Following the somewhat distasteful Sigma Star Saga experience at Namco's booth, we got a chance to see some of the nicer stuff that Namco was producing. I grabbed a keyboard at their Mage Knight booth and found myself controlling a rather slow moving dwarf in yet another beautifully rendered environment. About a moment later one of the PR folks came over and pointed out that, yes, there was in fact a run key that I could use to dash about as I flung my grenades at random trees.

Taking a moment to talk to the fellow I found out that the game was pretty early in development, only three months, for which they were showing something pretty decently nice. The game, as it stood, lacked a lot of interaction. It was reasonably smooth, reasonably workable, and all that. It had enemies. But the overall gameplay just wasn't very intriguing. A talk with the fellow indicated why: It simply wasn't very ready yet. The intent was that they'd be moving towards mobs of enemies swarming you as you walked through vast environments. The enemies would work as large teams trying to take down the player and his AI/Player controlled allies. The story was going to follow the Mage Knight storyline which, while I'm not very familiar with, I'm assured is has a reasonably long history behind all those click-clack minitures. The system largely allowed for quick action with two things assigned to your mouse's right and left mouse button and using that to control the battles for your one controlled character.

Perhaps the neatest part they did have to show was that they were using a Quest for Glory style advancement system where rather than levels or skill points, you'd simply advance your statisitics as you did the relevent tasks. This, in turn, would unlock new skills and abilities. For those who like the team style diablo battles and are looking for a more interactive and engaging game in that style, Mage Knight Apocalypse may be a game to keep an eye on.