Din's Curse

Din's Curse is an action role-playing game by independent developer Soldak Entertainment. It was officially released March 31, 2010 for the Windows and Mac OS platforms. It is currently only available off the Soldak Entertainment website and the Macgamestore, and Impulse.

Gameplay
Din's Curse is a single player and co-op multiplayer action RPG. It is a game in the mold of classics like Diablo with a point-and-click hack and slash style, but tries to differentiate itself by having an immense number of dynamic elements by design. According to the developer, it has a total of 141 possible class combinations, an infinite number of dynamically generated towns, plot consequences in the game that are directly dependent on the player's actions, and a dynamic, evolving game world.

In the game, the player is required to explore an extensive, randomly generated underground, killing monsters and solving dynamic quests. Traps and plenty of loot drops abound. The game world is constantly and quietly in motion as the player goes about its business, with the game engine randomly generating events such as monster uprisings in the underground levels, assassins being sent into town to kill the townsfolk, plagues and curses being visited upon the town by monster masterminds below, and even warring monster factions in the chaos of the underground.

Not everything is as it seems as sometimes the quests themselves turn out to be something else entirely as traitors can end up stabbing you in the back, spies can set up ambushes, and items can curse or possess allies.

Players have an option to set the difficulty in the game worlds that get created. Options include slowing or quickening the pace by which events unfold, and playing at various levels of difficulty from Normal to Hardcore (where players don't get to be resurrected - a character's death is permanent).

Single player
The game world (the town in which the mayhem is occurring) is always randomly generated before the player begins. Once into the world (which is really a town sitting on top of a labyrinthine dungeon), the player must quickly go about his business killing monsters and solving quests before the monsters begin to get gather their forces to attack the town.

If the player fails to accomplish quests on time, a few things can happen. Someone else (a game engine generated NPC) could attempt and succeed, or attempt and fail (in which case a rescue quest might be spawned), or the monsters could advance their goals towards destroying the town. With many quests to juggle, plus the need to ward off the occasional foray into town by monster raiding parties or assassins, the player is kept on the toes.

When too many things go wrong, the inevitable tide of monsters will surge into town. Once too many of the townsfolk get slaughtered, the player fails the overall quest of saving the town. On the other hand, if the player is able to keep things under control and with enough key quests solved, the town gets saved and the player gets rewarded with loot and the option of continuing onto the next town, a step in the direction towards gaining Din's favor and winning redemption (i.e. winning the game).

Multiplayer
The multiplayer feature allows players to play cooperatively on the same server, hosted by one of the players. What is unique to about this feature is that there is no limit to the number of multiplayer connections that can be made; that is, any number of people can play cooperatively.

To connect to a server, one can create a server on a LAN, or the Internet. Like in the single player game, the game world is generated randomly and events unfold as time passes, except players can help each other accomplish the tasks at hand.

Plot
Players take on the role of an anti-hero, seeking redemption. Din, champion of the gods, has cursed the player's character into a second life of service because of having selfishly squandered the first life causing misfortune to everyone else. To gain redemption, the character must impress Din by building a reputation for helping others. The character must travel in the world of Aleria from town to desperate town to save them from the brink of annihilation by monsters welling up from the deep. Until then, the character is doomed to wander alone for all eternity.

Modding
Along with the game, Soldak Entertain has also released a modding SDK for Din's Curse. The mod allows players to directly impact the way the game is played, from basic things such as raising or lowering the game difficulty to changing game dynamics (e.g. lowering or increasing damage done/taken, removing spiders from the game for those with arachnophobia).

Reception
Din's Curse has generated overall favorable reviews (Bytten - 94%, Co-Optimus - 4/5, GameZone - 8.0, The Adrenaline Vault - 4/5, AusGamers - 7.7, Gamersmint - 3.5/5 ) amongst online gaming sites. Following the successes of its predecessors from Soldak Entertainment, Kivi's Underworld and Depths of Peril, reviewers appear to see Din's Curse as a suitable and much more dynamic successor. One reviewer from fidgit.com describes the game aptly with his article titled Din's Curse is like Diablo, but with dungeons that fight back.