Paradox Interactive gets straight to the point when War of the Roses is introduced. Senior producer Gordon Van Dyke describes it as their “flagship game of the year,” the standout title amongst the publisher's busy roster. Whether gamers agree, or perhaps instead find it more of an acquired taste, there's never been anything quite like it before and its shaping up to be a very, very brutal experience.
War of the Roses is best described as Battlefield set in the late middle ages. Up to 64 players will slash and stab their way through pitched battles or sieges, their carbines replaced by crossbows and their sniper rifles swapped for swords, all of which naturally makes combat a much more intimate affair. More often than not, you'll be staring your opponent in the face as you strike them down or suffer their anger, and even archers and crossbowmen will find they frequently have to get up close and personal to finish the job they started.
In fact, just about everyone has to get their hands dirty. One of the most distinctive and even disturbing features of the game is the finishing moves. No, you didn't read that wrong, there's almost a Mortal Kombat element of execution on show here, because warriors who fall in battle are left immobile on the ground, halfway between life and death. With luck, a friend can revive them and return them to the fight, but otherwise it's the duty of an opponent to walk over to body, straddle it and ram their weapon into the eyes, neck or temple of the helpless victim, often several times. A quick glance across any battlefield in War of the Roses inevitably identifies at least one or two combatants leaning down to slaughter their foes. It's the kind of naked violence that would make a tabloid editor perk up like a meerkat and if you're the victim of it, you have to suffer it all from your first-person perspective.
Should that not quench your thirst for blood, there are plenty of other ways to harm people as you fight your way through one of England's most brutal wars. Developer Fatshark are promising a veritable armoury of weapons, all of which have their own distinctive characteristics and physics. Daggers are fast but weak, while polearms have a long reach but swing poorly in a confined space, glancing off walls and obstacles.
All your slashing, stabbing and parrying is controlled through small movements of the mouse, making combat as much about timing and precision as it is the size and type of the sword you choose. “It's all very nuanced,” Gordon explains. “You'll also be able to pick what kind of steel your weapon is made of, even your edge grind.” Your edge grind, by the way, is the cross-section of your blade, and even that can make a difference.
If customising your weapons still isn't enough for you, the armour is similarly detailed, and players will be able to carefully design their own crests and coats of arms (“You will look much cooler!”), making every warrior on a battlefield a distinct individual that you can bear a grudge against. While the colour of your plume may be cosmetic, the idea is that all your other equipment will have an important bearing on how you fight, with archers aiming for chinks in your defences and particular weapons working better against certain armour. Feel free to don a heavy helmet for protection, but your field of vision will suffer.
At its very best, the merciless melees of War of the Roses could almost resemble a 64-player equivalent of the expertly-modelled combat in something like Demon's Souls. Imagine skirmishes where every participant sports the combination of the weapons and armour they personally prefer, knights cautiously skirting their opponents as they try to time their killing blows, groups of soldiers trying to outflank one another, archers scattering suddenly in the face of a cavalry charge.
Though there's still much tweaking and balancing to be done, the current alpha build of the game shows just how exciting, challenging and cruel it can be. This doesn't look like something that new players can immediately leap into, but there's a lot of satisfaction to be had from mastering its combat mechanics. Fatshark are also promising a comprehensive single-player campaign, something that will no doubt help introduce the subtleties of 15th Century warfare, but let's not kid ourselves here. This is a game that's all about challenging real people to a duel to the death.
