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| Sanctuary! | Blessed by the Gods? Nah, just a potion |
After the initial introduction sequence, you start as a divine avatar… with no power. Much like any RPG there is an excuse to why you have to start a supposedly all-powerful character from level 1. Once you get started, mastering the controls will not take long, and you’ll be moving around the world with a click of the mouse.
Initially the graphics seem very childish, which is mainly down to the poor user interface, which looks as if it has just been drawn in at the last minute. This is also the case for the inventory screens, the battle interface and most the games interfaces in general. The inventory screen is what you’ll probably cringe at the most, as the items look as if they have just been slapped in, on the up side you’ll have just as much fun sitting there trying to guess what each texture is meant to be.
The landscape looks much better in comparison to the interfaces used, though you’ll see that this game was made for the slower end systems to cope with, graphically the system looks old, but it does run very smoothly for this even with video options maxed out. Town landscapes look square and plain while the forest areas look meshed together which is of putting to travel through, it’s either boring or it’s difficult to see.
Though with every problem there is always something that makes up for it. The best bit about the graphical side of this game would have to be the effects, mainly seen in battle mode, the spell and attack effects are somewhat better then you’d expect. Between summoning pets, getting critical hits and casting spells to even drinking a simple health potion, the effects for these do stand out over the rest of the game, if nothing else these will keep you mesmerized by shiny effects for hours.
Now if the imagery of game did not entertain you enough, you should have probably quit by now. Though perhaps the sound and music will make up for this and be at least some minor entertainment to keep you going, well, maybe if you like crickets.
During the game the music can be quite good; going through towns is probably the best music to listen to, but you cannot sit in town all day. When you go out into the wilderness, where there is little to entertain you unless you run into a battle sequence you’d think that you’d have something to listen to, but no, they sacrifice entertainment for an ounce of realism. Travelling in the wilderness will give you the joys of that classical cricket squeaking sound and unless you charge into battle often, you be stuck listening to this looping sound effect late into the night.
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| Reinforces have arrived! | Stats, stats, stats |
While on your travels you’ll face many quests, to which some will be part of the main storyline, when you come across some of these a conversation ensues, some of these are spoken, which is better then hacking through all the quests in the game having to read through the conversations rather then just letting them play. The voices used for this are very good, and they did think about minor alterations between speakers, such as the Gods having a deeper voice which makes all the difference in perception of the characters.
So with the graphics barely any good and the sound being under par, it all comes down to game play now. Now there are some old, some new and plenty of annoying aspects for this RPG. The movement controls are simplistic, it basically comes down to the mouse really, though you can move your character with the usual a, s, w, d keys, I found the mouse to be easier, left click the ground and you’ll move. Makes moving long distances slightly tolerable, click & move, wait, click & move, wait… and so forth. Right-click and hold gives you control of the camera angle allowing you to find the best view point. Though this is a limited viewpoint due to the fact that you are unable to move around the game world in 3rd person view, which for some may be more of an annoyance. There are few limitations on where you can go, excluding the usual inability to climb mountains and the addition of the inability to traverse water unless it is as shallow as a puddle, additionally; clipping is an issue… see that tree root? Think you can just walk over it? Don’t be fooled, if you think you’ll be able to walk over something, it’s probably faster to walk the long way round.
Once you start roaming around and find there are enemies in front of you, you suddenly realise that you have no idea how to fight in this game. Not to worry, it’s pretty simple and is a lot like the Final Fantasy turn-based style of fighting. Once you enter the enemies range you’ll automatically begin the battle, turn by turn on a specific battle-view. Battling is when the graphical effects kick in, however that is quickly ignored when the animations are terrible at best, an enemy coming to attack you would involve running, these enemies seem to teleport to hit you and then back again. Taking your turn to attack would seem simple, however when you have to use AP points per move you soon find things difficult as everything needs at least 1 AP point (even using a potion) so once you run out of AP, you’ll have to just defend, or in simple terms stand there and get hit.
Killing the enemies as usual will yield you experience and possibly items too. Once the battle is complete, healing is an issue; there is no health or mana regeneration, so unless you use a health potion or rest you’ll not last long. Resting after battle comes at a price each time though, you’ll need to eat & drink once you finish resting, for if you don’t your stats will suffer, and if you have no food or water to drink, you’ll be in a very tough situation. Trust me when I say, you’ll want to be in perfect shape before each battle for if you run away from battle you’ll lose all your exp to the last level up and then start from the beginning of the map. However if you think that is bad, don’t die. Death means automatic GAME OVER, no second chances, so unless you save before each battle you’re chancing it… and the only auto save is when you enter the area.
The AI is not the best; enemies will continually attack with the same move, which is tedious when you have three of the same enemy, each using the same attack, with the same animation: run, swing, hit, return, run, swing, hit, return, run, swing, hit, return.
Travelling between areas is made simple with a waypoint system, much the same as SpellForce. You can move around the world by finding a lamp post and selecting the next location on the world map. Now the area maps are nice to use, they use the games graphic engine and look better then a 2D image of the area, though my one concern with these was the fact that any water on the map looked like a multi-coloured vortex, and unless there was a deeper meaning to this, it seems to be a clear mistake. As for the world map, we go back to a 2D image, but for the short amount of time you use it for it’s a quick and easy system to use.
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| Yes, there are spiders here too! | That’s water, not a vortex |
The most appealing thing about this game was the initial introduction which I found to be quite immersing and was the only thing that kept my interest in the game for so long. All in all, this is not the best of games available; it is a simple role-playing game for slower systems. You would get far more enjoyment from playing something such as SpellForce: Order of Dawn for the same cost.
Top Game Moment:
TOP GAME MOMENT
Casting spells and watching those shiny effects.
