Rise of the Argonauts - Interview #2 @ RPG Vault

The second part of RPG Vault's interview with Charley Price from Liquid is now up, discussing the "combat system, enemies, items, quests and more" in Rise of the Argonauts:

Jonric: Let's talk about combat system in Rise of the Argonauts. First off, what's the basis for the claim we've seen that your game will offer a different kind of experience in this area?

Charley Price: I think players will really get a kick out of how refreshingly different our combat system is from those in most RPGs, and from action / adventure games in general.

First off, our combat is executed in real-time, which in and of itself is a significant departure from the turn-based approach found in many RPGs. The next layer that we have added is a true sense of lethality. We are able to detect if Jason's weapons strike shield or flesh, which allows us to use an opponent's shield as a kind of health bar, thus granting him the potential for one-hit kills if he can find a way to bypass it. As a result, unlike many other games where the hero needs to strike a lowly enemy 10 to 20 times before it falls down for good, he will be able to deliver one-hit kills right off the bat, provided that he is able maneuver himself to strike flesh and not armor.

Furthermore, our combat system makes extensive use of our own internal procedural animation system as well as Unreal's physics capabilities. This allows us to have high-power attacks dynamically knock an enemy's shield to the side, thus exposing his flesh for a follow up strike. This adds tremendous variety to combat encounters and rewards the player for watching how the combat scenario is developing, dramatically reducing the sense of tedium that ultimately manifests in most combat-driven games.