The Spirit Engine 2 (56k warning)

[Voukras]

The Spirit Engine 2 is a side-scrolling indie RPG made by Mark Pay that went freeware a few months after release. You can get it from here. Thought I'd share it because it's incredibly good as far as freeware games go. And it's well above decent as far as games go. If you're into story-based RPGs then TSE2 is up there with the best of them. It boasts a very good story, decent gameplay and an incredibly good soundtrack. So, let me give it a quick rundown.

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Story TSE2 takes place in the world of Medea, more specifically Lereftain, a nation in the industrial age with a deep seated and mutual animosity towards its largest neighbor - Yaegara. You play as three citizens of Lereftain that end up being the Right Man In The Wrong Place. They stumble upon a member of a secretive cult called the Keepers attempting to assassinate two children. The three manage to save one of the children and embark on a voyage to deliver her to the safety of the largest Lereftese fortress in the area. However this undertaking evolves once the three uncover evidence of a conspiracy that apparently seeks to destroy the fragile peace between Lereftain and Yaegara and unravel the current balance of power. TSE2 is quite unique. Many RPGs have LoTR-esque universes with elves, orcs, or the classic Dungeons and Dragons universe. TSE2 is very different from these. It's more akin to a steampunk universe, but a subtle and more credible one. Chronologically the game takes place at the advent of gunpowder, a time where Knights are becoming obsolete. The dialogue of TSE2 is well done and very entertaining, the story paces itself rather well and most of the characters are interesting and well thought up. You can choose three out of nine possible characters. You will always have a sardonic, grumpy and antisocial character, a cheerful and good-natured character and a wise and polite character. The characters at first glance are completely two dimensional but all of them have their own backstory coupled with inner demons and some of them end up evolving along the story, albeit not too much. The interactions between the party members are often amusing, revealing and add to the appeal of the game. The story is largely linear, with no real choices to make beyond the party composition in the beginning. There are a few subplots and unmarked quests you can miss, but there is no open-endedness or freedom in TSE2.

Gameplay Surprisingly, the combat in TSE2 is quite enjoyabe, as opposed to many other RPGs that have insanely good storyline but rather painful gameplay. The game starts out easy enough with enemies that don't even fight back, a few chapters later you will scratching your head trying to figure out how to defeat a certain boss. The strategy lies mostly in finding a chain of skills your party can use that is particularly effective against the type of enemy you are fighting against. Fortunately, this is not limited to "the enemy is undead, swordfaith does 25% more damage to the undead, use swordfaith, win, this is strategy herp derp". Enemies freeze your party members for several turns, regenerate so fast that you must kill them in a single turn, have shields that absorb one to three hits, constantly poison your entire party, heal the resilient enemies you worked so hard to damage, target your priest with nasty attacks and curses and much more. The game isn't easy, and that's an extremely good thing. The moment combat in an RPG becomes easy, it's devolves to nothing more than something between the chunks of the storyline that takes away your precious time or even worse. The difficulty is well paced though, it doesn't scale too aggressively so as to make the game hellish, but it scales fast enough to keep things interesting. There are also four difficulty levels if you find things too easy or too hard. You've got quite a few items and 10 levelable skills per character. On normal you could probably finish the game with no skill points allocated, however they do help a lot and specializing into the right skills is quite useful.

Music It'd be a crime not to mention the wonderful music in a little more detail. It's composed by Josh Whelchel and really adds an awful lot to the game's atmosphere and appeal. Of course, tastes may vary, some may not like it and that's okay, but the soundtrack is still undeniable fitting. Here's a few choice songs: Bomb in the Barracks Great Hall Longreach Fierce Closing Themes

Screenshots and footage Screenshots http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BBnd7Zvmccw http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOfCvmyzOJc