I had the pleasure of being a beta tester for 'The Tale of a Common Man', so I wanted to take a moment and give everyone a peek into what to expect.
Anyone that has played Undefeated knows that Kes takes great pride in producing quality work, and this new title is no different. Kes was a pleasure to beta test for, taking any and all criticisms I had to heart and I could really tell the level of commitment that was had for making this the best, and most enjoyable, experience that the player could have.
Story and Characters:
Unfortunately, due to time constraints, I was only able to beta test a medium portion of the game. Why do I tell you this? Because if you have ever been teased with a portion of something great, then you can truly empathize with me. I am VERY excited to be able to play through the finished version so I can complete the compelling story and see what becomes of the characters that I have come to know. Each character has a distinctive personality that really makes you want to see what happens next.
Sound:
The soundtrack also shines. I found myself humming the music in my head several times as well. Each track was carefully selected to fit the theme and mood of the current situation and it does its job quite nicely.
Gameplay:
Gameplay mechanics are listed above. It was nice to be able to use either the keyboard alone, or the mouse and keyboard combination. Sometimes I would play on my laptop and had forgotten to bring my mouse, so that ability really helped. As mentioned, you are able to select your difficulty, whether enemies or visible and invisible, and if invisible, your encounter rate. This helps makes the game fit the mold for pretty much any fan of this genre, and really adds to the experience.
Skills are nicely done and provide you with a detailed description as to how they will effect your character, so you don't have to worry about the guesswork.
I thoroughly enjoyed the several large bites I was able to taste of The Tale of a Common Man. I have family visiting right now so I won't be able to dig in for a bit, but I cannot wait to jump back in and see how everything finishes unfolding. Two thumbs up and a high recommendation to anyone considering it!
Update:
A couple of weeks back I finally had some time off work and had a chance to go through ACM as a player instead of a beta tester, so I wanted to update my post a bit.
As a beta tester I was able to complete about 60-75% of the game. Every time that I tested I picked Normal difficulty and Visible Enemies. This time around, since I was familiar with the game, I chose Legendary difficulty and Invisible Enemies.
First off, you can definitely tell the ramp up in difficulty. I had to think carefully when spending my points to help ensure my survival, but that really added to the feeling of accomplishment when I completed a particularly difficult encounter. I think the ability to set your own difficulty really added to ACM.
Even though invisible enemies were selected, there are a few places where there are scripted encounters, and for these you have visible enemies. This is pretty standard fare for style of RPG and really adds to the game. It helps to bring out story elements properly and takes out the "you're walking through the woods and stumble upon a group of enemies" aspect and turns it more into "you've entered an area that you are not supposed to be in and now the guards are accosting you!". The amount of encounters with invisible enemies felt about the same as when I played with visible ones.
To keep from making a huge wall of text, I will finish my update on my impression of the last bit of the game that I was unable to play during beta testing.
The story really came together. I felt complete closure and satisfaction with the turn of events and how the game ended. There were key parts that really brought out the personality in the characters and made for memorable moments in the game. Also, Kes's attention to detail continued to shine up to the very end. A lot of people get to the end of their project and just rush it out to be finished with it, essentially sprinting to the finish line, which leaves the game feeling unpolished at the end. That is not the case here and I applaud Kes for showing the level of detail at the end as was done at the beginning.
I highly recommend it!
*Edit*
Updated Kes's screen name from the old one.
