Dungeons and Dragons as a franchise has had an incredible impact on pop culture. With the recent resurgence of its popularity thanks in no small part to shows like Stranger Things, it’s great to see creators taking this long running series and bringing a new take to familiar concepts.
Sine Requie: Snake Eyes First Impressions
Enter Sine Requie: Snake Eyes, a pen & paper RPG turned tablet, pc, console title. Currently on Kickstarter, Snake Eyes hopes to bring all of the elements from the award winning Sine Requie Tabletop role playing game and infuse it with the convenience and animation that modern tech can offer. Equipped with a playable demo and no real idea of what I was diving into I have spent the last four hours diving into this unique take on the Dungeon and Dragons formula from the comfort of my phone. As the game is still currently in development many of the things covered in this first impressions article are subject to change as the game progresses along. So without further ado let’s take a quick first impressions look at Sine Requie: Snake Eyes currently in development by We Were UV.
Set ten years after D-day, this alternative version of 1954 sees a small group lead by the Inquisitor Rossano Mazzoni travel through what was once Italy in search of a heretic cult. The world around them is one of death and decay with the dead coming back to life to feed on the living. Between fending off the walking dead and battling the underbelly of a stanch religious dictatorship the game takes little time to slam you full force into a world of intrigue, horror and consequence. With a mature theme and setting the demo does surprisingly good job at pulling the player into the experience.
Much of the story is delivered through short on screen text rolls with every encounter forcing you to make multiple decisions, many of which dramatically change the direction and arc of the story. The demo I had only has about an hour or so of gameplay but I found myself reloading the game after completion multiple times simply to see what types of results occurred when I chose a different path along my journey.
The game is much more than a ‘choose your own adventure’ story book. There are several combat encounters even within the demo. More than once I faced off against the undead, corrupt leadership and other things that I will not name here. WWUV has taken an interesting approach to combat. Each character in your party has a base set of ranged and melee abilities but instead of a traditional dice roll to determine effectiveness you are created with a deck of Fate cards that you draw from. Depending on the situation, character position etc. you can find yourself drawing more than one card and then having to choose which to apply to your current action.
In some cases these cards can be of great benefit offering bonus damage, or granting a party buff whereas in other cases these cards can work against you causing a failure to action along with other dire consequences. Under the hood this essentially is all about dice rolls but it’s the presentation that sets this combat system apart. It’s fun, fresh and works well on a mobile device. The game also boasts an inventory system for your characters, the option to loot corpses and many other features you would hope to find in a D&D like experience.
Sine Requie: Snake Eyes is a unique offering. The game promises a lot of deep and engaging story telling wrapped in some beautiful visuals , narrative presentation and well designed combat mechanics. I always appreciate when a developer is willing to explore and try new approaches to developing a game and WW UV seems to be doing an excellent job of capturing the best parts of the Pen and Paper experience and delivering an engaging, rich experience for the player.
Luca-Imbriani
That one hour demo is available for free on itch.io 🙂
https://wewereuv.itch.io/sine-requie-snake-eyes