"Dont Listen to Nay Sayers"

This game is amazing, and is nothing short of perfect. The amazing thing is that it fills a niche of games that there are not enough of, and these are the first person shooters that are set in a medieval fantasy setting. There are such games, most notably the Thief series, but this game is much more Doom like that the Thief series. It is primarily puzzle solving based, but there is a lot of combat also. Amazingly, this game has gives the FPS genre a lot of potential it never had before, unfortunately, this potential is not lived up to by many other games. I will split my review into two sections, the first being the high points of this game, and the second being a critique of the game itself.

Reasons this game is amazing:
1) The world you explore is a real place, the first major area itself has castles and butchers shops and smithy's. Although there are no NPC's to interact with, you are exploring a real place, and not just dungeons.
2) Despite the age of this game, the graphics are quite good, if you have an older computer with a 3d accelerator it will run beautifully, or a newer computer with a fast video care it will run just as well in high resolution.
3) The puzzles have though behind them. There are puzzles that involve getting items from places you would expect to find them, or getting clues from journals and using shovels to dig in the right place.
4) Combat is difficult, each enemy and boss has their own personality, and attack style, so it behaves just like quake and subsequent FPS's. This game will not make you feel like you've gone to the caveman days of computer gaming.
5) Characters evolve. You will gain experience from fighting and this gets you more health and ammo capacity. No other FPS I've ever played gives you this, and it really makes for interesting game play.
6) Special Techniques for each character make replayability huge. You choose between 4 characters, each with their own weapons and two special techniques. Because of this each will have their own fighting styles, and this makes you want to try each.

Review:

Graphics (7/10)- Although they are not up to the latest standards in terms of character mapping, the worlds are lush and big, and the resolution options are high, playing this is not a difficult thing to do graphically.

Sound (8/10) - The sound effects are cool, enemies make fun noises as do weapons and characters.

Music (9/10) - The music is very good at mood setting, I've read reviews that says there is no music, but this is bogus, there are audio tracks on the CD-Rom. If you can't use this there are midi options for music, but they pale in comparison to the CD quality music.

Puzzles (9/10) - Very challenging and thought provoking, possibly the best puzzles in any game ever. They can be a little frustrating at times, but they are on the whole fantastic.

Level Design (10/10) - The world is really interactive, and you feel like you are someplace real, not just meandering around a random dungeon. This incorporates itself into the puzzles giving the world a real feeling to it.

Story (7/10) - This is the games one failure. The story is good, fits into the Heretic and Hexen series game, and there are a few throw backs to Hexen, which I like, but when you install the game you are treated to a beautiful FMV, but by the time you work you way to the end of the game it becomes apparent that they were rushing to finish it. The interactivity of the levels decrease, and when you complete the last level you are not given any reward at all, which is woefully disappointing. Regardless, the game is a treat to play.

Overall (9/10) - Despite its age this game is fantastic, and its groundbreaking style should be incorporated into more games.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 03/02/04