Nosgoth (Video Game Preview)

Nosgoth is a new title for developer Psyonix and publisher Square Enix that is currently available in closed beta. The game is a spiritual successor to the Legacy of Kain series that saw its popularity rise during the original PlayStation era. The game is built on the same world and lore of the classic games with players heading into battle in a war between monster hunters and vampires to see which race will be the last one standing. Nosgoth is being developed as a free-to-play title available only on PC and will be made available on Steam and possibly other platforms to download. Players can currently sign up on the game's official website for a chance to enter the closed beta, and it's recommended you do so as soon as possible, since the game is a lot of fun to play online with friends.

Nosgoth can be described as a third-person shooter and horror action title where a four person team of humans faces off against a four person team of vampires, and the game will obviously draw many comparisons to a game such as Left 4 Dead or Aliens: Colonial Marines multiplayer, though the game is already better than the latter in its current beta form. The two sides have different classes and abilities, but the main concept to remember is that humans must stick together to survive while using firearms, crossbows and similar ranged weapons to attack the enemy team, while the vampire team must get in close to deal the most damage and take down the humans. There is currently only one primary game mode available to play in Nosgoth where two teams of four battle to 30 kills and then switch teams and play until another 30 kills have been earned by one team. It's a good system that ensure every game session is fair and that players always get a chance to play as their favorite type of character in the game.



It's good that Nosgoth allows players to play as both the human and vampire side in a single match, because in the game's current state, the vampires tend to be far more powerful than the human side. This is largely due to the types of maps that doesn't really allow ranged combat to occur very often. The game does do a pretty good job of respawning friendly players close to one another so that one team doesn't continuously pick off one player that keeps respawning alone again and again. There are a few different maps in the game, and the environments are varied enough and look nice enough to keep players interested in playing new matches for hours at a time.

Characters are not all created equal in Nosgoth. Both sides carry many different classes of characters, and there are different upgrades and equipment each side can use during matches. Humans have many different classes that primarily means changing weapons such as the Hunter's accurate bow or the Alchemist's area of effect explosive launcher. Vampires have different classes as well including the fast, wall-climbing Revears that player similar to Left 4 Dead's Hunter class that pounces enemies and can also land quick slash attacks. Each character also get special attacks for their group, a couple of unique abilities and a perk to take into battle to make each character a little different from what other players are using in the game. Some of the special abilities for vampires for example allow acid like area of effect damage to hit humans and damage them the longer they stand in the blast radius. There are a good variety of classes and loadouts available in the game, and players can always mix it up and switch to a new class upon death to keep the action strategic and entertaining.

Nosgoth is a pretty good looking game that boasts some nice character models and even better animations that make vampires move fast and still look incredibly intimidating. The game isn't the scariest around, but there is definitely an anxious feeling of horror that comes over players during matches, especially when playing the somewhat overmatched human team. Though Nosgoth uses a free-to-play model that does feature an online store and in-game purchases, the development team has ensured fans that real life currency won't make the game pay to win, with most of the purchases from the store using real life currency reserved for character skins, clothes and other aesthetic purposes. While playing Nosgoth online, we rarely encountered any connection issues with the only real problems coming from the game taking a while to find a new match when first loading up the game, though this could be because not a lot of players are currently in the closed beta test period for the game. Fans should be excited for the new release and look for it by the end of this year or in early 2015 on Steam!

Nosgoth is now available to play in closed beta and is coming soon free-to-play on Steam. Nosgoth is not yet rated. For more information on the game, check out the official Nosgoth website.

Game Features:

• Online Multiplayer 2-8
• Free-to-Play
• Battle as Humans and Vampires
• Class Based Combat
• Supports In-Game Purchases

Game Information:
Developer: Psyonix
Publisher: Square Enix
Available exclusively for Steam
Release Date: TBA