Umbra Kickstarter Campaign Launched

Just as they promised earlier, SolarFall Games has launched a Kickstarter campaign for Umbra, their upcoming “open world, free progression hack ‘n slash” title that carries some clear inspiration from Blizzard Entertainment’s Diablo series. They’re seeking $225,000 in funding for the CryEngine-powered action RPG, and here’s a little something on the skill system to pique your interest:

Active Skills

Active Skills are regular magic spells, assassin skills or special melee moves your character will use. They are usually paid with Rage, Stamina or Mana, but some can also be paid with Health Points or might simply have a long refresh countdown.

Active Skills are found in the game by looting books. When you read a book, it is destroyed, and you gain a new skill. This skill will level up if you use it effectively against enemies.

Skill Modifiers

Active Skills can have their effects modified by special items in the game, usually with what we call Soul Gems. Soul Gems are socketable items with unique powers.

The effects of Skill Modifiers are different according to the targeted skill, but their effect are always powerful. A fireball will burn everything on its path, projectiles will bounce on enemies, and electricity-based skills may strike lightning everywhere in a large radius.

These Soul Gems will be numerous but will have a corresponding rarity, and they will be dropped by enemies according to your play style, so you will not find useless Modifiers for your build.

Passive Skills

Passive skills are a very important side of your character’s development because each point you invest will drastically change you character’s abilities. You will gain one passive Skill Point from each level up.

Powers you may gain from the Passive Skill Trees can be very helpful and powerful. Some examples of the powers granted by Passive Skills are:

Ability to have one Two-Handed weapon in each of your hands (because, why not?)

– Additional Skill Slots on the Skill Bar
– Increase the number of mercenaries following you
– Stats increase
– Armor bonus from Health points (ideal for tanks)
– Bonus damage against enemies in Fear
– Movement Speed increase
– Character Stats

Each level, you will gain 5 points to invest in four different stats:

– Strength will increase your damage with melee weapon, how often your strike can stun enemies without using any special skills, and is also an important requirement to use the heaviest weapon and armors.
– Dexterity will increase your chances to passively dodge enemy attacks or projectiles, how often you can perform critical hits, and increases your attack rate and movement speed.
– Constitution defines your resilience, increases your Health Points and Health Regeneration, passive Stamina recovery and resistance to various types of attacks.
– Power defines your ability to harness magic energy and it will increase the power of your magic spells and your Mana Points and Regeneration.

Combining the effects of Stats, Passive Skills and Mutations will be a key element for your character’s evolution. Combinations can be created to transform your character into a brutal force of destruction or to make him a vicious and elusive assassin!