"Tribe and Machete" is finally about to launch an official version.
You may remember this domestic sandbox game that opened early experience on Steam in early 2020. In the beginning, many players used the "2D version of riding and slashing" to briefly summarize its gameplay.
Like Karadia, who rides the slash, the player takes on the lead role in a western desert full of various forces. Starting with a few retinues and rudimentary outfits, you fight rogues and bandits, train your character, recruit more and stronger troops and heroes to your command, and ultimately fulfill your mission of dividing one side and even saving the world.
In the nearly two-year EA phase, the game has left players with a lot of impressive things, such as a variety of characters with outstanding styles:
Or, a multitude of weird workshop mods:
...... Well, rest assured, there are no apocalypse tanks and Kirov airships in its game body, it is a pure oriental fantasy, and it is also the kind that wants to tell a good story.
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Using words like "2D version of Riding and Slashing" to summarize the gameplay of "Tribe and Machete" is a bit too simple and crude, but it also captures the focus of the game at the beginning.
Compared with the endless immersive cold soldier fighting game after "Riding and Slashing", "Tribe and Machete" is more like a strategic level of "Riding and Slashing Like", whether it is running business, conscription or the cultivation and faction gameplay of individuals and troops, and the basic game flow of riding and slashing is very similar.
The combat level is closer to ARPG
This kind of soft "riding and slashing Like" game is not uncommon, such as the FPS game "Free Man: Guerrilla Warfare" that opened EA in 2018, with the novel concept of "shooting gun version of riding and slashing", which once attracted many players. However, because many gameplay modules and the core experience of FPS need to be compatible, most of the time of "Free Man" in the EA stage is spent on trial and error, and even to the official version, the overall gameplay is still relatively chaotic.
How to design playable core content in a highly open world has always been the focus of such independent sandbox games with limited time and labor costs.
In contrast, the original design idea of "Tribe and Machete" is quite clear, somewhat similar to the han family squirrel's early fan work "Jin Yong Qunxia X", the main body is to rely on the world plot + weekly system to promote the player's game process, in other words, to make the sandbox gameplay serve the linear narrative itself.
Let me summarize, the story told in Tribe and Machete is "the doomed end of the rebellion", and the interpretation of this story is also very logical in the motivations and behaviors of several major characters. Therefore, in the player's comments, for the game's world view and character shaping, everyone often does not hesitate to praise: even if the 3D character modeling and rendering in the game is relatively "poor", the standing images or scripts of both men, women, old and young are quite vivid, and the overall art style is also in place for the Western theme.
No one doesn't like Yin Shan
However, for the sandbox gameplay itself, the huge gameplay architecture of "Tribe and Machete" did not fill in enough content at the beginning of the EA stage, mainly reflected in the lack of playable elements in the later stages of the game, and often time was spent on the running chart. As a result, Hanjia Squirrel developed a fairly complete EA plan for the game, such as expanding the NPC mission branch in the early days, and enriching the "Rise of the Lords" patch that enriched the operation and construction gameplay.
But sandbox games usually encounter a situation where both saves and various mods need to be adapted to large versions, and players need a solid and stable official version than non-stop oil-added small updates.
So the 1.0 version of Tribe and Machete came.
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After completing the main story, I haven't seen the desert that I have conquered half of for a long time. Recently, I tried to play the official version 1.0, and the new content was so much that I was a little uncomfortable.
To put it simply, it is to supplement the content of this piece, the Han family squirrel completely adopted the simple attitude of "what is missing to make up for what".
In the EA stage, the overall gameplay module of the game is very diverse, whether it is the most basic battle, hero and troop cultivation, stronghold construction and management, faction gameplay, NPC cultivation and favorability system... There is also a little bit of the main line and side plot that fills in the pit, which can only be described as "complicated".
However, there are also parts that are relatively incomplete, such as the early town construction and operation system. This question is actually very interesting, because if you only look at the original battle group, there are also a large number of gaps in the gameplay module of the riding and slashing itself, such as the main plot with zero sense of existence, as well as the thin and simple power gameplay and town construction part.
But a big part of why the ride-and-slash is still very fun is that its most basic unit - the combat part gameplay is interesting enough. Just the imitation of cold weapon fighting gameplay, learning different types of weapon usage, enemy strategy, familiar with the trajectory and advance of long-range weapons, hundreds of hours easily passed.
Closer to the 2D ARPG's "Tribe and Machete", the combat level is similar to the coupled gameplay of MOBA+RTS, players can not only control their own troops to beat people, but also through a large number of directional skills and floor AOE, with action elements (rolling) to play a QWER rubbing skill-based MOBA game.
However, due to the relatively simple design of the class skills in the early days of the game, coupled with the action logic of the AI characters, the overall depth of battle is still relatively limited.
Late battlefield god and demon wars
In the official version, in order to make the battle part of the gameplay more interesting, the Han family squirrel has made a large number of partial RPG updates. For example, the class differentiation is more obvious, such as taking the distinctive "berserk war" or "fine control dirty pastoral" route, the combat logic of the protagonist's heroes has also been significantly optimized, and the therapeutic role like Qu Yu will no longer be stupid to go up and cut people, but honestly hide behind the drain skills.
Especially in weak-to-strong battles, players who choose to "find a skill with the highest damage to open A to the place with the most people" can often only drink and hate defeat, and choosing different coping strategies for different enemies becomes more valuable.
The new class design has a number of functional skills that focus on tactics
Of course, thanks to the dedication of the game's mod authors in the EA stage, your journey to the desert can also become out of dimension and different:
In short, by improving the class differentiation and combat AI, the official version of "Tribe and Machete" has been further improved at the troop-combat level.
And about the middle and late play content, the Han family squirrel also made a very simple and rough, but effective addition: like the previous equipment system is too single, now the equipment added different affixes, in the face of the enemy can not be beaten, you can completely brush a god suit to try again.
And for the later stage of the army battle too dependent on high-level classes, the value is difficult to balance the problem, the production team in the refinement of the different forces of the class tree on the basis of the addition of a new magic crystal system to the soldier card, through a variety of merchants and random events to obtain magic crystal related items, just like dota 2's Adharim magic crystal, this new system can fundamentally reverse the function and value of some classes, so that "useless people" also become the most capable cub.
For example, the fifth-level magic crystal "Ancient Machinery" can turn the war dog into a steel Garuru
As soon as the combination of equipment affix + soldier magic crystal came out, the middle and late stages of "Tribe and Machete" had a large amount of repeatable content.
Coupled with the fact that the "Output Content" and "Output Method" are updated at the same time, the player is actually completing the process of "brushing" through various new random events and systems, and is also familiar with many new and old systems, including the Soul Statue Challenge and dungeons.
Similarly, the previously slightly thin faction gameplay, which is precisely the part of "joining other forces to work", has also been updated in the official version of the pure stacking. Now, after joining other tribes, players not only have a fixed salary, but also gradually accumulate more power contributions by defeating enemies and completing missions, and then get fiefs and resources rewarded by forces.
The relationship between the tribe and the NPC is no longer a "one-line connection" with the protagonist, and the random characters and faction events in the lower left corner of the map have more directions - I can't even clearly say where the changes in the official version are, it is purely to make the NPCs "more work to tidy up", it is so simple and effective.
Join the Eagle Tribe and start your own Machete Promotion
Coupled with the small sketch-style side-line gameplay such as "Tavern Fight", which is similar to the meaning of "side business life" in "Taikoku Lizhi Biography 5", the overall content of the official version of the game has been significantly enhanced.
In Tavern Brawl, players can only use hand-to-hand combat skills with a fixed skill tree, and there is no longer cool sorcery and equipment
Overall, under the unpretentious large-scale "pile of materials" of the Han family squirrels, players finally do not have to run through the picture and watch the plot and rush to a large open world in a daze, and can only choose to open the second week to do it again - the Shazar Desert has reached the point where "there is always something to play" now, which is probably the answer that "Tribe and Machete" wants to hand over through the official version this year.
Obviously, the official version does not mean the end.
After playing the 1.0 version for a few hours, Tribe & Machete still has some shortcomings. For example, limited to the Unity engine and infrastructure problems, even after many corrections to the action and stutter bugs, there is still a slight sense of unspeakable delay in the movement of troops and characters in wartime, especially in professional characters whose movements are not so well tuned.
Another example is the design of the mission line and the "plot pressure", whether the linear narrative should be allowed to exert time and rhythm pressure on the player's sandbox exploration, different players must have different views.
The production team also made a compromise in the official version: after completing the week, players can open the pure sandbox mode, no longer have the constraints of the plot
But behind the many problems caused by "small cost", "inexperience" and "limited manpower", it just shows that "Tribe and Machete" is an indie game with obvious characteristics - if there is not enough core fun, a game may become uninhabited in the EA stage of the patching time.
However, even during the empty window period before the large-scale update of the official version, there are still many loyal players in the Steam review who have been playing and the game time is exploding. Thanks to the hanjia squirrel making an excellent open world editor, coupled with perfect teaching and follow-up support, there have been a large number of mod authors making various mods for the game that may be serious or arbitrary, which has also become the fun that many players have been playing repeatedly.
I really like the Red Alert mod
The MOD author made a beautified version of the standing painting for all the female characters
The player's actions show that the underlying vision of the game is fully playable: a large enough 2D open world, free character and class design, diversified cultivation and combat... What the development team and the mod authors are doing together is to continue to realize more visions little by little on this blueprint that seems too big to fill at the beginning of 2020.
From this perspective, it may be that the players' ideal "Tribe and Machete" has exceeded the scope of a small-grade game that costs 48 yuan.
Fortunately, the version number has finally reached 1.0, and its developers and players can continue to look forward to what the future Shazar Desert will become.