Gods and Heroes Interview (con't)

FiringSquad: How does the player tap into his or her god-like powers in the game?

Stieg Hedlund: As anyone at all familiar with our setting would expect, the gods demand that heroes perform tasks in their service. As a reward for completing the things asked of him, a character receives standing with his god, and sometimes for the performance of particular tasks, the player gains the ability to call on new powers. A hero’s standing represents his deity’s willingness to have his powers called upon. Within the limits of standing, there is also favor, which is a regenerating pool similar to energy in other games that is actually used when calling on the gods.


FiringSquad: Why did Perpetual decide to make Gods and Heroes more of a tactical action game than the normal MMOPG style of combat?

Stieg Hedlund: There are plenty of games that already offer various flavors of that, and we wanted to really break new ground. This also plays to my own strengths specifically, since I understand this type of gameplay very well from the various games that I’ve worked on in the past; so for me particularly it was an interesting way to combine these different styles and push them in new directions.

FiringSquad: What are some of the more interesting missions and locations in the game?

Stieg Hedlund: Tough question—there’s just so much! I’ve been having a lot of fun lately playing in the Tyrrhenian Shores area. It’s city of Ostia is just fantastic looking, as is the surrounding terrain, from the Phorcid-infested salt pans to the north to the pirate camps to the south (not “Arr!” pirates, but historically-based corsairs: people who found themselves without land during the struggles between Rome and her rivals and turned to buccaneering for their livelihood instead). There’s a pretty cool quest in an area called Venatrix Glades where one of the goddess Diana’s attendants—a water nymph, named Egeria—has been imprisoned by evil nymphs called Strixes. When you battle past these enemies and destroy the altar they have erected over the well that Egeria inhabits. Once freed, this semi-divine creature appears and speaks to you.


FiringSquad: What sort of mythological creatures can we expect to see and combat in Gods and Heroes?

Stieg Hedlund: Almost anything you can think of from Greco-roman myth will be present in the game, as well as many things that most people will have never heard of, but which also come directly from myth. A lot of these guys have become fodder for fantasy RPGs, but we’ve stripped away those layers and taken an approach to them that relates visually to the original source material, which also makes them very fresh.


FiringSquad: Will there be any Player vs Player combat in the game?

Stieg Hedlund: Certainly. There will be the ability for players to challenge other players to duels, either as individuals or with their squads. There will also be whole servers dedicated to PvP gameplay. After launch, we plan on other features around this aspect of gameplay including full lobby and ladder systems for arena combat with real and meaningful rewards, and possibly even audiences for these fights and betting on the outcomes. Our first Expansion Pack will be a second playable culture, with contested areas that it and Rome will be fighting over, for Nation vs. Nation combat.