Unfortunate, that's the best word to describe this game. Had a great deal of potential, it really did, but it was squandered away on a sub par product. This game was death by a thousand paper cuts. The story itself was great, well paced, and interesting. Unfortunately, it was horribly buggy, such as when it decided that I really should't be able to shoot my gun anymore during combat (you have to put it away and re-draw it to be able to shoot in those situations). Picking up items was also a bit less then stellar. If you aren't positioned in the right way around them, you don't even know you can pick something up. The option is not there. The mini-map is not that, just a radar that shows you where things may be on a black background. You don't know what time it is, ever! In a game that has battle robots, you cannot find out whether it is morning, afternoon, evening, or, in some places, night. I know what you'd say, night is when it's dark, well, normally you'd be right, but not in this case. Dialogue is wooden, and not just from my character. You stop noticing it after a while, but at first it hits you like a bad high school play (to be fair, many high school plays were actually a bit better). Graphics leave a great deal to be desired. I mean, there is no reason why these should look barely better than what I used to play on my old PS2. Did I mentioned that during many of the longer fights, like with the final boss, my gun would just stop shooting? At first I thought that whatever I was fighting just paralyzed me or something, but no, it was just the game glitching. Overall, the game had so much potential, and it was all squandered one annoyance at a time. I'd say don't bother with it unless you can get it for less than $20. Anything else and you overpaid.
I really enjoy the game. I have not had the pleasure of playing the earlier game, Genesis, so I was not disappointed that this is a remake of the original. For those coming to this game from a Heroes of Might and Magic perspective, this game is not Heroes, though it does have a very similar feel. I find that I miss those little things you find when running around the map. On the other hand, this game adds in it's own complexity and I find myself restarting frequently because the tactic I took just wasn't the right one. Overall, I am gladly 'wasting' my afternoons with this game. A wonderful game when you need a break from reality and not just a silly click game.
