I just saw this game on steam and know nothing about it, the idea's seem cool. But I want to know anyone's experience with the game.

It's weird. Really weird. Theres' a pretty big trial/demo version available on their website that might be a good idea for you to check out. Generally I like it.

@MrCandleguy said:

I just saw this game on steam and know nothing about it, the idea's seem cool. But I want to know anyone's experience with the game.

I pre-ordered and played the beta. It's kind of insane how much that game has changed over the past six months. Arcen is phenomenal with post-launch support of their games. I'm pretty sure AVWW will feel like a completely different game by this time next year.

I don't really know how to describe this game. If you've read what Arcen has said about AVWW, then you're not far off.

1. If your character dies, they are dead forever (but might come back as a ghost to attack you)

2. You lose whatever personal upgrades you applied to that character, but items in your inventory and enchantments/spells you've collected stay with you.

3. Large portions of the world are procedurally generated

4. You need to collect resources to upgrade spells/settlements

5. You need to complete rescue missions to attract people to your settlement.

The actual feel of the game is interesting. Platforming is pretty reasonable. "Enchantments" are basically like armour that can be applied to your character and give them passive buffs. Happily, one of the first enchantments you find negates fall damage (though it begs the question on whether you're ever going to take it off.) One of the major complaints I've seen so far is that a large portion of enemies are glowing sprites that shoot glowing sprites, and all of your spells look like you're shooting different glowing sprites at the glowing sprites while dodging THEIR glowing sprites. Though, having seen later stages of the game, there are other, more varied designs, and said glowing sprites seem to be the game world's version of rats, effectively.

I haven't had time to really delve into the settlement stuff, and I'm curious to see if there are missions beyond "go here, kill monsters, rescue person, kill more monsters, talk to person at your settlement."

At any rate, describing AVWW is hard. Going deliberately against established conventions of game design for different genres seems to be Arcen's wheelhouse. AI War is, far and away, unlike any strategy game on the market. Just as Tidalis takes a pretty weird spin on the "match 3" sort of genre. AVWW kind of takes some cues from stuff like Metroid and Minecraft and roguelikes, but it really never comfortably fits into those genres. As a result, some of it might feel broken. (For example, fully exploring every randomly-generated house in a specific territory is kind of tedious and actually something that they warn against during the tutorial, but you're guaranteed to find at least some resources in nearly every house.) They use a lot of RPG tropes, but there's no actual weapons. You can just cast spells - most of which have a cool-down time until you can get some upgrades.

As mentioned above, I really think it's worth trying the demo before picking it up: http://arcengames.com/w/index.php/avww-downloads

Also, I guess there's a bit of a foofurah about the graphics. Personally, I think they improved upon them immensely. Yeah, some of the animations still look a bit weird and it's possible this sort of thing isn't your graphical thing, but it's not really something I'm worried about.

It's occasionally pretty awesome, also a little nuts and maybe sometimes a little broken, but I can't fathom where or how I'd find an experience like it. Which, yeah, could be a double-edged sword.

I've played around with it for a few hours and I'm kind of addicted at the moment, I can't really explain why I am, because I feel so confused by what I'm doing or what I should be doing, but I'm having a good amount of fun with it.

After reading the description on Steam I went ahead and bought it and downloading it now. It sounds awesome. Plus I am a sucker for a good 2d sidescroller, curious how the multiplayer aspect will work.

So, what i'm gathering is, everyone likes it. But no one knows why?

I don't generally like platformers with an action feel like this, but I'm really enjoying it so far. I'm just getting into the missions which is fun because for me the bosses are much easier than the common enemies. Also I'm playing with a 360 controller, which feels broken because I have to use the D-pad to move, but yeah, I'm enjoying it and I don't know why.

So, reading this thread and then the description on Steam, I bought this on a whim. It's great. It's similar to Terraria, but with a story and objectives. It's still very, very open, though. I actually prefer it to Terraria so far. I say buy it.

@BoG said:

So, reading this thread and then the description on Steam, I bought this on a whim. It's great. It's similar to Terraria, but with a story and objectives. It's still very, very open, though. I actually prefer it to Terraria so far. I say buy it.

Oh really? I incredibly love Terraria. But if this game is like it, then I should take a much closer look.

@MrCandleguy: The primary difference between this and Terraria is that you don't really hand build anything.

@BoG said:

@MrCandleguy: The primary difference between this and Terraria is that you don't really hand build anything.

I mainly liked the co-op/exploring part of Terraria anyway. And i think that is what this whole game is about. Hopefully someone will do a quick-look of it, seems like the game that needs it.

I had mostly skipped over the news I've been seeing about this game, but after checking out this thread, I am interested. I'll have to check out the demo. Thanks, duders.

I like it so far... though I've only been able to play it for about 20 minutes or so. It seems like it is quirky and expansive, but also has an endgame attached to it. I'm definitely curious to see how it plays out... and man... it has more than 100 steam achievements.

@Rasgueado said:

and man... it has more than 100 steam achievements.

I think most of them are based on progress, but there are just a lot of different areas to focus your gameplay on.

I've been playing this and the other current popular 2D indie game, Lone Survivor. Comparisons are invidious, but while that has a lot of style, this is a much, much more interesting game to me. Such a strange mixture of game design elements.

Could do a better job of explaining why I am collecting all this stuff, mind you.

The art style and feel of a lot of the game is doing the opposite for me: I really dislike how a lot of it feels and looks, the platforming is way too squirrel-y at default. I'll keep playing, because those roguelike elements seems really really neat, but I don't know for how much longer.

@Driadon said:

The art style and feel of a lot of the game is doing the opposite for me: I really dislike how a lot of it feels and looks, the platforming is way too squirrel-y at default. I'll keep playing, because those roguelike elements seems really really neat, but I don't know for how much longer.

Yeah, it's definitely an unappealing game, visually. It's worth trying to look past that, I think.

@Driadon: Yes, the graphics are ugly. I'm slowly getting over it, though.

The roguelike elements are what will make or break this game. I've been playing for a few hours now, and while I really enjoy it, it absolutely needs improvement. I'm only sticking with it because I've read that this developer makes drastic changes to their games after release. Anyways, they really need to strengthen the roguelike aspects. First of all, death needs a greater punishment. At this point, it's really no different than dying in any game. I've thought that the best punishment would be taking away your upgrade stones. I never actually use them, just hoard them until later. Make them easier to find (or go for a more traditional level-up system), and then take them away. Furthermore, diversify the upgrade system. Every character I begin is exactly the same. I understand why the game allows you to keep spells when you die, but perhaps the game should force me to specialize. It would make certain combat situations more fun and challenging. I hate to go back to roguelikes, but even the original Rogue had agreater variety of classes than this game. They weren't as distinct as classes in World of Warcraft, but they changed the game enough to make things interesting. AVWW could really benefit from a simple class system. If I'm going to be playing multiple characters, and if I'm going to be upgrading them, at least make it interesting!