Fatshark's coop update for Krater has been released:

DOUBLE THE FUN - KRATER CO-OP OUT TODAY

STOCKHOLM, Sweden. October 23, 2012. Today Fatshark released the highly anticipated co-op DLC to Krater.  

“We are very happy to bring co-op to the Krater universe. The download is free, and will also include a large number of updates to the single player content.” says Martin Wahlund, CEO and Executive Producer, Fatshark. “While the main game admittedly was released to fair success, that hasn’t changed our commitment to our fans and our universe”.

Krater is a retro-flavored post-apocalyptic top down RPG where you control a squad of free-diggers through the perils of an open game world. It is not your generic action RPG clone - it is lush in its colors, hardcore and got a different vibe to it. The base pillars are crafting, exploration and consequence. Consequence brings not only the ability for the characters to level up and improve themselves, but also permanent injuries and death.

“The patch that we call Krater 1.1 is the first of three major updates to the game that we will execute the coming weeks” says Robert Bäckström, Producer, Fatshark. “It comes with an updated engine for better performance on older rigs, and single player content that have expanded on and been improved in several areas - campaign, combat mechanics and character progression. And there is also a first batch of coop content in the game. If you haven’t gotten into Krater yet, this is the perfect time to do just that.”

Visit www.kratergame.com for more detailed information.

FatShark has announced the promised coop support for Krater will arrive on October 23rd:

Its all starting to come together. Krater will finally get it´s coop update – free of charge!

October 23 there will be a massive update to the game on Steam that will add not only coop but updated visuals, game play tweaks, new content, new maps, more songs to the soundtrack, improved user interface and much more.

We will keep you posted on our progress and more details about the release further on…

Fatshark blogs about the addition of coop to their hack'n'slasher Krater:

As we all know the next big update to Krater will be the addition of coop. The road there is long and sometimes rather perilous which means that we are unable to give you an exact date when it will be added.

But we do know that it is closing in. The first step – the Online game mode has been published for external testing as I am writing this and we are aiming to add it to the Steam build during the coming weeks.

So how do one get hold of a coop beta key? More details about their whereabouts will soon be revealed. But a safe bet is to look for them in the Underworld of Solside while playing the single player campaign in online mode.

Also – we would love to take the opportunity to show of some concept art for the new coop content that is being created. Winter is coming…

Some more reviews for this game have been penned on various websites:

Good is a Geek  6/10

A quote about the gameplay

GAMEPLAY: A variation on the usual action-RPG style, Krater is as much a squad-based RPG as it is an action RPG. While all the hallmarks of the genre that Diablo popularised have returned, with point and click controls, a lot of loot and plenty of dungeon-based goodness, there’s less of an emphasis on levelling up and being attached to just one hero. In Krater, you have 3 characters at your disposal from a possible 4 classes: Retainer, Slayer, Bruiser and Medikus (all of which are slight variations on the usual Tank, Healer and DPS classes from most MMORPGs). With a level cap of only 15, and a ranking system requiring either the purchase of higher ranks from boot camps or recruitment of higher ranked characters, there’s not much emphasis on the RPG side of things.

Strategy Informer 7/10

A quote about the leveling:

Instead, the confusion comes from the levelling of your characters. You see, to carry on growing your team you have to pay money to people to increase their cap. Annoyingly this is never explained and it's only when you realise you're not gaining XP does it become apparent to the player. This alone doesn’t illicit a game-hating reaction, but when your team has the rudeness to fall over when out of health (four times being the maximum allowed), they'll find themselves subject to perma-death. Yes, only in gaming would death not be permanent enough and there be a requirement for a phrase that cements its infiniteness. Here’s looking at you Diablo Hardcore mode.

GameFront 62/100

A quote about recruitment: 

Recruitment is tied to location as much as funds, so finding the right team with the right abilities is a matter of going to the right towns, and that’s even more annoying. Dying out in the world means you get bounced to whatever town you were at last, and since Krater is kind of huge, that often means repeating a big trek. 

Here's a small review collection for Krater, courtesy of the official site. These are all positive considering the source (obviously) but do act as a counterpoint for some of the other reviews we've posted:

ctrlaltelite - 8/10

The Controller Online - 8/10

Invision Community - 4/5

Gameindustry - 4/5

A sample from TCO:

One of the big selling points of Krater is its size and scope, with over 200+ quests, 60+ locations and randomized dungeons and events. It’s a big game and will keep you busy for quite a while. Adding to the size of the game are random encounters while you are travelling on the world map, which resembles one you may find in an old Final Fantasy game. When you leave a town you will enter the world map and are free to roam around and explore from a zoomed out state. As you explore you will encounter areas that are populated by enemies, and at that point the map zooms back in and you are free to explore that area for loot and fight any enemies that you find. It’s an interesting feature and another reason why Krater isn’t just another run of the mill Dungeon Crawler.

Lace Mamba Global will publish a retail collector's edition for fatshark's action-RPG Krater for an attractive price:

KRATER: BOX EXTRAS FOR RETAIL COLLECTOR’S EDITION CONFIRMED

Brighton, July 05^th, 2012 – Exclusive extras: Today, publisher Lace Mamba Global confirms the contents of the upcoming Krater retail Collector’s Edition: These include, priced £19.99/€19.99,

• The full game
• Dr Cerberus special character pack
• Krater soundtrack-CD
• 40-page “The Art of Krater” book, designed exclusively for this retail version of Krater
• A double-sided poster

Krater is scheduled to arrive in retail throughout the UK and Ireland on August17th, 2012, and on August 31^st, 2012, in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

Krater is a lush post-apocalyptic top down action RPG, based on gameplay elements such as crafting, exploration and consequence. Extensive crafting (craft unique abilities, weapons and items) and character persistence where both injuries and experience work in conjunction are key elements to evolve the player’s team over time. Krater combines combat mechanics of action-RPGs with top-down tactics of classic old-school dungeon crawlers.

Krater is Swedish for crater. The game takes place in a post-apocalyptic world around a gigantic impact crater where cities have been built on and even whole nations emerged from the rubble and aftermath of a huge bomb explosion. The center of the crater is an abyss that stretches deeper into Earth than anyone has ever been able to dig.

One of the players’ main goals is to build a team and try to get as deep as possible into the abyss. The game world offers several joinable factions and groups, such as the Free-diggers, for example, bands of fortune seekers who compete with each other to excavate valuable pre-armageddon technology from an endless system of tunnels, caves and bunkers, called the Underside.

Krater is a colorful gaming exeperince, where genre-typical deserts are replaced by nordic pine forests and red wooden cottages.

GameSpot has reviewed Krater, handing down a 5/10:

Unfortunately, the combat isn't exciting enough to be its own reward. Despite the fact that you have three characters with differing abilities in your party, there's rarely much tactical depth to battle. Fast reflexes sometimes come into play, as you may need to respond to one of your characters suffering damage by quickly unleashing a heal. But for the most part, what works against one pack of enemies works against another. Since each character has only two abilities, there are only so many approaches you can take to killing enemies, and once you decide upon an effective one, there's little reason to change things up. So you trudge through battles, clicking on enemies and tapping keys to employ your limited range of abilities and gadgets; it's all thoroughly routine.

GameBanshee's Eric Schwarz has written a three-page in-depth review of this game.

A quote about life in the Krater:

Krater's world is interesting, if underdeveloped. Taking place in a post-apocalyptic Sweden, bombs and radiation haven't damaged the world nearly as much as what's seen in games like Fallout or Borderlands. This leads to an aesthetically interesting game world that's rich with vegetation and wildlife, running water, and vibrant settlements - punctuated by a massive crater in the earth that civilization has grown around. As the game opts for a slightly absurdist style of humor, this original visual direction works out great and really helps Krater stand out from other games. However, the actual story (and backstory, for that matter) of Krater is sparse to say the least - there's a bit of a story concerning a bandit leader called Bloodclot, but it's not exactly heady stuff, and most of the game content is completely irrelevant to the main plot.  Moreover, for every interesting quest (like raiding a den of giant moose to steal their eggs), there's another dozen boring Fed-Ex quests (in one case midway through the game I had to go between the same three NPCs several times over, back and forth, presumably just to waste 15 minutes of my time). The lack of compelling story isn't a huge problem for action-RPGs, of course, where the focus is usually on killing and looting, but Krater has a lack of variety in its objectives that even the silliest quest premises can't make up for.

A quote abput the leveling:

Then there's the character system, which sounds good on paper, but leaves a lot to be desired. The game has four attributes - Strength, Stamina, Intelligence and Focus - and these feed into the four classes, namely, Bruiser, Slayer, Regulator, and Medikus. Despite the names, these are basically tank, DPS, support and healer archetypes, the former two melee and the latter two ranged. The classes aren't anything special and, despite there being tons of randomly-generated mercs available for hire, they're all basically identical in everything but appearance.  This is largely because leveling in Krater is completely uninteresting, due to a lack of diversity or progression in skills - of any sort. While party members can be customized a little by installing attribute-boosting implants (you unlock more slots as the game goes on), the core abilities you have available will never, ever change over the course of the game. Some of the heroes available for hire do have different abilities (some healers have an area-of-effect heal, for instance, while others have a continuous heal beam), but these differences are cosmetic at best. Character progression is the bread and butter of any RPG, and yet leveling in Krater is unfulfilling in the extreme. While putting the emphasis on implants is in theory a good way to allow for respecs and more flexibility, it'd only really matter if the implants provided anything more than linear attribute boosts.

A quote from the conclusion:

For now, I simply cannot recommend Krater. Even at low price points, there are much better games out there. It's got good ideas, certainly, and as I've stressed it looks and sounds the part, but good ideas and sharp presentation don't make a good game.

A few more reviews have surfaced for this game, the first one being at GameSpy, 2/5
The link: http://uk.pc.gamespy.com/pc/krater/1225129p1.html

A quote from the review's beginning:

Unfortunately, when you get past the surface level charm, what awaits is a rickety foundation of confusing ideas and game mechanics that go out of their way to put the 'grind' into 'oh my god this game is a bloody grind.' Take the central concept. You don't control one hero in Krater, but three at once, recruited from various towns. Initially, that's refreshing. They come in multiple roles, from the Bruiser tank to more DPS focused Slayer, and while there are some control issues to deal with (no pause key for instance, and suicidal AI that doesn't understand simple concepts like 'stay in the bubble that's healing you and buffing your defense, you complete arse') the action is a pleasing enough hack-and-slash journey through a pretty overworld, and dark caves of loot and monsters.

ZTGD also has a review, 9.5/10
The link: http://www.ztgd.com/reviews/krater/

A quote from the review about the combat:

While in combat, you can choose to either use all three party members at once, or use them individually. This can come in handy when you want to keep your healer or sniper in the back while the tank keeps the enemies at bay. This is where the strategy comes into play. For the first few quests you can go full on with your entire party, but when you start running into the tougher enemies, you will want to move your party to better locations while in combat.

Softpedia also has a review, 7/10
The link: http://www.softpedia.com/reviews/games/pc/Krater-Review-276607.shtml

A quote from the review's conclusion:

Krater could be a great game, but the lack of resources makes its initial version hard to love. Combat is a mixed experience and there are still quite lot of things that need to be polished, like the squad mechanics, and plenty of things that are missing, like a tactical pause.

Many updates are scheduled to appear but, at least for now, you might want to steer clear of the dungeon crawler.

Krater has received a cool response from IGN, with their review coming in at 5/10:

On paper, Krater: Shadows Over Solside is a mouthwatering mash-up. It spreads its Diablo-esque hacking-and-slashing evenly across a party of crazed warriors instead of focusing on one lone explorer, and the many dank caves and hardscrabble towns you explore are nestled snugly into the foothills of a post-apocalyptic landscape reminiscent of Borderlands' Pandora or the irradiated wastes of the Fallout series. But while the first leg of this indie action-RPG trilogy picks up on elements from some excellent games, it fumbles them so badly at times that the grind rarely feels worth the effort you have to put into it.

Elder Geek also has a review accompanied by a video. The score is better at 3.5/5:

Krater is a beautiful, clever, and quirky game that will find its audience, but a few of its flaws will be a permanent hindrance to a good number of players. Considering its bargain price tag and the amount of genuine fun it delivered to us, we can definitely say that if you’re still curious, it’s worth trying.

Over at Rock Paper Shotgun we can read what Jim Rossignol thinks about Krater, which isn't too positive.

The injury and death system is ultimately more about increasing workload, rather than providing excitement through threat. This is an important point, and at the heart of my confusion with Krater. The reason permanent death in games is thrilling is because of connection to and investment in a character, which is not found here. You either have stuff you need and care about because you don’t want to lose it (Day Z) or you’ve put time and money into fitting out something expensive (Eve). But in Krater I found it hard to care about what I was putting together. Partly that’s because of a lack of player’s own investment – there’s no process of character creation or customisation beyond the uninteresting weapons they are carrying (you do not even name them) – but also because however well you might intend to play Krater, you are forced to train up new characters to continue the game, no matter your skill with the characters you began with. Yes, the characters you start with reach a level cap and must be discarded. Not that the game bothers to explain that, they just stop getting XP and you have to notice that it says “level 5/5” in the character screen. That means hiring someone who can take you from 0-10, and later up to 15.

That’s right: characters run out of the ability to progress. There seems to be no reason for this, other than to increasing the amount of time spent grinding for cash and equipment with replacement characters.

The first review we've seen of Krater comes from Tom Chick at QuartertoThree, who slams the game with a 1-star critique. Here's a sample:

Krater is what you would get if Martians came to Earth and tried to make a Diablo clone, having never played a videogame before. It’s got a whole slew of minor issues that will presumably be addressed in a patch or two. It’s also got some major issues that may or may not be addressed after a patch or two. But most damning are some fundamental design issues that can only be addressed by playing a different game.

The minor issues include awful inventory management, unresponsive mousing, a cramped interface, missing functionality on the overworld map, AWOL multiplayer support, and a few too many technical glitches. The major issues include loot that feels almost entirely like trash, a superfluous crafting system, being shunted through loading screens so often, an overworld map straight out of some lazy JRPG, repetitive content, and no incentive to play the harder difficulty levels.

Fatshark's post-apoc, party-based hack'n'slasher Krater is now officially available on Steam for a modest $14.99:

KRATER OUT ON STEAM TODAY

STOCKHOLM, Sweden. June 12, 2012. Fatshark today announced that their adventure role-playing game KRATER is available on Steam for PC Computers. Mac version will be available in July.

“We are very excited about inviting gamers to the world of KRATER, and experience the post-apocalyptic Sweden.” says Martin Wahlund, CEO and Executive Producer, Fatshark. “In KRATER death and injuries actually mean something. We want to bring back the feeling of being scared of dying from old school RPG’s.”

KRATER is a lush post-apocalyptic top down RPG and the base pillars are crafting, exploration and consequence. Consequence brings not only the ability for the characters to level up and improve themselves, but also permanent injuries and death.

KRATER’s Steam page; http://store.steampowered.com/app/42170/
To get the latest info on all Fatshark activities; follow us www.twitter.com/fatsharkgames, like us www.facebook.com/fatsharkgames, contact us press@fatshark.se, or visit us www.fatshark.se. 

Fatshark's Krater is only days away from officially launching and the official site has some new screens on offer in preparation.

Krater can now be preordered on GamersGate and Steam for $14.99. If you like to support developers directly, it's also available direct from Fatshark. According to Steam, the release date is June 13th, which is earlier than anticipated (previously Fatshark had indicated August).

Presumably this is meant to generate some press moreso than actually sell copies but if you have a spare $10k and you want to spend it all on one video game, FatShark has a deal for you:

KRATER DELIVERED TO YOUR DOOR – WHEREVER IT MAY BE

STOCKHOLM, Sweden. May 29, 2012. Fatshark today announced a very special 10.000 Dollar Edition of the upcoming game KRATER.

The KRATER 10.000 DOLLAR VICTOR EDITION will not only get you the game, the Game Designer Victor Magnuson will come to your home – wherever in the world it’s located – and personally deliver the game. He will also cook a meal, and then play the game together with the game connoisseur. 

“We wanted to do something extra for the game connoisseur, something different that you wouldn’t get with most other games.” says Gunnar Johansson, Brand Manager, Fatshark. “Is there anything cooler than having the Game Designer come to your home and play the game with you? Well, perhaps if he also would prepare a superb meal before the gaming session – so we added that.”

If you want to get a visit from Victor, then you’ll find the KRATER 10.000 DOLLAR VICTOR EDITION here – www.kratergame.com/10k

We already know Krater is coming to Steam but Lace Mamba Global has announced a retail release for August:

KRATER TO HIT RETAIL SHELVES IN AUGUST 2012

Brighton, May 11^th, 2012 – Developer Fatshark and publisher Lace Mamba Global today announce a publishing agreement for the upcoming PC action RPG Krater: Lace Mamba Global plans to release retail editions of the game worldwide, starting in the UK, Ireland, Germany, Austria and Switzerland in August 2012.

Krater is a lush post-apocalyptic top down RPG, based on gameplay elements such as crafting, exploration and consequence. Extensive crafting (craft unique abilities, weapons and items) and character persistence where both injuries and experience work in conjunction are key elements to evolve the player’s team over time. Krater combines combat mechanics of action-RPGs with top-down tactics of classic old-school dungeon crawlers.

Borcanu sends in this Krater gameplay trailer titled 'Tribute'.

Fatshark has announced a competition for Krater:

GO AHEAD – NAME OUR WEAPONS!

STOCKHOLM, Sweden. May 7, 2012. Fatshark today announced that they need your help with the upcoming squad based RPG KRATER.

“We have three weapons that have one thing in common, besides being badass, and that thing is that they don’t have a name. There was some bad communications between the weapon designers and the name creators. And then Gunnar came up with naming them The Gunnernator I, II and III – that gave us all brain freeze.” says Martin Wahlund, CEO and Executive Producer, Fatshark. “Please help us out with naming these three weapons – or they might just end up being the Gunnernators!”

KRATER will be available on PC computers via Steam on June 12, 2012. A Mac version will be available in July.

“The three best names will end up in the game, which means that anyone picking up the game will be able to use the weapon you named. And better yet, you will be in the official game credits under ‘Senior Lead Weapon Name Creator Director’ – or something shorter.” Says Victor Magnuson, Game Designer, Fatshark. “Now be creative and save us all from the Gunnernator!”
Creativity in desperate need at www.kratergame.com/gamedesigner

Krater has finally left "pre-Alpha" and officially reached Alpha, according to this press release:

IT’S TIME - KRATER HEADS INTO ALPHA TODAY

STOCKHOLM, Sweden. April 25, 2012. Fatshark today announced that their upcoming squad based RPG KRATER heads into Alpha testing.

KRATER will be available on PC computers via Steam on June 12, 2012. A Mac version will be available in July.

“With the alpha build we have the extensive crafting system ready for testing, as well as the system for death and injuries.” says Martin Wahlund, CEO and Executive Producer, Fatshark. “We will continue to invite people to join our testing via Kratergame.com, and listen to all feedback to be able to deliver the best possible gaming experience on June 12, 2012.”

KRATER is a lush post-apocalyptic top down RPG and the base pillars are crafting, exploration and consequence. Consequence brings not only the ability for the characters to level up and improve themselves, but also permanent injuries and death. The grim reaper never been so grim!

If you want to get your KRATER on, and save a few “whatever currency you have” while you’re at it, visit http://store.fatshark.se and pick up the game today and get instant access to the alpha build!

For the Swedes among us, there's also a competition to be one of the voices in the game.

Fatshark announces their post-apoc action/RPG Krater will be released  on June 12th via Steam. The press-release consistently refers to a "roll" -playing game - I'm not sure if that's a Swedish translation issue or recognition of the hack'n'slash nature:

KRATER RELEASE DATE ANNOUNCED – JUNE 12, 2012

STOCKHOLM, Sweden. April 11, 2012. Fatshark today announced a release date for their upcoming adventure roll-playing game KRATER. PC gamers can join the adventure on June 12, 2012 via Steam. A Mac version will be available in July.

“We are very happy to announce a rock solid – oh well – release date for KRATER. A game with enormous depth, it really has, it takes place in a very deep crater.” says Martin Wahlund, CEO and Executive Producer, Fatshark. “KRATER brings a rich experience for anyone that likes the post apocalyptic roll-playing genre, and I’m looking forward play coop with other adventurers.”

KRATER is a lush post-apocalyptic top down RPG and the base pillars are crafting, exploration and consequence. Consequence brings not only the ability for the characters to level up and improve themselves, but also permanent injuries and death. The grim reaper never been so grim!

“During the winter and spring, we’ve had over 20 000 pre-alpha/alpha testers and the feedback has been great,” says Victor Magnuson, Game Designer, Fatshark. “Before we release the game, there will be a beta available for everybody that has pre-ordered KRATER.”

If you want to get your KRATER on, and save a few “whatever currency you have” while you’re at it, visit http://store.fatshark.se and pick up the game today!

Curse has a video interview with FatShark about Krater, interspersed with some glimpses of gameplay.

There's a very short interview on Krater over at Worthplaying:

How will the injury system work?

VM: We wanted actions in the game to have consequences so we introduced a injury system to the game. Every time a character gets knocked down in combat a meter associated with that character will increase. After a set number of knock downs that character will be inflicted with a injury. Injuries can be a number of different things e.g a broken arm will lower that characters strength effectively lowering his melee damage output, while a concussion will lower his intelligence causing his abilities to have longer cast times as well as longer cool-downs.

If a player is inflicted with too many injuries that character will die removing him from the players roster forever. So it is very important to keep an eye on your team-members and take them to the doctor to get patched up.

If you're following our Krater Alpha key giveaway, by the way, they'll be going out soon now that I have internet access restored.

JustPressStart has a podcast interview wth Robert Backstrom from Fatshark to talk about Krater. At 37 minutes, I haven't had the chance to watch it but if you posted for the Krater alpha spots, it might be worth a listen.

We have 20 keys to access the Krater pre-Alpha via Steam to give away. If you'd like the chance to try out this early version of the game, simply comment and we'll pick 20 winners at random!

Bear in mind this is a pre-Alpha version but FatShark are now starting to focus on the RPG elements and are looking for feedback on their post-apoc action/RPG. Here's a feature snip as a reminder and add your comments for a chance to win a key.

Krater takes place in a lush post-apocalyptic game world, a gigantic impact crater where cities and even nations have has been built on the aftermath of a bomb. It is a colorful game exeperince, where genre-typical deserts are replaced by nordic pine forests and red wooden cottages.

• Extensive crafting (craft unique abilities, weapons and items)
• Character persistence where both injuries and experience work in conjunction to evolve your team over time.
• Simultaneously control a squad of 3 characters chosen from 4 different main classes with a multitude of specializations.
• Prepare your team of Freediggers for the end-game and try to get as deep as you can into the main shaft, a dungeon crawler of massive proportions.
• Singleplayer/multiplayer which blend seamless with each other. Use your progress from the single player campaign in coop missions and the other way around.

The competition is now closed - please allow 2-3 days for keys to be distributed by private message. Thanks and good luck!

The first DevBlog for Krater looks at "the beasts":

Hello there, fellow freediggers and Krater-dwellers.

Finally! The long expected character devblog is ALIVE! I’m Maddy, one of the three-animator-team here at Fatshark and the main animator for Krater. This is the first of a series of posts featuring a specific character or character group from a development perspective. We’ll show you enemies, player characters and NPC’s, a bit of all. No, no. Of course we wont tell you TOO much, I promise we’ll leave out stuff for you to discover on your own.

Me and the character team will show you bits and pieces of our work process, from concept to models, rigs and animation. We’ll share our thoughts and trials and errors, hopefully you’ll find it interesting and who knows, maybe you’ll even learn a thing or two? If not then maybe you’ll laugh, point fingers and tell us how to do it better! We want to get you involved in our wonderful world and the making of it. Give us your thoughts and comments, we’re all ears!

This first post will be about the enemy group we like to call The Beasts. Ok, I know what you’re thinking, perhaps somewhat generic. But all games need that first level enemies, right? Doesn’t mean they can’t be awesome ^__^ And yes, they are awesome.

FatShark has announced an "Uber Fan Edition" of Krater to help support the game. You will indeed need to be an uber fan at 99 Euro:

Buyers of KRATER PATRON EDITION will support the development of Krater and also leave their mark in the game by having the chance to name a rare item. Everything that is included in the FAN EDITION and the COLLECTOR’S EDITION (a special thanks in the credits and early access key) is of course included as well.

The KRATER FAN EDITION contains the Krater Collector’s Edition and also, as a token of our gratitude, we will post a special thanks to you in the game credits as being one of the early supporters.

Please note that if you already showed your support by buying the Krater Collector’s Edition you are entitled to a €14.99 discount when purchasing the KRATER FAN EDITION or KRATER PATRON EDITION.

You can now preorder the digital Collector's Edition of Krater from their own shop for $9.99 Euro, which gives you a Steam key and beta access with the full game due in April:

The Collector’s Edition

The pre-order of the Collector’s edition of Krater that is available at the Fatshark store contains the following:

KRATER – SHADOWS OVER SOLSIDE

The main story told in Krater begins in Shadows over Solside, the first of three episodes set in the Krater world. The campaign opening present one of three major factions located in the crater, the Solside nation. It allows you to explore its many towns and settlements or wander of to explore its vast wilderness and many entries to the Underside.

Start to explore Krater from the town of Norrmalm, a lively hub close the ridge that separates the crater nations from the rest of the world. There you will find plenty of people that can guide you in how to set up a team and get them proper equipment. They may also be able to hook you up with some, i not lucrative, but at least paid assignments.

• First player race is humans who comes with four class specializations (Bruiser, Medikus, Regulator and The Hetzer).
• First episode of the Krater trilogy main story and more than 200 side quests.
• Full access to the Solside nation and its array of towns and settlements.
• A number of human and less-human enemy factions as well as wasteland beasts and Underside monsters.

ADDITIONAL CHARACTER DLC

Tired of seeing the same faces at work everyday? Do you feel that your team is lacking tactical options? Why don’t you hire the Mutant healer known as Dr. Cerebro as a valuable addition to your team.

The Mutants are a new player breed introduced to the Krater world with new abilities and options available.

We are confident in that Dr. Cerebro will prove valuable for the whole team.

SOUNDTRACK

Digital soundtrack (14 tracks by Christian Gabel including exclusive material and artwork from the film that inspired Krater).

The Krater site has a new piece of concept art, showing a cave environment.

An interview with Martin Wahlund, CEO and executive producer, for this game can be at GamElitist.  Subjects include how the pre-alpha build has been received by players, how Syndicate and X-COM inspired them, the importance of managing your party, , and much more:

Episode Two of Krater, Pledge of the Patriarch is due out in Q3 2012. How important is storytelling to Krater and can we expect more episodic DLC in short intervals?

Martin: Storytelling is very important in Krater. We want to build a world that people can explore.

In the pre-alpha build we only have a few quests but not the main story. We are aiming for releasing content in regular intervals. Expect a variety of updates; everything from the large episodic expansions to really small updates that might contain just a few new skills, quests, items, or what we feel is needed at the time. Our vision of the game will for sure not be fulfilled when we release the game at first. We want to build on Krater in the long run. There are so many things we want to get into the game that it’s impossible to even get half of it into our initial release. We have to work in iterations if we don’t want to wait another two years for the game’s release.

Giant Bomb has a new Krater video with FatShark's Victor Magnuson talking through the features. I'm having trouble reconciling examples such as XCOM and Syndicate with what appears to be hack'n'slash gameplay but it's worth a look.

Via GameBanshee,  in a press release, comes news that Fatshark, the team behind the game,  announced what they call a playable vision of the game will be out this week. We also learn that the team will add PvP and co-op to the game at a later stage. A quote:

“The concept of alpha and beta has been watered down over the last couple of years that is why we have chosen to name the current version Playable Vision, as it hasn’t reached what we consider alpha yet. We also want to stress that we listen to gamers and incorporate feedback that they give us.” says Martin Wahlund, CEO and Executive Producer at Fatshark. “We have a clear vision for the game, but the way to get there has already changed upon the feedback and suggestions we have received from our community on the initial game concept. The Playable Vision is the next step towards the final game.”  Krater is a lush post-apocalyptic top down RPG based around crafting, exploration and consequence. Consequence brings not only the ability for characters to improve themselves, but also the possibility to sustain permanent injuries and even death.

Worthplaying has 14 hopefully new screens for the post-apoc action/RPG, Krater.

There's a single piece of concept art from one of Krater's loading screens over at their site.

A teaser trailer for Krater has been released, showing a few glimpses of hack'n'slash gameplay.

Fatshark sent out a canned producer Q&A on their post-apoc RPG, Krater. It's a bit long for this format but here we go:

Q&A with KRATER Producer Robert Bäckström

What is Krater?
Krater is a top-down roleplaying game in a colourful post-apocalyptic setting from Swedish developer Fatshark set to be released Q2 2012. It combines the combat mechanics of action-rpgs with the top-down tactics of the classic old-school RTS such as Syndicate. The rich world opens up for the players via exploration of the immense world map.

It is based on a new IP - Krater takes place in a gigantic impact crater, where a city has been built on the aftermath of a bomb. Teams of adventurers, called free-diggers, compete with each other to excavate valuable pre-armageddon technology from an endless system of tunnels, caves and bunkers.

Krater is set in the oddly unique world of lush post-apocalyptic Sweden, where genre-typical deserts are replaced by Nordic pine forests and red wooden cottages.

Could you tell us a little about the release schedule of the game? You mentioned that the main story comes is released as a trilogy?
Krater is a title that we plan to keep alive for a long time. All tools, the game world and its content is designed with this in mind. The paid content of the first year of the game is divided into three major campaigns (the main release and two DLC´s) along with a number of smaller content packs with characters and items.

In addition of the paid content the game will see a number of updates to extend multiplayer (coop and PvP) support as well a updates and additions to all ingame content. We will not force people to pay for the extra content in order to play - it should be an option if you like the main story and want to experience more of that or if you like to be the one with the coolest looking gear in multiplayer.

Where did you get the idea having three characters simultaneously and a big roster to choose from? And is it fun to allow the player characters to die?
We have several inspirational sources for this. We initially wanted the players to design their team in the same way as you try to find the best and most optimized combinations of forces when you setup your army in table top games such as Warhammer Fantasy Battles.

We also wanted the characters to evolve in all directions (not only upwards in the skill trees) and come to life through the course of the game.

One thing led to another - if you have consequences such as death you will need to adapt the game mechanics for this. Loosing it all without tools to cope with the loss is not good game design while no risk at all removes the meaning of rewards in a sense.

To lessen the impact of injuries or death of individual characters we want the player to focus on their team. We think that a typical team will consist of 10-20 characters - enough to lessen the impact of losses but not too many to loose personality of the individual characters. The characters itself will act as a log of the team - where injuries and battle scars play an equally important role as awards and achievements.

How will character progression work?
All characters and abilities range from common to, in the initial release, rare which decides how many slots they have available for upgrades and abilities.

Upgrades increase you stats which affect your ability usage, hit points and damage output. Abilities are special skills that you perform with you character in addition to your normal attacks.

New characters are found in the world, received as rewards from quests or purchased as DLC´s.

How does the fact that Krater takes place in a dark future in Sweden affect the art direction and feel of the game?
We initially talked about putting the story somewhere in Europe and never really considered Sweden as a setting. But somewhere early in our design process we got to hear, through the musician Christian Gabel, about a Swedish post-apocalyptic movie set in the small town of Karlstad. He had come across a number of concepts and a manuscript for the film from the early 80’s which was canned before any filming had been done.

One of the concepts depicted a gigantic crater big enough for a society to be built inside it - an iconic setting that immediately got our attention. Shortly thereafter it was decided that we should put the story in Sweden and build the myth about Krater city.

The colorful setting of the world steams from two things. On thing is that vibrant colors in post-apo settings felt like a somewhat different take on the genre art style, which normally settle for a desert with lots of subtle earth colors.. The other thing is the fact that Sweden or at least Stockholm during the winter vey much looks like the classic post-apo world where everything comes in shades of white and grey. We felt the need to create a world that stood out from the dull winter landscape outside our office windows, an odd and amusing place that tickles your imagination.

What can you say about the music, will it be original tracks?
It turned out that Christian Gabel had started to work on how the soundtrack for the canned movie that inspired the game might have sounded like. But since there was no movie to use the soundtrack in we suggested that we should use the music in the game instead which turned out to be a brilliant idea.  All tracks are originally created and adapted for the game.

In conjunction with the release of Krater we will work together with a number of contributors and release a pretty lavish soundtrack as homage to the film. That release includes a booklet with the original cancept art and all Gabels tracks.

How long do you think it will take players to finish Krater if they only pursue the main quest? And what can you tell us about the scope of the game?
The main release will contain 200+ quests. Out of these I would say the 25% is main story quests.

It is very difficult to estimate the playthrough time because if can be defined in so many ways. Is it to unveil all corners of the map? Or to play all the quests? Conquer all the duungeons? How many times, some of the dungeons will look totally different every time you visit them. Maximize your characters? Another daunting task since there is a large number of combinations to try out.

Tell us more about the multiplayer support in Krater.
The initial release will contain customized 2 player coop missions. We aim to expand this to 4 player coop at a later stage. During 2012 we will also see a PvP update with both arena fighting and faction warfare.

Character progression from coop blends seamlessly with the single player game and vice versa.
You will be able to bring your single player team to play a coop mission with your buddies and anything you can put your hands on, you are allowed to keep,

How does crafting work?
You can create items for base materials but also upgrade existing items. You can get new items by, buying them, looting them, breakdown equipment, completing quests or by crafting them from other components.

New abilities are created by components you find from loot. These components are crafted into ability containers (where a rare container have more slots available than a common container). Any component can be combined in the container. You can for instance use two stuns and one damage component in a three slot container to create an ability with a minor damage output and a high degree of stun. Or you can use a cool down reducer instead of the damage component to further specialize the ability.

The character class decides how these abilities are delivered (the Bruiser can for instance use his cleave attack to affect several opponents with the effects his cleave attack is made of - in the above case stun and damage). The class also receive bonuses to components that are connected to you class - a medikus utilizes a heal ability better than when the damage dealer uses the same ability.

Homepage www.kratergame.com , contact press@fatshark.se , follow www.twitter.com/fatsharkgames and like www.facebook.com/fatsharkgames