Knights of the Temple

"Hack and slash without the pixie dust..."

Introduction:

I'd never heard of this game, ever, so to spend thirty juicy pounds on it was a little stupid to be honest, but I act on impulse. I'd been looking for a medieval combat game without all the hocus pocus and faeries, was this it? Well, it's the closest I've played yet.

Starting the game:

The first thing you notice is the poor quality of the cut scenes, grainy as anything, this isn't very nice on the eyes. Controlling your character is easy and doesn't take more than one battle to get used to it for good.

Gameplay:

Great fun hacking up the enemies, you get 4 types of weapon, the Sword which is a general enemy weapon, the Axe which is basically power at the expense of range, the Mace used best on armour and the Bow for long range fighting. The actual combat is very well done and there are plenty of combos and special techniques to use, though it could've improved (being that this is the freaking linchpin) it was still fun and challenging. Though this game DOES have some magic in it, they are only basic things like recovering health and things, nothing like spawning dragons and flying etc. I'm glad it was played down personally...also, plenty of blood, that's a good thing in games wherein people are attacking one-another with sharp metal objects.

Multiplayer?: No! A co-operative mode would've given this game an extra point, oh well...

Graphics:

Grainy but realistic I suppose, I only mark up/down a game for graphics when they just plain stink or are unbelievably good. These are just 'ok'.

Sound:

The sound is okay, I never have the music on on games anyway, apparently a rock band called Within Temptation have music in this, I haven't heard it so I can't judge. The sound effects are excellent, satisfaction guarranteed when you impale a monk on the end of your sword, I promise.

Realism:

No over the top spells, so that's good, plenty of weapons, I suppose demons aren't real...hmmm...well as far as medieval combat goes this is the best I've seen. You aren't able to get slashed to hell and back and only lose 15% of your life bar, the damage is realistic as long as you don't wuss out and go on easy mode.

~|Overall|~

A fun hack 'em up with plenty of missions, no multi is bad beans but ah well...I hope a sequel comes because with a bit of attention to the points I have raised this could be a classic. If you want a general idea of how it plays in a few words:

Imagine Eternal Darkness' close combat fighting, minus the fact it was easy as hell. Then take away the decent puzzles and leave no-brainers. That's this game.

72% Score

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 05/09/04