Posted July 02, 2009
GOG Review : ISHAR TRILOGY –
Good old school RPG
When I hear the word of Ishar memories of childhood and my first step into fantasy comes to my mind... NOTE : I never played Crystals of Arborea so this review is based only on my experience about Ishar.
Excellent immersion:
They had quite good graphics for their, time and it wasn't a problem to get into full immersion. Sure compared to let's say Morrowind it's quite a joke. On the music and sound aspect it had excellent environment sounds made you relay into the skin of an adventurer wandering the vast plains, icy mountains, marshes, cities, dungeons, jungles, forests... A lot of varied environments, that were all well rendered and inspiring at their time.
A role-play team
In this game (except in Ishar 3) you can't create your own team from scratch and you have to find decent companions. The interesting aspects, comes from that some companions are just opportunists or they may dislike some other members of your group. For example you've two Dark Knights which are powerful guys but they can't stand most characters and they'll beat them instead of the enemy. Your team also votes for the exclusion or the inclusion of a member so you actually can't exclude anyone at anytime, and members can also flee with all their equipment during the night if they don't have a good reason to stay with you... A final interesting aspect is that you can export your team to the next episode if you like so.
The story:
The story of the first and second episode are quite classic, the third one involves travels in time... I will not spoil more... The whole feeling is its quite dark especially in the second one and the fact that you may choose your team-build can lead you to see your group of evil dark knights and bandits actually saving everything which is quite refreshing.
Dungeons & Exploration:
Dungeons in this game are pretty excellent one, they're quite long, you've to fight but also find switches, avoid traps and tricks and solve enigmas. The positive aspect is that they're not the only aspect of the game; you can explore the whole land if you wish and find some interesting things...
About combat & team:
Combat in Ishar is real time with “rounds” such as in Baldur’s gate when you’ve to wait a few seconds to hit again. The game use a gird system, maximum four adventurer can face four enemies, so you've to position your team in a way that mages have to stay behind, but beware if you're attacked from behind your, something that may happen. The warrior aspect of the game is just clicking as fast when you "round" comes, same for archers but at distance (They’re are hottkeys to do so) the magic aspect of the game is quite the same but you've to target the monster and unleash the blast on him, it’s more precise than the warrior and this may also be good to start killing of the boss that lies behind the enemies in front of you instead of having him actually hitting you. There's quite a good variety of spells to play with for both clerics and mage so mage lovers may like that. Real-time combat involves that you have to manage the whole thing quickly, especially with spells, but using the hotkeys can save your day, you should also try to "run away & shot" as moving backwards puts you away from an enemy while still facing him you can shot him without much problem if you've enough space to manoeuvre.
Some frustrating aspects:
- The story is pretty linear, if you didn't have the right object at the right time you had to find it before continuing without much clues, sometimes this was quite frustrating since some of the enigmas where quite hard to solve...
- You may loose a crucial item by not using it at the right moment and that killing some characters may avoid you further progressing.
- You don’t have a case-based map, your map is absolutely of no use when in a dungeon or back in time… you had to draw one yourself as you are exploring, but don't panic, there are still some walkthroughs to the game to be found on the web so you can avoid these frustrating aspects.
- Last point, at the end of Ishar 1 you'll have to trade one of your characters for another one you absolutely need to finish the quest
Final Word:
Perhaps I’m too much into nostalgia, but the Ishar series are still good games, I you’re an old school RPG fan you’ll probably love it, if you are not frustrated by the linearity, the combat aspect or they way you can’t build up you own team until episode III. I recommend you to play them in order; you can import your team of old good chaps from the previous episode with all stats, but no equipment. At that time RPGs had room for your imagination, you had to imagine life where you saw a few animations or what was actually happening in your team as they didn’t made so much comment except “I don’t like this guy” and “aaargh!”
Good old school RPG
When I hear the word of Ishar memories of childhood and my first step into fantasy comes to my mind... NOTE : I never played Crystals of Arborea so this review is based only on my experience about Ishar.
Excellent immersion:
They had quite good graphics for their, time and it wasn't a problem to get into full immersion. Sure compared to let's say Morrowind it's quite a joke. On the music and sound aspect it had excellent environment sounds made you relay into the skin of an adventurer wandering the vast plains, icy mountains, marshes, cities, dungeons, jungles, forests... A lot of varied environments, that were all well rendered and inspiring at their time.
A role-play team
In this game (except in Ishar 3) you can't create your own team from scratch and you have to find decent companions. The interesting aspects, comes from that some companions are just opportunists or they may dislike some other members of your group. For example you've two Dark Knights which are powerful guys but they can't stand most characters and they'll beat them instead of the enemy. Your team also votes for the exclusion or the inclusion of a member so you actually can't exclude anyone at anytime, and members can also flee with all their equipment during the night if they don't have a good reason to stay with you... A final interesting aspect is that you can export your team to the next episode if you like so.
The story:
The story of the first and second episode are quite classic, the third one involves travels in time... I will not spoil more... The whole feeling is its quite dark especially in the second one and the fact that you may choose your team-build can lead you to see your group of evil dark knights and bandits actually saving everything which is quite refreshing.
Dungeons & Exploration:
Dungeons in this game are pretty excellent one, they're quite long, you've to fight but also find switches, avoid traps and tricks and solve enigmas. The positive aspect is that they're not the only aspect of the game; you can explore the whole land if you wish and find some interesting things...
About combat & team:
Combat in Ishar is real time with “rounds” such as in Baldur’s gate when you’ve to wait a few seconds to hit again. The game use a gird system, maximum four adventurer can face four enemies, so you've to position your team in a way that mages have to stay behind, but beware if you're attacked from behind your, something that may happen. The warrior aspect of the game is just clicking as fast when you "round" comes, same for archers but at distance (They’re are hottkeys to do so) the magic aspect of the game is quite the same but you've to target the monster and unleash the blast on him, it’s more precise than the warrior and this may also be good to start killing of the boss that lies behind the enemies in front of you instead of having him actually hitting you. There's quite a good variety of spells to play with for both clerics and mage so mage lovers may like that. Real-time combat involves that you have to manage the whole thing quickly, especially with spells, but using the hotkeys can save your day, you should also try to "run away & shot" as moving backwards puts you away from an enemy while still facing him you can shot him without much problem if you've enough space to manoeuvre.
Some frustrating aspects:
- The story is pretty linear, if you didn't have the right object at the right time you had to find it before continuing without much clues, sometimes this was quite frustrating since some of the enigmas where quite hard to solve...
- You may loose a crucial item by not using it at the right moment and that killing some characters may avoid you further progressing.
- You don’t have a case-based map, your map is absolutely of no use when in a dungeon or back in time… you had to draw one yourself as you are exploring, but don't panic, there are still some walkthroughs to the game to be found on the web so you can avoid these frustrating aspects.
- Last point, at the end of Ishar 1 you'll have to trade one of your characters for another one you absolutely need to finish the quest
Final Word:
Perhaps I’m too much into nostalgia, but the Ishar series are still good games, I you’re an old school RPG fan you’ll probably love it, if you are not frustrated by the linearity, the combat aspect or they way you can’t build up you own team until episode III. I recommend you to play them in order; you can import your team of old good chaps from the previous episode with all stats, but no equipment. At that time RPGs had room for your imagination, you had to imagine life where you saw a few animations or what was actually happening in your team as they didn’t made so much comment except “I don’t like this guy” and “aaargh!”