Vault Dweller
Commissar, Red Star Studio
- Joined
- Jan 7, 2003
- Messages
- 28,035
I recently bought another copy of Lionheart. Boy, it sure is great! They've really improved it since the last time I installed it. I would say it's like Fallout, but real time.
1. Magic system. Different types of magic and different ways of casting spells. Magic interface is done by hotkey and works well. Have not done a whole lot wioth magic, but it seems to be well done. One negative I have seen is it is unclear what positive effect addition intelligence or skill in a branch of magic has on individual spells, though the game makes it clear it does. Might have to use them and see the difference.
2. Monsters I have not played the whole game, but so far the monsters are very varied. They look excellent from the standard rats and snakes to hellhounds, skeletons, zombies and trolls being some of the things I have encounted so far. Their attacks are very different and interesting. Some have breath weapons and can make you gag, which is a cool effect. The hellhound breathed inky smoke which obscures your vision and can gag as well. There are humanoids with swords and magic users who cast spells at you. There is also a good variey of types of encounters froms swarms of rats and bats, to very difficult one on one encounters and bosses
3. Graphics Really quite excellent. The water is blue, very stylistic looking dungeon walls and doors. Cool dungeons. Great looking monsters--espicially the 'E'. Consistently surprised how good the graphics are. Quite possibly the best of any RPG I have played to date. The player character and other NPCs move about in a very realisitic fashion--shop keepers won't let me out of their shops until I pay!
4. Character system Kind of a little bit of a throwback. So many games now start with a generic character or a forced one. Here you have a reasonable number of race choices at the beginning and several basic class archetypes like fighter, thief, mage, though the manual indicates that eventually you develop into many different and varied subclasses. Character development system is skill based and very well done. XP and leveling give you advancement points which you use to choose the skills your character will have as well as increasing base stats. Increasing the skills has a very noticeable effect on your characters strength, and it si balanced well so that each decision is important and needs thought. Good variety of skills and some are only available to certain classes.Very good system, and gives the game replayability as you can come up with very different builds
5. Story There seems to be a good story here, and the quests have been fairly interesting and varied. Dialogue choices are of the category type instead of branching dialogue but it seems to work well. Someone looking for a complex conversation system like Planescape Torment will not find it here, but there are a few conversations and they add to the storyline and depth of the game
6. There are trap and lockpickingwhich are well done and mostly stat based, very similar to the ones in other games
7. Areas So far there have been a good mix of dungeon, mines and more dungeon areas. Better mix here than Fallout which is almost entirely in ruins.
8 Size Seems to be a very large game. I am only in the first level and the map has a single staircase down which no doubt leads to limitless maps.
9. Stability Excellent, has never crashed on me and I have not seen any bad bugs
10. Interface Is OK, could be improved a little here and there. Map is OK, and gets slightly better without scrolls of forgetfulness, but could be improved. Merchant window interface is not as streamlined as it could be. Combat system definitely takes a bit to get used to, but I have grown to really like it. It has depth, and is tied in well with your stats so it does not seem all strategy. Dialogue and update windows and fonts are done very well and have a lot of polish, as any terminal font would.
Overall, I am having a great time with this game. If you liked Fallout 1 and 2 I think you will have a blast with this game. It is now a pretty polished product. It is a shame it was not released originally like this it may have been a big hit. It is a very good hybrid of some old time RPG elements with a more modern action combat system, butone that works well. But it is not a Gothic or Morrowind type game. It definitely feels and plays like a good stroy driven RPG with an excellent character development system that lends itself to many different builds and setups so replayability is excellent. And it is fun.
1. Magic system. Different types of magic and different ways of casting spells. Magic interface is done by hotkey and works well. Have not done a whole lot wioth magic, but it seems to be well done. One negative I have seen is it is unclear what positive effect addition intelligence or skill in a branch of magic has on individual spells, though the game makes it clear it does. Might have to use them and see the difference.
2. Monsters I have not played the whole game, but so far the monsters are very varied. They look excellent from the standard rats and snakes to hellhounds, skeletons, zombies and trolls being some of the things I have encounted so far. Their attacks are very different and interesting. Some have breath weapons and can make you gag, which is a cool effect. The hellhound breathed inky smoke which obscures your vision and can gag as well. There are humanoids with swords and magic users who cast spells at you. There is also a good variey of types of encounters froms swarms of rats and bats, to very difficult one on one encounters and bosses
3. Graphics Really quite excellent. The water is blue, very stylistic looking dungeon walls and doors. Cool dungeons. Great looking monsters--espicially the 'E'. Consistently surprised how good the graphics are. Quite possibly the best of any RPG I have played to date. The player character and other NPCs move about in a very realisitic fashion--shop keepers won't let me out of their shops until I pay!
4. Character system Kind of a little bit of a throwback. So many games now start with a generic character or a forced one. Here you have a reasonable number of race choices at the beginning and several basic class archetypes like fighter, thief, mage, though the manual indicates that eventually you develop into many different and varied subclasses. Character development system is skill based and very well done. XP and leveling give you advancement points which you use to choose the skills your character will have as well as increasing base stats. Increasing the skills has a very noticeable effect on your characters strength, and it si balanced well so that each decision is important and needs thought. Good variety of skills and some are only available to certain classes.Very good system, and gives the game replayability as you can come up with very different builds
5. Story There seems to be a good story here, and the quests have been fairly interesting and varied. Dialogue choices are of the category type instead of branching dialogue but it seems to work well. Someone looking for a complex conversation system like Planescape Torment will not find it here, but there are a few conversations and they add to the storyline and depth of the game
6. There are trap and lockpickingwhich are well done and mostly stat based, very similar to the ones in other games
7. Areas So far there have been a good mix of dungeon, mines and more dungeon areas. Better mix here than Fallout which is almost entirely in ruins.
8 Size Seems to be a very large game. I am only in the first level and the map has a single staircase down which no doubt leads to limitless maps.
9. Stability Excellent, has never crashed on me and I have not seen any bad bugs
10. Interface Is OK, could be improved a little here and there. Map is OK, and gets slightly better without scrolls of forgetfulness, but could be improved. Merchant window interface is not as streamlined as it could be. Combat system definitely takes a bit to get used to, but I have grown to really like it. It has depth, and is tied in well with your stats so it does not seem all strategy. Dialogue and update windows and fonts are done very well and have a lot of polish, as any terminal font would.
Overall, I am having a great time with this game. If you liked Fallout 1 and 2 I think you will have a blast with this game. It is now a pretty polished product. It is a shame it was not released originally like this it may have been a big hit. It is a very good hybrid of some old time RPG elements with a more modern action combat system, butone that works well. But it is not a Gothic or Morrowind type game. It definitely feels and plays like a good stroy driven RPG with an excellent character development system that lends itself to many different builds and setups so replayability is excellent. And it is fun.
