Depths of Peril from Soldak Entertainment is dubbed an action RPG, but it is more than just an RPG/Hack and Slash and the depths of the peril are deep indeed. This single player incorporates some strategy elements into it as well. Stephen Peeler, formerly Technical Director of Ritual Entertainment, founder of Soldak Entertainment and I have exchanged a good deal of emails about the game already. There were some technical problems with the sound but he was ready and willing to resolve the issues and it came down to needing some brand new drivers in the end. But he was quick in his responses and dedicated to getting the problems solved. In addition there is already an active community in the forums for the game as well.

In the game you take on the role of a faction leader in the town of Jarvik where you must guide your clan through political intrigues, survive clan raids and stand fast in the tides of war. All the while taking on and completing quests to increase your influence in the town and recruit newer, stronger NPCs to the clan. You can win by wiping out all of the other clans or by uniting them all through diplomacy.

Graphics: 90%
This is not a game that attempts to cram as many polygons on your screen as it can handle but the crew at Soldak looks to have taken a lot of care in the graphics and textures of the world. The number of different types of flora, fauna, weapons, armor and equipment is overwhelming. Plus, this may shock you so prepare yourself, when you use a new weapon or put on armor it
actually changes the way your character looks in the game. I know, calm down, but it's true. This is something that has always annoyed me about video games when it doesn't happen and Soldak did a fantastic job of giving everything its own look and integrating it all into the visuals. There are some generic things in the game like the size of the people, all the fighters are big, the mages are slight, the priests are women and so are the thieves. But I paid it almost no attention, though to see a variety of each type in a future update would be cool.

Sound: 90%
After some freakishly strange noises I thought I would email Steven and ask about it and that is when we realized I was having some sound issues. At first I thought the game was just sound light but after the switch to the new drivers I realized the audio environment was as rich as the visual one. Ambient noises are abundant; birds and crickets chirp, animals howl and the
wind blows. There are so many ambient noises that I don't think I could list them all and every area of the game has its own specific grouping of noises so as to be different from the others because in reality a forest sounds alive while a desert sighs and that is accurately reflected in the game.

The sounds of battle are one of the weaker points in the game but do not detract
from it. Things have one attack sound. I mean that each creature makes one particular cry or scream, each type of weapon makes one particular sound and everything thuds the same when it hits the ground. Except for treasure, when treasure drops it actually has a different sound for each type (money, armor, etc) which was a nice touch and makes up for the limited creature battle cries and such.

Of course what the game really excels at in sound effects is what it totally fails at in music. There is only one 'song' and it is just basically a 3 second loop of incidental music from some period film piece, or at least that is what it sounds like. All that time and effort and great work with the sound effects and the variety is totally forgotten here. But even then, there are so many sound effects that I rarely noticed if I had the music on or not. 

Gameplay: 90%
Did I mention that the weather changes? It goes from sunny and nice to rainy and dark. Time of day is also variable in that it changes day to night and back. It is actually quite cool and I didn't even realize it until a week or more of playing. If just felt so natural for it to happen I didn't pay it any attention. The gameplay itself is a lot of hack and slash and some of it is mindless and some is not. There is some strategy that is needed when you go out into the wild with only one other party member (the maximum) but much of the gameplay is go kill something or gather something while not getting killed by the denizens of the area. It would be sort of boring if it weren't for the influence and political strategy side of the game. Each quest you complete gains you some experience and some influence. You need the influence to become the strongest clan in the village and have the other clans want to make treaties with you and such. If you stay out adventuring too long and don't come in to claim your influence it should come as no surprise that the others will see you as weak and attack your homebase while you are away. The major problem with this game is I kept getting so involved in it I would forget I was writing a review. Well I guess that's not really a problem now is it. OK, so the gameplay is slightly redundant in the go-kill-all-the-mobs kind of way but the dynamics of the other half of the game make it interesting and kept me coming back for more.

Interface/Controls: 85%
The game is similar to a classic mouse-driven RPG similar to Diablo and Dungeon Siege - click to move, click to interact, press keys to use skills, spells, items. While the game looks great, sounds great and feels great it is a little less in the interface than I would like. But it is all minor things that added up to a small reduction. For example, there is no mouse wheel scroll support on the map page but you can just grab the map with a held-down left mouse button. The game pauses automatically when you jump out of the window. Cool but sometimes I want to do something else while my guy is hacking away at monsters and in this game that's not possible but it's a minor issue also. Sometimes I would miss the menu options on the popup menus for interacting with people. It looked like I was there and the button was lit up, but somehow when I clicked I missed it causing my character to walk to the spot. Again minor, but slightly annoying. There are a whole set of buttons that do something with your recruit but I couldn't figure out what exactly it was even though in the options screen it said things like "Recruit Food 1" and "Recruit Potion 1." Obviously something to do with food and potions (for regaining health) but I was unable to find any further information in the manual. 

Summary: 89%
This game does very well all around. Plus it's addictive as all hell. I mean the reason this review has taken me so long is I would simply just get wrapped up in the game, a game which I have now been playing for several weeks and told Mr. Peeler I would have reviewed in a week. I think he secretly knew I wouldn't get it done in a week because I would just get lost in the world. I found myself sneaking into the game when I wasn't even looking trying to dominate the other clans just because they had the audacity to say something rude to me. As I said the game looks good, sounds good and plays very well. Nothing is perfect but it is all very, very close. I will be loathe to delete this game and at a mere 92 megabytes, I probably won't for awhile though it will keep me from getting other things done in a timely fashion. This makes me look forward to the next offering from Soldak. So go buy this one and help them out so we can get another great game from them soon. 

 Depths of Peril

PC - Available now, here

 $29.99

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