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Saga
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Graphics & Sound:
The graphics in Saga are nicely detailed and are rendered in 3D. The game allows you to zoom out until you can see about a fourth of the map or zoom in really close to the action. This is sort of neat, but, in general, you'll need to be able to see more than just one or two units. True to life, yet, nevertheless aggravating is the fact that units are obscured from your heavenly view by the occasional tree or two. This is not a showstopper, but it can be bothersome from time to time, especially if you prefer to watch the field to get an idea of unit status instead of watching the tray at the bottom of the screen.
The music is beautiful, but I found that the game chugged on my laptop, twisting the beautiful soundtrack into a mangled, lurching irritant that I couldn't mute fast enough. If your computer is able to handle running Saga, however, the music is delightful and relaxing in the menus and more upbeat during the game, but is always the sort of ambient orchestral music that you'd expect of something in a fantasy movie (think Robin Hood or Lord of the Rings). The sound effects are nicely done, and the vocal pieces often have a certain entertaining bit of wit thrown in to break the monotony. |
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Gameplay:
Saga is much like every other MMORTS out there... oh wait, that's sort of a new genre, isn't it? Okay, then...
Saga combines the familiar elements found in RTS games, such as resource management, building and strategic planning with a persistent world shared across the Internet with other players. You'll need to mind your peasants and assign them to the tasks you want done, but be warned, building things can take quite some time (think hours... in real time). So, while you're waiting for your construction to finish, you'll engage in your primary task in Saga... waging war.
There are different ways to wage war, from going on quests (alone or with a friend), to engaging in PVP combat, for anything from high stakes to no stakes at all. There are also sneaky ways to wage war on others, by way of espionage. You can gather information on opponents, steal their resources, burn their buildings down and a manner of naughty things that will get you on the naughty list. Mind you, to attack someone, you have to know their nation's name... and they can protect their nation by employing police, so it's not like you can just sneak around killing everyone. Oh, well.
When you start the game, you will start with a certain number of available units, but Saga employs a virtual collectible card-based upgrade system, so you can spend your hard-earned cash (or harder-earned in-game gold) to buy booster packs and trade with others to get the units that suit your play style. Saga features over 100 unique troop types from multiple races, including: elves, orcs, humans, giants, ogres, dark elves, dwarves, golems and an assortment of creatures. Some of my favorites, however, are the machines - especially those created by the mechanically-inclined dwarves. Going into battle? Don't forget to bring along your steam-powered Mech. Gotta love it!
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Difficulty:
If there's one thing I've learned about Saga, it's that Saga continues. It seems to go on and on, but I find that leveling is not as easy as it should be.
The quests are classified into categories of difficulty based on two factors: type (indicated by a metal) and level. For example, the only quests available at first are Bronze quests, but as you complete quests, the Bronze quests will advance to silver and then, finally, gold, with an increase in difficulty and reward. However, certain quests seem almost pivotal to your continued advancement, such as the Lumber Raid quest, which seemed to be my primary source of lumber. I probably should have saved up from the beginning to have enough resources to build a lumber mill of my own, but, without one, I simply can't get wood. It should go without reason that if you don't have any wood, you can't build anything.
The other complaint I have about Saga quests is that even the Bronze quests sometimes turn out to be ridiculously hard. One in particular offered little resistance until I tried to take the keep and then some demon-orc thing popped out and chased my poor units all over the map, making short work of them.
The one piece of advice I would give to new players trying out Saga is not to be too proud to withdraw. Retreating will preserve some of your units and some is better than none - especially since the cost of resurrecting a unit increases as it levels up. The other aspect to this is to admit that you're in over your head early. There have been several quests that I should really have bailed on early on, but instead I kept throwing more and more units into battle, never to see their wives again. The end result is almost always me sitting, frustrated and agitated, waiting for a freakin' timer to finish counting down and allow me to surrender. Oh, the humanity! |
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Game Mechanics:
Balance, balance, balance. These are the three key ingredients in any real time strategy game. Unfortunately, Saga is quite simply a bit off when it comes to balance. You have to juggle domestic affairs, such as building up your domain, putting your peasants to good use and molding your army into a force to do your bidding, as well as foreign affairs, such as going on quests, raids, and otherwise making war.
The things that soured my experience tended to be quests that seemed too hard and the agonies that come along with defeat. The most frustrating were the quests that were classified as "Bronze" quests, meaning the easiest ranked quests, that were unexpectedly difficult. These would end in me throwing good units after bad at an enemy, only to wind up running out of available units and having no choice but to surrender; it usually goes something like this: First, I get a warning that I have to place units on the field within thirty seconds or I will have surrendered. Then, in around 5 seconds or less, I realize that I don't have enough CP (points used to place units) to place anything on the field. Then, I hit the surrender icon (a white flag) to end the battle. The prompt that I get after hitting surrender, however, warns me that I am surrendering and asks me to make sure that's what I want to do, starting a 10 second countdown. The only button on this prompt is to cancel the surrender. It's humiliating enough to have just lost a battle - which may have taken a half hour of your life, mind you - but now I have to wait for the privilege of surrendering. Ug. Also, you can punch out quicker by simply quitting the game, but you still incur all of the damage you suffered during combat, but some of your construction gets "rewound," possibly due to the game not being able to correctly determine how long you've been away from the game.
Personally, I find that I can enjoy playing this game for a while, but, eventually, the balance issues make the game overly frustrating. I should mention, however, that each battle is followed by a really short "comment card" form that allows players to give feedback. It seems that Silverlode Interactive is working hard to fix bugs and address players' concerns.
Additionally, there were some transient bugs here and there. There were a couple of times that I was knocked out of the game without explanation, and other times that I lost connection to the server. The folks at Silverlode seem to be working hard to fix the bugs and balancing issues, with frequent updates and their short surveys after each quest. As for the connection issues, occasionally there will be network issues beyond anyone's control. This is the very nature of the Internet.
If you think that Saga might be right up your alley, then, by all means, download the client and try it out. There's a free download of the game available at the Saga website. The free version doesn't include some of the online and PVP content, but it lets you get a good feel for the game without shelling out your hard-earned cash. Then, if you like the game, pay for the full game and buy boosters as needed. |
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-Geck0, GameVortex Communications AKA Robert Perkins |
Minimum System Requirements:
Windows XP, 1.6 GHz Processor, 512 Mb RAM (1-player), 1 Gb RAM(multiplayer), 128 Mb video card supporting OpenGL 1.4 (pixel-shader 2.0 required to render trees and grass), 1.5 Gb available Hard Drive space, DirectX 9.0c, Broadband Internet connection required
Recommended:
Windows XP, 2.8 GHz Processor, 2 Gb RAM, 512 Mb video card supporting OpenGL 1.4 with pixel shader 4.0 support, 1.5 Gb available Hard Drive space, DirectX 9.0c, Broadband Internet connection required |
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Test System:
Sony VAIO VGC-R820G:
Intel Pentium 4E, 3.2 GHz (Intel Grantsdale i915), 1 GB RAM, AMI BIOS, Realtek HD Audio, Radeon X300 Series (128 MB), 200 GB 7200 RPM, Serial-ATA/150 Maxtor HD, DVD-ROM, Pioneer DVD-RW DVR-108, Sony SDM-HS73 Monitor, Floppy disk drive, Cable Modem. |
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