The Witcher: DuelMail Hands On

Thumb - Image 1A lot of us probably know that CD Projekt RED’s The Witcher was a surprisingly big international success. Now, its spin-off browser based game The Witcher: DuelMail is out and is ready for testing. We registered for the trial run and we’ve been taking it for a spin. Does it do its mother title justice so far? Find out in our Beta notes after you hit the jump.

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When Atari announced that Polish developers CD Projekt RED’s PC RPG The Witcher would launch in the 2007 holiday season, some doubted the title’s ability to stand out at a time when a wave of massively hyped releases were coming out. Fears of the game not doing as well as it should in the market were expressed, but all that is history.

We all know now that The Witcher has been a big international success, enthralling PC gaming fans across Europe and North America, all the while racking up some serious sales figures. The franchise has established such a presence that a sequel is already rumored to be in the works, and a spin-off is already in its Beta phase.

That’s where The Witcher: DuelMail comes in. CD Projekt RED has joined forces with one2tribe Company Studios to create a web-based supplement for those who just can’t get enough of Geralt’s world. We registered for its trial run, and what we found was actually very interesting.

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What exactly is the Witcher: DuelMail Beta?

The Witcher: DuelMail, as the devs would like it to be described, is a next-gen web-browser game based on the original The Witcher RPG. It uses a simple Flash interface with some slick animations and creates a virtual arena where players can face off using one of three selectable classes. It’s completely free of charge and should go live in full on the 9th of May, 2008.

Literally anyone can play this game as long as they have a computer with an internet connection and Flash installed. Once those simple requirements are met, all one has to do is to go to The Witcher: DuelMail‘s official site where registration for the Beta can be facilitated. A valid email account is required, but you probably already have that.

Once registration is complete, you’ll be sent your account information via email, replete with a URL that you can follow to have your account activated. The username and password can be used to log into the DuelMail site and the forums.

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Monsters in your mind

As you may have guessed, the gameplay in The Witcher: DuelMail is nothing like The Witcher‘s. All the “action” here happens in your browser window with the help of a little imagination. Once you log in, you’ll be asked to choose a class. You can be a demon-hunting Witcher who possesses sick combat skills, an alluring Sorceress who can cast devastating magic spells, or a monstrous Frightener that looks like it’s a year too early for Starcraft 2.

In our case, we knew from the moment we saw the Frightener that it had to be the class for us. There’s just something irresistible about assuming the form of a gargantuan mantis with the promise of pummeling other people with it.

After choosing your class, you’ll be taken to the main interface that has four tabs. The first one you’ll land on is the “Fights” tab which serves as the lobby where you can see the names of other players that you can challenge to a duel. You can also invite friends here to avoid having to wait long periods for someone to accept your challenge.

Next up is the “Shop” tab. It’s easy enough to figure out that this is where you’ll be purchasing items to buff up your character. These items will be instrumental in victories later on as they’ll be one of only two game aspects that won’t have you relying on sheer luck.

After the Shop section, you can check out the “Skills” tab where you can see the current and future skills that your character can use. These skills can be unlocked as you gain experience from winning battles against other players.

Lastly, there are the Rankings and Forums tabs. A leaderboard is right there to show you who’s been kicking the most butt on the site. After that, you can drop by the Forums to report bugs or ask questions on how to improve your chances in square-offs.

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Sometimes you’re good, sometimes you’re lucky

Once you’ve familiarized yourself with the different areas in The Witcher: DuelMail, you’ll be ready to get your feet wet in combat. There are two types of fights in this game: practice fights and actual ones. The difference being, you won’t earn experience in practice, but you’ll be generating gold. This will come handy to people who are new to the game and don’t want to start a DuelMail stint with a losing record.

To start a duel, you can view the names of other players in the Fight tab. Clicking on one of the names in the arena will make the big FIGHT! button turn red. If you hit it, you’ll be taken to another screen where you can launch a challenge for the selected player.

You can send the other player a challenge by choosing a sequence of attacks and defensive maneuvers comprising of four skills each. This will be done by selecting each command’s icon and dropping it into the empty sequence space to the right. Once you fill the four offensive and four defensive slots, another red FIGHT! button will appear in the upper section of the interface. Click on it, and the challenge will be launched.
 

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Once the challenge is issued, the player called out will have the chance to choose his own series of offensive and defensive maneuvers. Once this is done, it’ll be up to the server to
compare the opposing sequences and see who deals the most damage.

Of course, the offensive and defensive moves usable in The Witcher: DuelMail are based on the skills used in The Witcher. Items too, will be reflective of the original’s rich lore. The actual combat, however, will be mostly imaginary. Think of it as NBA Fantasy League meets Tower Defense, and you may be able to picture what the game is like.

Luck definitely has a lot to do with your chances of winning at first, but as you gain levels and get better gear, you’ll find yourself fighting with more strategy than ever. Knowing what the different skills of the three classes do is very important, and some intuition won’t hurt your hopes, either.

The only problem we’ve encountered so far is getting into a match in the first place. Waiting for fellow players to respond to challenges can sometimes take a while, so you better start adding online friends to your list as soon as possible. Hopefully, a better system of matching people up will be implemented once the game goes into final release.

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Overall

We must say that this isn’t exactly the kind of spin-off we expected from a deep 3D RPG like The Witcher, but it’s a pleasant surprise nevertheless. The people over at one2tribe certainly are very serious about this project and there’s certainly a good amount of interest generated by it. Updates and improvements have been promised, and that’s great news for any web-based game.

While The Witcher: DuelMail isn’t exactly an offering that will have most people playing obsessively, it does offer up lots of imaginative entertainment that will please casual players and The Witcher fans alike. Having it in the background while you’re at work, or using it as an icebreaker while browsing the net for leisure at home are nice options. Games like this can best be compared to gummy bears which will have you coming back for more when taken in small amounts, that doesn’t mean, though, that it’ll qualify as a substitute for a full gaming buffet.

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