Posted November 04, 2013
I bought this game in the late '90s when it was new but never completed it. This week I purchased it again on GOG and having just completed the game, I thought I'd share my thoughts.
The game is ridden with bugs from top to bottom but not inherently unstable. It never crashed or locked up and natively supports widescreen. More than I can say for a lot of games. Almost everything else has problems. It's missing textures all over. You'll frequently encounter a swirling void where a texture should be. I do recall this being present in the original game. This "feature" was not introduced by the GOG version.
Spells are gained by finding tiny spell-books in the game world. I missed more than a few despite deliberately seeking them all out. Spell effects are not explained in-game. You just receive spells and are left to figure out their purpose for yourself. I own the game's original manual which contains some explanation but there is no consistency of naming between the manual and the game. This would be frustrating if the game's magic system were ever as effective as just walking up to one of the games five or so enemy types and mashing the left mouse button. So magic can be safely ignored.
Melee is occasionally fun and probably the main reason I kept playing. In the game's first couple hours there's a need for clever timing of swings since you start out weak and need to block every incoming attack. However if you take your time and visit non-essential areas you can significantly over-level your character and make the rest of the game a breeze. By five hours in I had enough HP I didn't (need to) block for the latter half of the game.
Almost every enemy drops a health potion so it's possible to soak up every bit of damage and heal after the fight with no real penalty. I beat the game's end boss without healing or magic of any kind. I walked him into a corner and mashed until he fell over.
Which is all unfortunate because the game has a weird charm. Almost every NPC speaks a bit of dialogue which sounds like it was recorded in a gas station bathroom by whoever happened to be in there at the time. Listening to these horrible performances became a motivation to continue in itself. There's plenty more that could be nitpicked. I can't recommend the game to anyone that doesn't have a fondness for this weird time in computer gaming and the will to persevere through broken curiosities.
The game is ridden with bugs from top to bottom but not inherently unstable. It never crashed or locked up and natively supports widescreen. More than I can say for a lot of games. Almost everything else has problems. It's missing textures all over. You'll frequently encounter a swirling void where a texture should be. I do recall this being present in the original game. This "feature" was not introduced by the GOG version.
Spells are gained by finding tiny spell-books in the game world. I missed more than a few despite deliberately seeking them all out. Spell effects are not explained in-game. You just receive spells and are left to figure out their purpose for yourself. I own the game's original manual which contains some explanation but there is no consistency of naming between the manual and the game. This would be frustrating if the game's magic system were ever as effective as just walking up to one of the games five or so enemy types and mashing the left mouse button. So magic can be safely ignored.
Melee is occasionally fun and probably the main reason I kept playing. In the game's first couple hours there's a need for clever timing of swings since you start out weak and need to block every incoming attack. However if you take your time and visit non-essential areas you can significantly over-level your character and make the rest of the game a breeze. By five hours in I had enough HP I didn't (need to) block for the latter half of the game.
Almost every enemy drops a health potion so it's possible to soak up every bit of damage and heal after the fight with no real penalty. I beat the game's end boss without healing or magic of any kind. I walked him into a corner and mashed until he fell over.
Which is all unfortunate because the game has a weird charm. Almost every NPC speaks a bit of dialogue which sounds like it was recorded in a gas station bathroom by whoever happened to be in there at the time. Listening to these horrible performances became a motivation to continue in itself. There's plenty more that could be nitpicked. I can't recommend the game to anyone that doesn't have a fondness for this weird time in computer gaming and the will to persevere through broken curiosities.
