Halls of Torment is out on Xbox and we’re tremendous excited to share some perception concerning the content material we’ve added to the sport for this big day. For fairly a while throughout the improvement 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 recreation – the bottom recreation being the sport with out extra DLCs. However initially we struggled to find out what this particular reward ought to be. Gamers at all times acquired excited once 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 fireplace, the joy was excessive and the urge to provide the Halls of Torment one other spin rekindled. So it turned clear to us what could be an satisfactory response to our gamers’ ultimate achievement: a singular and enjoyable character for doing victory laps.
And we knew simply the correct fantasy archetype that might 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 battle with lightning or metal however with music appeared like the right 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 shaped in our heads.
Halls of Torment is a really metallic recreation. The environments, characters, and themes are all issues you would 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 good 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 in fact would even have implications for what skills the Bard would use whereas preventing 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 recreation’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 recreation. Nevertheless it isn’t precisely metallic. So we determined so as to add new tracks particularly for the Bard. We employed a crew {of professional} music producers who helped us out and created a set of three tracks that don’t put on out too shortly even after repeated and extended listening. To spice issues up a bit bit we determined to provide every of the three tracks in three depth variations. As soon as you’d attain a sure character stage, the sport would fade to a higher-intensity variation of the presently performed observe.
Understanding that the Bard could be an outlier within the forged of participant characters, we determined to provide him his personal unique set of skills. Normally, 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 of use the Bard’s music-themed skills; not less than not beneath regular circumstances. All skills for the Bard are impressed by rock live performance tropes: mosh pits, pyrotechnics, killer riffs, you title it. And since they’re delivered to you alongside a set of superior metallic tracks, why not have some extra enjoyable with it? We carried out 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 might sync all Bard capacity triggers with instrumental occasions in every of the tracks. For causes of balancing and aesthetics we needed to creator these music cues manually but it surely was price all the trouble. Now, if you enter the Halls with the Bard, all combos of his skills will lead to a wonderful mild present that may put most stage engineers to disgrace.
To prime off all of this, we’ve added a bunch of latest Bard-themed artifacts that create new challenges by way of the Shrine of Torment. You’ll additionally be capable of equip the Bard’s Mark with all the opposite characters – when you’ve unlocked it – which can assist you to decide one of many Bard’s skills initially of your run.
General, 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 offered now on Xbox. Alongside the bottom recreation you’ll additionally be capable of seize the Boglands DLC which incorporates two extra characters, an additional swamp stage, and a slew of latest objects and skills. We hope you’ll get pleasure from it!
Halls of Torment
Chasing Carrots
$9.99
$7.99
PC Sport Go
Xbox Sport Go
Halls of Torment is a horde survival recreation with a pre-rendered retro look paying homage to RPGs from the late 90s. Select considered one of many hero characters and descend into the lethal Halls of Torment. Battle 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 objects. Create a brand new highly effective construct throughout every run. Discover varied underground expanses and discover new highly effective objects that allow you to enterprise even deeper into the abyss.
Contains the premium options “Different Character Skins”, “Supporter HUD Skins” and the “Coaching Grounds” with the most recent replace: Bardcore!
Bardcore Contains:
– New Character: The Bard
– 6 New Talents
– 6 New Endgame Artifacts
– 3 Steel Music Tracks
– Music Choice per Stage
– Handbook Stage Ups
