Salem is a game that is generating a lot of buzz for many reasons, most notably its permadeath option. We had the chance to check it out in person and have a full report. Read on!

Scurvy, paranoia, and more scurvy. That's what the pilgrims had to deal with. When they weren't burning people at the stake, they were coughing up exotic piles of bile, and cursing the day they left good old England - or that's what we of the Old World liked to tell ourselves; why would you want to leave jolly Birmingham? I hear the Americas smell of blow-offs.

Read more of Adam Tingle's Salem: Hands On Preview.

Thanks for the write up. I hope I end up getting a beta invite as I'd love to help work out the kinks in this game. Wish there were more games out there like this.

Open PvP and permadeath. Let us know how that works out.

I played in Alpha and it was pretty decent. I am waiting for OB to start so I don't have to go through training a character up again.

Has a lot of very neat aspects such as teraforming, town construction, etc. They say it is mostly a "crafting mmo", but there is so much more to do than crafting. Can't wait for it actually.

One of the hottest games people are playing this year is the Arma 2 mod DayZ. You have to survive  with limited resources, it has open PvP, and permadeath all with more sandbox qualities than themepark. I think these game concepts are liked by a large enough percentage of the gaming community to be viable for some time.

Now we have the Salem setting offering the same features plus, I hope, a more in-depth crafting system. While I enjoy DayZ quite a bit, I am more drawn to a fantasy setting like Salem. 

This article has intrigued me about Salem even more. I will definitely be trying out Salem.

I have played the game.  All I can say is that if you like Haven and Hearth, you will probably enjoy this game.  If you found H&H clunky and had difficulty getting past the models, graphics, etc, you will not like Salem.  They seemed very, very similar including the gameplay. 

Looks very UO'ish. I like.

:D

I tried to like this, but the opening of the game was too pain-staking for me to appreciate.

I wandered west for 2 hours, didn't find a stone. I re-rolled a character and walked an hour to the east, didn't find a stone. Then I walked an hour North, and when I still didn't find a stone, I uninstalled.

I can't justify playing a game for 4 hours and doing absolutely nothing.

I plan on at least trying this game out. I'm not keen on boring grind, but I've mined up thousands of cubic meters of cobblestone in Minecraft to get about 128 diamonds, so I might actually spend the time it takes to find smooth stones. :-)

So are you supposed to put all of that time gathering and upping skills to lose them with the permadeath system?

Just wonder how that works.

I like it , the graphics are low quality but the feel is more like a design style then a hey look im an  old   game.

Originally posted by Dakirn

So are you supposed to put all of that time gathering and upping skills to lose them with the permadeath system?

Just wonder how that works.

There's supposed to be a system in place where your new character can inherit some skills from the old. It wasn't in when I played which made it really frustrating.

For non carebears...that works great!  That said, I don't know that I could get past the graphics...still love the concept.

Originally posted by Cymdai

I tried to like this, but the opening of the game was too pain-staking for me to appreciate.

I wandered west for 2 hours, didn't find a stone. I re-rolled a character and walked an hour to the east, didn't find a stone. Then I walked an hour North, and when I still didn't find a stone, I uninstalled.

I can't justify playing a game for 4 hours and doing absolutely nothing.

I had a similar experience.  I read on the forums that you had to wander forever to find a space that wasn't picked clean.  So, I did so. I got frustrated and then wandered in the other direction. I found a bunch of cool things: smooth stones, flint, etc and all things I could use to level up, I used a few and stock piled the rest. Then, I had to log out.  When I came back online, I couldn't log in at that spot because someone else was occupying it.  What?  My only choice was to teleport back to Boston, with an empty inventory.

Next, I wandered some more, I bit confident that I would find stuff since I leveled a few skills. I did find some rare things and a few arrowheads. Instead of using those skill cosumables, like my gut said, I made mistake #1 andI kept them in my inventory. Then, I made mistake #2 and asked someone where Boston was. Then, got PKed since "going to Boston, means loot to sell".

I just quit and installed right there. I think I spent at least 4-5 hours and it all ways wasted.  Granted, I've never played a full open PVP or whatever its called. And strangly, the few people I did encounter in the world said "hi" or whatever, even if I was trying to avoid them. 

I just wish that there were something in place to protect newbies. Even Darkfall as a newbie account safely for the first few hours of play (IIRC).  I guess I don't mind the PVP, but gathering for HOURS just to lose it all, sucks. If I had found my way back to Bostom and sold my arrowheads, I would have gotten a settlement. Maybe I would still be playing, too.  

Originally posted by Wookieebob

Originally posted by Dakirn

So are you supposed to put all of that time gathering and upping skills to lose them with the permadeath system?

Just wonder how that works.

There's supposed to be a system in place where your new character can inherit some skills from the old. It wasn't in when I played which made it really frustrating.

I don't think anyone could come to a different conclusion.

I just don't see how permadeath can work in a MMO world.  The purpose of a MMO is to build up your character.  With permadeath it is rather pointless unless you just sit in town all day which is pointless in itself.   On top of that you want us to pay for the privilege?  Even if you don't mind dying how are your friends going to know the new you?  Even then if they have a mechanism for that, you will be back at square one while they are doing things you will have to retrain to be able to do.

I just don't see how they will find enough people to support a game.

Bah. All these "I played for 2 hours" folks get in and waste a beta slot, and I can't get in for love nor money. Should give your account to someone who'd actually test the game, or at least dick around for longer then a few hours. The only thing that killed HnH for me was ennui and stagnation, the fustration was there, but didn't bother me most of the time. Though I will admit that a few days in the game led me to take a break and go to the shooting range to make loud booms and big holes.

Originally posted by Ozmodan

I just don't see how permadeath can work in a MMO world.  The purpose of a MMO is to build up your character.  With permadeath it is rather pointless unless you just sit in town all day which is pointless in itself.   On top of that you want us to pay for the privilege?  Even if you don't mind dying how are your friends going to know the new you?  Even then if they have a mechanism for that, you will be back at square one while they are doing things you will have to retrain to be able to do.

I just don't see how they will find enough people to support a game.

Well, in HnH (and presumbaly Salem) you build up a series of 'works'. The things you build stay in the world, even after you lose your character and have to come back to it without some of the skills necessary to even use some of them.

The real issue with it, IMO, is FFAPvP. Nobody wants to put effort in either of those factors and just end up losing it all to some asshat. HnH's #1 commodity is rage-quits.

I played on Wurm's PvP servers for quite some time, but it's no permadeath unless a 'champion' character, though, you can lose your other investments. You get used to the idea, and tend to not build anything you're not willing to lose. I eventually went to the PvE servers (where I don't have to worry about my vinyards getting griefed as much) and never looked back. The smartest thing SeaTribe can do is propose both server types.

Open PVP then Permadeath? well, i guess i might as well do not bother wearing anything on this game

im actually very interested in this game. i think its a little under the radar, my brother reads this website and massively too and has never heard of Salem. i think some people just skip down to the GW2 and WOW articles and have skipped over Salem because of graphics or Name recognition. I think word of mouth will probably be the best thing going for any game like Salem.

Anyway i hope it's good, everything sounds fun.