Diablo Meets Tower Defense in The Mighty Quest for Epic Loot

Judging from Diablo III's sales numbers, pointing, clicking, and looting are all clearly activities that gamers enjoy. For the just-announced hack-and-slasher A Mighty Quest for Epic Loot, the developers at Ubisoft Montreal -- normally folks who spend their time crafting eight-figure-budgeted blockbusters that set you back $60 apiece -- have a rather simple question for you:

Would you like to point, click, and loot for free?

Such is the unique offer that Mighty Quest makes, though it's far more than a simple free-to-play Diablo clone. It's actually a two-sided affair of attacking and building. The former you're already quite familiar with from years spent playing Blizzard's devilishly successful franchise and its countless imitators. It even lifts Diablo III's interface almost exactly, with a health bar, mana bar, and four skill/attack slots. So it's the latter that sets Quest apart. On defense, you'll create your own dungeons using a handy level-creation tool, easily dragging, dropping, rotating, and populating challenging scenarios that other players will be faced with navigating and completing when they go into Attack mode. It's true that the team at Ubi Montreal will provide a batch of pre-baked scenarios for all to both traverse and study using either of the two included character classes (Knight and Archer), but the bulk of Quest's content generation will come from gamers themselves.

As in any good tower defense game, you won't simply be able to pile everything and the kitchen sink into your dungeon in Defend mode. You'll be on a budget, which both maintains competitive balance by keeping you from loading a room with every boss in the game simultaneously and prevents you from soaking up every drop of RAM from the PCs of your map's visitors. But you can add a healthy selection of monsters and trap-laden structures. Some of them are even themed, like a forge that featured flame-spewing ovens, which led to a final room guarded by a fire-breathing dragon named Mr. Firesly.

Interestingly, your character level and castle levels are separated. The idea is that you're meant to have to play the Defend mode in order to advance in it and unlock new and better fortifications and not simply rely on your offensive skills in order to hack-and-slash your way to an über-castle. And the longer players spend in your sanctuary of sadism, the more you'll be rewarded. In other words, the tougher you're able to make it on your fellow gamers, the better you'll be compensated. And you're asked to rate each castle you complete on a five-star scale, pushing the better designs to the top of the community's virtual bulletin board and earning gold for skilled builders. Better still, you're able to easily create bets with your friends. Challenge them, for instance, to get through the castle you just completed in under a certain amount of time, and bet the gold amount of your choice on it. To even the odds, you'll be able to set the character level for the both of you, so if you're level 20 but your pal is only 12, you can set it to 20 and give your buddy a taste of what's in store for him when he spends a bit more time with the game.

Fittingly, you'll see that, as the title indicates, A Mighty Quest for Epic Loot doesn't take itself too seriously. It's an intentionally tongue-in-cheek take on genre tropes, even if the core gameplay is plenty serious. Beta keys are starting to go out now, so you'll soon have the chance to judge for yourself if Mighty Quest is a laughing matter or not.

Ryan McCaffrey is the Executive Editor at IGN Xbox. He used to own a DeLorean, which is weird. Follow him on Twitter, on IGN, catch him on Podcast Unlocked, and drop-ship him Taylor Ham sandwiches from New Jersey whenever possible.

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Archer and Armstrong #2 Review

Archer & Armstrong is not a superhero comic book. Sure, it's about two super-powered “heroes” on a quest to stop an evil organization from rising to ultimate power, but it's less about saving the day and more about having a crazy, good time. It's fun, crass and, at times, completely ridiculous. It also happens to be the best book Valiant is publishing right now, and considering how good all their books are, that is some high praise.

Fred Van Lente is killing it on this book. The humor is spot on. The bad guys are a group called The 1% and they worship Wall Street while wearing golden bull and bear masks. They also get excited when Archer kills a bunch of their bodyguards because it's an opportunity to replace said guards with temporary workers who will receive no health benefits. It's down right silly and you can't help but smile while you read it. There isn't a stiff moment here, this is a book that is a simple pleasure to read.

Of course, a huge part of the book's charm and humor comes from Clayton Henry's artwork. He handles the action well enough, but he really nails the smaller moments; the looks that Archer and Armstrong give to each other. This is a great looking comic book that deserves your attention. Plus, in this issue he draws some ninja nuns. If the idea of Archer and Armstrong throwing down with ninja nuns doesn't get you excited, then you are truly lost.

Benjamin often thinks about what it would be like to live forever. Usually while he is in a warm bubble bath. Follow Benjamin on Twitter, or find him on IGN.

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Skyrim Easter Egg: Metal Guitarist Honored

Apparently, a few of the folks at Bethesda Softworks are big fans of Swedish metal bands. For the uninitiated, there's a quest in Skyrim called "Darkness Returns" in which the player is sent out to retrieve Nystrom's journal -- a reference to Katatonia's guitarist Anders Nystrom. Within the text, it reads, "He also mumbled some nonsensical phrases like 'night is the new day' and how he was the 'ghost of the sun.'" Night is the New Day is actually the title of the band's most recent album, while "Ghost of the Sun" is a featured track on another one of their albums, Viva Emptiness. A new album, Dead End Kings, is set to hit US stores on August 28th.

Since this connection was first discovered, many fans have wondered just how this in-game nod came to be. Recently, IGN spoke with Nystrom to discuss how he initially found out about the reference.

"Yeah, it's so bizarre. I have no idea, actually," Nystrom said. "One day I just logged on to the computer, checked the emails and everything -- and I think it was one of our fans on Facebook that had posted something on our wall, directing us to the Wikipedia describing the whole mission [for 'Darkness Returns']. I just started reading it, not really knowing what I was reading, until I actually discovered it was from Skyrim. I didn't put two and two together because it was so bizarre with the whole character/riddle thing and how they intertwined the titles. Then when it dawned on me that it was actually an objective inside the game, it was just like, 'Wow, how cool is this?'"

As a post script, Nystrom said that he eventually got in touch with the Bethesda developer who had written the journal. "The writer who put me in there, he contacted me," Nystrom continued. "He turned out to be a big fan of Katatonia. He said our music had helped him through a lot of working hours late at night, and this was just his way of paying respect and giving something back, which was totally cool."

It just goes to show you that if you ever want to get the attention of your favorite band, just throw 'em into your video game. Luckily, Nystrom was -- and still is -- a huge gamer himself. "I try to keep track of the video game industry -- I've had [IGN] bookmarked for ages," he said. "My favorite game ever -- it has to be a tie between Castlevania: Symphony of the Night and the first couple of Silent Hills. I was also really, really into the Syphon Filter series. I loved that one, with Gabe Logan... So many great games."

But the real question still remains: is Nystrom a fan of Skyrim? "I haven't had the time yet actually, but [Bethesda] sent me the game... As soon as we go back on tour, there's a lot of time for that kind of stuff. I think I'll just buy another copy and bring it with me and dive into that. I can't wait to play the section with me in it!"

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Defiance: Sticky Grenades and Alien Aides

Trion has shown off how you can quest and kill in the open world and take part in Defiance. For this particular round of previews, arena PvP combat was on display. Using your regular PvE character, you’ll be able to queue up for matches while running around in the overworld and then magically transport yourself into maps that can range from fights between small teams to bigger 32 player contests that allow for vehicle use.

Defiance’s weaponry includes the conventional and the strange. You can run around with shotguns and assault rifles, or switch to a grenade launcher that lobs up to five sticky explosives that can be detonated by reloading the gun. While this is great for setting traps around stages, the bombs also stick to players, which means it could be wise to time the detonation so it coincides with the moment the affected player runs into a group of his friends. Alternatively, if a player sees there’s a bomb stuck to his clothing, he could run at you, making it impossible to detonate the bomb without dealing damage to yourself as well.

By equipping a beam weapon you become a significant threat, as its damaging energy discharge rapidly drains the health of any enemy it touches. By using its alternate fire, you turn into a healer, and can serve your team most effectively by pairing up with others and scouring the map for enemies as part of a pack. The strangest weapon on display fired blobs of organic goo at enemies. The blobs stuck and grew on targets, and eventually burst, spilling Half-Life-like headcrab monsters onto the ground. These creatures then scurried around the map for a limited time and attacked any hostiles in range.

In addition to weapons, you’ll have special abilities like cloaking fields and speed bursts and decoys to help escape from and distract opponents. The map included in the demo had plenty of hiding spots and few wide open spaces, making it easy to escape around a corner and throw off a pursuing enemy by tossing out a decoy in the opposite direction. Near the map’s center was a raised platform that gave a view of most of the map; an excellent place for snipers to sit and pick off any down below. Getting up to the platform was risky, though, as it required you climb up an exposed ladder at a slow pace, making you an easy target for any in the area.

If you’d rather play on larger maps with vehicles, you’ll find many machines can accommodate multiple players at once. One could drive while another could operate a rocket turret, so it seems the flow of combat on each map could differ quite significantly. While on foot, the game played just like you’d expect a third-person shooter to, which perhaps didn’t really highlight what are Defiance’s most interesting aspects – the fact that it’s not only a third-person shooter, but also an MMO. Still, it’s yet another way to play, in case you’re looking for combat that’s a bit more structured than the chaos of the open world.

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