Eternal Ring

"a first person shooter....no, thats not right...first person poker"

Eternal ring was an alright game i guess, but a fall back, And a major one at that would be its first person view, And sad weapon animations. First person poker is the correct term for this game cause you run around a poke you enemys. This game was fun...for a while then i got annoying and stupid.

Gameplay: 6/10
Its a long game, I give it that much. And its fun enough to keep you playing for a while, But chances are that if you dont know what your doing you will throw this game away in disgust. There are certain points where you can combine elements to make rings that could heal you, Increase your stats, Or hurt the enemy, But these rings were confusing to make, And hard to gather materials for. To make a good ring not only do you need 6 high power elemental stones AND a ring, But you need to know where to put them. The rings were a good idea, But way to frustrating and confusing to figure out, And this game seemed to focus around these power rings. Good idea gone bad with terrible confusion. Also the enemys are the most generic RPG messes you could find. If you have ever played any other RPG chances are that you will recognize the enemy's. Oh look, Its the bat type enemy, The lizard type, Oh! And there goes a dragon. It gets old fast.

Graphics: 9/10
as far as graphics go this game was fine. compared to other titles this seems a little less then what it was on the launch date. You have a few weapons you can find, They are all used in the first person and you basically poke your target. There are several people to talk to and at least they look good. If only this game had bothered to do a better view using one of those body's, But im guessing that the makers were rushed (If im not mistaken they were also working on Evergrace AND Armored Core 2) so they didn't have time to make the various body movements.

Sound: 5/10
Can you say corny? c-o-r-n-y. These sounds and music sucked. You grunt when you are hit, You cough when you are poisoned, your enemy growls when you hit them, Your rings make terrible clicking noises and fire sounds plus a few bubble water noises from time to time. They are just the worst thing for your ears imaginable.

Control: 9/10
The controls are good, Easy to get used to, not all that responsive, But its allright. The controls are the one thing that this game has going for it. Maybe if they remake it in the 3rd person it would be worth playing.

Over all: 6/10
This game was good, Then quickly turned bad. Its completely un-original, Had bad sounds, Had good graphics and control, But those 2 are over looked by the biggest factor in any game: Gameplay. If a game has bad gameplay, Then not all the eye candy in the world can make it better.

Rent or buy: Neither
Let this game be as it is sitting at block buster and best buy for 15$, Maybe when its price is lowered to the waste basket price of 5$ then you should get it. But i was happy at first, Then hit my self for not returning it.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 11/22/01, Updated 03/03/02