I have to admit that I have no idea what the title of this game means. This word was neither found in my trusty old Oxford dictionary or on Merriam-Webster Online. Perhaps it�"s just a play on the word “determinacy”, or even “determination”. Most likely though, I suspect it�"s meant to play on the minds of suckers like me. (*shakes fist*) Thankfully, none of this ambiguity is apparent in the actual game play. This is a predominantly multiplayer based game with sword fighting, flying and twitch-based maneuvering of your weapon with the mouse, all played out in third person perspective.

Determinance ships with only a barebones single-player campaign, in which you go head-to-head with progressively tougher AI opponents. These duels take place in an outdoors terrain with the winner decided by a best-of-five system, the same setup employed in the online Duel Arena mode. To call the single-player mode a campaign is a little generous though, considering it is just a series of duels without any variations whatsoever, and can be completed in an hour or two even for your first time through. I should add though, that it will take longer than that to truly master the game mechanics and duel your way through without dying.

Like many other twitch based games and first person shooters in the market, the most important setting to fine-tune in this game is the mouse sensitivity. The effectiveness of every single stroke of the sword, be it sideways slashing, top-down hacking or forward jabbing hinges on this. Needless to say, it takes a lot of playtime to eventually find the sweet spot and start dishing out sword plays that thus far have existed only on a theater screen near you. The fluidity of the sword movements is also pretty impressive, and just as the Tiger Woods series of golf games on the PC made swinging a golf club feel lifelike, Determinance makes swinging the sword an intuitive affair.

Parrying and blocking is another crucial aspect of game play. Determinance makes it elegant and easy to adjust the angle of your sword in order to block the blows of your opponents. This is imperative as the game utilizes body part hit detection. A slash to the arm may register as no more than a pin prick, whereas a blow to the head can get you K.O.-ed faster than you can utter a certain swear word (which shall not be reproduced here).

At present, the single-player aspect merely includes a short write-up on the storyline prior to each duel, though these can be weirdly amusing if you do read them. Once again, I get the sneaky feeling that these are included more out of amusement than anything to fool around with the aforementioned suckers like me. (*shakes fist again*)

It is apparent that there is great potential in the development of a robust single-player campaign, possibly with limited RPG elements as far as weapon upgrades are concerned. However, fans waiting for this to materialize will be disappointed to find that there are currently no plans to do so. When quizzed about this, Ian Hardingham from Mode 7 Games affirmed that they will “very much like to do a dungeon-hack type of game with Determinance�"s mechanics”, but will at the moment focus their energies on further fleshing out the multiplayer component.

The multiplayer aspect of Determinance does not involve a persistent world, but rather Counterstrike-style bouts of short games. There are presently 2 modes available: Duel Arena and Free-For-All. Duel Arena allows you to go heads up against other opponents, while Free-For-All simply dumps up to 8 players together in the same map, with delirious mayhem promptly ensuing.

Thus far, this game is sounding great, but here comes the catch: the multiplayer lobbies of the game, its heart and soul, are mostly unpopulated at the moment. Determinance suffers from the same problems that many other multiplayer indie offerings are facing: the lack of a marketing budget and brand name. It starts a vicious cycle whereby potential buyers witness the empty servers and refrain from purchasing, leading to further obscurity.

Hopefully, the situation will improve with an upcoming worldwide retail release of an updated version that promises an expanded weapon cache to choose from, new game modes and multiplayer rankings. The 2 present multiplayer modes are also not being neglected. Ian was self-critical about the Duel Arena mode in particular, and revealed an upcoming game mode codenamed “finesse” which he has high hopes for. This new mode places greater emphasis on actual swordplay and less on movement, and in his own words, will hopefully “be the one that people are still playing in five years�" time”.

Graphics:
Determinance utilizes the Torque Game Engine that debuted in 2001. Though dated, the graphics are pretty for an indie development, apart from the somewhat low texture resolutions used.

Sound:
The sound effects inject a great deal of realism into the sword fighting experience, while the techno soundtrack gets your adrenaline levels up for the challenges ahead.

Gameplay:
The game mechanics certainly can�"t be faulted. Sword movements are fluid and responsive, and the different weapon types each have their appropriate feels corresponding to their weight and size.

Concept:
This is a twitch-based game in which you fight opponents with swords and spears, all while flying in the air. Do I need to go on?

Value:
This is where the game falters. I cannot give it a higher score in good conscience if players are going to have difficulties even finding people to play with. However, the game does sport a built-in IRC chat feature which can used to get some games going.

Overall:
Determinance is a game with a great deal of promise. If it manages to garner sufficient publicity and attention, which hopefully it will achieve with its impending worldwide retail release, the scales should be tipped over to the point where there are sufficient players online to support a consistent multiplayer experience. From the looks of it, this game can only get better.