This game seems like it was designed around playing random maps. It's like Majesty, an indirect control RTS, with good art and a nice if a bit bland setting. It's a good game, just doesn't have so much depth once you've played a few times. Still worth picking up if you like Majesty (it's much better than Majesty 2, if you were wondering.)
At the time of publication it was really special. A bit too hard for the game market at the time, it has the DNA of what would become Dark Souls later. But, what really makes it interesting even today is the Heavy Metal atmosphere of the world. A gritty low fantasy setting with 4 unique characters each with a different play style (well ok, the knight is just a lightweight dwarf, but still.) Things which really ruing parts of the game are the slightly dated graphics and the clumsy platforming. This game deserves a 2, with a bigger world, no platforming and a better control system.
The game has a great story and characters, it has style, it has everything it needs to be a great movie, the game is worth playing once to see what happens, but it's hardly a sandbox. The gameplay is just fine. It suffers from console-syndrom - It's slow, simplistic and easy. There are tons of weapons and items, crafting, customization, but because it's so easy you end up looking only at DPS, spamming attack and exploiting the dimwitted AIs.
It's a game that takes everything that was good in early FPS games, and makes a work of art out of it.
A fan of the second and third instalment of this series, I picked this one up hoping for something similar. And it is basically a game very similar to the second one, with a bit older graphics, but the same solid gameplay. Well.... it would be, if it wasn't broken on modern systems. I have never been able to run it for one whole mission without it crashing. A shame.
Although I would usually give such games a higher score, the fact remains that it is a visual novel with some... ok combat of stiff slow kind a drunk looking animated characters. The character art is great, but the characters themselves are quite boring, self important and naive. It's like being stuck in a room with a dozen grad students, and they all have a bone to pick or a chip on their shoulder. And in a game where the characters are about everything, it can be annoying.
