Lionheart: Legacy of the Crusader
Snatching Defeat from the Jaws of Victory
Reflexive Entertainment (Developer)
Black Isle Studios(Producer)
Interplay (Publisher)
Vivendi Interactive (Publisher)
Black Isle studios earned one of the best-known names in gaming by creating Fallout, a game that still stands out in the memory of RPG fans. The Interplay division followed up with Fallout 2, Baldur’s Gate and the sequel, Icewind Dale I and II, and the console action game Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance. Unfortunately, with Lionheart, Black Isle stumbles badly.
Historically, King Richard the Lion-hearted, angry over Saladin’s intransigence, ordered captives to be executed. Lionheart postulates that this act was orchestrated by a treacherous advisor, whose plot released immense amounts of magic and spirits into the world. Saladin and Richard joined together to defeat the more dangerous spirits and seal the breach. Enough magic escaped to permanently alter the world, and Richard and Saladin spent their lives bringing peace to Europe and the Middle East. Years later, the game opens with your character discovering that Richard was your ancestor, catapulting you into a new adventure. The story is entertaining and creates a sense of depth most games lack. This world obviously didn’t emerge whole cloth just to give you something to kill. Moreover, you will be pleased with the evolution and direction of the story in-game, as well.
The character system simply borrows and adapts the SPECIAL system from Fallout. The Special system simply grants you skill points per level and special advancement perks every three levels. This works very well and provides an easily understandable advancement system. Because every skill improves as more points are spent in them, you’ll never run out of things to buy. Many of the 60 magic skills are taken straight out of Diablo II. Lionheart takes a few moments to explain the SPECIAL system, but newcomers need more. The manual provides a wealth of information.
A minor, but extremely annoying flaw is the manual’s inaccuracy. At the last minute, huge changes were made to many of the special selectable perks. Two, in particular, had their requirements changed greatly, making it far harder to get them. In fact, the manual implies that one cannot actually become powerful enough to get these revised advancement perks! Other smaller but equally irritating changes occur in nearly a third of the perks. The booklet is otherwise excellent, useful as a reference.
Black Isle presents the game much in the same way as earlier creations. You view the world from a high-angle shot, and the controls are simple and standard and effective. Creatures and characters are rendered in 3D, but the lovingly crafted backgrounds are purely 2D.Sadly, the resolution is unchangeable and far too small. As a result, exploration seems very slow, since even looking around takes too long. Moving around demands that you reposition the screen and stop along the way to click-move. You cannot click-move more than a screen length away, for no apparent reason. The controls otherwise respond well, and grants custom item and spell quickslots to use. Picking up items, particularly the common gold drops, is an exercise in patience, as you invariably pick up spirit items you may want to save till later.
The audio sets the game’s tone well. Although soundtrack doesn’t last long, there is enough variation to keep interest, and the Spanish themes are excellently done. Still, Lionheart’s music won’t distinguish it from the pack.
For the most part, Lionheart remains far less buggy than the Fallout series. The most common bugs already have workarounds and fixes, although no patch is yet available. There are still too many game-crippling bugs, however, including a nasty one that crashes your computer when you have followers. The game does not use save slots. You can save as often and as much as you like, but none of the save ever go away. You have to manually delete them, and that amounts to another nuisance.
Lionheart has a lot of nuisances.
Black Isle split the game into two sections. First, there is a freely-explored and very fun early game, which lasts for about 10 hours. After you trigger a specific quest, the game abruptly transforms into a very linear game of Diablo.Unfortunately, in Lionheart, its the end of all fun. You may as well stop playing it, and there is no longer much point in looking for quirky quests and odd skills. Everything from there on will be combat, combat, combat.
Such fighting, unfortunately, stands as the game’s major weaknesses. Most of the outdoor combat, which characterizes the first 10 hours or so, provides excitement and interest. After that, however, you will be increasingly forced into huge, intricate dungeons, facing the same boring enemies over repeatedly. With no originality to the action, completing these stages becomes simply an exercise in patience, although the players of non-combat characters will also need a healthy dose of masochism. Evidently, you can win the game without actually fighting, and at least one playtester did accomplish this through stealth and magic, but this involved summoning minions. Ultimately, Lionheart looks like nothing so much as a slowed-down version of Diablo.
Ultimately, Lionheart is a decent game because of its involving story, but requires patience through some cripplingly long and boring stages to reach the payoff. Ideally, the developers should have concentrated on the towns and non-combat portions, where the game is strongest. If you are looking for a game to soak up some time, or simply need an RPG to tide you over until Knights of the Old Republic emerges on PC, think about picking up Lionheart. Otherwise, wait until after Christmas, when you might get it at a price accurately representing its quality. This game builds up some great moments, and then wastes all that potential.
On the bright side, there stands an excellent chance that Black Isle will recognize the flaws and improve the basics should Lionheart 2 ever see the light of day.
Graphics 6/10
Sound 7/10
Gameplay 5/10
Plot 8/10
My Angle 6/10
Total Score 6.4 out of 10
Rating Scale:
10/10 Immediate buy
9/10 Fans should love it, excellent value
8/10 Good fun in general
7/10 Fans of the genre should enjoy it
6/10 Think about picking it up on sale sometime
5/10 Buy if you really want to pass the time
4/10 Poor effort, poor game
3/10 Avoid like the plague
2/10 These games have been known to break companies
1/10 “Fetid mound of rolling hell-spawned dog intestines”
