I do like this game, despite its age, it has that victorian style throughout, there is a really good atmosphere and unsettleness where each character you meet seems to be hiding something, and you have to pay attention to the game hints, especially in the dialogue. The dialogue and most especially the voice acting is one of the best, it can really get on your nerves sometimes, and after a few minutes playing you start to immerse yourself into this character walking inot a strange place and perhaps in way over his head. The gameplay is like all classic adventure games. You have to search, look, and interact with objects persons, looking for clues to advance the plot. There is little clues on what to interact with so be ready for some extreme pixel hunting. And this game is hard. We would be 2 at a computer trying to solve this game, but in the end I had to wait years, and for walkthroughs to be available on the internet to solve the puzzles and finish it. In the end it is a good game to play in a couple of hours, but keep a walkthrough around, or you may slowly feel the old ones creep into your mind, trying to make sense of it all.
I own a physical copy of Black Moon Chronicles, bought it without hesitation when it came out, and played the four campaigns, several times over. Black Moon Chronicles is a fantasy strategy that mixes real time battles, with turn based campaign map. Each campaign is played on a series of maps where your armies are deployed, which you then move to a series of objectives, purposely fighting or avoiding any enemy regiments present on the map as well. Each successfull battle nets you gold which you can use to buy units, build barracks and support buildings . The battles are either encounters with enemy armies, fought on a random map, or fought on a scripted scenario, these last ones progressing the story, or granting you extra gold, or having some effect in a future engagement. There is no limit as to how many units you can bring to a battle. This game's selling point were the huge battles you could have, and some I'll admit have that sense of epicness. A shame the AI is poor,not even managing formations well. You have four factions to take control each with their difficulty setting, and playstyle. Magic is present and very powerfull, as the AI is lackluster to say the least. Each faction has their own flavour and uniqueness, that requires you to change strategy. But overall the game is not hard. You can even easily tweak the game to your liking, by editing a few file with a text editor. For instance I would generally tweak the damage of the archers for my campaigns. As with all Cryo games, the visuals are stunning, holding up even today for my standards atleast. Storywise you will be lost unless you read the comic books where the setting is based from, but essentially you are the child of prophecy destined to become the next emperor. If you fancy strategy and would like something different give it a go. I have been secretly wishing to see this title on GOG for a very long time.
