The Drunken Lizard Pub

Soldak has an open beta for their new hack-n-slash dungeon adventure "Kivi's Underworld". It's rather fun, though a little light on the RPG elements. Still, I'll definitely add this to my collection. There's something really fun about just running around smashing stuff open and collecting goodies.

I downloaded it just on your recommendation. I'll give it a try over the next day or so.

downloaded and installed last night - didn't get a chance to play though.

Not what I'm used to. Didn't get thru the tutoral - trashed it.

Yeah, a three slot inventory for spells only and loot that just gets converted to score is a bit too platformish for me. For some reason, the LoS effect was bugging the heck out of me. Perhaps because it was tile based and not linear. My personal "Diablo Killer" of choice would be Nox. As a matter of fact, I think I'll go rummage around and see if I can't dig it back out.

Of course there's also Darkstone, Sacred, Dungeon Siege.... uh oh. I might have to think about this for a bit...

I ran through 3 or 4 dungeons before i got iced. It's OK - but I agree, I'd rather see a better system for spells and loot.

Always been a diablo fan, enjoyed sacred, and just recently reacquired Darkstone via goozex.com. I only tried Nox briefly - there was something about it that bugged me, but for the life of me I can't recall what it was.

I like the whole diablo/nwn/baldurs gate/sacred hack-n-slash dungeon crawler style. Throw set items in, and I get all weak in the knees

OK, thanks to the suggestion here, I've downloaded the demos to both of Soldak's games - Kivi's Underworld and Depths of Peril.

And I'm sure I am the opposite of nearly every person here, but I liked Kivi's and didn't like Depths of Peril. (Inside Mac Games, among others, felt the opposite...)

Kivi really is a 'hack & slash' - it's almost more of an arcade game than a true CRPG (it almost reminds me of a 'Legend of Zelda'-kind of console game). But it's pretty entertaining without being too challenging, and is a good game to play in, you know, 20, 30 or 60 minute installments (which is pretty much what the developer bills it as being good at - he's right!).

Kivi definitely lacks the depth of Eschalon (I do wish there were a few more skills and attributes you could develop as you go along - I'd rather have that than the zillions of kinds of 'power-ups' you come across), and it probably won't have nearly the replay value.

But I'm leaning in the direction of paying for the full game (I've got to do something until Book II comes out!), so that has to say something.

Depths of Peril, OTOH, I've tried giving two or three chances to. But, rather than finding it "challenging", I'm simply finding it too complex and frustrating. I can see why harder-core RPG players would like it (it's almost more of a strategy game than a RPG!). And I actually sort of like the 'grid-map' way the 'world' is randomly assembled with every new game. But there's just too much going on in this one (I still have no idea how skills and such work with the characters in this game!), and too little time to pull it all off. So, DoP I think I'll be giving a pass to.

Bottom line: Both games lack the elegance of the character creation and development process that Eschalon sports. But, Kivi, at least, is a relatively entertaining diversion.

regarding the previous poster's comments on Depths of Peril - while I too did not find the game all that much to my liking, I see that there are 2 copies at my local Circuit City (there were a few days ago anyways). I think it was $20 - 20% at the time. If anyone has an interest in the game, it might be worth checking your local Circuit City clearance center to see if they have a copy.

Bear in mind, it's only the US stores that are closing. From what I understand the locations in Canada are remaining open.