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Arthurian Legend Fans...

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 6 / 7
Date: July 25, 2001
Author: Amazon User

If you enjoy Celtic lore (books such as Lawhead's 'Pendragon Cycle', Mallory's Mort d'Arthur, The Once and Future King; or movies such as Excalibur, First Knight and Camelot), you will probably enjoy Arthur's Knights. As mainly an RTS gamer (Civ II, AOE, AOK, Lords of the Realm 2, Pharoah), I am finding AK refreshingly streamlined and unencumbered. Basically, it's a game of wits where you can pursue one of two unique, separate quests: as a Celtic warrior or a Christian knight. Like Myst, you search for clues in a first person mode, with only your direction keys, space bar and right-mouse actions to guide you. On your journey, you proceed through "chapters" in the storyline, moving from one quest to another, answering riddles and gaining knowledge, tools and weapons from characters you encounter along the way (e.g. fairies, warriors, giants, kinsmen, Merlin, Arthur, etc). No resources to gather, armies to build, trade pacts to manage, etc. (just the break I needed!) The gameplay and graphics are captivating, the puzzles and quests enjoyable (yet not too difficult). This is the first game I have played from DreamCaster, and I am impressed. Only caution: occasional crashes make reloads necessary, even though I have a decent processer, video card, etc. "Save often!"

Great Ideas, Serious Flaws

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 7 / 10
Date: September 18, 2001
Author: Amazon User

I like quests. I like elegant graphics. I hate the navigational and story line flaws in this game. The game is frustrating because you run back and forth between sites and characters. Most of the clues are verbal rather than objects that can be used to solve puzzles, thereby limiting the "action" in action-adventure. Further, if you miss a bit of conversation, you cannot go back and pick up the clue and then proceed. If you have faithfully saved your game (like every two minutes), you can go back before the place where you suspect you've missed a clue and load the game from there. This destroys the continuity of the game.

For example, if you press on the Speak icon after the action is finished when speaking to Morganor at the gate, you quickly discover that you cannot enter, even though you've already picked up the clue. Let's say that you didn't speak to the King about everything in the sequence when you first meet him. You go to talk to Bradwen's wife, and she won't give you the item you need to complete the quest. You go back and review all subjects with the King from the subject menu, go back and find Gwen, and she still won't give you the item. Unless you saved the game just prior to speaking to the King and reload, you've missed your chance. This problem is consistent throughout the game. You should be able to go back and retrieve a clue by picking up the conversation with characters you've met earlier.

At first riding the horse is a lot of fun. It gets old quick. After visitng the burnt hill, the red dragon hill, the villa, and the castle and riding back and forth continuously, you begin to wonder why these locations aren't also added to the destination menu. Further, you are not free to explore the area. If you aren't supposed to go there, the way is blocked, and you cannot collect clues out of order.

Finally, a style inconsistency really got to me. How come God is capitalized and Goddess is not? The biggest social complaint about action adventure games is the denegration of female characters and characteristics. Not only does this style inconsistency underscore an underlying priciple of inclusionary and exclusionary language, but also religious biases. If this is supposed to be dual story lines between the Celtic and Christian, then those two lines should be treated equally, and their Gods and Goddesses should receive equal treatment.

If one principle of the game is to present historical fact in terms of the life and social expectations of a knight and chivalry, then other facets should be historically accurate as well. The Celts didn't worship a single God or Goddess. They worshipped many Gods and many Goddesses. Yet the Celts are presented as worshipping only a Goddess, a variation of the Great Mother cults. In fact, male Gods were equally important, and the battle between cultures that worshippped one male God and societies that worshipped one female Goddess never existed in that culture. It is one of modern society's historical myths, patently unsupported by archeological data in regard to the Celts.

If you are going to pretend to present the code of chilvary in a historically accuate sense, at least be consistent in presenting historical data correctly. By the way, in Master Foulque's words, he couldn't possibly have been writing a "novel" because they didn't exist then. Add about ten centuries, and the statement would be far more accurate.

Interesting Concept

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 4 / 4
Date: September 15, 2001
Author: Amazon User

The most interesting thing about _Arthur's Knights_ is the two games in one concept. You can play the main character either from a Pagan/Celtic or Christian point of view; the story is essentially the same but the details are altered. I thought this showed a lot of thought on the part of the developers; they really took trouble over how the same story could be interpreted in different ways over time.

AS with _Odyssey_, you have keyboard control of the character. I found it worked better in AK, however; there were not those persepctive shifts that were so annoying in _Odyssey_.

The game as whole was far too easy! Partially this was due to the dual game device. Once you had been to a place in one identity, it was far easier figuring things out in your other identity. Some of the freshness was lost. Partially the ease was due to the nature of the "puzzles," which were nearly all of the "take item x to area z" variety. I just don't find that takes much thought, myself.

The graphics weren't great. Also, getting around took a really long time. An annoyance to me was that the pronunciation of certain words and names was incorrect (unlike _Beyond Atlantis_, where the Gaelic pronunciations were flawless).

My biggest disappointment, actually, is that there were some major problems in the "Celtic" game, one of which kept me from being able to complete that section. This seems to have been the result of a defective disc, however.

I'd say, a good game for people new to the genre, or those interested in the time period.

Drek, drek, unfettered drek

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 4 / 7
Date: March 01, 2002
Author: Amazon User

This game is just one giant, horrible, nasty atrocity. It's a frustrating nightmare, from start to finish. The navigation system between areas is just plain annoying - you're on a horse, and you must ride down roads, paths, and such to get to the next area. The trouble is that there's no compass, and the perspective changes constantly, making it really difficult to remember where you've been and how you might get to the next area. The horse is quite slow as well, and there doesn't seem to be a way to skip to different areas quickly.

Normally, I'm a huge fan of RPGs, but this one left me cold. I didn't finish this game - in fact, I quit after only 3 hours. That in itself is saying something. In addition to the navigation problems, there's the issue of the verbal clues - an NPC can go on and on, and there's no written log of what was said. Further, there are glitches within the games that disallow going into areas multiple times, historical inaccuracies, and not terribly great graphics. The voice of the knight is truly annoying, and the soundtrack is uninspired.

My advice is to seek out another game.

Great, if you like adventure games

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 2 / 3
Date: October 05, 2002
Author: Amazon User

This is a pretty good game if you like adventure games. The graphics are great, and the puzzles are anywhere between OK and very good. The only real complaint I have is that it is hard to open doors due to the character control mechanism. This makes this game harder than it should be, since you might have the right idea, but it often seems like there isn't any action associated to certain doors and gates. The way the camera moves and the scenes are cut is also confusing at times, making it somewhat difficult to figure out where you are.

This game certainly has been under-rated by many computer games magazines. But be aware that only true fans of this genre will be happy with this game. I like it, especially for the price. I also purchased the sequel.

LOVE IT! But......

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 3
Date: February 24, 2003
Author: Amazon User

A superb concept with a deep story and nice graphics. At last a heroic game without just slaughter, slaughter, slaughter... The problem is that many ideas listed in the previews (Like MORE women, evil choices, honour-codex, etc. etc.) haven't been fulfilled. Thus, if you don't make the right decision, you die. It was promised that there are MANY ways to complete Bradwen's quests, yet there is only one way. SAD, because this was a GREAT idea. I love the game because I'm a history-buff and because I'm sick of the football-games and the even more Action-Murder-games. This game has depth at least. I may not be flawless but it's a great effort.

Finally a game with more than action-crap!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 2
Date: February 08, 2004
Author: Amazon User

I LOVE this game and it saddens me that it's so underappreciated. True, several of the promises in the previews weren't fulfilled but the story is deep, the graphics GORGEOUS (I've never seen a winter-landscape put to life more beautifully and it such stunning colours before) and the movement isn't as hard. Of course, as a knight you have to ride a horse! What were you thinking, that Bradwen would use a plane? It's a brilliant games for its history, amazing story and beautiful graphics!!!

worst game ever

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 1 / 3
Date: July 17, 2001
Author: Amazon User

Could this possibly be the worst adventure game ever?Granted I did'nt finish it but who would want to.Clumsy game controls(you use the keyboard not the mouse)terrible character animation no soundtrack music whatsover to set the scenes.If you wat to buy a real adventure game buy "The Longest Journey".This just stinks.

The most most ... game ever!

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 0 / 2
Date: July 24, 2001
Author: Amazon User

This game ... The graphics are two years old, the camera always will stop, then close up, and then when you get far away again, it stops again, and then close's up. The voices stutter no matter what( during insstalation it alerts you of this, but you have to intstall another 150 megabites.) I did this, and it didn't work. Did it again still didn't work.

Um, no

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 0 / 1
Date: May 06, 2002
Author: Amazon User

I was totally intrigued by the potential of this game. See semi-ancient Britain through the eyes of one of its inhabitants. But as soon as I started playing, I realized it was a waste. It was totally confusing, what can you pick up and use, what can't you? I was reduced to using the walkthrough via the dreamcatcher website which helped me through absolutely nothing. Playing as the Pagan (for lack of a better term) Bradwen, I got into the villa, and then 'found suvivors' but was stuck in this little room and I had no idea where said survivors were. I got sick of it after that, uninstalled it, and promptly returned it back to the store where I had purchased it. With my refund, I bought The Sims: Hot Date instead.

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