War of The Roses Character Creation Livestream

In less than an hour, Paradox Interactive will be live-streaming the character creation for their upcoming medieval battle game War of The Roses. Set in the late 1400s, gamers can take on the role of fighters from the Plantagenet houses of York and Lancaster. You can head on over to Wikipedia for the history lesson on the real war if you like. Suffice it to say, the conflict was bloody and brutal.

The game designers wanted to replicate that experience and so, the game is absolutely jam-packed with opportunities to stab your opponent repeatedly in the face. Yup. Virtually every time you cut someone down with your sword or shoot them from a distance with your bow and arrow, you’ll have to get right up close to finish the job. It’s pretty horrifying to be honest. There you are, bleeding out on the floor desperately hoping that one of your teammates will come over to patch you up. But nope, up looms your enemy and here’s his sword. Stabby, stab, stab.

If swords don’t appeal, you can spawn with all sorts of other weapons. Maces, spears and pikes are available, each with different damage types and different hit detection. Stand close to slash at someone with a spear and all you’ll do is bump them with the relatively-harmless wooden shaft. But stab them with the tip instead and you can get a nice gorey kill. Equally, wild swings with big weapons will leave you lumbering and open to attack. Each weapon takes practice so newbies might be better off sticking with the fast-paced mace for a while.

Another big part of warfare back in those days was reputation. Obviously knights would have their own coat of arms and many of them had ornate helmets for show as well. Paradox have included incredibly detailed customisation for helmets, coat of arms, all the components that make up your swords and much, much more. Senior Producer Gordon Van Dyke and key developers from development studio FatShark will talk through the character creation from 7pm tonight.

Watch the War of The Roses character creation livestream on Twitch.tv.