Heretic Kingdoms: The Inquisition

"Plagued with Bugs, But Still Worth The Price of Admission."

Introduction:
Heretic Kingdoms: The Inquisition (AKA Kult) is a Hack'N'Slash Adventure Game with RPG elements in the vain of Diablo 2. This game uses detailed 3D polygons on an isometric background. The setting is one of a prehistoric fantasy world in which mythical characters, beasts, and ghosts litter the landscape and plague villages with their nefarious plots. It also has a mature theme and may not be suitable for young children. Be warned that the system requirements of this game are not accurately described by the developers; 64 megabytes of onboard video will not handle this game without serious problems. A dedicated, modern graphics card is required as well as plenty of memory and a modern processor.

Story: 8/10
It has a unique story among games in this genre. You play a heroine who has been assigned to stamp out dangerous cults. During the course of the adventure it turns out that things are not what they seem. You're mentor turns into your enemy and you find yourself allied with creatures formerly believed to be villains. So I guess the moral of the story is to live and let live instead of trying to force everyone to think like you do. Morality is not color coded in this video game and the story can change depending on the choices your character makes.

Graphics & Effects: 8/10
The graphics are excellent. The designers effectively used 3D animation to render the sprites in vivid detail. The Isometric backgrounds are vividly and intricately drawn. There is a wide variety of backgrounds, buildings, and characters to interact with. Its never repetitive. However, beware that unlike Diablo 2, this game requires a serious dedicated graphic card; onboard video will handle this game poorly if at all.

The music in the game was very well composed and the game features voice-overs that are very well acted. However, it lacks cinema screens that many games of this type have, which I found to be detrimental the overall presentation of the game.

Gameplay : 7/10
If you are familiar with Diablo 2, then you know how to play this game. It's a standard point and click adventure with the same type of teleportation and level system that you have seen in games like Diablo 2, Blade & Sword and more recently with Sacred and Titan Quest. As with Diablo, you adorn your character with armor and weapons that you buy in the game or loot from characters. You also have a typical weapons stash. Although hardly innovative it's a good implementation of a standard system and should not be faulted for this. You do not get to choose between different character classes at the onset of the game; instead your character class is based on choices you make along the way.

The greatest drawback for this game is the sheer magnitude of bugs and scripting errors. In its final form Heretic Kingdoms is little more than a very well polished beta release. The company that designed it went out of business right after it was initially published. Though some patches were released, they do not address most of the scripting errors in this game. An example of the scripting error is that you can accidentally complete a quest before you talk to the NPC who establishes the plot and sends you to complete said quest. This naturally results in you guessed it: a crash. There are several points in this game where this can happen. So make sure to keep plenty of save states backed up.

As far as I know, there is no multiplayer option to this game. This does not bother me as multiplayer games are not my cup of tea .

Overall: 7/10
This could have been a fantastic little title. It offers hours of exploration in a rich landscape of levels above and deep below ground and features elaborate gameplay. Unfortunately, the bugs and scripting errors do detract from the game. However, its still a great quality title definitely worth picking up.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 05/05/08

Game Release: Heretic Kingdoms: The Inquisition (US, 04/14/05)