{"id":3607,"date":"2009-06-08T09:14:49","date_gmt":"2009-06-08T13:14:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/?p=3607"},"modified":"2009-06-08T19:30:40","modified_gmt":"2009-06-08T23:30:40","slug":"kivis-underworldfirst-impressions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/?p=3607","title":{"rendered":"Kivi’s Underworld:First Impressions"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yes, there are barrels. Yes, you can smash them. Yes, they sometimes have stuff in them. This is the natural order of things, after all.<\/td><\/tr>
Yes, there are barrels. Yes, you can smash them. Yes, they sometimes have stuff in them. This is the natural order of things, after all.<\/td><\/tr><\/table>Kivi’s Underworld is an indie game that belongs to the increasingly nebulous “hack-and-slash” genre of games, which are sometimes referred to as “Diablo clones” by the uncouth. These games sort of came and went in mainstream circles a decade ago, and fans of the genre must rely on retro games and indies to sate their desire for hacky and\/or slashy gameplay. <\/p>\n

I’m not sure why the genre died when it did. Real-time-strategy games rose up alongside Diablo clones<\/del> hack-n-slashers. They flourished together, and then RTS matured and HnS languished. <\/p>\n

(The previous paragraph is the one that will incite annoyed comments from people who point at some game I’ve overlooked that came out a few years ago and that single-handedly undermines my assertion that HnS games have withered on the vine, and that makes me an ignorant fool! I know this. I wrote it anyway.) <\/p>\n

kivi2.jpg<\/td><\/tr><\/table>The previous title from Soldak Entertainment was Depths of Peril<\/a>, which I reviewed<\/a> almost exactly a year ago. That game took The hack-n-slash gameplay and added a strategy game on top of it. That game was a solid success from both a gameplay and a review standpoint, and so the natural thing would be to take this proven formula and exploit it like an Oklahoma farmgirl who just stepped off the bus in L.A. with nothing more than $20 and dreams of becoming an actress. That’s certainly the mainstream approach to game development, and despite my ravings the strategy seems to be successful enough to support most of the industry. But if you were to plot a trajectory from the games of old to Depths of Peril, and continued that line onward, it would never get anywhere near Kivi’s Underworld, which wouldn’t even appear on the same graph. The two games have as much in common as The Princess Bride<\/a> and Taco Soup<\/a>. Both are good, but comparisons are difficult. Designer Steven Peeler seems to be doing remixes and mashups taken from those old hack-n-slash samples, and giving us games that might have appeared years ago if the gameplay style hadn’t fallen out of favor with developers. <\/p>\n

My first impressions of the game were unfavorable, and it took me a while to “get” Kivi’s Underworld. These games usually entice binge gaming, with the player staying up until half past crap-it’s-not-even-worth-going-to-bed-at-this-point. These games usually focus on the collecting, sorting, storing, selling, buying, and equipping of magical items. These games usually have complex(ish) leveling systems that encourage you to abandon your character and start over once you figure things out and realize you’ve botched your character. <\/p>\n

Contrasting paragraph: Kivi lends itself to lunchtime-sized rounds. The rummage sale inventory system is dumped in favor of keeping the action going. The leveling system is simple and straightforward. <\/p>\n

Kivi bills itself as a “Unique 3D casual, action adventure RPG”. I would say that the word “casual” is so loaded it could puke on your shoes, spend a night in the drunk tank, and and still be unfit to drive in the morning. I would say it’s not “casual” in the Peggle sense of the word, but more “casual” in the “wearing jeans to the office on Fridays” sense of the word. <\/p>\n

I’ll get into the gameplay and premise in another post. Naturally, being an indie game there is a demo<\/a>, in case you want to play along at home. Mac users can come too.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yes, there are barrels. Yes, you can smash them. Yes, they sometimes have stuff in them. This is the natural order of things, after all.Kivi’s Underworld is an indie game that belongs to the increasingly nebulous “hack-and-slash” genre of games, which are sometimes referred to as “Diablo clones” by the uncouth. These games sort of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3607","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3607","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3607"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3607\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3607"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3607"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3607"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}