Karnage Chronicles

The first installment of Nordic Troll's saga "Karnage Chronicles" takes place in the world of Teralyn. Players assume the roles of Murkwraiths, undead beings that has been denied passage to Death's Domain. Who made them, what is their purpose, and why can't they pass on?

Overview

Karnage Chronicles is an action-RPG made exclusively for the virtual reality platform. The game features room-scale VR movement, unique player classes, a rich and engaging story, and unique monsters and environments. This is Nordic Trolls' first VR title and the game is made in Unreal Engine 4.

Room-scale VR

As stated in a Reddit post by a Nordic Trolls developer, the company is using their own proprietary version of room-scale movement. For example, elevation is adjusted based on where the player is located in the world. If the player were to walk towards a flight of stairs in their play area, they would actually be able to walk up stairs in-game. The reason this was implemented as a game feature, was due to the fact that enemies in the game would attack the 0.0.0 position of the player instead of the player's actual space. Using this system avoids this.

Unique player classes

The game features two classes, and although two more classes were scheduled for the full launch of the game, the developers chose to listen to the player community, and instead provide several extra hours of gameplay.

WARRIOR

The warrior class is equipped with a broadsword and shield, and uses a crossbow as its secondary weapon. The broadsword is the bladed weapon yielding the most damage in the game, and the addition of a shield gives the class much needed protection against incoming blows and projectiles from its enemies. The crossbow needs to be cranked between each shot, and is the poorest firearm the game has to offer. However, by cranking the crossbow multiple times, the shot can be boosted with added length and damage output.

ARCHER

The archer class is fitted with a bow, and uses dual daggers as its secondary weapon. The bow is by far the most powerful firearm in the game, and the archer has an unlimited amount of arrows at their disposal. The dual daggers are for close-combat situations, and although they have shorter range and damage output than the Warrior's broadsword, they can be a deadly flurry in the right hands.

"They chose the path of the archer: Artist of wounds. Plague of arrows. Death from afar."

Rich and engaging story

The players start the game as Murkwraiths. Without knowing anything of what they are and how they got to be that way, the players will have to unravel their past to understand their present. The game's narration casts fleeting hints to past and present lore, presented by a narrator that seems to have intimate knowledge of the Murkwraiths' existence. The narration is presented in-game as Lore Scrolls at the beginning and end of each play area, as well as hidden ones scattered across the game world. The developers have invested time and energy to the lore of the game, as is evident by their weekly Monday Lore and Friday Fiction updates which has been going on since the game was announced in November 2016.

Monsters and environments

The game launches in Early Access with three play areas:

WYVERNSCALE APPROACH
CRYSTAL CAVES
EYE OF THE DWARVES

The play areas are geographically connected. The area is predominantly ruled by goblinoids, but the developers have hinted to other monster types via official screenshots and posts on social media. According to a recent Reddit post by one of the developers, new chapters will feature unique regions inhabited by a variety of monsters.