Tobyn Manthorpe — who worked as a technical artist at BioWare from 1997-2007 — and his indie studio Cedar Hill Games have announced Emissary of War today. It’s a full 3D dungeon-crawler with a custom engine and even voiceovers. So if you’ve been complaining about a lack of core titles on the iPhone and iPad, you can stop now.
As a barbarian named Ghent, you are sent on a diplomatic mission that goes awry. With an alchemist companion named Hassock (this is what 10 years at BioWare does to you), you’ll be doing a lot of hacking, slashing, upgrading, and tactics management. There appears to be some mechanic in place that lets you balance control of the two characters. A Dragon Age kind of game for iOS, perhaps?
It’s hard to say right now if the tiny team will succeed where many others have failed to bring a truly engaging game of this type to iOS, but with the experience of a ton of classic Western RPGs behind the studio, Emissary of War might just surprise us. Here’s to hoping the story and controls will be good, and that it won’t cost $9.99 or something silly like that.
Also, Detonation Sword.
