mkienenb: I've glanced at the gamecard page for this game, but I'm curious to know what the game play is like for multiple players?
It's advertised as an action/sci-fi, so is it like Sacred Gold or Divine Divinity? Or is it more of an RTS? Or a first-person shooter? Again, I'm more interested to know what it's like multiplayer as that's how I'm most likely to play it.
Multiplayer is an RTS/FPS/TPS asymmetric team deathmatch. The three teams are as follows:
The Meccs (5 players Max) - Technology based team where you need to build Gyrocopters, weapons, bombs and upgrades in order to move across the map in a relatively fast amount of time.
Sea Reapers (3 players Max) - Magic focused team where you summon spells and are able to swim around the map quickly while also gliding/jumping making this team the fastest of the three.
Kabuto - Only one player can use Kabuto and he/she's entirely melee focused. Imagine you're playing a Godzilla game where your ultimate goal is to smash things. Kabuto has one weak spot near his crotch which opens up when other players get close. He/She can also spawn 2 child Kabutos which you can control with simple commands.
For the Meccs and Sea Reapers, you need to go out into the map to collect Smarties (workers basically) and Vimp meat/souls (depending on team). These are essentially your resources. The more Smarties you have the faster your team can build but they require more food/souls in order to accomplish the tasks. Stepping on the pad in the middle of your base takes you into a basic overhead view of your base where you can choose what to build/summon and how many Smarties you choose to allocate. This is the extent of the 'RTS' portion. Once you have your buildings any player may enter and choose what to buy to then use to obliterate the opposing teams.
As for Kabuto, the game plays entirely different from the other teams. At the start of the match you're small and do minimal damage but the more you eat (Smarties, Vimps, Meccs or Reapers) the larger you'll eventually grow. There are three stages to growth and once you max out, you're able to spawn 2 child Kabutos and your attacks become devastating.
Here's the catch - there's only a limited amount of Smarties per map so you're constantly fighting over them or even doing base runs to kidnap them from other players. It can get pretty crazy when you have a full server.
Also, play the single player campaign. It will help you understand how each of the classes/teams works and it has the advantage of being one of the funniest games I've ever played. NOT playing the single player is doing yourself a disservice.