Nosgoth is the next Square Enix title being featured in our “Introducing” series due to your requests and demand! First, I will tell about my experiences with the game and explain how Nosgoth proved my expectations wrong and eventually made me fall in love with it. The preview article also focuses on explaining the game itself: its lore, gameplay, races, classes and technical requirements – everything you need to know before starting your journey with it.

Nosgoth Proved My Expectations Wrong And I Love It

Nosgoth is one of those games you quickly end up judging by its cover because the art direction looks and feels a bit cliché for a Western title: it’s dark, very serious looking and clothing reminds of Middle Ages. This is something you see in almost all Western RPGs nowadays. However, I should have learned my lesson ages ago: Don’t judge a book/game for its cover – You will just miss a great experience.

Nosgoth is a team-based 3rd person shooter game where two teams compete against each other. To my surprise, Nosgoth really hit me hard because it turned out to be the complete opposite of my first impressions. It doesn’t take itself too seriously, it’s fun to play and even entertaining to watch. But eventually Nosgoth shows its true colors once you get to play it with your friends because then you get to experience the madness together. Nosgoth also carries this great feeling that comes from the ominous yet disturbingly comedy-like mood of the game, and it’s something I have previously experienced with great titles such as Left 4 Dead and Team Fortress 2. Don’t get me wrong, though: Nosgoth doesn’t try to mimic them but it has managed to achieve the same attractiveness as the aforementioned titles.

Come here so I finish you off!

Humans Versus Vampires – This Isn’t Your Ordinary Twilight Story

In Nosgoth, there are two races who embrace different play styles: humans and vampires. When playing as a human, I often tend to choose a more tactical approach over an offensive one. It’s because the humans feel a bit weaker than the vampires, which is actually a good compromise since the humans can equip long range weapons that allow them to deal damage from a distance. Preventing and escaping from intimidating situations is easier this way too.

Playing as a vampire encourages players to choose a more offensive and aggressive play style since the vampires focus on dealing damage with hack and slash combat abilities. Another big difference between these two races is the fact that the vampires can climb over the buildings and move around almost like parkour masters. This gives the vampires an interesting advantage in the battlefield and lets players approach situations a bit differently. There’s also a nice element of surprise in the game since you never know if someone is planning to attack you from the air.

I really enjoyed playing as a tyrant, which is a powerful and tough yet slow tank-like vampire class. Making surprise attacks and seeing people going on the panic mode was very entertaining and absolutely hilarious at times. Not to mention how much fun it was to take tyrants down as a human since it demands more team work from the players. Executing the humans as a vampire was quite entertaining as well. Almost too entertaining. So entertaining this game has made me to question my mental wellness for a few times when things have got quite bloody, hah! Don’t worry, violent content doesn’t make you aggressive. There is actually a study that proves it on our site.

And when you thought I couldn’t get more badass, well, surprise bitch.

Gotta Kill/Capture ‘Em All

Currently, there are two gameplay modes available in Nosgoth. In team deathmatch, both teams compete against each other with a goal of getting more kills than the enemy team. The match has divited into two rounds with each team playing with both races. The winner is the team who manages to reach a higher score before the end of a match.

Another mode is called “Siege” where players focus on capturing certain spots by standing there for a while. It also combines some horde elements since only the humans can capture the areas and they have to protect them from vampire attacks. When entering the capturing zone the countdown begins. The vampires must try to stop the humans before the countdown hits zero

Summary

Nosgoth is still a beta which is why it’s understandable it has some technical flaws. However, I hope we will be seeing more colorful and visually impressive maps in the future, even though it may be against the dark art direction of the game. The game desperately needs more game modes because deathmatch and siege mode won’t be enough to keep the game alive for months – let alone years. It would be important to come up with distinguishing game types that make the players feel and think: “Damn, this is Nosgoth!” Altogether, Nosgoth left me with a great impression and it didn’t just prove my first expression wrong but  it managed to provide me an entertaining, chaotic and fun gameplay experience. I can’t wait to experience the final version of the game and see how the developers are planning to provide us the ultimate Nosgoth experience.

Nosgoth is still being updated frequently until its final release and fans feedback is always needed to improve the game. If you have anything to say that could improve the gameplay experience, hit the official Nosgoth forums and share your thoughts there. I really recommend you guys to watch the video below to get a good idea how the game works. Nosgoth is a free-to-play title as well (still in closed beta), so you won’t lose anything by giving it a chance.

What’s Nosgoth?

Nosgoth is a competitive and team-based 3rd person shooter game were the humans and the vampires are set to fight against each other. It’s a free-to-play player versus player experience set in the same world as the Legacy of Kain series. To get into the game, you don’t need any knowledge of previous entries in the series because the basic idea of the storyline is that both the humans and the vampires want to control the land of Nosgoth, but they aren’t going to do it together. The question is: Who gets to call the place home finally when the war is over? Fortunately, the war seems to be never-ending.

As said, Nosgoth is a free-to-play game but now in the closed beta. To enter into the beta, you have to apply on the official site, or you get an instant access by buying the founders pack. The developers wanted to highlight that Nosgoth is not and won’t be a “pay-2-win” experience. Based on my experience during the beta, the game seems to be going into the right direction and I haven’t experienced any unfair events during my gameplay session so far.

“VAMPIRES 

Nosgoth’s iron-willed Emperor Kain has disappeared, leaving his throne empty and the world in the hands of his Lieutenants. Riven by jealousy and conflict, it was not long before the Vampire Clans began fighting among themselves. Only the threat of a newly resurgent Humanity launching a war of extinction against them could reunite the warring Clans. Now they turn their inhuman strengths on a common enemy, to stop the genocidal march of Humankind.

REAVER: The Reavers of Clan Dumahim are dextrous and stealthy predators, whose only focus is the subjugation of Humankind. As trained and talented killers, Reavers are both calculated and poised. Swift, silent and smart, these Vampires are natural hunters who can out-think and out-run the opposition.

TYRANT: The Tyrants are the frontline shock troops of the Vampire legions, dedicating each victory to the glory of Clan Turelim. Tyrants see themselves as warriors and despise those who cannot compete with them on the battlefield. Their fighting style is heavy-handed and punishing, soaking up damage as they smash a straight line to their prey.

SENTINEL: The Sentinels are devolved descendants and represent the last remnants of the once-proud Clan Razielim. Sentinels have developed large wings that allow them limited flight abilities and they use this mobility to scout and strike unsuspecting enemies from above. Dark and twisted, Sentinels are haters of Humanity.

DECEIVER: Driven to the edge of sanity, the Deceivers are feared not only by the Human race but by their own kind as well. Their devious personalities have come to manifest themselves in accursed supernatural abilities enabling them to assault the enemies’ minds directly, making them see and hear whatever a Deceiver finds most useful to sow fear and confusion among enemy ranks.

HUMANS

Thousands of years on from when their ancestors attempted to extinguish the race of Vampires from Nosgoth, the remaining Humans have been paying the price for that war ever since. Having risen from slavery and rebuilt their civilization, Humans have joined forces from all corners of the world to exterminate the Vampires once and for all. Growing in number, their rediscovery of lost expertise in weapon-crafting and new technologies in alchemy now makes them formidable warriors.

SCOUT: Professional and pitiless, Scouts were among the first of a new generation of Humans to take up arms against Nosgoth’s Vampires. Armed with a precision bow, they are well used to hit-and-run tactics. Scouts swear loyalty to the Watchers, assassins skilled in picking off their enemies from the many hidden vantage points in the mountains of Dark Eden.

ALCHEMIST: The Alchemists are cultists, sworn to an order of arcane chemists whose concoctions produce a variety of effects ranging from explosive cocktails to transformative potions. A female-only sect with a thirst for explosions, Alchemists carry a hand cannon that fires alchemical globes which detonate with devastating force on impact.

HUNTER: Hunters feel at home only in the midst of battle. They belong to the Ironguard, the last of an almost annihilated force and distant successors to the warrior class that have always lived, trained and fought for one thing – the eradication of every last Vampire from Nosgoth. Dedicated, ruthless and skilled, these warriors live for the hunt.

PROPHET: Prophets use tainted blood as a weapon, turning the source of their enemies very existence against them. Bullets dipped in the fluid carry wicked hexes. Dark blood can be spilled upon the ground to temporarily repel or weaken attackers. Their mutated bodies have an unhealthy attraction to other sources of stolen blood, giving them the ability literally steal the life from nearby Vampires.”

-Official Website

The Studio Behind The Game

Nosgoth is being developed by Psyonix. The studio’s first game was Onslaught game mode for Unreal Tournament 2014. After that Psyonix has been working on multiple project improving the multiplayer and gameplay experiences. Most well-known titles must be Gears of War, Mass Effect 3, Bulletstorm and Unreal Tournament 3.

TECHNICAL REQUIREMENTS

Users will need a Steam account and be registered for Square Enix Membership. You can view the minimum and recommended PC specs below:

MINIMUM:
OS: Windows Vista
Processor: 2.0GHx
RAM: 2GB
Video Card: Nvidia 8800 or ATI 2900
HDD Space: 3GB

RECOMMENDED:
OS: Windows 7 or higher
Processor: 2.0+ GHz multi-core
RAM: 8GB
Video Card: Nvidia 260 sries or ATI 5850
HDD Space: 4GB

Got interested in Nosgoth? Register in the closet beta here or buy the founders pack for instant access!

EXCLUSIVE SCREENSHOTS FROM SQUARE ENIX | AUGUST 5