Release Date: August 4, 2003
A game set in the medieval Northern Europe of the Year of Our Lord 1072, combining a fully functional game of the cRPG genre, an interesting adventure game and a history lesson for amateurs.
Fatherdale: The Guardians of Asgard is an intricate RPG/Adventure where the battle between the Gods and their eternal enemy unfolds in the true medieval world of AD 1072.
As one of the few immortal Heroes who protect the ancient artifacts of knowledge, you take on the reins of a warlord in a secluded northern valley of Fatherdale just days before it becomes the Battlefield of Fate to experience a story-driven multi-genre gameplay focused around RPG, RTS and Adventure.
With over hundred and fifty unique characters, thrice that much in hand-crafted inventory items, more than sixty locations in steppes, woods and swamps, on plains, river banks and even inside the wooden Keeps of the Guardians, you have a whole world to explore, protect and die for — and seven full-fledged Episodes to play through a number of styles and genres before you face your real Enemy.
RPG
»» Historically-accurate environment of Northern Europe AD 1072 based on extensive research, from names to inventory items to locations and to social structure.
»» Balanced RPG stats. Intelligence, Dexterity, Strength, Endurance, Constitution and Bravery as the basic attributes add to six weapon as well as to four other combat skills, including Leadership and Scouting.
»» Unique characters with different personalities. No two are alike, neither in behaviour nor in appearance. Each character has his or her own biography and own portrait detailing their perks, attitudes and goals. Explore new people as well as new locations.
»» RPG gameplay focused on matching the right items with the right characters rather than developing your hero into a super-monster. Find the proper heavy mace for your strongest Guardian and look out for an elegant well-balanced bow that will make your new girl recruit an essential part of combat team.
»» Your reputation as the mirror of your choices and actions. The reputation is different with each character depending on his or her own group values and affects his or her attitude towards you. No 'ultimately good action' will score you respect with everyone as interests of every character are different and often contradicting.
BATTLE
»» Real-time battle system based on actual medieval fencing techniques. One missed attack can make the difference.
»» Stamina, endurance and fatigue based on the realistic combat dynamics. Leave your hack-and-slash concept at home.
»» Different combat outcomes: characters submit to panic or go berserk, drop weapons and capitulate or retreat and heal. Death is just one of the options, there are many more intricate ways to end a fight.
»» Realistic zones of vision and hearing: crawl behind houses, hide in dark forests, make ambushes on the roads, spy on the enemy camps, capture detected scouts, use sudden attacks to scare and prevail and get together the best ranger team to explore new locations.
»» Easily managable military groups affected by RPG parameters of their leaders. Create new, discard old, transfer inbetween and keep the morale high. Two proud Guardians might not like to fall under each other's command.
»» Six available battle formations that can be used by any of the groups. Change shape, density and priority. Also, that the chosen weapon affects the relative position of character in the group.
INVENTORY
»» A wide selection of hand-crafted weapons and armour re-created by book from the research data. Swords and axes to maces, morning stars, bows, crossbows and four types of arrows, javelins, spears, shields, helmets, chainmails and unique items of key characters. Oh yes, the Guardians are no standard-issue army.
»» RPG parameters of weapons based on authentic item data. No artificial damage bonus — deal with size and shape of blade, weight and balance, quality of craft and quality of steel plus special features like the armour crook on some of the finer axes.
»» Change of inventory affects outer appearance. All items are displayed on all levels of interface, change a shirt and your character wll change accordingly.
ADVENTURE
»» Transparent dialogue system. Quick and sharp, full of humour and realistic language, closer to movie than a fairy tale and delivering all the right information without burdening you with unnecessary piles of text. Also, real-time — no half a screen scrolls.
»» A Diary with hero's thoughts appearing as you progress through the game, a Journal with all available quests marked and traced plus an Archive with bios and skills of known characters and descriptions of visited locations and a Map of Fatherdale reflecting your knowledge of the valley.
»» A Strategy Level where you are free to travel between all known locations. All characters in the ingame world can travel all the way around the valley. Random encounters in temporary locations.
»» Changing time from dawn till dusk. Time is a gameplay factor that affects the way locations look, characters behave and events happen.
