It has the most realistic sword fighting ever in a computer game. All characters have different play style than the others. Every exp and blow counts. Single wrong move may mean the difference between life and death. Combat can be difficult at first, but with practice you will master at it. So it's rewarding in the end. Also it had graphics that ahead of it's time. In 2000 there (where Geforce 2MX was king) wasn't much game that use real time shadows. Light-shadow system also affects gameplay. Barbarian character was my favourite. I think I'm going to install and play it once again.
I had expected NWN2 in Gog for a long time. Installing the complete game with all it's expansions and patches was a real pain. Finally all in one version with no DRM. Thanks Gog for adding another masterpiece to our collection.
It’s a RPG developed by Infogrames and Gremlin Entertainment and released by Interplay in 2000. I didn’t hear it’s name until 2004, a friend of mine knew my fondness to RPGs and brought the game to me as a gift. I didn’t install it by that time, and four months ago when I was browsing in my archive I decided to install it to my machine. The graphics can be identified as terrible according to today’s standarts. It’s developed under Dx6 standarts, so think of it. At least some snow effects, and mocaps can save the day. And, there is this narrow sightseeing like in the old games such as Dark Stone, Wizards&Warriors and such. And no automap by the way. But graphics are minor distract to me, since I see them as a simple make-up above all other game elements. Most terrible thing about the game is waiting times. I don’t know it’s a modern rig issue, but when you click your inventory or other menus game just pauses for a second or two. It is annoying but also can be accustomed to. At least you can access to most of your inventory from your quick menu. When you can pass these minor distractions there is a delicious cake under the cream though. A slowly opening story, convincing NPCs and professionally written dialogs, decent quest system, rewarding structure for exploring. Also there’s the good old nonscaling monster system which was common around those times. For ex, you can find pretty interesting places at the beginning of the game, but only to find out there’re monsters in these places easily can cleave you into two with one strike. Game begins at a slow pace, but with enough perseverence, your character can be developed into a powerful man slowly. And, that is the part that I rarely can find in today’s RPGs where level 1 newbie characters can be seen as gods. The part where Soulbringer truly shines is the unique combat system. One can easily define the game as an action RPG (Diablo type) at first glance, but game’s combat system is more than that. You click an enemy to target him, then from the attack menu, you select the desired attack and click on it. Different attack styles have different effects. Attack styles also have variabilities according to the weapon. For ex, with knife simple cut action strikes the enemy directly, while cut low strikes the enemy’s legs. Combat moves have been done by mocap system, and they’re not for just eye candy. For ex, you strike and if enemy’s weapon is in your weapon’s path they clash. If you’re in the highground then your enemy, your normal strike usually cuts the air, while your enemy’s strikes easily cut your legs. Weapons and armors have durabilities. To strike a plate armor with a knife means complete destruction for the knife. You can also determine combos for your chracters. So, under the curtain there’s a complex, and innovative ideas. So, an advice to the RPG veterans. Find this game (you can find pretty cheap copies from Ebay) and play it. Note: dx7 graphic modes make the game crashes at certain maps. So, use dx6 instead. It can be played in both XP and Vista. And also completely netbook compatible (if you have the isos or the nocd crack of course).
