enix!!!
Sorry about the overzealous excitement there. I read the article about Requiem in PC Gamer, and got a wee bit giddy about it. The thing is, I was nervous that maybe it wasn't as awesome as I thought it was. I'm not normally one for first person games, after all, so what do I know?
I was happy to see I wasn't alone.
Remember, this is a free download. It won't cost you anything except time, and once you start playing (especially when you have to pick locks. That's FUN!) you'll consider that time well spent.
Gelo Fleisher has instructions for downloading (both automatic and manual) on his post about Requiem's release, so head over and visit.
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| I mean, who wouldn't want the ability to walk through beautiful scenarios like this? |
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