E3 2011: Ruin preview – Dungeon crawling at home and on the go

The problem with getting addicted to action RPGs is that sometimes you have to get up and leave, thus giving up some prime looting time. But what if you could take those dungeons on the road? Ruin is looking to let you do just that. Because it's coming out for both the PS3 and Vita, you can save on either device and load it up on the other. Everything you finished during your morning commute to work can be immediately picked up again once you've made it home afterwards. Can't make it all the way through a dungeon? The game will save right where you were, enabling you to continue on your destructive path.

But what would an action-RPG with online support be without multiplayer? Ruin certainly has it, but not just in the normal co-op dungeon crawling that you'd expect. As you loot your way through the game, you can find items to build up your very own customizable dungeon that other players can invade. Once a player decides to take on your particular dungeon, you'll be given a little warning, allowing you to make sure all the defenses are intact and ready to go. If you're not online, they'll just go into what you had set up. Allowing asynchronous multiplayer is a great idea considering the portable nature of the game.

Unfortunately, we didn't see too much of the game so we can't really be sure how it will look in its final form. But the short level we played looked really stylish and surprisingly pretty on both Vita and PS3. We expect that the usual addictive lootwhoring and combo-heavy gameplay will get more than a few players quite addicted.

Jun 16, 2011