14 DAY TRIAL // Shadow Realms might be an action game focused on four players working together to overcome a fifth but the development team at BioWare says that those who love its games for their focus on story elements will find plenty to appreciate in the coming game.
Jeff Hickman, the leader of the entire team working on the project, tells Eurogamer that “We talk about story as who we are and as the core of our beings. When you think about what the story's going to be like, it's going to involve choice, it's going to involve romance, it's going to involve betrayal.”
Shadow Realms will take place both on Earth and in another world called Embra and will allow players to explore a complex lore about the ties between the two races and the powerful Shadow Lord enemies they need to face in battle.
BioWare says that it will include a lot of moments in the game during which players will be alone in certain areas where they can choose to find out more information, although they also have the options to skip ahead and just enjoy the combat sequences.
Hickmann adds, “I have read the first three months of story - what we're calling the first chapter - and it's cliff-hanger after cliff-hanger. I got to the end of the first chapter and ‘oh... my... god... I don't... who's the bad guy? What's going on?!’”
Shadow Realms aims to create an experience that will hold the players attention in the long term, with new story and content packs delivered at regular intervals, based on the feedback coming from the community and the needs of the story.
The gameplay of the game will be action-focused and cooperative minded, with the four-player team needing to carefully collaborate in order to battle the fifth player and the monsters that are part of the environment.
There are six core character classes to choose from and players will be able to wield both magical powers and more classic weapons, including guns.
BioWare says that it is using Frostbite 3 to create its title and that it wants a world that’s both beautiful and terrifying, depending on the moment.
Shadow Realms is at the moment set to arrive on the PC, which is described by BioWare as the tip of the spear when it comes to development, and no launch window has been mentioned so far.