Posted December 03, 2008
Lionheart was one of the last RPGs (if not the last indeed) published by Interplay, the pre-release hype was contained enough and the game's alternate history prospect interesting and unique, it was, as many publications would name it during its development, a medieval Fallout.
Lionheart: Legacy of the Crusader takes place during an alternate version of 12th Century Europe, and the results are quite interesting. Magical creatures made common by superstition and myth appear in the flesh, strange sights and places await the player as he traverses a well designed portrayal of the game's setting. The graphics, while not spectacular, are beautiful in their artistry, one of the last good looking pseudo-2D RPGs to be released.
Utilizing the SPECIAL system made popular in the Fallout series, Lionheart provides a breadth of character customization, and for the first half of the game there truly are many ways of crafting a viable character. A diplomat, an archer, a mage, and so on, all quite possible and playable. However, it is evident that once the player leaves the city of Barcelona, something goes sour, the game becomes pure hack & slash. While there's nothing wrong with that, it completely ruins the play balance as most characters that are not pure warriors will find themselves incredibly disadvantaged.
I can only assume that the game was rushed out at the last moment by Interplay as things began to look ugly for the company and its assets, unfortunately, this meant that a potentially fantastic product in Lionheart was repressed, rather, we received a decent game that falters halfway through and loses much of its appeal.
As it is, Lionheart is certainly worth a purchase at its cheap price despite the problems present, perhaps just for the impressive soundtrack alone. Its largest problem is not its wealth of problems, but rather how they eventually effect the player, it's devastating to play through an incredibly well designed RPG for a dozen hours only to have the later half be an uninspired chore, at the least the story continues at an interesting clip.
Lionheart: Legacy of the Crusader takes place during an alternate version of 12th Century Europe, and the results are quite interesting. Magical creatures made common by superstition and myth appear in the flesh, strange sights and places await the player as he traverses a well designed portrayal of the game's setting. The graphics, while not spectacular, are beautiful in their artistry, one of the last good looking pseudo-2D RPGs to be released.
Utilizing the SPECIAL system made popular in the Fallout series, Lionheart provides a breadth of character customization, and for the first half of the game there truly are many ways of crafting a viable character. A diplomat, an archer, a mage, and so on, all quite possible and playable. However, it is evident that once the player leaves the city of Barcelona, something goes sour, the game becomes pure hack & slash. While there's nothing wrong with that, it completely ruins the play balance as most characters that are not pure warriors will find themselves incredibly disadvantaged.
I can only assume that the game was rushed out at the last moment by Interplay as things began to look ugly for the company and its assets, unfortunately, this meant that a potentially fantastic product in Lionheart was repressed, rather, we received a decent game that falters halfway through and loses much of its appeal.
As it is, Lionheart is certainly worth a purchase at its cheap price despite the problems present, perhaps just for the impressive soundtrack alone. Its largest problem is not its wealth of problems, but rather how they eventually effect the player, it's devastating to play through an incredibly well designed RPG for a dozen hours only to have the later half be an uninspired chore, at the least the story continues at an interesting clip.