Some of you might find this interesting...
I dislike most of modern day commercial games for their general bad taste and lack of intelligence - so this one has piqued my interest as soon as I've
seen it on the Underdogs site.
It's called Unreal World and it's small independent rpg made by just one guy - and from Finland, at that. Aha! :)
There are no real quests in this game, no magic swords, orcs or trolls - it's basically one brutally realistic and unforgiving wilderness survival simulator with rpg like stats and skills for your character... and it's all happening in iron age Finland! O_o =)
Now, if *that* don't call out to your barbarian side I don't know *what* will! ;)
Trudging through thick forrests at -10C armed with a spear, clad from head to toe in bear and fox furr... hunting, trapping, fishing and forraging for food, building your cottage or cellar for food storage, gathering woods and making campfires so you don't freez to death, trading with local villages, farming and cooking for yourself, getting married (but not having sex!), having to skin the animals you've caught and prepare their meat in various ways, manufacturing many objects that you need to survive or can trade with, fighting lone (and scary, 'cause they're usually much better fighters then yourself) barbarian raiders or raiding a barbarian encampement with a group of NPC followers yourself... and getting killed in 1001 innovative ways while you're doing all of that!
Your character gets hungry and thursty regularily (you can even eat snow!), tired, cold (frostbite!), poisoned and ill and the game has a very complex and
detailed injury, armor distribution and even cold protection model.
I've started playing this a few days ago and as I figure out how things work I'm starting to love this small gem more and more as each new game day comes...
There are a lot of in game keyboard commands and you need time to get used to the scarce graphics and (a unix users wet dream) keyboard command driven interface - but my internal gameometar says that this might be a very rewarding experience in the long run, as far as independent rpg's go... :)
The only problem in this bonanza is that the graphics are a truly unremarkable 2D reminiscent of, say, Ultima 6 (which needs a bit of stomaching when you see it for the first time) but I kind of like it that way - reminds me of long lost 1997. and another small gem... Spiderweb Software's Exile 3, the first piece of rpg I've ever enjoyed in my life, so I don't mind the simplicity and crudeness so much.
Here are some links:
http://www.the-underdogs.info/game.php?id=2817
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UnReal_World
http://www.freewebs.com/unrealthoth/index.htm
http://www.jmp.fi/~smaarane/urw.html
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