Teknopathetic
Member
Release Date: April 4th, 2011
Platforms: PC/Mac/Linux
Developer: Developed by Three Rings (Puzzle Pirates, Bang! Howdy), published by SEGA (Jet Set Radio)
Story: The Spiral Knights have awoken on an alien world. Their equipment stores have been raided and their starship, The Skylark, will not recover from the crash. Now they must work together to survive on a journey that will take them to the very core of the world.
System Requirements:
Windows & Linux
Windows XP, Vista or 7
Java 1.5
Display 1024x600
1.3 GHz processor
Graphics: 64mb Video Memory. GeForce 5 series, ATI Radeon 8500. Latest video driver.
Memory: 512mb for Windows XP or 1gb for Windows Vista/7
300MB Hard drive space
Mac
OSX 10.4
Java 1.5
Display 1024x600
1.3 GHz processor
Graphics: 64MB Video Memory. GeForce 5 series, ATI 8500. Latest video driver.
1GB memory (1000MB)
300MB hard drive space
How does it play?
Like a mix of Zelda and PSO. The game has a top-down perspective with real-time action combat. You swing your sword, block attacks, use items, etc. in real-time. No auto-attacking, no auto-aiming unless you count the lock on button. You create your character, hook up with friends, and proceed to go spelunking in dungeons beating up helpless creatures for loot. You monster.
System Mechanics
Spiral Knights has somewhat nontraditional RPG mechanics. I'll detail some of them here.
Leveling: Your character does not level. Instead, your equipment gains "Heat Levels." "Heat" is the XP picked up from killing monsters. It is important to note that you do no actually "gain" your heat until you complete a floor. If you die and choose to go back to town without completing a floor, you will lose all the heat you gained on that floor. As your equipment levels it will unlock some special attacks or attributes. Later on in the game, this becomes important for crafting. Speaking of...
Crafting:
Crafting is a very important aspect of the game. Creatures don't drop loot in Spiral Knights, they drop materials. You then use these materials to create all your gear. There are some items that you can buy from vendors, but for a lot of equipment you'll need to craft it. Many "high end" recipes are part of trees that require a previously crafted item for the recipe. Sometimes this calls for said item to be of a specific Heat Level.
Minerals and Gate Creation:
There is a rotating set of levels for each dungeon and players can influence what levels are available. Minerals are items that you get while playing in the Clockworks levels. There are five types: crimsonite, moonstone, valestone, luminite and dark matter.
Gates are entry points into the Clockworks. There are two kinds of gates: dormant gates and active gates.
By using minerals, knights power up dormant gates turning them into active gates ready for exploration and adventure. Dormant gates allow for 8 days of gate construction before becoming active gates. You can see an exact day:hour:minute:second indicator in the display when interacting with the mineral deposit box.
Each gate has a display monitor with a mineral deposit box. You can deposit minerals into a dormant gate by interacting with the mineral deposit box. Minerals can be directed to one of six stratums of floors.
Each stratum can hold a certain number of minerals, generally fewer minerals on lower number stratum. The number of minerals in a stratum will vary by gate and game developers have commented that it fluctuates based on the number of minerals spawned in dungeons during the previous week.
Once there are enough minerals deposited to a stratum (about 10% of what is needed), that stratum will begin to display its current theme that results from the current mineral ratios deposited in the stratum. This theme will affect all the levels that will be created for that part of the tier once the gate launches.
Once the stratum has reached its maximum number of minerals, it will lock, no longer allowing mineral deposits and the theme cannot change.
Using this players can "force" certain themes and thus certain monster types (which drop certain materials).
Energy aka "Is this game reaaaally free?":
Energy is used for everything in the game from crafting items to operating the elevators used to descend into dungeons. There are two forms of energy--Mist energy and crystal energy. Every player starts with 100 mist energy and it is replenished gradually over a 24 hours. A player cannot have more than 100 mist energy. Crystal energy is essentially how the game is monetized. Crystal Energy is purchased with real money, HOWEVER, can also be traded in-game for Crowns, the game's currency OR simply traded between players. Crystal Energy doesn't expire and it stacks, so you can have 100s and 100s of it.
And that pretty much covers the game.
Screenshots and Video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qcDGIUDB0Xw
How can I play?!: The game is launched from your browser. Just head to www.spiralknights.com
________________________________________________________________
And there you go. Early access starts tomorrow, April 1st for everyone who was in the Preview Event (the closed beta, basically). The official release is the 4th.
