Alright time for another special key giveaway which will the first of two more this month thanks to Steven Peeler of Soldak Entertainment, So let's get started.

The first game to raffle off this month is Depths of Peril.

Depths of Peril is a single player action RPG (role-playing game) with strong strategy elements. You play as a faction leader protecting the barbarian city, Jorvik, by destroying threatening monsters and completing quests. At the same time, you compete with rival factions to see who will rule the city. Barbarians choose their leaders by fighting to the death!

Now time for the rules.

1. New registrations are not eligible to win.
2. You must have over 30 posts on the Forum.
3. Just post a comment you are interested in winning the game.

I will randomly pick the winners on Monday, May 11th.

Depths of Peril is now avaiable for $9.99 on GOG.com. Here are the details.

Soldak Entertainment, the developer of Depths of Peril, is one of these little studios that showcase what indie game development can be. It was founded in 2004 by Steven Peeler who left his position as the Technical Director at Ritual Entertainment, to work on his own RPG title. He succeeded. Three years later Depths of Peril was complete.

As Steven says on his company homepage, Soldak Entertainment focuses on bringing new and unique gameplay to the entertainment industry. Seeing how Depths of Peril mixes the evergreen top-down action RPG gameplay with strategic elements that require the player to lead a tribe of barbarians and maintain diplomatic relations with other factions, one can only congratulate Soldak on a job well done. New and unique gameplay it is!

Steven Peeler from Soldak writes that Depths of Peril is included in the latest Indie Royal Bundle. The current minimum price is $4.34 as I write and that gets you six indie games, including the outstanding Depths of Peril.

Depths of Peril is one of my favourite indies - and certainly one of my favourite hack'n'slash games ever. Steam has it on a one-day sale for 75% off - $3.75...well worth a look (about 8 hours to run as I type).

Soldak writes in to let Mac users know that Depths of Peril is now on the App Store.

It's good to see improvements still coming on Soldak's excellent hack'n'slash-with-strategy-elements, Depths of Peril. It has been upped to v1.018 with graphical improvements and a few tweaks and fixes. Patch here, notes here.

Soldak has released v1.016 for Depths of Peril, which is a nice touch for a game they finished three titles back. They've also dropped the price to $14.99 - well worth a look for one of the best hack'n'slashers around in my opinion.

Soldak sends word that Depths of Peril is currently 50% off on Steam ($9.99).  This is one of my favourite indie games and well worth a look for a great hack'n'slasher with a twist.

You can now get the Mac version of Depths of Peril on Steam for $19.99.

Soldak let us know they have Depths of Peril on sale for 50% off at $9.99 - one of the more genuinely innovative games I've played and well worth a look, in my opinion.

Soldak has officially released the v1.015 patch for the excellent indie action/RPG, Depths of Peril.  Grab the file here, read the notes or download an updated demo.

Soldak has released v1.015 for Depths of Peril, fixing a small list of issues.

Soldak Entertainment continues their exceptional post-release support of their indie hack-n-slash/strategy title, Depths of Peril. The beta version of the latest patch for Windows and Mac has been finalized and is available here on the patches page which advises:

These patches will only work with the full purchased version of the game from our website, the retail version, and the Manifesto version.  They will NOT work with the Reflexive (also known as gamecentersolution), Arcade Town, TotalGaming.net/Impulse, Gamer's Gate, Mac Game Store, or Steam versions of the game.

You can also pick it up at Gamers Hell.  The changelog is here at Soldak's official site, where it's also noted that Soldak now has a Facebook Page.

Soldak Entertainment is offering a beta patch, version 1.014, for both the Mac and Windows version of their action rpg Depths of Peril. It's available on their patches page, and it's worth noting this proviso:

These patches will only work with the full purchased version of the game from our website, the retail version, and the Manifesto version.  They will NOT work with the Reflexive (also known as gamecentersolution), Arcade Town, TotalGaming.net/Impulse, Gamer's Gate, Mac Game Store, or Steam versions of the game.

Changelog for the beta is here.

GamePyre has kicked up a review of Depths of Peril, awarding 80% for Soldak's indie effort:

While fighting is the bread and butter of this game, there are several ways in which you can achieve victory. You can either eliminate the competition (if you're the only covenant left you are the only possible choice) or you can engage in some sort of diplomatic arrangements with the other covenants until you manage to get yourself allied with everyone. If you achieve victory through diplomacy, there is a small price to pay; you don't achieve total domination points. While you are running around the world trying to recruit new members and strengthen the power of your covenant you will embark on numerous quests that take you to many new zones of the map. You will encounter a wide variety of individuals, some noble and just while others are pure evil. One thing that I really like about the way Depths of Peril is made is that for once, you don't embark on a quest to save the world or the princess. For once your ultimate goal is to dominate the world for yourself. Now, how you go about achieving that is entirely up to you.

Soldak let us know the v1.013 patch for Depths of Peril is now official, adding a bunch of minor tweaks and fixes.

It took some time for Valve, but finally Soldak's Depths of Peril has been released on Steam. Until the 3rd of December you can buy the game 10% off its price for $17.99. It's an easy way to try the demo at least.

In other Steam news, Titan Quest Gold (Including Titan Quest and the expansion Immortal Throne) is on sale this weekend for the low price of $9.99 - 50% off its standard price.

We're a bit late on this, but Sacred 2: Fallen Angel has recently been made available for purchase on Steam. $49.99 is the price.

Good times for action RPGs on Steam, it seems.

Soldak continues to polish Depths of Peril, with a Beta v1.013 patch now available.  Grab the file here and the notes here.

Thanks to Detlev for letting us know about his German language mod for Depths of Peril.  You can grab it direct from Soldak's mod page.

Soldak has moved the beta v1.12 Depths of Peril patch to "official" with no changes, after finding no problems.

Jay "Rampant Coyote" Barnson chats to Soldak's Steven Peeler (Depths of Peril) in this interview about indie game development:

Rampant Coyote: Any other comments you want to make about the difference between mainstream & indie development?

In the mainstream industry, no one would have let me create Depths of Peril or bring it to the Mac. This is the big difference between being an indie and working in the mainstream. As an indie, I have the freedom to try new things and I don’t have to have proof that it will be a financial success.

One of the other big differences is, as an indie, I work directly for the gamers. I sell directly to gamers through our website and I talk directly to gamers through our forums.

At a mainstream developer, you directly make games for publishers. Obviously, ultimately you want to please the gamers. However, you pitch your game idea or prototype to publishers. The publisher is the one that decides whether or not your game gets made. The publisher pays you. Most developers never make any money except what the publisher gives them. So like I said, at a mainstream developer, most of the time, you are making games for publishers, not the gamers.

Tom Chick's blog site Fidgit has a review of Depths of Peril, with a "thumbs up" rating:

But the really cool part is that while you're out adventuring, so too are heroes from other clans. You all set out from the same town hub, and you all resurrect from the lifestones in your cottages. You'll see your neighbors running around in the world, doing their own things, hacking aside monsters, and sometimes stealing your kills or beating you to quest goals. Sometimes you'll kill each other because clans don't always get along. They bicker and ally and rattle sabers and exchange trinkets, sometimes with you. There's diplomacy system here like you'd expect to find in an epic strategy game. Hey, Defenders of Virtue, how about I sell you this breastplate I don't need? Yo, Treasure Hunters, how about you and me team up against the Brutal Slayers? Hey, Shining Blades, want to get a trade route going to improve our incomes?

For those of you playing Depths of Peril on the Mac, Soldak has released the appropriate version of their recent 1.012 beta patch. You can find it and the full list of changes over at the official site. 

Support for Depths of Peril continues with a new beta patch available.  A crash bug, some typos and a variety of balancing items are included.

We get to get away from the repetition of E3 a bit today.  KansasCity.com has reviewed Depths of Peril, opening with the requisite Diablo references but acknowledging the innovation.  The score is 3.5 stars and here's a snip:

The goal of the game is to defeat or ally with the other Covenants (there are at least three, and often more) and become the undisputed ruler of Jorvik.

While the basis of the game lies with undertaking quests, adventuring out into the randomly generated world to complete them, collecting treasure and useful items, and increasing a character's powers, the other Covenants are all doing the same thing.

Take too long to complete a quest and another Covenant will do so instead, gaining influence and the tax monies that go with it; allow a powerful monster to roam the land unchecked, and it will gather a band of followers, making it harder to defeat.

While rival Covenants can be enemies, they can also be friends. The game features an extensive set of diplomacy options: Players can trade, negotiate and even form alliances with other Covenants. Or they can go to war, attempting to destroy the enemy Covenant's lifestone, a large gem that restores health, resurrects fallen Covenant members and is required for a Covenant's survival.

Kieron Gillen has interviewed Soldak's Steven Peeler at RPS, with conversation about his history, the makeup of Soldak and Depths of Peril's development:

RPS: What challenges did you face putting it into action? What sort of advice would you give people trying something similar?

There were a bunch of challenges with getting the factions and dynamic world working. I’ll just talk about a couple of them though.

The first challenge, one that I think a lot of “hybrid” games fail at, was finding a good balance of strategy and action and doing both well. It seems to me, a lot of “hybrid” games end up trying to take too many features from both genres. You tend to end up doing both halves badly and have a big mishmash of random features that don’t work well with each other. In Depths of Peril, we knew we wanted to primarily be an action RPG, so we chose very carefully what strategy elements to include so that all of them enhanced the gameplay and all together created something unique and fun.

The other big challenge which I touched on earlier was testing and fixing bugs. In a linear game, when a game crashes at the first left turn on level 5, it’s most likely because the player did something specific that crashed the game or the game is coded/scripted to do something specific right there. In other words, many times you know what caused the problem and can reproduce it fairly easily. However, when you have multiple factions that are constantly adventuring or raiding one another, monster uprisings, attacks on the town, and many other dynamic things going on in the game world, it is rarely obvious what happened if the game crashes. I’m not saying that linear games are easy to test or debug, but a dynamic game is much harder to track down these things. Depths of Peril however is pretty stable and has fixed most of our bugs a long time ago.

Steven says their next project is "pretty far along" and should be announced shortly.

In this article finishing up his over-all enthusiastic Part 1 impressions of Soldak Entertainment's  Depths of Peril, Shamus at Twenty Sided ends with some recognition of the game's flaws:

 His worst complaint is this:

I have burst forth from the magical gateway into the alluring safety of our covenant house. I appear there on the threshold, having just escaped the clutches of some bone-clad captain of the underworld. His fell magics have left me bleeding, poisoned, and on fire. At this point I am beyond Death’s door. I’m in Death’s foyer, and Death is taking my coat and asking if I had any trouble finding the place.

But! I am only steps away from salvation: I need only touch our covenant lifestone, and it will infuse me with new life, healing wounds and dragging me back from the brink.

Except…

My team is all gathered so tightly around the dang thing that I can’t click on it. I have to aim for a minuscule gap of just a few pixels between my oblivious compatriots to hit the stone. If I miss, I’ll end up running up to the team member and opening up a little menu where I can see their inventory, add them to my party, and do a bunch of other stuff I don’t care about right now because I’m on fire.

With the demo out for a week now, Soldak has released the full Mac version of Depths of Peril.

Twenty Sided's Shamus Young has been playing with Depths of Peril, kicking up  a two-parter with impressions and gameplay comments:

In Depths of Peril you are the leader of a covenant. There are up to five other covenants in town, each with their own house. You have a lifestone, which brings any member of the covenant back to life if they fall, although the lifestone is damaged slightly when that happens. You have to recruit members to your group, level them up, and outfit them with gear. You have to develop your covenant house, collecting books and relics that confer bonuses on the entire group. And you must hire guards to keep the lifestone safe.

This covenant-growing aspect of the game feels a lot like an empire building game. You collect taxes, establish trade routes, trade with your friends, declare war on your enemies, extort from the weak, appease the mighty, and employ subterfuge when martial strength fails you. The major way you grow in power is to undertake quests for the NPCs in town. To put it simply: This is a strategy game where you play “Diablo” against the other factions.

Soldak has released a Mac demo for Depths of Peril.

I've been wondering what Soldak is doing - and the answer is getting a Mac version of Depths of Peril ready.  Some testers are now needed:

The Mac version of Depths of Peril is almost ready, but before I release it to the world I would really like to get a few Mac testers to make sure I didn't miss anything major.  If you have a Mac that has OSX 10.4 or 10.5, the cpu is at least 1.5GHz, and you would like to do some minor testing please email me (email Steven on our contact page).

The beta period is over and Soldak has released v1.010 officially for Depths of Peril.

A Kieren Gillen review of Depths of Peril from PC Gamer UK has been reprinted at Games Radar.  This is probably the biggest coverage the game has seen and with a score of 8/10, should generate some interest:

Oh, and those quests? They’re generated by the world too, and the Covenants’ successes and failures feed back into them. A monstrous hero arises in the wasteland. There’s a quest to kill him. If no one does, he may gather a band of monsters to him. And then he leads to an uprising, leading to more baddies in the area. If left untouched for long enough, they’re going to storm the village. NPCs can be captured and kidnapped - generating more quests and... well, it’s Diablo meets STALKER - and that’s a STALKER that’s far more alive than GSC’s world ended up being. If you win, you can generate a whole new world for your tougher party to have a crack at.

...and Kieron fleshes out the article with more comments at Rock, Paper, Shotgun.

This one is from a couple of weeks back and looks familiar to me but I can't see it in the database...Depths of Peril has been reviewed at GameZone, with a score of 7.8/10:

In fact, Depths has quite a number of nice little touches that give the game a robust feel. Allies may call on you for help, which may mean going to war. It is therefore important to consider your moves through the world as they can have some very real consequences within the game. And the game does have a real ending, which may or may not be planned. If you manage to wipe out the other covenants (the computer-controlled factions), you will win, but that is much easier said than done. But other incidents that occur, like monster attacks, that might end the game prematurely. Because the game maps are randomly generated, you can never be truly certain that what was viable in one game carries over to the next. Players need to evolve strategy and adapt to the shifting world. 

Soldak has kicked up a new beta patch for Depths of Peril.  The notes are quite lengthy but include a bunch of typo and bug fixes and things like getting a bonus for getting your first party member and code to stop tiny caves/dungeons.

An updated SDK has also been released with "more documentation, our font tool, and with version 1.010 of the game more features to support modding (like the buildTgas command and database overrides)".

A new review for Soldak's Depths of Peril is on offer at RPGFan. The score is 84% and the text is very positive, some criticism of the lack of story aside:

Depths of Peril is a game for true gamers. This is rare among anything with the letters "RPG" printed near it. Most RPGs these days excel in presentation: the story, the graphics, and the sound are superb. Soldak didn't have the budget or the manpower to boost these aspects of the game, and even if they did, I don't know if they would have bothered. Depths of Peril doesn't care to be a book, or a movie, or a soundtrack. It is simply a game, and it is a great game, so long as all you want is a solid, interactive experience with none of the frills of high-budget PC titles. For thirty dollars retail (direct from Soldak's website), it's not a bad deal; plus, you can pat yourself on the back for supporting an independent developer!

Checking the DoP forums for the latest, it looks like a retail release might be coming and they apparently have two projects in the pipeline:

Unfortunately, there isn't too much I can say quite yet about future plans. We do have 2 projects in the works right now so we do have some upcoming things to announce, but it will still be a little while until that happens.

Gas Bandit Gaming's blogspot has a review up for Soldak's strategy/rpg, Depths of Peril and posts a favorable summary with a score of 'B-' :

Launching in September of 07, Depths of Peril is a game that got by under my radar until recently. A game from a small, self-publishing developer which mixes action RPG elements with socio/political ones to make a sort of "Diablo meets Command HQ" type experience, it isn't the glitziest title one might play but under the modest exterior the game has an interesting hook that, if it is your particular cup of tea, will keep you tussling at it long past your bed time.

Meanwhile, Soldak's official webpage points out that indie game review site Bytten has given DoP their "Ernie" award for Best Overall Game of 2008:

This is one of those rare gaming experiences that only come up once in a blue moon for me. Although the appeal of Depths may not have been as universal as some of the other games I have reviewed this year, I must say that it's just about everything that I need in an action/RPG.

The jewel in the crown is the persistent and dynamic game world where every action has a consequence. But intelligent randomisation, huge boss fights, massive amounts of loot and collectibles, ease of modding, customisation of just about everything in the game, awesome in-game fiction - the list just goes on and on. Pure geek mana from heaven.

Time for a new story at the Depths of Peril site.  This one is called Frozen Crystal:

“Do you see that? The shimmer behind those vines?” the elf, Drelianlis asked his cousin.

     “I do.” Lulansal, botanist by trade, took more interest and pleasure in the green vines than any shimmering, though she didn’t say as much. 

     The childhood friends traveled the world together, keeping each other safe while pursuing their individual passions. He loved exploring and learning the history of the world at large. She loved the wilds and the untamed nature outside of the civilized realm.

A new Depths of Peril story intriguingly named Looking Red the Crystals Cry is up at Soldak's site:

The red tailed hawk circled in the sparkling summer sky. Something about the pattern pulled Amma from the crystal ruins where she spent much of her time, down the grassy hill and away from her friends. Wild animals, like the hawk, called her more strongly than the spirits. The wind picked up, whipping her long chestnut hair into her face. She lifted her hand toward the shape in the sky, reaching upward as though to touch it.

The previously mentioned v1.009 patch for Depths of Peril is now out of beta and is an official release.

UK gaming site gameSlave has posted a review of Soldak Entertainment's action rpg/strategy title, Depths of Peril, awarding the game a score of 7.5/10:

The words 'Diablo-clone' are thrown around a lot in RPG reviews, and not always in a good way. This game, however, is more like the bastard son of the Diablo-clone family, taking the best of that genre and evolving into a different type of RPG.

 On the pros:

Through a clever combat and skills system, whatever class of character you chose can lever up fairly quickly, unlocking higher skills, more powerful attacks and better equipment from the merchants that wander the streets and fields of the world. The skills menus are all very easy to work with, using a simple drag and drop approach to advancement which makes levelling up pain free and opens up a lot of options for the discerning mage or warrior to specialise, or stick with being an all round fighter.

On the cons:

But it's not all shiny gems and sharp short-swords; Depths of Peril suffers more than a few faults below its fantasy exterior. Like many other so called Diablo-clones, the game is played with an isometric perspective and this doesn't really flatter the graphics, the characters are not animated to the level you might expect of a modern game and the world itself is not very inspiring to the eye. Still, it's not terrible considering the tiny size of the development team. Jorvik seems more like a tiny village than a prosperous town, and the predictable areas surrounding the settlement (open fields, dangerous dungeons etc) aren't very well detailed.

Conclusion:

Overall, Depths of Peril is definitely worth a try, graphics and learning curve aside, the game offers plenty of depth and the diplomatic aspect of the game gives it a lot more punch than other RPGs on the market at the moment. However, it is definitely not for the RPG beginner and don't expect a game to rival the likes of Oblivion in looks and depth.

Soldak continues to tweak Depths of Peril, with Beta v1.009 tidying up some localisation issues and minor bugs - and also adding a "Loner Challenge mode":

• fixed Cold typo
• fixed not being able to finish tutorial in hardcore mode
• changed covenant stash to shared stash wording in tutorial quest
• fixed some html/vbulletin export ordering issues
• fixed localization of covenant short names
• fixed Resume Game translation
• now Default Frequency is localized
• now numCovenants option is localized
• now guard & relic comparison stuff is localized
• fixed some localization problems with hotkeys
• localized saved monster text for journal stats
• fixed some other journal localization issues
• fixed Close not being localized on the equipment menu
• localized quest progress stuff correctly
• localized a few more things on keyboard screen
• fixed an issue with cfg files not supporting unicode correctly
• simplified version UI
• made selected entity UI a bit bigger
• decreased starting max damage of monsters a bit
• made first areas have less champion, elite, and unique monsters
• added loner challenge mode

Soldak Entertainment posts the news that their indie strategy/rpg, Depths of Peril, has been selected as one of seven finalists up for awards sponsored by Wizards of the Coast and Gleemax at the 10th Annual Independent Games Festival.

Depths of Peril is one of 7 finalists for Wizards of the Coast's/Gleemax's Gleemie Awards.  The finalists for “The Gleemie” were selected from a field of more than 170 game submissions (10th Annual Independent Games Festival) based on strategic and innovative game play.

Gamersinfo  has posted a review of Soldak's indie action/strategy RPG, Depths of Peril . As usual, they employ a scoreless format, but the tone is definitely positive:

I find so many indie titles to be unoriginal and uninspiring that, at times, it takes effort for me to continue to try new titles. Just when I am about to turn away from them for good, an original, well-made game like Depths of Peril crosses my keys. Suddenly, I'm doing an about face and really rooting for it to make a name for itself and do well.

On some of the pros:

Depths of Peril is an interesting combination of a role playing, hack n' slash and strategy...

A very rich background of lore and a series of quests that continue along a main storyline really fill out the game. There are four levels of difficulty which change the map levels/layout, yet the quests maintain consistency throughout each game world - they are well written, and moderately challenging. While adventuring, you'll find up to 40 books you can place in your covenant house library...The lore covers general history, ancient wars, enemies and other heroes from your land; this is definitely something you won't find in your typical hack n' slash game. This extra bit of detail is what really sets Depths of Peril apart from other indie titles.

On some faults:

I have really enjoyed Depths of Peril but I found it difficult to stick with in the beginning. Introductory combat is rough, and it isn't until later that the character development system really shines. The game could stand to have a clarified statistics system. The tutorial explained how everything is calculated but it was rather confusing; eventually, I got the hang of it.

Conclusion:

Depths of Peril is a unique and addicting little game that I've played for many hours already and intend to keep on playing. Though the game could use more attention to detail - and a bit of filling out of world areas - as it stands, it is far from the typical static environments I find in so many games. The leveling and statistics are complex and interesting; it just keeps me always wanting to fool around more with it. One of the best elements of the game is the shear randomness. Maps, enemy types, quests, items, loot, locations, rewards, and difficulty all find ways to change each time you play, and even while you play. While Depths of Peril doesn't seem to stand out in any area in particular, there is just something about the game that won't let me stop playing. It is one of the rare cases where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

Soldak has kicked up a new beta patch for Depths of Peril offering a new Hardcore mode and a bunch of typo and localisation fixes according to the changes. 

Soldak writes they have posted two new Myths of Origins lore stories for Depths of Peril, on the Teritai and the Wood Elves:

Wood elves believe they are the oldest race. They possess the oldest written documents I have yet to find, dating back to 3,000 DA. The dates of oral history is much more difficult to define because of conflicting reports, some marking the first to be at least from 10,000 DA, while others indicate the time is 17,000 DA. Only the gods know which race is the eldest; however, if wood elves are not the first race, they qualify as one of the oldest.

Soldak has made the v1.007 patch for Depths of Peril official - head over for the details. 

A new v1.007 beta patch for Depths of Peril is online - check out the notes here.

Soldak has also kicked up monster profiles for the double-headed brute and devious wisp.

A 7/10 is the solid score for Depths of Peril at Gaming Nexus:

Most entertaining, however, are the missions handed out by potential recruits. They essentially place their fighting/healing/magic-using resume out on the table, and allow the competing barbarian covenants to win the recruit over. The recruit will make a certain demand -- collect X amount of materials, slay Y amount of beasts -- that you must fulfill in order to get the recruit onto your payroll. A timer starts counting down, and in case that isn’t enough time-pressure to place on a mission, it’s important to remember that the other NPCs are already out there, scouring the map, snatching up X amount of materials, or slaying Y amount of beasts. Prioritizing recruiting efforts, general quests, and controlling your inventory would be game enough. But Depths of Peril also adds political ingredients to the stew. Negotiating with your fellow barbarians is a fully-realized scenario that takes its cue from Rome: Total War. Money shifts hands, trade routes open and close, equipment is hauled back and forth, all in the name of temporary peace. Because the hands you shake today inevitably become the hands that squeeze your windpipe later. That is, if you don’t manage to ally with the all the remaining covenants, destroy the ones that won’t, and end up with the greatest influence (a measurable stat) by the end game.

Soldak has made the v1.006 patch for Depths of Peril official - grab the patch here and notes here.

Gee, one day after I said Soldak's beta patches were pretty stable...actually, this new v1.006 beta patch for Depths of Peril is the same as 1.005 but with a few typos cleaned up. 

Jay 'Rampant Coyote' Barnson has penned a review of Depths of Peril for indie gaming site, GameTunnel. The recommendation is "Buy" and here's a grab:

First of all, let’s talk about the world. In most RPGs, you’ve got a world full of things that need to be done by you, the hero. The quests don’t change much, and they will wait for you, the player, to get around to them – even if it takes years. The game will wait for you.

Depths of Peril is not that kind of game. The world changes as you play. Threats to the city build up if you – or one of the other factions – don’t stop it. An uprising of a particular monster type in an area, if not stopped, will give rise to a very powerful (and hard-to-kill) “boss” that rises to take leadership. If you (or the other covenants) don’t take care of this specific foe in a timely manner, it will gather together a kind of “posse” of powerful henchmen that will make it even more difficult to eliminate. Leave this new “super-group of evil” alone long enough, and they will unleash their evil plans upon the city – which could make life there very difficult for the NPCs, all the covenants, and your character.

Soldak has released a beta v1.005 patch for Depths of Peril.  There's a long list of minor fixes and tweaks, so follow this link for details.  This is still beta but it's worth noting the previous beta patches have been pretty solid.

Seems a few people are catching on to Depths of Peril with their recent win at GameTunnel and another review out today, this time at 2404.org with a score of 8.5/10:

Hey, got time to try another Diablo clone? Did I hear a groan or two? Probably. The Diablo-genre has been imitated dozens of times so far, and, except for Titan Quest’s cool class system, few have added anything particularly memorable, just copying the same ideas and throwing a few things that Blizzard probably considered, but threw out rather than include in their own games.

No more. Depths Of Peril is the first “Diablo clone” I’ve seen that takes the design and adds so much to it that future designers may be taking ideas from Depths, rather than Diablo.

Gamers32 has an interview with Steven Peeler on Depths of Peril, which they reviewed favourably a little while ago:

6. Each covenant (faction) has two unique special feats. Are these the only differences between them? How does this impact the game?

Oh, there’s a good bit more differences than that. The two traits are just a good indicator of how that particular covenant is likely to act. Each covenant has a different level of aggressiveness, how much they like to trade, how much they focus on adventuring, how likely they are to betray a friend, what kind of classes they like to recruit and many other things. All of these impact the game in a lot of ways. The trading covenants tend to be friendly with a lot of the covenants. The aggressive covenants get into lots of wars and like many strategy games drags many other covenants into war with them. I’ll give you a couple examples.

The Sisterhood of Fate is a covenant that starts with fairly good relations with many other covenants. They are spiritual (stronger lifestone) and lucky (better items). They also only recruit females (rogues and priests), so they are an all women covenant. In general, they are likely to have a number of friends and lots of money and items.

Where as the Legion of Fear starts with fairly bad relations with other covenants. They are aggressive (go to war quicker) and demanding (more like to demand tributes). They also are much more difficult to keep happy. In general, they are likely to go the pure war route and destroy anyone they can, especially any covenant that is vulnerable.

Soldak's Depths of Peril site is pointing out a review at Bytten with the huge score of 92%:

Depths of Peril is a delicious fusion of a few styles of games and has hit a brilliant balance between tactical decision making, strategic gameplay and plain old button mashing mayhem. The player controls an avatar chosen from 4 diverse classes of hero, living in the barbarian town of Jorvik. The player assumes the role of a covenant leader. A covenant is a guild set up within the town to protect against the encroachment of ravaging hordes of baddies in the wilderness surrounding Jorvik. I guess that in a perfect world there would be one large covenant where all members got along amicably and the ale would flow each night over stories of victory of the Light over the Darkness - but Jorvik is a town in a world that is far from perfect.

...and while we're there, the official site also has two new lore stories, describing the mythology of the creation of the barbarian and lumen races.

This isn't really a full review but it's a quiet news week and I thought some readers might like to check out this site.  Greg Costikyan from indie portal Manifesto Games and head of one of the IGDA chapters also runs a site called Play this Thing!, which highlights a single new worthwhile indie game every day.  I've been watching it for a while and Depths of Peril is the first RPG to pop up (other than roguelikes like Dwarf Fortress) but I've discovered a couple of entertaining games from other genres, so indie fans might want to have a look.  So, on Depths of Peril:

The real enemy isn't the orcs or whatnot, but those nasty bastards on the other side of town; and you win by eventually becoming powerful enough that you can go on a raid, and wipe them out. Or, for that matter, build an alliance with other covenants, and earn an alliance win by taking out your mutual competitors.

Now this is all rather--odd, in its own way; but it has some real strengths as a gameplay dynamic. For one thing, when you complete a linear RPG like Diablo, you're done; you could replay it, but it'll basically be the same game all over game. In Depths of Peril, you may well find that after five hours of gameplay, having explored only a small fraction of the world, you've succeeded in obliterating the opposing covenants. And by cranking up the difficulty level (which is measured on several independently choosable scales, by the way, including opposing AI aggressiveness, starting levels, and so on) you can wind up playing a much different game. In short, while it may not have the infinite replayability of a Civilization, it has vastly more replayability than a typical RPG.

Looks like Soldak's 1.004 patch for their strategy/action rpg Depths of Peril is now out of the beta stage and official, though if past performance is any indication it's more of a formality as all the beta patches have been stable. The link to the patch and fix list at the official site is here,  and you can also find it at Gamer'sHell

Soldak writes in to say they have updated their Depths of Peril monster page, adding the plaguebringer, plaguebringer lava and the skeleton.

Soldak has kicked up three monster profiles for Depths of Peril (lurker, ghost and tower) and both Steven and his partner Delilah have various blog updates, such as this snip:

Of course, the main problem is that the system is inherently biased.  Most websites make their money from advertising and this advertising comes from the people that get their products reviewed.  So it's obvious that the more advertising money you throw at a review site the better your chances of getting a good review.  Also, if you don't get your good review you can pull or threaten to pull all of your advertising money.  You can also punished the site, by no longer giving them interviews or previews of future games.  The bigger the publisher/developer the more of a threat this is.  Another potential problem with advertising and reviews from the same game on the same site is that if the advertising only pays when clicked then the better the review, the more likely readers will click on the ads, and thus the more money the site makes. 

Gamebanshee has posted a link to a review of Soldak Entertainment's indie strategy/action rpg hybrid, Depths of Peril. The site, DarkZero, seems a bit ambivalent about the game, but ends up giving it a 7/10:

Conversely, unlike a few of the other games in the genre, particularly the one mentioned earlier[Diablo], Depths of Peril seems to have a greater basis in tactical combat than you would initially expect. In fact, upon first impression you’ll be no doubt be left feeling slightly overwhelmed, and possibly a bit annoyed. However, if you stay with it and learn how the game is supposed to be played, it is possible to have a considerable amount of fun. All skills are available for purchase from the very start, with the option to save up and buy the powerful ones, or unlock the less costly basic items first; there are many different ways to approach the game to keep things fresh. Furthermore, dependant on your class, there are many of these skills which can be used in conjunction with each other, which all aid in keeping the game interesting as time passes.

A new review for Depths of Peril is up at Games32.  The score is at the very low end of the range we've seen for this game but they seem to like it in the text, so presumably the indie production was a problem for them:

But what make the game unique is the relations with enemy factions. A grid with all the covenants and the diplomacy states, influence, power and taxes are shown. If you have guards protecting the covenant, they will need money, being some sort of mercs. Each faction has two perks that will give advantage from the rest. Some are Lucky (finds more and better items than others), Financial (get bonus to tax), some are Aggressive (tends to start wars and raids quicker). All of factions can trade influence, items, crystals, money, create trading routes or alliances. The relations area of the game is very well customized and developed for a RPG, it even has graphs for comparison the influence and power.

Soldak continues their excellent support of Depths of Peril with a beta v1.004 patch:

1.004
------

• fixed a crash in getEntitiesInRange
• fixed a bug that allows most projectiles to get an extra critical hit bonus
• fixed guard level display in higher difficulty levels
• fixed guard information in higher difficulty levels not using difficulty mults for health, defense, and armor
• fixed item highlight description sometimes going off screen
• no longer show ground items when toggle is on if fullscreen menu is up
• added an extra check to make sure covenant never thinks it is at war with itself
• fixed a problem when fullscreen call happens during main ui loop and breaks ordered menu list
• added very hard covenant aggression difficulty level
• made lightning explosion sound effect quieter
• fixed plaguebringer poison cloud after death not doing damage
• made higher world difficulty levels a bit harder
• potential recruits now save their skills and equipment correctly
• increased damage per strength for rogue a bit
• increased attack per dexterity for rogue a bit
• AI no longer values a raid agreement if you already have one with them
• fixed relation dropping to 0 if you offer a raid agreement with a covenant already raiding
• fixed a problem where a character's gates would get lost when winning/losing a game and changing difficulty levels 

So far, the beta patches have been the same as the final release so these are usually safe to use.

Steven Peeler has kicked up a bunch of posts for his blog at Soldak, musing on making games, publishers and contracts among other stuff:

So to amuse everyone, here's some of the reject reasons I've heard over the years.  Some of these are for Depths of Peril and some are for previous games/companies.

    * Only publish casual games (nothing wrong with this)
    * Wanted a simplified Diablo game whereas we went the other direction and added some actual depth and new gameplay
    * Only take games for hardcore gamers (hardcore gamers don't like fun games with depth and new gameplay?)
    * Too many RPGs coming out (I forget off hand when this was, but I know as a gamer I had no RPGs to play at the time and only a couple that I was looking forward to)
    * RPGs don't sell well (I believe this was before Baldur's Gate and Diablo 2)
    * The PC market is dying (I have heard this many times over the last decade)

Also spotted at Bluesnews was a link to this overall positive review of Soldak's action/strategy rpg, Depths of Peril at Games32:

First time I saw the game I said: “another Diablo clone”. But as I ventured more and more into the game, that idea started diminishing. First of all, Depths of Peril is the work of Soldak, an independent low-budget developer. They managed to created a game that, if you just give it a shot, it will captivate you for its unique gameplay that many other BIG titles lack...

...But what makes the game unique is the relations with enemy factions. A grid with all the covenants and the diplomacy states, influence, power and taxes are shown. If you have guards protecting the covenant, they will need money, being some sort of mercs. Each faction has two perks that will give advantage from the rest. Some are Lucky (finds more and better items than others), Financial (get bonus to tax), some are Aggressive (tends to start wars and raids quicker). All of factions can trade influence, items, crystals, money, create trading routes or alliances. The relations area of the game is very well customized and developed for a RPG, it even has graphs for comparison the influence and power.

Soldak's indie action/RPG with a strategy twist might look like just another hack'n'slasher but this couldn't be further from the truth.  Here's a snip from our Depths of Peril review:

A major part of the game is adding recruits to your covenant. Up to five recruits can join a covenant and any one of them can join you as an adventuring partner, while the others stay back at the house. Recruits can sometimes be found wandering the world, though more commonly they'll come into town and announce themselves available - but only if you successfully complete a quest (usually time limited) to win their favour. Having the best recruits makes a big difference in the early-mid game, and changes the flow of combat while adventuring, especially if you take a complementary class. Mage players who find a good warrior to take along, for example, can concentrate on spell slinging while warriors might appreciate a priest for the buffs and healing. The adventuring recruit can be swapped out at any time and an existing recruit can be kicked out of the covenant to make way for a better option; deciding whether to keep one partner or rotate recruits to build their experience in the field and mix up the gameplay is all part of the fun.

Read it here.

A short but positive review of Depths of Peril is up at Gamersnode, with a score of 7.5/10:

That's the biggest flaw in Depths of Peril (other than the visuals): not really showing the average gamer what it is. It looks like a Diablo clone, it plays like a Diablo clone (in terms of combat) and it feels like a Diablo clone in terms of items and equipment. With the Covenant gameplay and the political nuances, though, Depths of Peril is anything but a Diablo clone. Unfortunately, many mainstream gamers won't be willing to stick with it long enough to learn that for themselves.

Steven Peeler writes a lengthy but interesting retrospective piece on Depths of Peril for RPG Vault:

Our technology goal was to support the gameplay. In my opinion, this is what game technology should always do... not add the latest buzz words, not check off some list of features, but actually support the gameplay. In Depths of Peril's case, this means a fairly quick action game, strategy gameplay with the other covenants, and lots of things happening in the background regardless of what the player is doing, like other factions adventuring, trading, and raiding, monsters forming groups, stirring up uprisings and attacking the town, and other dynamic world events.

RPG Codex has a nice interview with Steven Peeler from Soldak on Depths of Peril, talking about the development, how the public and media have reacted to the game and the future:

1. First of all, how was Depths of Peril received by the media? Did the reaction meet your expectations or surprise you in some ways?

Overall I would say the media has treated us about how I expected. We are a small indie company, so I didn’t really expect to get too much attention at first. However, a few sites have surprised me by treating us very well. Those sites that have taken a look at the game though have liked it. So far our average review score is in the mid-80s, which is good whether you are a large AAA developer/publisher or a small indie company.

2. I don't recall seeing any previews/reviews from large mainstream sites. Did you try to contact them, offer them review copies? Do you think they would have treated your game differently if it had a well known publisher's name on it?

Well it depends on which sites are considered large mainstream sites. We have contacted as many review sites as possible and offered review copies. We have gotten a handful of reviews so far (which have all been good) and have more that are coming soon. We still welcome more reviews.

Soldak has officially released the v1.003 patch for Depths of Peril.  It's actually exactly the same as the beta release, which obviously turned out to be bug-free, so you don't have to install this if you already went with the beta version. 

Two articles on Depths of Peril have hit the 'net; not quite formal reviews but close enough.  Here's a snip from Gaming's Edge:

One thing I'm finding out about the game is that it's just as much fun to "win" and then go through the storyline as it is to mess with the other covenants. Sure, raiding is fine and dandy, but the story is interesting enough in its own right that the meta-game of politics and self-preservation against other vicious barbarians can sometimes amplify pressure a bit too much. So, I wiped out all the other covenants and continued playing. Sure, there's a little victory crown telling me, "Um, you know you won already, right?" But I just ignore it and continue to build up my awesome character. Which is cool that the game lets you do that. I've gotten some really awesome loot that way.

...and indie blog Tales of the Rampant Coyote:

What all this means is that your decisions are far more complicated and dynamic than you'd find in most RPGs. There are real consequences to actions, and you can't simply accept every quest that falls in your lap and then complete it "when you get around to it." The game won't wait for you. So you have to decide --- do you push forward in a quest to recruit a high-level mage for your covenant? Or do you let it drop (and risk an aggressive rival covenant recruiting him) while you try and lift a siege which has explosive catapult shot going off all over the city injuring everyone (including your own faction members)? Or do you ignore it all in favor of pursuing greater loot and experience points for your own covenant members? Or do you take advantage of the aggressive rival covenant's current weakness and attack them BEFORE they have a chance to recruit that rival wizard, thus keeping them occupied so they won't have a chance to complete the recruitment quest themselves? Or better yet, do you encourage a conflict between them and a different covenant, weakening them both?

A pair of short stories are available at The Depths of Peril site, apparently shorter than their usual fare.  Head over to read The Crusade of Light and Reign of Terror.

Soldak has a beta v1.003 patch for Depths of Peril:

    * added LowRelation help topic
    * added GetQuest tutorial quest
    * added ciglio belt as a reward for finishing the tutorial
    * added party member low health help topic
    * tutor intro text now mentions tutorial and item reward
    * updated manual with LowRelation and party member low health stuff
    * added dual core AMD cpus running game too fast to manual
    * fixed highlight info only working on 1st 6 effect icons
    * can now return to game if you accidently click on Win Game icon
    * ai will no longer try to buy guards when under attack
    * relic stats now applied correctly immediately after game starts
    * first few zones now have slightly less monsters
    * recruits can no longer wear mail or plate armor until they actually get the first skill point
    * made ghost's in quests more visible
    * added a show items toggle option
    * added gamma support/option
    * now recruit stat highlight information uses the correct class
    * added level to guard detail
    * added armor, defense, max health guard detail
    * tomes and treasure maps names are now white instead of grey to be a little more noticable
    * ai will no longer leave to next zone if on recruit quest in current zone
    * increased chance that a dead town NPC resurrects each chance
    * now can get highlight info on something and see all items on ground at same time
    * increased amount of chests in dungeons
    * now some quests require killing less monsters if in dungeon/cave

Soldak has posted information on two more Depth of Peril monsters at the official site- the amorph and the drake.

Amorphs suck, by the way. 

Generation Gamerz has part three of their Depths of Peril interview with Soldak, offering a very short conversation:

[SG]: What's the best thing you have learned about the game industry thus far?

[SP]: Not that this is surprising, but fans are smarter than the industry gives them credit for.  They really do want new and interesting gameplay rather than just another pretty clone that is exactly the same as the last game. (See why I like these guys? -SG)

Geenration Gamerz has kicked up Part 2 of their Depths of Peril interview with Steven Peeler:

[SG]: What's next for Soldak? Will there be another genre mixing game coming from the studio or will it be a more traditional style game? I've got some ideas if you want them.

[SP]: Well right now I’m hoping to do some expansions for Depths of Peril.  There are still a lot of things that I would like to add.  After Depths of Peril stuff though, we will have to see.  I don’t really think along the line of making hybrid games though.  I simply try to make games that are different than what has already been done, something unique.  In the case of Depths of Peril, that happened to lead to something that people have called an RPG/strategy hybrid, but that wasn’t really the intention.

GameTunnel  has posted a short review of Soldak Entertainment's strategy action rpg, Depths of Peril in their "What's New in Indie" section.  They give it their highest score, "Call in Sick":

I really liked Depths of Peril. There were some obvious flaws, but they didn't take away from what is a very singularly enjoyable experience. Working with the computer-controlled guilds while also trying to beat them was a unique type of computer competition that really caught my fancy.  

Scroll down this page for the whole story. 

Jolt has kicked up a review of Soldak's indie action/RPG Depths of Peril, scoring 7.7/10:

The fun and rewarding action-oriented gameplay will certainly be what makes you sit down and play for a while, but it’s this constantly changing, replayable game of strategy that gives you a reason to come back. New treasures are there to improve your character or your guild house, and a decent system of skill upgrades lets you tweak your character to a style of play you enjoy, but even this doesn’t match the variety of options you have when dealing with those who would oppose you in whichever way you see fit.

In other DoP news, Generation: Gamerz has the first part of an interview:

[SG]: What possessed you to leave Ritual and move into your own digs? Was it the human sacrifices? How long have you been in the 'biz'?

[SP]: Well the human sacrifices were fun for a while, but you start getting really nervous when the supply of victims runs low. [smiles] Actually, one of the main reasons was that I wanted to work on an RPG and while many people at Ritual and even some of the owners wanted to create one, it just didn’t look like a publisher was ever going to sign a deal with Ritual to do one.  Something about Ritual having no experience with RPGs and some nonsense about too many RPGs already.  So I decided to do one anyways, which meant leaving Ritual.

 I worked at a startup before Ritual for a couple years, Ritual for 6 years, and now Soldak for almost 3 years.  So I have been in the industry for about a decade (plus or minus a year depending on what you count).

News from Soldak that their v1.002 patch for Depths of Peril is out of beta and now official and a beta SDK has been released for modding.

Soldak Entertainment has posted the second installment of The Oath Undone, a literary look at the game world of their strategy/action rpg, Depths of Peril. They have also updated their demo to reflect all the  post release fixes and improvements made to the game. A list of all the download mirrors can be found here.

Depths of Peril has found good reviews so far and this one at Generation Gamerz sticks with that trend, awarding 89%:

There is some strategy that is needed when you go out into the wild with only one other party member (the maximum) but much of the gameplay is go kill something or gather something while not getting killed by the denizens of the area. It would be sort of boring if it weren't for the influence and political strategy side of the game. Each quest you complete gains you some experience and some influence. You need the influence to become the strongest clan in the village and have the other clans want to make treaties with you and such. If you stay out adventuring too long and don't come in to claim your influence it should come as no surprise that the others will see you as weak and attack your homebase while you are away. The major problem with this game is I kept getting so involved in it I would forget I was writing a review. Well I guess that's not really a problem now is it. OK, so the gameplay is slightly redundant in the go-kill-all-the-mobs kind of way but the dynamics of the other half of the game make it interesting and kept me coming back for more.

As an aside, Worthplaying has an updated DoP demo that includes the latest patch improvements.

The second review for Depths of Peril comes from Out of Eight and carries a score of 7/8:

Depths of Peril makes itself much more than a simple Diablo clone with its unique implementation of diplomatic goals. The 4X-like portion of the game, where you must balance relationships with rival faction and eliminate the weak competition, makes for some very interesting gameplay. Not only are you battling the NPC monsters, but you are also battling rivals who are battling the NPC monsters. The game switches seamlessly from traditional RPG combat to diplomacy and back again, and the end product is very entertaining. You never spend enough time in either part of the game to get tired of it, and alternating between grand strategy and action role-playing varies the overall experience in a good way. You might be a high-level monster-killing machine, but if all the other factions gang up on you, it will not matter. You have to master both aspects of the game, and this dichotomy is where Depths of Peril shines. There are some missing features and it’s not the easiest game in the world to get in to thanks to the sub-par tutorial, but it sure is fun once it gets going. Depths of Peril is a highly recommended title that seamlessly blends two genres into a unique and compelling gaming experience.

Soldak Entertainment has posted part 1 of another story about the game world of thier recently released strategy/action hybrid rpg, Depths of Peril. It's called The Oath Undone and you can read it here.

Also, for those who have gameplay questions, the site has some very helpful threads in their forums where you can find  both answers and tips, or get help from other users as well as the developer. 

Soldak has kicked up a v1.001 patch for Depths of Peril, with a beta of 1.002 also available.  You can grab both files from their Patches page and here are the notes for 1.001:

1.001
-------

fixed crash when moving around skill icons that have use hints

fixed after are parents typo

added DEP issue to troubleshooting in manual

added AC 97 driver stuff to troubleshooting section in manual

fixed some problems when both enemies have damage on hit effects

added tool tip for covenant aggression

shifted editor tile layout over a bit

fixed some collision issues in crystal type cave

now subtract 1900 from zip files year to match normal file system

fixed not building uncompressed textures if needed

can no longer sell bags with items in it

fixed a crash in skill mastery stuff

fixed mastery skills effecting the wrong skills

now clicking on covenant health bar uses/attacks that covenant's lifestone

added disable party member dialog option

A very short review of Soldak's Depths of Peril is up at grrlgamer.  There is no score but they seem to like it:

Depths of Peril is a very dynamic game that requires you to pay attention to pretty much everything, from identifying loot drops to managing covenant member's equipment, diplomatic relations and timed quests. It's a pretty busy game with lots to do, and one that I am really enjoying.

A new story is called Assassin is up at the site for the freshly released Depths of Peril:

Thayer, Thayer, Thayer. He slipped on the familiar personality like well worn gloves. Thayer the clever assassin, never caught no matter the price on his head. He tucked his chin, hiding his eyes from the two rough looking men passing him in the shabby alley. The place reeked of vomit, urine, and dead things. The men shouted, punching each other in the arm, entering the Goat N Ale bar.

Soldak has released Depths of Peril and it can now be bought from the official site:

Dallas, Texas, September 05, 2007 - Soldak Entertainment today announced the availability of Depths of Peril for Windows PCs.

Depths of Peril can be purchased at:
http://www.soldak.com/content/blogcategory/29/66/

Depths of Peril is a single player action role-playing game (RPG) with strong strategy elements. You play as a faction leader protecting the barbarian city, Jorvik, by destroying threatening monsters and completing quests. At the same time, you compete with rival factions to see who will rule the city. Barbarians choose their leaders by fighting to the death!

As a faction leader, you must deal with rival factions through diplomacy, trade, and in time, war. Between battles and raids against other barbarian factions, you build the most powerful faction possible, to withstand your enemies. Building the power of a faction involves exploring a fantasy world, slaying dangerous monsters, solving quests for the city, avoiding deadly traps, and plundering loot to share within your faction.

But in this world, actions actually have consequences, so take care. Annoying the powerful and aggressive Legion of Fear faction will cause them to declare war and destroy you. Ignored orc uprisings in the Black Forest might lead to attacks on the town or even more trouble. Protect ally covenants that are being raided, because friends are hard to come by.

You can go to http://www.soldak.com/ for more information about Depths of Peril and Soldak Entertainment.

A demo is also available at:
http://www.soldak.com/content/blogcategory/28/65/

About Soldak Entertainment, Inc.

Soldak Entertainment, Inc. is a small independent developer, focused on bringing new and unique gameplay to the entertainment industry. Soldak was founded by Steven Peeler. Before embarking on his own in late 2004 to create Depths of Peril, he was Technical Director of Ritual Entertainment.

Soldak dropped us a line about some updates for their indie action/RPG, Depths of Peril. 

First, the official site has been updated with the lich and stalker monsters.

Indie game blog Tales of the Rampant Coyote has some brief impressions from the demo:

I've gotta admit --- I wasn't extremely excited about this title. There were some cool-sounding elements, but I didn't see how they fit together as a whole. Having played the demo far too long tonight, I'm gonna admit... Steven Peeler has pulled it off. This is an indie RPG that shows what indie RPGs can be about. It's got all that "innovation" and stuff that the press and fans claim they really want, but they too often ignore even if it bites them on the face.

...and Gaming's Edge has a preview:

I have NEVER seen monsters that were actually programmed to go after one another in the way that they do in this game. You'll literally see orcs attacking zombies, warring factions among individual monster tribes, etc. This is without any players being around, mind you. Similarly, there are no safety zones. Your main city can be attacked by roving monsters; monsters can even form "uprisings," which roughly translates into raging monster armies that can come and make your day a living nightmare. Even the NPC's are up for grabs - there are plenty of "wandering vendors" who eventually become "monster food."

TechDomain is the latest site to run a preview of Soldak's Depths of Peril.  The article has lots of images and here is a short clip:

The strategy in this game is what makes it interesting, and sets it apart from the others. It really pays to keep an eye on your relationships with the other covenants. From time to time they will make demands of you. If you choose to pay, you keep them happy. If not - well they might just end up fighting you to get what they want (or at least attempt to!). You can also trade items, alliances etc to keep the others happy or working towards a mutual goal. Whatever you do, you can be sure that your own personal play style will greatly impact the direction that the game heads for you.

Soldak has released the demo for Depths of Peril. Here's the press release and mirror list:

The Depths of Peril demo is now available! You can play all 4 characters in the demo, explore the first part of the world, play through part of the storyline, experience a lot of the dynamic world with consequences, and get a taste for the covenant gameplay and it's less than 70MB, so check it out.

You can download the demo from the following mirrors:

gamershell
GameSpot
WorthPlaying
FanGaming
StrategyInformer
FileShack
Gameguru Mania
Atomic Gamer
File Front
ComputerGames.ro

Here's the actual press release for the demo:

Depths of Peril demo now available!

Dallas, Texas, August 16, 2007 - Soldak Entertainment today announced the availability of the Depths of Peril demo for Windows PCs.

Depths of Peril is a single player action role-playing game (RPG) with strong strategy elements. You play as a faction leader protecting the barbarian city, Jorvik, by destroying threatening monsters and completing quests. At the same time, you compete with rival factions to see who will rule the city. Barbarians choose their leaders by fighting to the death!

As a faction leader, you must deal with rival factions through diplomacy, trade, and in time, war. Between battles and raids against other barbarian factions, you build the most powerful faction possible, to withstand your enemies. Building the power of a faction involves exploring a fantasy world, slaying dangerous monsters, solving quests for the city, avoiding deadly traps, and plundering loot to share within your faction.

But in this world, actions actually have consequences, so take care. Annoying the powerful and aggressive Legion of Fear faction will cause them to declare war and destroy you. Ignored orc uprisings in the Black Forest might lead to attacks on the town or even more trouble. Protect ally covenants that are being raided, because friends are hard to come by.

Unlike many demos, in this demo, you can play all four characters that are available in the full game up to level 7 so there is plenty to try out. The demo is also under 70MB, so there’s no reason not to give it a try :)

You can go to http://www.soldak.com/ for more information about Depths of Peril and Soldak Entertainment.

About Soldak Entertainment, Inc.

Soldak Entertainment, Inc. is a small independent developer, focused on bringing new and unique gameplay to the entertainment industry. Soldak was founded by Steven Peeler. Before embarking on his own in late 2004 to create Depths of Peril, he was Technical Director of Ritual Entertainment.

If you'd like to try an indie hack'n'slash action/RPG with a couple of twists, I think this is worth a look.

Soldak's Depths of Peril site notes the demo is due soon - possibly within the week.

Soldak has kicked up two new monster profiles for Depths of Peril.

The latest Depths of Peril look comes from GameZone:

The best part is that Depths of Peril is never predictable due to how dynamic the game world is. Every time you start a new game (which could be quite often) the areas outside of Jorvik are randomly generated as are the rival covenants. Also, there is never any real pattern to when and what quests become available, which means monster uprising can happen pretty much at any time, for example. Or maybe a vendor in town will become petrified, and you have to cure them so you can buy stuff from them. Or maybe your house will suffer a locust infestation, and you have to cure the accompanying status ailment to continue to fight at full capacity. The list goes on.

GameZone has a new interview with Steven Peeler on Depths of Peril:

What niche do you think this game fills? What type of gamer will it appeal to?

Steven: I think we will appeal to action-RPG players mostly that want some more depth than the typical offering. There is way more going on in Depths of Peril than most action RPGs. There are multiple covenants fighting for dominance using diplomacy, wars, raids, and alliances. The world is very dynamic and changes based on the actions of the character, the other covenants, and even the monsters. There is also a huge backstory so even the history of the world is fairly deep.

This is the intro for The Taken, a new story snippet for the Depths of Peril:

Prince Alek Carmelo threw dry beans at a tin cup in the command tent. On the edge of Wayward Desert and the dry scrub and wood of the Barrenlands, the winter encampment was more boring than he ever envisioned. The conscripts drilled in the morning and afternoon. Patrols watched for the enemy, naga and scorpid, but none had been spotted in weeks. There was nothing to do but practice swordsmanship, and he was tired of the routines. If Drel and Lulan hadn’t left for the southern camp investigating the missing messengers, he could have learned new foreign techniques. Not for the first time, he wished he’d brought paints and canvases.

Jolt has kicked up a preview of Soldak's Depths of Peril:

Hopefully with the growing community that is surrounding this game they can get a buzz going that will lead to some deserved success when Depths of Peril launches, as it quite clearly deserves at least to get a fair crack of the whip amongst all the other less ambitious Diablo rip offs that have emerged over recent years. At least this time they are trying to do something different and making it slightly more interesting than merely a hack and slash collect-em-up. That said, Depths of Peril isn’t highly unique, but what it does, it does from a slightly different angle, and the addition of political intrigue has done it no harm at all.

Soldak has kicked up two new monster profiles for Depths of Peril, covering the hulk and the scavenger.

A new story for Depths of Peril is up at the official site.  Here's the opening of Tover of the Dark:

Brenna stared out beyond the flickering campfire into the night’s shadows, searching for the voice’s origin. Her hand skimmed the sleep sand in the small pouch on her belt, ready to throw it. She knew trouble would come, and the harsh desert terrain didn’t count as trouble. When it wasn’t the weather or monsters, then it’d be thieves in the darkness of this placid night. Except it should have happened while they slept. Should have been dark elves, too. But maybe it was a dark elf, a scout.

Depths of Peril has been previewed at Hooked Gamers:

The defense of your Covenant can be done personally, when you are in the area, by faction members you can recruit through your travels and by guardian creatures that you can purchase. As the player advances through the game, new recruits will wander into the city looking for somewhere to call home. To recruit these freelancers into your faction, a quest, based on the recruit's level, must be completed to prove your strength and that you are worthy of recruiting them. These recruits can either be left at your Covenant or travel with you as a back-up. IF you choose to take them as traveling companions, they will earn experience and level up regularly and you can equip them as needed as upgrades become available.

Vault Dweller from RPG Codex has penned a new Depths of Peril preview that includes a pretty good set of screens.  Here's a snip:

So, when you feel that you are ready, you declare war on some poor bastard (covenant) and attack his lifestone. At this point the hero of that covenant teleports back and, aided by the bought guards and recruited NPCs, starts kicking your ass. You die, click "resurrect", and run back to that covenant's house and continue to attack the lifestone. If you attack and kill the hero, he's quickly resurrected and continues to attack you. Being resurrected does reduce HPs of your lifestone a bit. Also, the resurrection speed is directly related to the lifestone's HP. In other words, the more damaged a lifestone is, the longer it takes for it to resurrect the hero, which is a nice tactical touch.

Soldak has posted new monsters at the Depths of Peril site, as well as a story titled Battle at Forfarshire:

Drelianlis, the elven adviser to the Brechin Kingdom’s General, looked out beyond the high, stone city walls, onto the burning plains, and the vast sea of enemies. The attacking zombie and orc army drew some saurian, lizard men from the deserts, to their cause. They laid siege to Forfarshire, the capital and largest city of all humankind.

“Hold on!” The General commanded as the tower shook. A spiked metal ball from a catapult glanced off the tower’s side, gouging it and sending debris falling on those below. The noise covered the sounds of war for a moment.

YouGamers put up a preview of Depths of Peril yesterday, although their general tone is more negative than my own article:

In amongst the maelstrom, like the collateral items in a tornado strike, were other players... err, hang on! This is a single player game, so what gives? Actually they were NPCs, masquerading almost as gamers in a MMORPG, fighting for the other covenants.

In other DoP news, their official forums have been launched.

We recently had the chance to spend some hands-on time with a preview build of Soldak's indie action/RPG with a strategy twist, Depths of Peril:

This is the key innovation with Depths of Peril - the competition and interaction with the other covenants. Each of the NPC heroes from the other factions goes out and actively adventures in the gameworld to improve their position. You’ll come across them out in the field (especially in the beginning when everyone hits the starter areas around the same time), see them in town talking to the traders and be able to influence relationships with them by trading, paying or demanding tributes and creating alliances or declaring war. The world is also dynamic, with various events cropping up.

Head here to read the entire article.

Soldak has added the saurian and the naga to the Monster section at the Depths of Peril site.

Soldak let us know they have posted a new story called Tribute and three new monster profiles (Giant Spider, Sentinel, Dark Elves) at the Depths of Peril site:

Bevan peered through the window overlooking the waterway. He couldn’t see the waterfall pouring into the narrow lake. The river split at the ends of the lake and circled around the noble houses before rejoining. Bevan watched a man push a raft with a long pole toward the lesser houses.

Sometimes he thought about what his father’s life might be like in the free lands, beyond the Cliffs of Keeping that defined the home of the Rimround people. The high cliffs surrounded the land completely, a gigantic gorge, making it a safe haven. Other times his mind drifted to memories of Lyselle.

GameBanshee has previewed Soldak's Depths of Peril:

The most important thing to understand about Depths of Peril is that it is a hybrid game. It combines an action role-playing engine with some empire building concepts to create a new kind of experience. You control a “covenant,” which consists of your hero, some recruits (who can follow you around), and some guards (who have to stay at home). Your goal in the game is to bring your covenant to dominance by making your hero as powerful as possible and by defeating the other covenants.

Look for our own preview within the next week or so.

Soldak has posted a new story for Depths of Peril titled Necromancer:

Ivar joined his conscripted son on the battlefield rather than take his place on the wall of the keep. How could the city’s defenses hold under the necromancer’s vast, fearless army of rotting zombies and ragged skeletons? For each soldier lost, the undead grew in number.

He heard the sparks of crackling fire falling through the air. Grabbing Tomasz, he pulled him back before running from the fray. Ivar leaned down, panting, hands on knees. He wiped sweat from his hands onto his tunic, to better grip his sword. 

The Depths of Peril site sees two new monsters, a new villain named Turen and a new story, titled Fire Scrape:

Night turned to twilight, twilight to night. The sun vanished, replaced by the darkness that coursed across the sky on magic winds. Heading deeper into the gloom, Sven, Damek, Brenna and Tover crossed Low Desert. They switched from night travel, staving off the sun’s heat, to day. Without the sun, the twilight offered little warmth. Were it not for the sand, Brenna would question if this was a desert.

Soldak sent us a note about a couple of new updates for Depths of Peril.  First, the Giant Scorpion, Scorpid and Death Knight have been added to the Monster section and second, a new story titled Draaien and the Ring is up:

Draaien pushed his way past the other orc boys. The tall one shoved him in return, but let him pass. He didn’t fear any of them, though some, like the tall boy, were older than his ten years. The adults wouldn’t tolerate a fight on the trail, and if any held a grudge, he enjoyed a brawl after the grueling day’s march. His side ached. After stretching his arms, he adjusted the heavy sword strapped to his belt. He was clumsy with it, still new to the art of war. Draaien watched the adults closely, and not just at battle.

There are two new items at Soldak's Depths of Peril site today.  First, a new story snippet titled Zombie Deadfall has been released and second, a new section is up for monsters from both the game and the lore histories:

Aleria was a relatively peaceful place until some greedy miners dug too deep looking for bigger and more valuable lifestones.  They accidently unleashed the dark elves along with many other dangerous monsters in the event know as Depths of Peril.

Since that time there has been four Great Wars in Aleria.  In the Fourth Great War, Aleria was overrun and conquered by the forces of evil but without an enemy left standing to fight, the evil alliances quickly fell and turned on each other in a war over the spoils of victory.

Soldak's Depths of Peril sees its second Peek at RPG Vault with project lead Steven Peeler writing about the strategic elements:

The barbarians survived the near annihilation of the west. Barbarians are well, barbarians; they choose their leaders through fights to the death. You play as a head of a faction (called a covenant in the game) where your main goal is to destroy the other covenants and become the new town leader. This is also their goal, so be careful. The strategic gameplay primarily comes from this competition with the other factions, and adds depth and more meaning to all of your actions.

Going to war with all of the other covenants at the same time is usually suicide. It's best to keep them peaceful until you are ready to crush them. By using diplomacy, primarily through trade, you can keep your competitors happy. In general, the more you trade with a given covenant, the more it will like you. You can trade various things including items, money, influence, crystals (covenant version of money), treaties and trade routes. You are not restricted to fair trades though. You can also give gifts or demand things from them.

Two new items at the Depths of Peril site today - the first is a new section on the game's races and the second is a new story snippet called Forgotten Cave:

“What is this place?” Brenna stared into the dark maw of the cave hidden behind layers of toothy cacti. Hot and sticky under her long red-brown robe, she sat and drank from her water skin. After hiking up a desert mountain, with no trail or path, Brenna suspected Sven had gotten them lost.

Two new items are up at Soldak's Depths of Peril site today.  There's a page on the villains that show up in the backgrouund stories and the story Interitance concludes:

The caravan couldn’t possibly have withstood such a number. Bluefoot cleaned the gore off his axe. He kept rubbing it, thinking something was wrong. The cutting edge glowed. He didn’t have time to figure out what was the problem. He sheathed it. His arm seized up in a severe cramp. He fell to his knees and gripped it with his other hand, gently rubbing it. The pain eased.

We missed an item at Soldak's Depths of Peril site yesterday so Steven Peeler kindly pointed out their feature on Historical Heroes, which offers bios of the heroes from the various background stories they have released.

Soldak has kicked up a new story snippet for Depths of Peril with Part 1 of Inheritance now up:

Bluefoot sat on the canvas covered cargo in the middle wagon. Most dwarves didn’t favor horses, and he was no exception. He shifted, trying to get comfortable, and scanned the horizon to the left of the merchant caravan. High green grass grew along the plain, dotted with purple bull thistles. Firewheel, the only other dwarf in the group, kept watch on the right from atop a horse; he’d spent entirely too much time with the humans. Flies buzzed around the animals.

Soldat has their first Depths of Peril Peek at RPG Vault, headlined "Consequences / Actions Matter":

Unlike many games, your actions when dealing with quests in Depths of Peril matter a lot. Technically, all of the quests are optional. You don't have to solve any of them to further the game, but almost all of them have some kind of consequence if you don't - sometimes minor and sometimes pretty major. There are many more in the game than the few I talk about here. You can fail quests. Unlike many games, when you get a quest to rescue someone, the NPC can actually die, so you really do have to rescue them, not just show up. Some quests have consequences if you take too long. For example, if a thief is in town stealing from the vendors, she doesn't wait around for you to deal with her. The longer it takes you to do something about it, the more items she'll steal from the town vendors, eventually fleeing town with all of her loot.

The story Dragon Stone concludes at the Depths of Peril site.  Here's an excerpt:

The leader of Dragon’s Breath, Rus, sat before a fire talking to the warriors. His honey brown hair was neatly combed and tied at the nape of his neck. He kept his scruffy bread short. It was the fierce dark eyes and quiet competence that won his reputation. Rus groomed Rollo from a gangly adolescent to a skilled warrior, ready to take a place within Dragon’s Breath. The covenant was his family, and Rus was like a father.

A new story is called Dragon Stone is up at the Depths of Peril site:

The first half of the story Dragon Stone can be read here.  This story is about a covenant called Dragon Stone struggling to survive through the Fourth Great War.  The story also shows how barbarians use lifestones.

A second Depths of Peril interview at French site JeuxVideoPC is online with an English translation hosted at the official site.  Here's a lengthy but interesting bit:

What is the main gameplay innovation in Depths of Peril?

Well I don't know about the main innovation, but one of the important innovations in Depths of Peril is the alive gameworld that reacts to the actions of the player, the actions of the other covenants, the actions of the monsters, and even its own actions. This pretty much goes hand and hand with my answer about choices and consequences. Almost everything has some kind of impact on the world. All of your diplomacy or lack of it, changes how the other covenants deal with you. Which quests you decide to do and in what order matters. You can actual fail quests if you can't solve them quickly enough, including someone important dying, or sometimes one of the other covenants solving the quest first. Almost anything can happen.

I actually ran into a good example of this today. I'm about to go adventuring when someone in town spots a thief trying to steal items from the town's vendors. Since I was already in town I tracked her down pretty quickly, but she still managed to steal three or four items before I caught up to her. It's a little hard to track down thieves using stealth; they are hard to see. I managed to find her and attacked. The instant I attacked, she lost her stealth and the vendor that she was trying to steal from joined the fight. That was apparently not a good thing because the thief killed the npc before I could do anything about it. I managed to find and rid the town of the thief before she stole too many items, but she killed off one of the vendors in the process. Luckily in this case, it was the town's gambler and I'm pretty sure I can live without her for a while.

The original French version is here.

The second part of the story In the Eye is up at The Depths of Peril site:

“There you are.” Casimir rounded the circling staircase where Nadia stood looking out a window. “I thought you’d be preparing with the others in the open cellar.”

She smiled as she looked at him. Her face always lit up with that smile.

“I needed a break. They’re working us like mules!” She laughed and looked back out the window.

Thanks to Steven Peeler from Soldak for dropping us a line to point out several new Depths of Peril items.  First, Gameplay Monthly has an interview:

Explain how diplomacy works in the game and why a player may choose to use it.

Diplomacy is mostly done through trade. You offer them something and ask for something in return. You can also give gifts or make demands. In general, the more good trades and gifts you give to a covenant, the more they will like you.

Using diplomacy can keep everyone from going to war with you at the same time. Remember you are essentially enemies with all of the other covenants. They all want to become the new leaders of the city and you are in the way. If you don't do any diplomacy at all, the other covenants are bound to gang up and destroy you. Unless you are insanely powerful, the other covenants combined can easily destroy your covenant. At a minimum, you use diplomacy to keep as few enemies as possible.

You can also develop full allies with other covenants, which can be very useful. They will protect you if you are attacked and even help with offensive wars, but they will expect the same from you.

At the official site, there's also a new story called In the Eye, and blogs from Steven (lead / programmer / designer) and writer Delilah.

Steven Peeler from Soldak has been interviewed at Gameplay Monthly about Depths of Peril.  Here's a nice overview:

Let's get down to it: Why are you creating this game?

We are creating Depths of Peril because we wanted to add something new to the RPG genre, especially the action RPG subgenre, by adding in some new elements that haven't really been seen in this type of game before. We don't want to be just another clone, we want to expand the genre and make something unique. There are many ways that we are doing this. For now I'll just mention three of them.

The first and biggest addition is the strategy elements dealing the other covenants. This includes diplomacy, trade, wars, and raids. How you do this is completely up to you, but a good way is to use diplomacy and trade to keep everyone off your back and going to war and raiding one enemy at a time.

The second is the huge back-story available in the game and told in a unique manner including short stories, histories, and myths. Many stories specifically talk about items, people, and monsters in the game.

The third difference is that the world the player adventures in is a living world. Things change all of the time from the player's actions, the other covenants' actions, and sometimes even the monsters' actions. Here's a good example. Let's say there is an uprising of nagas in the Dire Realm. If the player can't quell the uprising fast enough, the nagas might build up their power enough to attack the town. I've mentioned this scenario in previous interviews, but what I haven't mentioned is that while the nagas are attacking the town they can cause all sorts of havoc while there. Obviously they can kill some of the town npcs while they are attacking but they can also poison people, poison the town's water supply, or even infect the town with the plague.

A new story titled Double Edge has been posted at the Depths of Peril site in two parts (Part 1 and Part 2).  Word from Soldak's Steven Peeler is this story won first place at last year's FenCon writing conference in Dallas:

Jarvis Bauern walked the dirt rut from his small barn to his house, where he glimpsed his young daughter running in with a handful of flowers. His mind, though, was on the dark sky overhead, wondering if the storm clouds still gathered. If the rain would hold back one more day, he’d have the plowing done on time. If this year’s harvest was good, and he and his neighbor pooled their money, then they could buy a work ox in Talhof, the village to the west. He’d be able to plow twice as much land, hire a hand, and invest in some cows.

There are also two new screens showing the same scene after a battle with bloom switched on and off.  Thanks, Steven!

Soldak has kicked up a new story snippet for Depths of Peril at the official site. Here's a bit from Fallen Statue:

A mix-matched party of three ran headlong through Wailing Forest with an army of lizard-people on their heels. The barbarian, Retter, broke the path ahead as the human woman, Greta, followed. She held the statue containing the God to her chest, after stealing it from the saurian camp. Her breath frosted around her mouth in the cold. Snow and brown pine needles crunched beneath boots.

Soldak Entertainment's indie action/RPG Depths of Peril still has a relatively low profile but the addition of a dynamic strategy layer to the usual formula sounds like it might make for some entertaining gameplay.  We had the chance to throw some questions at founder and lead, Steven Peeler:

Broadly speaking, Depths of Peril is an action RPG with strong strategy elements.  It has all of the things you would expect from an action RPG like fast action, tons of monsters, exploring a world, developing a character, and gathering lots of loot.  The thing that makes it stand out is the strategy backend.  You lead a faction (called a covenant in the game) that is fighting for dominance over all of the other factions in the city.  Defeating the other covenants takes diplomacy, trade, and eventually wars and raids.

Head here to read it all.

Soldak has released the first screens of their action/RPG with a strategy side-helping, Depths of Peril.  The colourful screens show three combat-oriented scenarios.

Thanks, Steven!

Soldak's Depths of Peril site has a new story update for the upcoming action/RPG with strategy overtones:

Greta’s Step Lightly spell kept Mudbeard from sounding like a styrac tromping through the trees on the way to a watering hole. Dwarves had a hard time navigating through the woods without being detected. The road, overrun with brambles and weeds, offered no shelter from the multitude of buzzing mosquitoes and gnats.

Soldak Entertainment has been interviewed by French site JeuxVideoPC about their RPG with strategy overtones, Depths of Peril.  An English translation is available at the Soldak site, which is where we are linking.  Here's a sample:

JeuxVideoPC.com: What degree of influence will the player have on the story, his steps and his end? Will the story of DoP be more close of a hack n’ slash story, of a “free way” rpg like Oblivion, or more of a Japanese dirigist game?

SP: Depths of Peril works very differently than most rpgs when it comes to the story since each game works more like a strategy game than a typical rpg.  Each game that is set up has a random world with random enemy covenants in it and plays until one covenant claims victory over the rest of the covenants.  So each game has lots of freedom and no storyline per se.

However, having said that there is a large amount of background story that the player can find in the game in the form of tomes.  Each of these is a short story, a history, or a myth.  So far put together these stories are about 60,000 words total (about half of a novel) so there is a lot of background story that can be read.

DR: There is no in-game story the player must play through. The collectable tomes tell about the history and life in Aleria. Monsters the player faces in the game, he can read about in the stories. They become more than the animated graphic on the computer screen. They become alive in the player’s mind.

New indie developer Soldak has been interviewed at FiringSquad about Depths of Peril.  It's an interesting discussion with Steven Peeler saying he left Ritual (Sin, Elite Force 2) specifically to make an RPG and other tidbits such as they won't be using cutting edge graphics so they can maintain a lot of characters on screen at once.  Here's a reminder on the basic gameplay:

FiringSquad: How would you describe the gameplay for Depths of Peril?

Steven Peeler: Depths of Peril is an action RPG with a strategy backend. Much of the time you are adventuring around, solving quests, killing monsters, and finding better items. But at the same time you are trying to destroy the rest of the covenants in your town so that you can become the next leader of the city. Becoming the city’s next leader takes lots of diplomacy to stay alive, and wars and raids to kill off your enemies.

Steven Peeler from Soldat has been interviewed at GameGuru Mania about their action/RPG with stategy elements, Depths of Peril:

GGMania: Can you give us an overview of Depths of Peril, telling us what the game is all about?

Steven Peeler: Depths of Peril is an action/strategy RPG where you play as the leader of a faction (called covenants in the game) where your main goal is to establish yourself and your covenant as the leaders of your city. Barbarians determine their leaders with battles to the death. The last covenant alive becomes the leaders of the city. To outlast the rest of the covenants you need to carefully use diplomacy until you are strong enough, and then you can declare war and raid your enemies to crush them. Did I mention that barbarians tend to be savage and vicious? :-)

Now if being in a constant battle for supremacy wasn't enough, there is also a world full of monsters that want to destroy the barbarian race and for that matter, all of the good races. So between diplomacy, wars, and raids with the other covenants, the player adventures throughout the world to gain experience, find better weapons and armor, and solve quests for the city. All of these of course help the player and his covenant in their wars with the other covenants by making them stronger.

Soldak Entertainment dropped us a line to say their website is now live.  It's bare-bones at this stage but they do have two story snippets for Depths of Peril, their recently revealed RPG with strategy overtones.

RPG Vault has the first interview and the first solid details on Depths of Peril, an action/RPG we recently reported on from Soldak, which was founded by ex-Ritual Steven Peeler. Here's a snip:

Jonric: To begin our look at your project, what kind of game will Depths of Peril be and what manner of gameplay will it offer?

Steven Peeler: Depths of Peril is a unique blend of action RPG and strategy game. From a tactical standpoint, it's similar to other action RPGs in that you adventure around the world solving quests, killing monsters and finding loot. For most titles in this category, that's all there really is to them, but in Depths of Peril, you're also constantly competing with other barbarian factions, called covenants.

This competition is actually very simple; the covenants fight to the death, and whichever is alive at the end becomes the ruling party of the city. Doing this requires careful diplomacy with other covenants when you are weak, and war when you are strong. Well, at least that's what you want to happen.