Recently, 2404 has received a preview/beta version of Battles Mages: Sign of Darkness, an upcoming strategy/role-playing hybrid game, which is a sequel to Battle Mages, another title developed by Russian developer Targem Games. While we have to admit the title of the game is a bit bland, we're also happy to report that the game itself appears to be a fresh combination of different gameplay elements. It also seems to be a remarkably polished and well-produced offering, in terms of both graphics and sound. The game will feature 16 new missions, each up to three hours long, according to the developer. There are also multiplayer features, which we did not test.

The beta copy we received appears to be a nearly completed version of the game. In fact, the copy we got is fully (and, as far as we could tell, flawlessly) localized into English. Well, that's not entirely true - all of the voice-over was still in Russian. Luckily, we have an editor that speaks Russian, so this wasn't a problem. In fact, the voice work was easily the strongest presentation point of the game parts that we saw; every line spoken by any character (and there were several, including the battle mage representing the player) was accompanied by professional voice-over. There were some issues with the sound, however, such as several quest conversations going on at the same time, right over each other.

The gameplay itself centers on the player (the Battle Mage), who is represented by a so-called "astral body" - a semi-transparent cloaked and hooded figure able to move freely around the game's 3D world. A behind-the-back view allows for easy surveying of the game world from a basically top-down perspective. The control scheme is easy to get used to: the usual WASD keys control forward/backward/left/right movement, while moving the mouse while holding Ctrl can be used to steer the astral body's direction of forward movement. One disappointing quirk is that there seems to be no way to reverse the mouse's vertical axis, which can be a real problem for those used to "airplane controls" - let's hope Targem fixes this omission before release.

The substance of the gameplay is remarkably difficult to define. On one hand, it involves a lot of ordering your ground combat units around and telling them to attack things, which makes it seem a lot like a tactical strategy game. On the other hand, the player's own character has a large number of role-playing game-style statistics, including magical ability, experience, etc. The same holds true even for the combat units themselves, who gain items and experience and improve dramatically if able to survive - one can even transfer combat units from mission to mission without loss of attributes. The battle mage (you) is also equipped with a wide variety of spells able to help in combat. Spells consume mana points (which you regenerate automatically when physically close to a troop), except for so-called "quick spells", which don't need mana, but take a while to recharge. Overall, it's a system with potential, although we can't tell you how well this potential is realized due to our limited time with the game.

Another trait of the gameplay involves quests and towns. Towns are your source of troops (provided you have the cash for them), and, in general, seem to exist in a symbiotic relationship with you, the player. Quests are usually of the "find X and kill it" variety, and can be given both by friendly towns and random NPCs around the game world.

And speaking of the game world, it doesn't look half bad. Each map we played was about the dimension of a reasonably-sized village (the "towns" themselves are scaled more like courtyards): definitely big enough to get lost in at first (fortunately, there's a nice mini-map marking all the important spots). The landscapes are varied - mountains, trees, waterfalls, lakes. There are many cool-looking otherworldly gadgets installed everywhere, giving the whole thing a wholesome Tolkienesque atmosphere. There are weather effects and a day/night cycle, although the weather (for instance, snow) did not look very convincing. We ran the game on powerful hardware (Athlon 64 3400+, 6800GT video card, 1GB RAM), and there wasn't a single hitch in the performance. Everything was very polished, but it must be said that the game probably could have forced more eye candy out of that hardware. The textures look okay, but not great, and the same holds true for water effects.

Well, there you go. Battle Mages: Sign of Darkness certainly looks promising and potentially quite deep. In our few hours with the game, we've barely scratched the surface. We'll be sure to write a review the moment we can get our hands on the final copy.