The Dog gets her fix of the Infinity Engine gameplay, and whether the bell rings or not, the dog drools. Or so it seems. I realized with Heretic Kingdoms that, doggone it, I am rather strongly conditioned to the "classic RPG" gameplay interface.

I suspect that good ol' Pavlov would have rather self-righteously been happily turning in his grave - that is until I vindicated his poor Dog by getting over my conditioning - ah the figurative snarling! :-p

So in case anyone else has gotten a little lost at the beginning with the gameplay mechanics in the first chapter (Monastery) here goes my take:


- independent resting happens only after the initial chapter - and at very few sports at first (campfires mainly), but it shall get better at later stages, i.e. you can manage your resting

- the healing actually indeed lowers yours HP cap - but temporarily only: upon that resting on that campfire, inn, house you may have bought, it shall be restored

- spotting that young girl shuddered up against a fence to launch the wider world, understandably in view of her story, is rather hard - but she is there!

- there is no "level up" for main skills - (melee, ranged, magic, speed) - but once you get the sufficient skill points, look out for a little "+" sign at your Character screen

- Attunements: a nice way to keep the interest up throughout the game, but look out for slight or rather major things, like not equipping the shield...

- "Reflect" Attunement - monitor your fight minutes because... if the final blow is delivered by the Reclect skill, it seems your CHAR does not get any XP - this is a tactical bug, because your reflect damage counts as long as you deliver the killing blow by other means. Let us say, once I realised this, I deactivated "refecl" dinge - and leveld up better.

Any other comments or recommendations?


Any other gameplay tips or comments on the game, pray?

I loved it. How's that? ;) I'm not one for parties, I much prefer one-on-one (or one on a slew of enemies) and Kult was a ball from start to finish except for the constant trudging to the Oracle and back at the end. Did I miss something? Was there a way to travel instantly once you enter the Oracle and head for Quova?

The story line was really interesting and kept alive by the number of side quests. I did wonder if you didn't complete some of them, or if your decisions were different...for instance, how you responded to Nabob at the Overlook...if it would have changed how you are summed up by the narrator at the end of the game.

Yes, it was hard to spot the girl by the fence.

Speaking of Nabob, do not accept the quest from Arriviste once you've advanced in the Warlord ranks. Explaining that would require a way to block out spoilers which we don't have, unfortunately. But trust me if you're not evil. ;)

It was puzzling sometimes trying to figure out what you were attuning. Say you get GoblinSlayer. Nothing in the game was referred to as a goblin, so it was sort of a crap shoot as to what it would be useful against.

Are there any more games like this on GOG, TStael, other than Divine Divinity? I'm slogging through Beyond Divinity right now and doubt very much I'll finish it. I do not like being stuck with a party, even of just one. Not to mention that BD has awful graphics...what happened between DD and this?...and dreadful voice work!

What I would dub as story telling / gameplay wise enjoyably playable in the same style:

Inquisitor- could be (is?) a sibling to Heretic Kingdoms, story-wise, though flipping the coin to the reverse: I never personally liked the "burning of the heretics" bit, because I found it cruel.

Sacred - massive hack n slash, to the point I never finished the game not being a primary fan of the genre. But I think this should be a complement, rather?

Wanna see what gives? ;-)

Safe-ish kind of bet: Two Worlds Series. Action RPG, with great humorous touches, and what the heck, I loved the voice acting on the original title!

Go all in, and persevere at first: Morrowind. Non gog, but runs on Win7 anyway because it is a bloody marvellously crafted game, I view this as THE first person sandbox RPG. Indefinite replay value - if you like.