Halls of Torment is out on Xbox and we’re tremendous excited to share some perception in regards to the content material we’ve added to the sport for this special day. For fairly a while in the course of the growth we’ve deliberate to reward our gamers with a particular deal with as soon as they handle to beat the ultimate Lord within the base sport – the bottom sport being the sport with out further DLCs. However initially we struggled to find out what this particular reward must be. Gamers all the time acquired excited after we added new playable characters to the sport, since this opened up new playstyles and new character builds to discover.
Each time a brand new determine appeared in entrance of the camp hearth, the thrill was excessive and the urge to provide the Halls of Torment one other spin rekindled. So it grew to become clear to us what could be an sufficient response to our gamers’ last achievement: a singular and enjoyable character for doing victory laps.
And we knew simply the appropriate fantasy archetype that may match completely on this place: the Bard. Contrasting the in any other case darkish and grim world of Halls of Torment with a cheerful trickster that didn’t combat with lightning or metal however with music appeared like the correct send-off to us. The Bard ought to stand out each thematically and mechanically from all different playable characters. From there our concepts ran wild and an more and more clear imaginative and prescient for the Bard fashioned in our heads.
Halls of Torment is a really metallic sport. The environments, characters, and themes are all issues you possibly can hear an influence metallic band make songs about. Even the important thing artwork would make a convincing metallic album cowl or band shirt print. Therefore, designing the Bard within the picture of a medieval metalhead made excellent sense: lengthy hair, a gold and silver studded lute, a swaggering stance and our medieval musical prodigy was born. The battlefield could be his stage and the armies of the underworld could be his (unintentional) crowd. This after all would even have implications for what skills the Bard would use whereas combating towards the hordes of the Halls.
Having a music-based character created one other requirement for the sport: new music. It could’ve been a missed alternative to have a metalhead character with none correct electrical guitars within the sport’s rating. The Halls of Torment soundtrack is moody and orchestral, and it serves the aim of underlining the atmosphere of every world within the sport. Nevertheless it isn’t precisely metallic. So we determined so as to add new tracks particularly for the Bard. We employed a workforce {of professional} music producers who helped us out and created a set of three tracks that don’t put on out too rapidly even after repeated and extended listening. To spice issues up slightly bit we determined to supply every of the three tracks in three depth variations. As soon as you’d attain a sure character degree, the sport would fade to a higher-intensity variation of the presently performed observe.
Realizing that the Bard could be an outlier within the solid of participant characters, we determined to provide him his personal unique set of skills. Often, all skills are shared and interchangeable between all characters. That is the place we’ve made an exception. The Bard wouldn’t use any of the usual skills, and all different characters wouldn’t be capable to use the Bard’s music-themed skills; at the very least not beneath regular circumstances. All skills for the Bard are impressed by rock live performance tropes: mosh pits, pyrotechnics, killer riffs, you identify it. And since they’re delivered to you alongside a set of superior metallic tracks, why not have some extra enjoyable with it? We applied the Bard skills in a approach so that they’d match the completely different instrumental rhythms of the music. That is how we wound up implementing a music cue system that may sync all Bard means triggers with instrumental occasions in every of the tracks. For causes of balancing and aesthetics we needed to creator these music cues manually however it was price all the hassle. Now, whenever you enter the Halls with the Bard, all mixtures of his skills will end in an excellent mild present that may put most stage engineers to disgrace.
To prime off all of this, we’ve added a bunch of recent Bard-themed artifacts that create new challenges through the Shrine of Torment. You’ll additionally be capable to equip the Bard’s Mark with all the opposite characters – when you’ve unlocked it – which can permit you to decide one of many Bard’s skills at the beginning of your run.
Total, we’re fairly pleased with how this addition to our group of heroes has turned out. Bringing the Bard to the campfire felt like discovering a lacking piece for a jigsaw puzzle. Halls of Torment is obtainable now on Xbox. Alongside the bottom sport you’ll additionally be capable to seize the Boglands DLC which accommodates two further characters, an additional swamp stage, and a slew of recent gadgets and talents. We hope you’ll take pleasure in it!
Halls of Torment
Chasing Carrots
☆☆☆☆☆
162
★★★★★
$9.99
$7.99
PC Sport Move
Xbox Sport Move
Halls of Torment is a horde survival sport with a pre-rendered retro look paying homage to RPGs from the late 90s. Select one in every of many hero characters and descend into the lethal Halls of Torment. Combat unholy horrors from past and survive wave after wave of enemies till you face one of many tormented Lords. Strengthen your hero with character traits, skills, and gadgets. Create a brand new highly effective construct throughout every run. Discover varied underground expanses and discover new highly effective gadgets that allow you to enterprise even deeper into the abyss.
Consists of the premium options “Various Character Skins”, “Supporter HUD Skins” and the “Coaching Grounds” with the most recent replace: Bardcore!
Bardcore Consists of:
– New Character: The Bard
– 6 New Talents
– 6 New Endgame Artifacts
– 3 Metallic Music Tracks
– Music Choice per Stage
– Handbook Stage Ups
