It’s so beautiful! I’m going to cry!
Hey. I stumbled across an online pre-alpha game today called Lugdunon. Initially, I though to my self “Well, it looks pretty good aesthetically but all online indie games are pretty shocking” and boy was I wrong – continue reading and find out why!
The Beautiful Lugdunon Map
First of all, the registration process to Lugdunon is super simple and I was online in minutes which I am thankful for because nowadays, it can take hours to get onto some games. The real fun, however, started when I was into the game. The first thing I should point out is the Load Times – At the moment, they are simply unacceptable and I believe the developers really need to look at their loading methods because it took me a good 5 – 10 minutes just to get into the first level. Luckily, once I had gotten past the loading screen I was greeted to what had to be one of the most beautiful online maps I had ever seen in my life. The graphics in Lugdunon are absolutely fantastic and kept me interested during the tutorial stage (I’m a sucker for 16-bit) but what really got me was the icing on the cake – the level layout – Let’s face it now, most indie games just have a shitty half-assed map but this game had a fantastic layout based on a farm. The layout was so simple in design that even I could follow it (and believe me, I can’t find my way around games to save my life).
The first thing you are supposed to do in this game is go and meet the quest giver… but being the good gamer I am, I decided to try and attack some chickens instead but sadly, there is no battle system in this game yet. Disappointed by this, I moved towards the quest giver which was surprisingly difficult due to the game’s navigation system (it is point-to-click but the click is not always registered) but once I got to him, I was greeted with witty dialog and a sweet first quest – To collect a shell from the beach. But this is no ordinary shell. The quest giver (an old man) has told me that this shell has the ability to return me to my spawn. I thought this was a great way to introduce me to my “hearthstone” of the sorts – Most online games do not introduce you to these kind of items which made this one seem more noob-friendly.
Anyhow, after collecting the shell and returning it to him, I was asked (by the quest giver) to chop down some trees and return the logs to him. Now here is something that really peaked my interest – To chop down trees you have to attack them like an enemy; normally this would not have phased me but for some reason the action seemed some fluid and responsive (hell, it even gave the tree a life indicator to show me how close I was to destroying it) which I though was great.
Chopping trees is great and all and, to balance out the gameplay, the developers have added a cool-down to each item you use which I think is pretty neat (yet standard) as it adds a bit more length to the process of attacking, chopping, etc and adds a sense of timing to the game – It’s not like you can just repeatedly swing an axe at a tree and expect it to fall – these things take time and effort which is what Lugdunon is trying to simulate.
At this point, I should mention the quality of the servers before I talk about crafting. The servers for the game are pretty slow (given that the game is still in Alpha) and It makes the gameplay a lot less fun with the insane amount of lag. Even when trying to do simple things like moving your character; it can take ages because your characters animation gets stuck and the server lag sets in. Although this is not a massive problem at the moment, if the developer does not resolve this before adding the Battle System then he/she/they could find thousands of players dying because the lag would not allow them to execute attacks.
Where was I? Oh yes Crafting. The crafting system in the game is pretty generic within Lugdunon but that can be said for almost any game nowadays so I shall let the developers off on that one. Two things to point out about the system, however, are:
- There are no crafting “recipes” in the game – I had to spend a good 10 minutes trying to figure out how to make a candle.
- You have a crafting level that increases as you craft. This makes the crafting seem more worthwhile and will keep people occupied for hours if they decide to max out their level.
On a final note, the game has a very nice XP system that is, once again, generic in most RPG’s but I was very happy with the number of player skills that could be levelled up in addition to your characters level. I sincerely hope that players take this as an opportunity to select a profession in the game which would help build a sense of economy which Lugdunon lacks due to it’s Pre-Alpha state. Wouldn’t you love to see players trading with each other for various items relating to his/her professions? I.e – A blacksmith bartering with a crafter for supplies.
Overall, Lugdunon is a fantastic game with insane potential. It’s Pro’s include jaw-dropping graphics, amazing audio (which I failed to touch upon) and witty dialogue but it’s only Con’s are the server limitations and Crafting Weaknesses (but I am sure the developers will look into this). At the game’s current stage – I am proud to announce that Indie View gives Lugdunon a solid 4/5 stars making it one of the few games to make it this high on our list. Congratulations.
On a side note, if you are still reading this then stop right now and go register for the game – Pre-Alpha is free and you can play at www.lugdunon.net – Seriously. Go now.
Thanks For Reading,
Matt
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