Mage Knight: Apocalypse Interview

GameSpot has posted an interview with Mage Knight: Apocalypse senior producer David Georgeson about the characters, skill trees, and equipment that the team has implemented into the action RPG.

Q: We know that players can customize their characters’ names and hairstyles, but what about equipment? Just how many different weapons and armor sets are in the game? Do players’ equipped items change their appearance? How will equipment lead to strategy? That is, how will players be weighing the pros and cons of using different items–will they be carrying around a massive arsenal to make sure they have the right weapons and armor for each mission?

A: Equipment is gained either as loot from monsters or purchased from one of the many vendors scattered throughout the land. It definitely changes the appearance of the character when it’s equipped and the artwork is quite nice. There are literally thousands of different armor pieces and weapons in the game, but if you’re asking how many unique-looking pieces, there are about 750 armor pieces and a couple of hundred weapons. Now that doesn’t include all the magestone properties you can add to a weapon (some of which create additional unique visual aspects), and it doesn’t include all the not-visible variations of a weapon (like quality variations and miscellaneous powers of the weapons).

Inventory is easily managed in this game. It doesn’t require encumbrance and there’s no Tetris qualities to the inventory management. You have a good number of slots to keep equipment in as you travel, and a huge storehouse in the various towns that you can utilize, as well. So you can head back to town if you think you don’t have the right equipment and raid your vault for a swap, but most of the time, you should easily be able to carry what you need.