French developer Monte Cristo isn't a name you'd associate with action role-playing games. The company's biggest claim to fame would probably the City Life series of strategy building games here in North America. Silverfall, an upcoming action role-playing game for the PC might just change that. Silverfall is an interesting, open-ended action role-playing game for the PC that combines a unique and striking visual style with open-ended gameplay, the ability to play some of the more repulsive races you find in most RPG's and an interesting skill progression system that focuses more on skill building and less on being a specific class.

Silverfall takes its name from the town where the game begins, which is suddenly and inexplicably overrun of by a cast of thousands of marauding undead creatures. A good portion of the city is overrun forcing its good citizens just outside of town in a makeshift refugee camp. The player, now homeless and alone decides to investigate just what caused this attack and your fellow citizens are more than eager to put you to work on the road to recovery and understanding.

Silverfall lets you create a character using four different races and from the get-go you can see that the game strays away from the conventional choices. You have a choice of the staple elves and humans, but you can also play as a goblin or a troll. Given that your enemies in this game seem to be from beyond the grave, these choices make sense. Obviously each race provides bonuses to certain stats and skills, so choosing the right one is pretty important. Silverfall is set in a world where magic and technology converge and where races have learned to live in relative peace because of it. This fact is important later on when your character is able to use high level sorcery or technology skills.

As you tackle the main quests and a number of side quests, which are sorted out for you so that you know in advance, you'll gain skills points and physical attributes that will make things easy. In the earliest parts of the game your patience will be tested as you get laid out by the occasional ridiculously difficult monster, so it is important to tackle those optional side quests and to find like-minded companions that will help you stay alive. The penalty for dying is pretty much the same as any other action role-playing game in recent memory: you awake at your base camp, sans your gear. Much like the Diablo series, your gear will land where you died and you'll have to go retrive it - though it will still probably be being camped by the creature that killed you. The side quest are oftentimes more than just about gaining skills points and expereince though. For example, one might give you access to a place to store some extra loot, while another might give you the ability to purchase insurance for your gear so that you don't drop it when you die. Sure, you can get by without these extra things in the game, but why take chances if you don't have to?

Silverfall's skills system provides a lot of interesting choices for players to consider as they grow their characters and shape what kind of hero they want to be. Obviously your main attributes will govern how good you are at certain skills (strength for combat, intelligence for magic, agility for dodging blows and constitution for how much life you have), the heart of your character will be what skills you choose. Skills are divvied up among combat, magic, and miscellaneous. These sections are in turn categorized under another set of sub-sections. You have the usual set of melee skills, ranged combat and techniques. You get points for these skills by leveling up in addition to points for your main attributes. The skills system is pretty straightforward, but figuring out what unlocks unique skills under each sub-section is important. The skills system is pretty unique and fans looking for the ability to customize their gaming experience should be happy with the choices available as they delve into the game's main plot and side quests.

Silverfall is a nice looking game that combines 3D world art with characters that look cell-shaded. The combination makes for a unique looking game. Certainly the entire overall presentation is something that won't be familiar to most RPG fans. The art style is distinctly European, but with a bit of medieval style technology thrown in for good measure. Again, a unique style is the end result that RPG fans will probably enjoy.