The Rise of Mooncrest Demo

Although one might think that it’s difficult to come up with new ideas in the RPG genre, there are always new ways to innovate the gameplay or integrate unusual concepts. The combat system can vary an awful lot from one game to the other, depending on whether the developers want to focus on the tactical aspect, or provide the players with visceral battle scenes in real time.

The Rise of Mooncrest is an upcoming turn-based role-playing game with an emphasis on tactics and character development, as well as an interesting story designed by industry veterans. Hence, the studio features ex-Bioware developers in the mix, which is about as famous as you can get in the RPG genre, especially after series like Mass Effect, Dragon Age and Knights of the Old Republic.   The story revolves around a mysterious invasion that takes everyone in the world of Nocturne by surprise, except for a particular stronghold. This stronghold is called Mooncrest, and it’s your duty to protect it and even mount an offensive to reclaim the other lands. You have a few commanders to help you along, and they can get stronger along the way after enough victories on the battlefield.

The combat is fairly straightforward in terms of gameplay mechanics, given the fact that all you have to do is move units around a hex grid, but the tactics are the most important part. Each unit type has specific strengths and weaknesses, not to mention the commanders that can take advantage of special units. They can also gain experience and unlock new powers, which keeps the experience from getting stale along the way.   Not much can be said when it comes to the graphics, however, which is a bit of a bummer. The artwork is not bad at all, but the maps and the unit representation do not help at all with the overall atmosphere. Granted, you might be able to ignore all this and focus on the story and the battles, but that would be a lot easier with some nice graphics to help you along.

All things considered, The Rise of Mooncrest is not quite there yet, but it’s on the right path in terms of gameplay and story. In fact, you can help the developers by contributing to their Kickstarter campaign for the game, which should allow them to put their wildest ideas into practice.