Driftland - A blend of Heroes and Majesty

A new fantasy inspired 4x title modelled after Heroes of Might and Magic and Majesty is in the works called Driftland: The Magic Revival and GamePressure have previewed it.

Magicalypse

Driftland: The Magic Revival takes us into a classic fantasy world, which is slowly shaking off the effects of a magic catastrophe which had almost annihilated the planet hundreds of years ago. In a galaxy far away, there was a planet inhabited by four races. It's kind of easy to guess that those races couldn't simply co-exist in peace - war was virtually permanent, only once in a while a fragile, temporary peace was established. Blinded by the war, people abused magic, and the planet slowly began to fall apart - no sooner have the mages managed to reach an agreement. Exhausting all sources of magic, they created a powerful spell holding the world in a relative balance. The civilizations, which up until that moment were entirely dependent on magic, became incapacitated; some cultures have vanished forever, others became savage... Now, as centuries have passed, the shattered magic is gradually returning, and with it beings that are able to control it again: the new mages. They create new nations and try to resurrect the fallen civilization - and so, wars break out again. The players become one of the said mages - the task is to build a country and fight with others for domination over the world.

This simple story is both the background for the campaign, which consists of a series of associated missions (much like in Heroes of Might and Magic or Age of Wonders III), as well as the means to create a really interesting setting. The map on which the game is taking place is made of islands floating above the planet's core. It looks pretty spectacular, and is rather uncommon in strategy games - it reminds me a little bit of Bastion, an RPG by Supergiant Games.

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A silence before a storm?

There isn't much publicity around Driftland: The Magic Revival yet, despite the fact that the game is slowly but steadily heading towards the end of its development. The devs are planning to launch early access on Steam before the end of this year, and the full game will be released in 2017. If everything goes according to the plan, the players will get updates, e.g. introducing new biomes, for free, after the release. The Star Drifters have high hopes for this game, since they would like it to grow into a well regarded franchise, and-as they've said-they're definitely not short on ideas. I really like these guys' attitude, by the way. They promise to release a demo, for those undecided, and here's what they've said about early access:

We think that a game should only enter early access if its technical side is solid. Otherwise, the feedback from gamers will focus on obvious mistakes, going nowhere. The players' opinions can be very helpful, and we're looking for legitimate support from them.

Can you call this the "CD Projekt RED effect"? It's hard to say, but we wouldn't mind it one bit should open mind and prioritizing quality become Star Drifters' trademarks.

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The solution of population growth is also interesting. You cannot simply recruit more units, as in other RTS games. Instead, they're born independently of the player's actions - there are two prerequisites: food surplus, and... some free time. So, during the game, you have to manage your units in such a way, that some of them always have some time to spend on procreation. I mean procrastination.

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It seems that Driftland: The Magic Revival has all the attributes needed to achieve success, namely: simple rules, solo and multiplayer gameplay modes, original mechanics, free updates... and that's only a couple of examples. The graphics, powered by Unreal Engine 4 are an icing on top of the cake. The few screenshots that we've seen so far suggest that Driftland will get a detailed and eye-catching visual layer. I especially liked the animation of building construction - when a castle was slowly and smoothly transitioning into its upgraded version, a bit like in the intro of Game of Thrones. I hope that the Polish strategy will transition from an unknown strategy into a critically acclaimed hit just as smoothly. Driftland: The Magic Revival definitely has the potential to achieve it.