Black Stone: Magic & Steel

"Lots of Fun for Multiplayer, but Nothing Special"

For those of you who read my post, this is similar but updated. As I've said many a time, play Baulder's Gate, Gauntlet and Hunter first. But if you're like my wife and I, you've played through these games three / four times a piece. So now that we're waiting for D&D Heroes (which I've already preordered) there's no good isometric multiplayer games left (except for Nightcaster 2, which we tried but it was utterly unplayable).

This game is fine. It must stink as a single player game, but it can be a riot in multiplayer, especially with four people!!! I've found weapon upgrades to be decent (although having to pay 1000 gold to switch powers is alittle bit of a bummer), fighting to be effective (close as well as far combat - and far combat is limited by an energy bar which you need to power up, thus forcing you to use some hand to hand at times and not just hang back like Gauntlet), the special move graphics are striking and of course the magic looks really nice (and is actually pretty effective). It's good hack and slash fun! Plus there are 5 different character types, and four ''skins'' for each type available, two initially and the rest unlockable. You can also go back to previous levels to gain more money and magic if you're feeling a little low.

Also, there's a power up move for your distance attack (which as I stated above is striking), a power up attach for close combat which is basically a 360 degree sweep (and also takes some of your life away - sort of like the sweep move from Final Fight) and a power up move for magic, which uses two or more magic scrolls (you can carry up to 16 as far as we've determined). Also, you can do a two person distance power up attack which pretty much obliterates everything on the screen and looks cool to boot! These techniques are critical to finishing the game.

Another notable is the ability to ride different types of dinosaurs, ala Golden Axe. Nifty, but not terribly effective. Its a fun little throw in though.

It's no Final Fantasy or Zelda as far as story nor does it have any story to speak of (except for some lame - find this find that to defeat the evil person generic spiel) but it's lengthy and has a decent variety of locations. Plus the music is really well done.

You do move a little slow, and I find it annoying that you must walk for 1.5 sec before running. Very weird. Plus you can't control the angle, but this hardly caused any problems for us (although should have been included).

I've found no glitches and we're pretty much at the end. If you need to bide the time until D&D Heroes, this is your game. Just buy it used some place if you don't want to pay full price. But it'll keep you and three of your pals busy for about 10-12 hours, so enjoy it!!! It's nothing to write home about, but it's a pretty decent Gauntlet clone with decent graphics, decent gameplay and a pretty nifty opening movie. ;)

'Nuff said!

Controls - 7
Graphics - 7
Fun (coop) - 8
Replayability - 6
Learning Curve - Easy (< 15 min.)

OVERALL - 7

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 04/11/03, Updated 04/11/03