Saturday 1 June 2013

Malifaux V2

Good Saturday everyone!

As I gear up for a fun day with the family it is nice to see that last night when I released Episode 11 of NFR (available from Newfairbank.podbean.com iTunes and the inbuilt streamer) Wyrd put out the public beta to Malifaux v2 (or M2E as everyone else is calling it, I'll stick to v2 myself).

It's nice that after all these months of knowing about the details of this, I can finally talk about it. Yes friends I can confirm that I too was a part of the closed beta!

I'm not allowed to talk about the process of beta testing, that's something that is still tied up in the NDA I signed but I can talk about the current state of the game.

As time goes on I will talk more about the game in general, but a lot of what has been revealed I like to look at as someone who's brand new to the game, or more importantly when 'I' was brand new to the game.

I think to myself, "what was it that sold me on the game all those years/months ago?" And ultimately it was two things:

1). The idea of card mechanics over dice. This wasn't so much how they worked, but just the idea of it. It seemed new and I wanted to try it.

2). The aesthetic of the models, the hick-Gremlins, the twisted Neverborn, the characterful zombies, all of that stuff!

So now we look at where we are, the card mechanics are still there, that's a plus!

But the aesthetics have changed.

To a lot of people this is good, they like the changes and for them I couldn't be happier.

For me however this is something of grave concern.

I have looked at a lot of the new art, and to summarise, there is one Master/Crew that I like enough to buy. Everything else that has been shown I don't like.

I'm not saying that it's not my favourite or I just prefer the v1 concepts, no I actually dislike the new concepts.

I look at the art and think to myself "if I saw all this artwork back when I first started, would I have got into the game?" And unfortunately I think the answer to that is "No".

Anyway that's all from me for now.

The rules I will tackle in time, as in particular I want to see what other people like and dislike before I force my 'burned out' bias onto them.

But one thing I will say, new look Leviticus and crew is a must have for me! Even if I stick to v1, I will be using these new models if they stick to the art!

Stay safe and I'll see you breach side!

- Your friendly neighbourhood Doctor Loxley

4 comments:

  1. Slightly odd post, you say you don't like the art direction and it doesn't entice you. Then tacked on at the end you say the new art would make you buy a levi crew even if you didn't use the new rules... Colour me slightly confused!

    I'm hoping to read through the rules today and will also have a better look at the stat cards after that. Overall I can see where some complaints have come from in terms of simplifying some of the complexity that some people loved but until I've played a few games I won't pass judgement as to whether the game is 'watered down' as I saw posted elsewhere.

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  2. No worries.

    Allow me to explain my Levi and art comments.

    So far there are only 2 'crews' that I like the art for:

    Levi and Raspy.

    Levi is a master I've always been interested in rules wise, but the original style i didn't like.

    Raspy is a master I've never liked for style or rules. I like her new style but still not a fan of rules, so I'm not interested in.

    Everyone else, as in EVERYONE else apart from a couple of exceptions like The Judge, I can't stand the art.

    There are a few reasons, one of the first is stupid hair (IMO). This can be seen mainly with Lady J, both Vicks and McM for masters.

    Levi's hair doesn't look silly, so this doesn't apply to him. Raspy and her crew are either humanoid but not human or wearing hats, so this doesn't apply to them.

    Another reason is the over sexualisation of female characters. Don't get me wrong I love a bit of flesh as much as the next guy, but when things start getting impractical or following the rule of the metal bikini (the more flesh on display the higher the armour rating) I start to draw the line.

    If you have a look at the nurses and the ronin, these are the characters I'm thinking about.

    At the same time if you read through the main rule book and have a look at which characters are given 1/2 page spreads, it's virtually always these 'sexy' characters, essentially reinforcing the image that these characters are little more than 'pinups'

    There are other issues, but it's starting to go on a bit now.

    In short I like Levi and his art because he doesn't fall victim to what it is I don't like about the other art.

    Not sure if that makes sense

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  3. Think I follow, agree on the dislike of over-sexualising figs, just fits the pathetic gamers don't do contact with women stereotype.

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  4. Has the artwork for Levi and his crew been released? Perhaps my google-fu is weak. I'm really looking forward to having some of the rules streamlined, hopefully it will mean less poring over one's rules and cards to extract the true meaning. However, I do agree with you about the hyper-sexualization. While I'm a huge Viks fan I'm not digging the skimpy outfits. I like the darker, more punk theme, but it could have been executed better. We'll have to see with some of the other models. In the meantime I think I'll just stick with the models I currently own until a re-sculpt catches my eye (I'm looking at you, Hulk Schill!)

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