The Chosen: Well of Souls Impressions August 8,2007 - Diablo was such a massively popular game that it helped to evolve and birth its own genre of point and click RPGs, with games like Diablo 2, Titan Quest, and soon The Chosen: Well of Souls. The Chosen, from Rebelmind and Miridian4, promises to give fans of Diablo's style of play a good romp, but in an unexpectedly modern setting. Though the game is still in development and requires some further translation, it is already shaping up to be an entertaining title worthy of attention.

The most striking thing about The Chosen is its blend of fantasy elements involving a conflict with Hell into a far more modern setting. The player has access to swords, bows, spears, shields, and all of the typical gear you will find in fantasy RPGs, but there is the curious addition of some technology. Guns that look like they came right out of the early to mid 1900s and old Gatling cannons prove to be as effective a way to dispatch the forces of darkness as sword and shield. And interestingly enough, some guns—unlike bows and crossbows—can be wielded in a single hand. This allow the player to fight their way through zombies, demons, werewolves, and a plethora of other hellish creatures with a strange yet appealing gun and shield fighting style.

The Chosen has three character classes with each designed for a different kind of fighting. The warrior is designed for close range combat, the hunter for long range combat, and the monk for spellcasting. No matter what class is chosen, the player is soon assigned companion creatures that can be summoned at will to assist in soaking up damage from foes, knocking enemies off their feet to give a reprieve from their assault, or simply to provide ranged support. Just as the player levels up, these creatures also level up the more they are used. In each level the player is given a choice in either increasing their offensive damage or their ability to take damage.

Level progression is rather quick, though it does slow considerably at higher levels. The leveling system itself is almost identical to the Diablo series, with four core statistics that the player is given five points to put into as he sees fit for each level. Strength determines melee damage and how powerful armor and melee weapons can be equipped, dexterity limits how advanced the ranged weapons available to the player are, occult knowledge determines your mana pool for spellcasting, and vitality controls how many hit points are afforded to your character. Should you clear all monsters from an area, you are awarded for your efforts with an extra point to invest in one of these attributes.

Each level also grants a character a new skill, which can do anything from increase attack strength and decrease defense strength (or vice versa), to increasing run speed or the chance of doing full damage with any weapon. The skills are, unfortunately, identical between all three classes.

Of course, the game is not entirely like its predecessors in the genre. When in town, all non-player characters that have new information for the player are displayed at the upper right of the screen, and clicking on them automatically sends your character running to them to talk. Potions are needed fairly frequently, and are consumed by clicking on the life or mana orbs themselves. Another nice feature is the ability to reserve any items the player sees in merchant stores while in town for 10% of their actual value. That item will be saved for the player until they can afford it. Finally, all armor is given in a range rather than a set number, meaning that your proficiency in absorbing incoming damage differs per hit depending upon how well your defense is rolled.

Music and sound in The Chosen is decent, with some ominous tracks that are sure to help keep the player on edge. The graphics of the game are not cutting edge, but they are well done and entertaining, with a number of unique monster types some players may never have seen before. The game is of course entirely 3D, and the camera can be tilted, zoomed, and rotated, allowing the player to get in close to the action if he desires.

Rebelmind's The Chosen is looking promising, and any fan of hack and slay RPGs akin to Diablo and Titan Quest should be keeping their eye on this game. Rebelmind has taken the tried and true Diablo formula, put it into a mid-21st century setting, and added a number of entertaining new dynamics such as summoned, interchangeable companions. And even if you don't care for that, let's face it: blowing apart demons with Gatling guns and revolvers is just plain fun.

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