Das Tal has come a long way since my preview of it last year. Fairytale Distillery’s vision and approach for it is ambitious, with the goal of offering an accessible but hardcore sandbox MMO experience that focuses on PvP, crafting, and skill-based combat. From what I’ve seen so far, Fairytale looks to be on the right track.
If you haven’t checked out Das Tal just yet, think of it as a PvP sandbox MMO that looks a little bit like an isometric Borderlands, plays a little bit like Bloodline Champions, and draws inspiration from games like Shadowbane, Gothic, Guild Wars, and Ultima Online. When you get into the game for the first time, you’ll select a type of weapon and armor, which will each help determine the types of abilities that you can use. You’ll get two abilities for each to start, with the opportunity to unlock an additional two each for a max of eight abilities at any time. This mix-and-match of abilities, along with the need for tactical team play and party coordination, lend Das Tal’s combat a feel reminiscent of both MOBAs and MMOs.
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In our preview, I chose the bow and leather armor combination, which gave me a number of abilities ranging from Snipe, Ensnaring Shot, and Sprint, to Puncture, Tumble, and Trap. Das Tal’s gameplay is fairly intuitive, giving you WASD controls for movement, abilities mapped to the surrounding keys, and left click for basic attacks. Importantly, all attacks and heals work on all targets, so be careful where you point those abilities! In MOBA fashion, you can also stealth in bushes to ambush or evade others, and there are some neat terrain features to help you navigate the world, such as the ability to track other players’ footsteps. There are even some neat dynamic audio cues that can help guide you to certain landmarks, like wind organs, harps, and chimes that increase in volume as you get closer to them.
Fairytale has been hard at work adding new art and systems to the game, while paying attention to the feedback they’ve been receiving throughout playtests. One newer addition is that of neutral settlements, which will allow players to get into the game and immediately start progressing their characters rather than depending on player-created settlements. At neutral settlements (and player-created settlements, given the appropriate buildings and resources), you’ll be able to train in or switch abilities at the Dojo and craft items at the Workshop. Everything in Das Tal revolves around the capturing and utilization of resources such as hemp, lumber, and clay, which will lead to all kinds of team battles for resource control.
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Fairytale has a lot of other features in the works, including siege systems that will allow players to attempt to wrest control of settlements from each other, and dynamic world events à la Guild Wars 2 that will add to the existing static resource capturing events. They also have a forthcoming Kickstarter that aims to help them move Das Tal’s development forward and add things like a new armor and weapon type.
You can find more info about Das Tal and the new Kickstarter here.
