Hello fellow GoG-ers! I just finished this game for the sixth time. I LOVE this game! The graphics is amazing for it's time, varied levels, plenty of atmosphere, lot of awesome weapons, spectacular combos, gory hand-to hand combat, and just fun to kill things. I like to share a few things, that could have been better, in my opinion.

TECHNICAL ISSUES

1) Glitches and bugs: The game is very buggy. Invincible enemies, invincible main character, attacks / combos that clearly should have hit, but doesn't, enemies stuck in air / between small objects, falling through platforms, stuck between enemies, unusable inventory items, unpickable potions, weapons effortlessly go through your main character and walls... I think this game really needed to be tested more, and fixed.

2) Controls: The controls are not fluent, feels stiff. First of all, you cannot strafe, only when you are locking onto an enemy, but even then, it feels awkward. It's hard to navigate, when multiple enemies are attacking you. And the jumping. Don't get me started. It's AWFUL. Either you jump from standing, or you jump from running. You gain no momentum from running, you just run, press the jump button, your charater does that wierd jumping animation, and that's it. It's hard to explain, but feels broken as hell. Even when you want to jump to a greater distance, your hero often stucks in mid-air. Oh, and no grab onto ledges.
Running: you cannot run down a staircase without getting stuck like five times. Annoying.

3) AI: Basically the AI works OK. The enemies defend themselves, try to attack you at the same time, and have multiple combos and attacks to get your ass handed to you. But they often get stuck in corners / ledges, they fall into pits, and mindlessly kill each other, if you trigger their attack mechanisms.

4) Sound: I really could bear more sound effects from the enemies / heroes, because you hear the same grunting / moaning all the time, and gets boring really soon.

5) Save / Load: I would really appreciated a quicksave / quickload function, but there is none. Saving and loading a game is a little uncomfortable.

GAMEPLAY ISSUES (spoilers!)

1) Story: What story? There is no meaningful story at all. Ok, this game about hacking and slashing and brutal combos, but this is just pathetic. First it's kinda interesting that you have to find a mistical sword by collecting four keys, and unlock the sword's power with six hidden runes. But in some point, you'll get the sword... and now what? I think the developers thought that "Hmm, we should add few more levels, so the player can test the new sword". Who the hell is Dal-Gurak anyway? And who is the main boss, this Chaos Kid? Who cares, just slash him. I find kinda amusing, that you can harm the main boss with regular weapons too, so what was the point to get the Sword of Iana for the first time??

2) Weapons and shields:
- The bow: You MUST get the bow in order to shoot blocks, and get all the runes. But for combat, it's utterly useless. It does little damage, you can only kill enemies in the first few levels. You cannot move, while aiming, so you cannot use agains anything, that rushes right towards your face (basically every enemy). There is no crosshair, so if you want to hit something, you have to shoot a few "blind shots" to determine where those damn arrows go. And the best: you cannot drop it. OK, you have to have it if you want the runes, but after you find them all, why can't you just drop that useless piece of wood and free up one weapon space??
- Special weapons: The special weapons looks amazing, but they are too weak. By the time you find them, you have much more powerful weaponry. I think it should be better, if they have more damage, so they would be worth keeping to the late game. A few ARE worth keeping, but just for the special combos (the Ice Sword and Ice Wand is good, and the Steel Feather is usable too). Too bad all the cool-looking fire weapons are crap.
- Other weapons: There are few weapons, which are not in the combo list, but useful nonetheless, for example the Orc Sword, Snake Sword and the Light Edge. But these are all for the knight, why cannot be such weapons for other characters? Why can't the amazon use the Halberd effectively? It's a polearm, for God's sake! Poor amazon can't even use any sword, but the game is forcing me to pick up the Queen's Sword in the end of Tombs of Ephyra. So I have to drop one valuable weapon first, pick up the sword, and in the beginning of the next level, I drop it immediatly, because I don't need it. Very smart. And quite funny, that I not used the Sword of Iana with the amazon. At ALL. And there are weapons, that would be cool, if you could get them at the right time, but you get them so late, that renders them useless (I thinking about the Vampire Sword now).
- Poison: There are weapons, that deal poison damage, for example the Snake Sword, the Steel Feather or the Venom Hammer. It's a good idea, but the poison deals so little damage, that is insignificant. It would be cool that the poison actually could kill enemies, so theese weapons would be more valuable, and players consider to keep them later in the game. By the way, the posioned arrows are useless, too.
- Shields: The shields look great, and there are plenty of them. Only complaint is, that you only use that shield, which has more durability. A few shield has stats, like "+1 power" on the King's Shield, and "-0.5 to -2 power" on others. This easily falls in the "doesn't matter" category. It would be nice, if the shields have more stats, like defense, and much more impact on attack, so the player would decide which shield to use in a certain situation. And quite unfair, that the "Vampire shield" cannot reflect the damage dealt by the enemies.

3) Items:
- Ghost medallion: You can only find this in Tombs of Ephyra. I already mentioned, that the poison damage is so little, that you don't have to deal with it; this make this item useless. It would come in handy later in the game, but you lose it at the end of the level, so it doesn't matter anyway.
- Crown: I only found one spot, where you can use this item effectively, and that is the first fight with Meskalamdug. It deals a lot of fire damage, and the Crown works well agains it. But other than this, it's not worth it. The Demons that spits fire deals a little damage, and they die easily, and it does not work agains the fire-spitting statues in Forge of XSHATHRA. What the hell?
- Amulet: This is a glitched item, DO NOT GET THIS! You cannot use it, you cannot drop it, and takes one inventory space, so if you are full, you have to free one inventory slot, if you want to progress in Temple of Al Farum (in this case, you cannot pick up the green gem). So you have to waste for example a power potion or a full life potion, just because this damned thing is glitched. Thank God, it disappears after the level.
- Food: Food is great life-replenisher in the beginning of the game, but after 2-3 levels, they become useless because of the low healing capability. So don't even bother to pick up a bread for 10 hp, when you have 6000... It would be great, if the food would heal in percentages, not just exact numbers.

4) Characters:
I think the knight is the most complete and finished character in the game. He has the most combos, he can use all one-handed weapons and shields, and he is the only one who has heavy armor. What about the others? Why the amazon has only one combo? And why there is just light armor for her and the barbarian? I think the barbarian would look quite terrifying in a heavy armor! All heroes except the knight feel unfinished. Oh, and I really hate the slow climbing with the amazon, and the alcoholic potion-drinking with the dwarf.
- Stamina: It's really annoying, when you are out of stamina, you get immobilised for 3-5 seconds. In later levels, it's basically suicide. I'm OK with it, when it happens with normal attacks, but when I want to perform a special combo, I really don't know how much stamina I need, and if I don't have enough, I get stuck, while my hero is "resting." The game should just say "You have not enough stamina to perform this action.", not let me try it, and fail it. So basically I just wait till my stamina reaches the maximum, and then try the combo, wasting time needlessly.

Thank you for reading! Feel free to comment!

> character/stamina
> It's really annoying, when you are out of stamina, you get immobilised for 3-5 seconds

by stamina you mean energy I presume

you can always play a little bit and change it

in $BOD/Lib/Damage.py there is function (line 955):
def CalculateFatigue(EntityName, AnimName):

it defines how energy cost of attack is calculated

change this:
--- $BOD/Lib/Damage.py (line 1030)
if energy_cost<max_energy:
me.Data.Energy2Lose= energy_cost
---
to:
--- $BOD/Lib/Damage.py (line 1030)
if energy_cost<me.Energy:
me.Data.Energy2Lose= energy_cost
---

and you will get what you wanted
imo, it doesn't look good but de gustibus non est disputandum

play with this function and tell what you dicover

ad.3. items
> Ghost medallion
it's also in Tower of Dal gurak and yes, it's useless

> Crown
there are two (at least): in forge of Xshathra and in Tower of Dal Gurak - and why do you think it's there if not for Meskalandug

> amulet
well, like ghost medallion

> food
is good in the beginning, that's it

* you forgot about bracelet
there are two as far as I remember
one is in island of Karum and works well against Vampire although power potion is better

* you forgot power potion
works great almost like in quake L)

It's all a matter of playing it in a certain way. Btw, the Queen's Sword is pretty awesome. It's great for healing yourself without wasting potions (which are not plentiful). And the dwarf can also use those powerful sword weapons you mentioned (though you can't do any special moves with them). That said, sticking to each character's class is ultimately more convenient. With the dwarf, later in the game, hammers have some +380 attack and their special move can kill even golems in 3 hits. As a whole, I never felt the game was unbalanced for not picking the knight. If anything, I'm having too easy a time in the later stages with the dwarf, to the point that the challenge level has dropped a lot.

If I have an issue with the game, it's the goddamn bugs. This is the second time that I have to stop playing because of savedata corruption. I know, I should use different save slots, but I always forget that :P

great post friend, was pleasure to read BUT (a big caps here) I'd like to add some of my thoughts as well.

I didn't even had computer in those days, my friend had access to pc which in his dad's office, an engineer who does projects in computer so that was a beefy computer at that time to run this game well. anyway, this game I believe was one of the biggest productions up to that date along with the max payne (first one). And the second game codemasters really crafted their name after colin mcrea rally (ofc the first one for ps1).

Before all the console crap taken over the world of triangles, this and along the few games with it literally smashed all our expectations from games. and this is a major step in my opinion which you missed in your post.

You reviewed the game well, no problems there but I can assure you there are worse AI than this in recent games of today. (although AI was awesome for that time, you feel like knight getting harrassed by bully castle knights who have all potions and fucking king's daughter all the time and you had to REBEL to them and show your courage!!!-lol-)

The point all I want to make is this: this is the game where PC gaming stopped. and it is AHEAD of its time because of console take over and stupid games similar to each other started to get published everyday.

BOD in the other hand, is smart in all ways. graphics I mean.. was totally mind blowing at that time. Even those shadows, those dynamic shadows were art of coding. Nevermind the ai, it was felt like a multiplayer match with every new single combat.

Sure there were bugs allover but the whole idea behind pc gaming was fighting against both the ingame stuff and to the codes-flaws in a single player game.

when I think...."What is making us play these games again?"? Perfect graphics which totally imitate reality, perfect voice actings, highly funded productions...but we always look for something different cuz we know something is missing. IT IS A GAME, that is what is missing and games supposed to satisfy a persons curiosity with all the sillyness and crappiness..

That is what they are forgetting to add the new games and we are satisfying that with returning old games such as BOD imo.. cuz finding bugs, exploiting some stuff etc is a must for a game and this was the game (IMO) all peaked at the same time in a single-player game. I wish the youth knew, kids at 11 had the same chance as we had to be in era of such different, mind boggling games were around. unfortunately they are stuck with the same virtual - life imitator games with no human curiosity added in them (ofc, thats why they are pushing all these multiplayer games today, cuz there are no single player left anymore)

A short example: I still think the game made ps2 sell millions, which is shadow of the colossus, is a project that sony people decided to make after BOD. A game based on bugs, based on bugs which people call 'rules' as a mistake, where you hit is highlightened, where you grab is guided, all game is a tetris yet you feel in 'sandbox' cuz of massive landscapes and riding a pony.. BOD never had that budget yet with all the originality we today and more people (if the are exposed) would still play it. Thats why bod is so great. It is art, it was beyond any expectations and it rules :p

anyway, really I remembered all those times when the sword of ianna was in my hand and that music was playing aaaaa aaa aaa aaaaaaa again... such an awesome game!

note: don't bash me, I don't own the game from here and I aint no torrenter of this beautiful game. I had the original 700mb cd from those days and I found that as well in the attic where I found my 14 year old computer. So mods, dont ever delete my post! (they are turning Turkey into fascist state these days, I had to edit this note here to make sure my comment get posted aight=!)

Merin, I agree completely about the repetitive sound effects, the buggy inventory objects and the fact that a lot of cool weapons appear so late that they're useless (same with the special attack on some weapons). Most of all, it's a shame the story was so undeveloped. The game had such storytelling potential with all the atmosphere.

As for the rest of your complaints, I think I saw most of them as challenges/realism rather than problems. I run out of stamina when performing special attacks? Well then, maybe I shouldn't test new weapons in the middle of combat. The amazon only has light armor? I should get better at not getting hit.

I really liked the fact that food is useless to replenish your life later on. It's a nice way to highlight your transition from normal human to something more badass :) As for the shields not having stats, and the "special objects" being useless - well, I'm on my own, and the only things I can rely on are my wits and my blade. Works fine for me.

I had a lot of fun exploiting the weak poison effect, and the fact that enemies hit each other. Playing with the amazon (on my first run, damn I think it's been 10 years), there were a couple of minotaurs that I just couldn't beat except by slowly poisoning one, and making two of them kill each other. It's worth noting that enemies will *not* keep fighting each other to death unless you encourage it. They retaliate to being hit by their buddies, but only once. Then they're back on your ass.

Actually I didn't notice many bugs at all on my first play. Maybe it's because I fiddled so much with the settings so I just hit something that worked for my computer. Now I got the "I enter a certain door and the game crashes" bug, which I never experienced then. And the only time I ever got invincible PC or opponent was on the boss fight on the knight's first level. But it is true that I only completed the game with the amazon, and played the first level for all characters and a bit more with the knight. There might be more bugs I'm not aware of.

ultramegazoid, your comment is genius. I completely agree that "the whole idea behind pc gaming was fighting against both the ingame stuff and to the codes-flaws in a single player game." - you just didn't know what to expect, and that was challenging and exciting. I might call it "meta fun" now, but back then it was just what computers were all about. Once you know what to expect and your expectations are always met, the exploration is over, and with it a lot of fun goes out the window.

I started playing this because people compared it to the Souls Games and I must say I was pleasantly surprised. The game is kind of clunky, but it is the most accurate combat system (that I know of) up untill Demon's Souls. I guess there was DIe by the Sword, but that was accurate for all the wrong reasons (imo). There's a lot that could have been better but this foundation is rocksolid, albeit crude. A better story, bigger arsenal, slicker sounds etc could never replace that foundation, it would just make it another gothicgame or something like that. I love what this game has done for the genre, even if it did take us 8 years to catch on to that. In the wake of Dark Suls success, everybody tries to copy it these days, and sadly don't succeed all that often.

I would welcome a remake of this game with the suggested changes. What a game that would be!

Terrific game. I even own the original disc release but never got into it all those years ago. Love the combat too. Really gave me some wide-eye moments lol. The level layout can at times be a little confusing (mines) but loved it to bits.

The only thing I'm not so keen on is the mentioned lack of hp from food later in the game, the wooden shields only last about two hits before crumbling (damn annoying) and the fact theres too many keys mapped (do we really need a throw key?)

I had some issues where the game would crash if i tried to save over an existing save but the brilliant GoG support fixed that.

A modern reboot of this would be awesome. Just keep the atmos the same!