Posted on: February 15, 2018
NightHornet
Игр: 302 Отзывов: 27
Risen again... and still not quite there
If you read my reviews for some, RPG titles here, on GOG, you may remember that I have strict rules that determine what makes an "RPG game": the ability to shape my own character, actual influence on the development of the plot and AT LEAST decent writing. Due to these requirements, I never considered JRPGies or hack&slash games as RPGies. Because of this policy I also cannot put "Revenant" in that category; the game was developed by Eidos (guys behind original "Tomb Raider" titles), which automatically made me skeptical regarding it being actual RPG, but a back in the day a friend of mine had it on CD and I was anxious to give it a try. The overall effect this game had on me was... rather mixed. Lets start with the fact that at first glance "Revenant" seems awesome; it is hack&slash in vein of "Diablo", but Eidos really did intend to do something "more" with it than mindless annihilation of everything that moves. The premise alone is rather complex, for hack&slash anyway. See, you start the game as Locke - a man brought back to life by a powerful wizard Sardock in order to assist Ahkuilon in their current problem, which is the cult called "Children of the Change". Locke has no memory of his previous life and must relearn all he knew, but at his time he was a great warrior and a powerful sorceror, which gives some basis as to why he was chosen. Over the course of the story you're given hints to your past and slowly uncover the full story behind yourself... as well as Ahkuilon's current troubles. The premise promises an intriguing story, especially if you consider "Planescape: Torment" arrived roughly at the same time and with its story having a similar premise, it remains one of the most entertaining tale on PC to date. Locke isn't a silent protagonist either - he can strike conversations with various characters and the player can choose his responses, deciding whether he wants the titular revenant to act like a d**k or be more understanding. Much like with "Diablo", you can free-roam the world and while it's not randomly generated (not to my knowledge anyway) it is pretty vast with Misthaven, your "base of operations" being closer in size to Baldur's Gate or, at least, Lut Golein from the second DIablo rather than Tristram of the original, Blizzard's hack&slash. The system itself is also pretty interesting with Locke being able to use both melee and magic. The former is executed through various attacks, which Locke can learn in a dojo; with new levels you can learn new combos and implement them in your travels, but you need to be careful as combos burn your stamina and, once your run out of it, Locke's movements become sluggish. Stamina regenerates relatively quickly, but running out of steam in the middle of a fight is something you DO wish to avoid. The magic system is kinda similar to crafting, which has grown pretty popular nowadays - see, in order to cast a spell, you must discover its ingredience first. Those ingredience are special symbols (amulets or something like that... I forgot ^^') that, arranged in the right sequence, give you a specific spell. Of course to cast more powerful spells, you need the right level of ability, but the search and discovery of spells is a pretty fun process. The game also provides you with many different NPCs (some are actually playable in multiplayer) that have varying personalities and motivations. The enviroment is beautiful and shows a decent amount of diversity to keep the exploration entertaining. Your equipment is also given a pretty big deal of thought. Everything point to the fact that "Revenant" is gonna be big... But than you get past the halfway point of the game and it turns terrible... For all its good ideas, the execution leaves some things to be desired and in some cases it is just poorly done altogether; the mystery behind Locke's previous life feels great at start - it is always fun to uncover stuff on your own, but the truth is that, at certain point, it just isn't anything particularly memorable or even interesting. It ties to the main plot somewhat, but the resolution is very unsatifying and the main tale, what sense it makes, is rather predictable. The premise that you can pick your responses lets you believe you have some influence on the said plot, but honestly you don't - much like in JRPGies, any reply that you'll have Locke use will ultimately lead to the exact same conclusion. Some cosmetic difference can be spotted, but there is NOTHING that really has an impact. This makes you think what is the point of dialogue choices to begin with. The battle syste, possibly the games biggest asset in hindsight, could also use much polish - its general concept is really fun, but you quickly realize that it's unbalanced. Your stamina runs out quickly, making the use of combos relatively scarse and some spells are VERY visibly more powerful than others to the point that you don't feel the need to use more than two or three at any section of the game. Add to this that Locke has many abilities in which he can invest his points, despite a big chunk of them being VIRTUALLY useless and you end up with the feeling of "quantity over quality". It also doesn't help that alongside its linear nature, the game also has a singular route of development the character should take to complete it: there is a point, halfway through the story, where you are forced to fight a relatively demending opponent with your fist ONLY! If you don't have the proper statistics developed, you simply CANNOT proceed further in the game. There is no alternative to this fight, no other way to beat it - you MUST win "fair and square" with your fists. The NPCs start out fun... but when neither brings anything to the actual single player campaign (all the adventurers are available in multiplayer only, which feels like a big "f**k you" for those playing single player mode) and aside your giving occasional quests (pretty much all are obligatory to complete the game anyway), they have no impact on the plot. To make things worse, the game just stops trying to keep you entertained after a certain point - dungeons become ridiculously large and complex, which will only push you to use walkthroughs as you get sick of searching for that one tunnel you missed... you know, the one that leads you FURTHER into the game. This is most evident in the final stages of the story, where you literally make your way through physically ideantical mazes, the only visible difference between them being their color. That is just lazy beyond belief. Overall playing through the entirety of "Revenant" will most likely leave you thinking "what the hell happened?" How could something that started out so great and gave promise for a lot of entertainment see such a drastic drop in quality halfway through? It's premise, story, ideals - all provided a chance for a very memorable game, possibly even something that could really make "Diablo" run for its money. But, in the end, Eidos' title is destined to be "just another hack&slash" with nothing executed well-enough to set it aside from countless other representatives of its genre. Should you buy it? That's actually a tough question; if you like hack&slash games simply because you like to kill monsters, than the beginning of "Revenant" is gonna be hard for you, cause in its early stage the game is more story driven, more in vein to actual RPGies... but if you're searching for the depth RPGies should provide, about halfway through you'll be disappointed as well, because the execution of the plot turns horrid... I mean REALLY HORRID. Under some big discount, "Revenant" is worth a shot, just to see "what could've been", but as it is, I don't see how it can keep players entertained throughout its entirety, as it simply feels the game itself couldn't decide what it wanted to be like.
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