Game Link: 3D CRPG Project Esenthel

Esenthel is an ongoing project to create a 3D computer role-playing game in the vein of the Elder Scrolls series (Morrowind, Oblivion). The game is being developed by an independent group of developers and game enthusiasts. While the development is still on-going (and I suspect that the final product won’t be released tomorrow) the group has released the newest demo of the game in the beginning of October. The demo consists of a short dungeon crawl and is essentially a concept and technology demostration. The game is based on the group’s own game engine and the demo shows that the engine surely has promises in visual quality. The demo is for the Windows platform and requires a video card that supports Shaper Model 2.0 (GeForce 6200, Radeon 9500 or better).

The demo consists of a short, plotless dungeon crawl consisting mostly of fighting. At this stage it is purely a playable tech demo, as the fighting and dungeon ramping gets boring after a short while with no larger plot or meaning to it. The question marks concerning Esenthel at the moment are the usability and intuitiveness of the user interface and the gameplay content. The development team does not have a dedicated lead game designer at the moment, a fact that gets me at least a bit worried about the future of the game. Will the game remain as a tech demo and a copycat of the prominent commercial games of the same genre or can the team develop something innovative and ground-breaking into the game that the entertainment games of the same genre can not provide? This remains to be seen, but judging from the technological and audiovisual quality displayed in the demo, there’s lots of promise there. I hope that the developers can put as much polish to the game design aspects of the game too. I for one will be monitoring the development of this one with some expectations.