Telepath RPG: Servants of God Demo (2011) (PC) (Sinister Design)

I've been following the development of Telepath RPG: Servants of God for quite some time but not checked out the demo seriously before now. Sinister Design's ambitious upcoming game combines a strong emphasis on story and dialogue (supported by a comparatively professional voice cast for an indie title) with top-down turn-based combat. The battles take place on differentiated grid-based maps similar to what you'd find in an isometric SRPG like Tactics Ogre (and the Japanese RPG tradition is referenced explicitly by the developer), but still on a small enough scale that more Western-oriented fans of PC classics like Pool of Radiance or Betrayal at Krondor should feel right at home. I played on Normal difficulty and even early on the combat design and enemy AI was challenging enough that I was rewarded for thinking ahead a few turns and paying attention to tactical aspects like flanking and unit direction (most party members can be revived between battles, but the playable character's death results in instant Game Over). A noteworthy feature of the battle system is that various individual unit abilities work at very specific ranges - such as one, two or three grid squares away from the character in any of the cardinal directions - which obviously makes unit positioning even more important. Apart from some neat portraits the game's graphics are best described as functional, but the music is nicely atmospheric and adds a lot to the experience.

Narratively speaking the writing seems very good so far, and it's clear that a lot of work went into characterization (as evidenced by the voice actor interviews on the developer's YouTube channel) as well as the game's intriguing and original Middle Eastern/Steampunk setting. The plot revolves around a classic "religious fanatics vs the good guys" conflict, which the main character is immediately drawn into at the start of the game. In general I'm tired of seeing such a complex and multi-faceted social phenomena as religion being reduced to irrational totalitarianism in the vast majority of pop cultural works, but Sinister Design's Craig Stern appears to have crafted a distinct and believable socio-political context in which this age-old drama takes place and I very much look forward to seeing where the story goes in the full game.

Pre-order and demo available here:
http://sinisterdesign.net/?page_id=267

Category:

Gaming

Tags:

• Telepath
• Servants
• God
• Sinister
• Design
• RPG
• SRPG
• JRPG
• Tactical
• Turn-based
• Story
• Dialogue
• Strategy

[standardbearer]

The visuals are quite off putting to be honest (except of course the menu and characters, which look great).

[Demiath]

@standardbearer That's an understandable first reaction, but as with any game that has good gameplay the visuals fade into the background and become irrelevant very quickly once you actually sit down and play it.

[rebirthangel]

Say, can you make peoples head explode in this game?

Doesn't look like much, but hey, graphics a game, does not make, right?

[Demiath]

@rebirthangel As with so many of these indie titles, looks can be deceiving. This game has been in development for about 4 years now, and there's simply *a lot* to this game. It's always difficult to know how it will all come together in the final product, but one certainly can't fault the developer for lack of ambition.

[mejwyn]

You do so much wrok in your clips :( it's a shame you dont get more views! Love your videos tho.

[Demiath]

@mejwyn Thanks, but my videos actually don't involve much work at all (they could be a lot better edited than they are). It's those bloody video descriptions which take *forever* to write for en jävla svensk like me...

[standardbearer]

@Demiath

Well I'll definitely give it a shot.

I recall I was pressing myself to get into the Avernum series, and in the end it payed off.

(I use the analogy based on that games really terrible look)

[WoWHeroin]

this view is terrible

[nutherefurlong]

@Demiath Du skriver i språket bedre enn mange... du vet ka jeg vil si :)

[mejwyn]

@Demiath Haha, jo. Det är en jävla massa text, och bra text för den delen. Det känns bra att få lite backstory om du vet vad jag menar. Man lär sig saker, med andra ord. ;)

[rebirthangel]

@Demiath Well said bro.

Probably should have said this earlier, but thanks for uploading some gameplay. I always like coming to you channel, and watching what you've been recently playing. :)