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Maybe they should have Beta tested it.

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: September 01, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Don't buy this thing until you see a patch. I bought this around 8/28/03. Constant crashes to desktop.

I went to their website to see what the problem was, and I am NOT the only one experiencing this problem. Don't hand them [the money] until they fix it.

Game is worth playing but it's much more efficient when it WORKS.

Odiferous

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: September 29, 2003
Author: Amazon User

This game is just foul. It seems like Interplay and Reflexive were trying to create a game like Diablo but with more RPG elements, and failed disastrously. The "alternate history" theme is very interesting, but poorly executed. An on top of it all, the game is extremely short. I really wish I hadn't wasted $50 on this garbage.

disappointment

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 4 / 7
Date: September 29, 2003
Author: Amazon User

When I first read about this game I thought it would be one that I could enjoy. I am an RPG addict. This game, however, was not the RPG it promises to be. Very boring, mini map has no waypoints to help you along, and some of the quests appear to be broken. This game no longer spins in my disc tray.

May be the best RPGs I've ever played...

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 5
Date: July 01, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Think this might be the best RPG I've ever played... Even over Baldur's Gate, Temple of Elemental Evil, and Diablo... Mechanics are good, nice mix of action and role-play, story is REALLY good, challenging, sometimes very challenging, interesting yet easy to follow, side-quests aren't annoying, lots of chioces but not too many, role-playing elements like character generation, skills, level-up choices, and the magic-to-muscle balance all offer good variety and complexity, without being overly-complicated... Very fun and compelling game.

Not too shabby...

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 2 / 3
Date: January 11, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Like others have said, the graphics aren't the best and the game can go fairly quick compared to some D&D ones I've picked up, but I still enjoyed it. First and foremost, I'm an historian, with my focus on the Middle Ages. By the way people, this is not the Middle Ages, but more the Renaissance. Shakespeare and DaVinci date it as such. Now I normally get irritable when people start messing around with history and present it as fact, but here it's all a big joke. So the aspect I enjoy most about this game is the humor behind the historical mish-mesh. While the programmers may not have done all their homework on the game visuals, they certainly had fun with the history. It kind of reminds me of the TV series "Blackadder" in that respect.

An overlooked gem

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 2 / 3
Date: September 01, 2006
Author: Amazon User

This game was a swan song of Black Isle Studio, the creator of such grand adventuring prospects such as Fallout, Fallout 2, and Icewind Dale. To best describe it, Lionheart takes the best parts of the Fallout series (the SPECIAL and level perks system) and combines it with the real time combat theme of Diablo.

The background for the game is as follows: The game begins with the story that in 1189, the Pope ordered a Third Crusade to take Jerusalem from the infidels. In 1191, King Richard the Lionheart captured the city of Acre and demanded tribute from Saladin, leader of the Muslims. When Saladin failed to produce the tribute in 1192, King Richard was advised to bring together several holy artifacts to bless his army and to curse his enemies. While Saladin tried to negotiate the tribute, King Richard put to death several thousand Muslims in a show of force. That bloody act, combined with the presence of the reality weakening artifacts, caused a calamity known as The Disjunction.

The Disjunction caused a rift in reality, allowing demons, monsters, and other hellish beasts to appear in the human world. Joining forces, Saladin and King Richard were able to drive off Richard's advisor, who turned out to be a powerful demon in disguise, and ended the ritual before its completion. However, the damage was done. Magic was released into the world, mythic beasts now roamed the lands, and humanity as a whole was ill equipped to deal with them.

Fast forward several centuries to 1588, the current time of the game. You play the Scion of Lionheart, one of the bastard descendants of the rather prolific King Richard. In your bloodline resides a spirit of considerable power (you can choose whether it is angelic, demonic, or bestial), which was once merged with King Richard. The spirit has now awoken within you and allows you to utilize magic, a rare talent that is now being cracked down upon by the Inquisition, who ironically also use magic.

You start as a slave who narrowly avoids being killed by assassins. After you free yourself, you meet with Leonardo Da Vinci, who tells you that in order to find out who is trying to kill you, it would be best if you joined a faction and find out who is behind the assassination attempt. It is at the foot of Nuevo Barcelona that you start your quest...

Character Creation: Fairly straightforward. Anyone who is remotely familiar with the Fallout series will see the exact duplication of the skill setup, the perks system, and the SPECIAL system (Strength Perception Endurance Charisma Intelligence Agility Luck). You can choose four racial types: Pureblood (human), Demokin (human who has a demonic spirit taint in their bloodline), Sylvant (human who has an elemental spirit taint in their bloodline), or Feralkin (human who has a bestial spirit taint their bloodline). From deciding which race you choose allows you certain abilities and disadvantages (since this is the 'fantasy history' of the year 1588, racism is alive and well, along with persecution for being anything other than 'human').

The skills system is arranged so you can devote to three Tag skills that will increase faster than the other ones. Using the Tag skills allows you to customize your character to your play tastes. Like sneaking about and popping locked chests with ease? Tag your thieving skill set. Want to be a splatterpunk? Tag your HTH skills. Want to talk your way out of everything? That's right, Tag your diplomacy skills. I thoroughly enjoyed creating the character, although I was disappointed by the few customization choices of the avatar (Head changes or color of your clothes).

Game mechanics/graphics/music: Obviously, the game is completely mouse driven with a set of hot keys for various actions and placeholders for using spells and commonly used items (i.e. healing and mana potions). The resolution of the game is stuck in 800x600 frame, which cuts down on some visibility. However, you can choose to turn off the feature that allows the screen to center on the character and can scroll about the screen that way. Combat and magic is just like Diablo, with creatures rushing to engage your character. Left clicking once on an opponent will start your character to attack with his equipped weapon until it is defeated. Right clicking will cause the character to cast his readied spell. As in Fallout, you can choose to hit a certain area on your opponent in the hopes of causing a critical hit. Unlike Fallout, you may also vary the speed of your attacks in order to increase the frequency at the expense of accuracy.

My quibbles in this section are minimal. To me, there wasn't a diverse enough group of enemies. The programmers seemed to think that, "Hey, we need another type of monster! Why don't we Super Size a regular sized monster?" was a good idea. They also thought that just changing the color of the monster would expand the foe base. It just seemed lazy to me. The music is very good but, just like the foe base, is limited. Also, the music skips a lot. Even after the patch was used, the music still skipped and restarted.

Like Icewind Dale, you can play the game online, but I have yet to do so. I would be interested in trying it out, however.

Game background and plot: The plot, as mentioned above, is nothing new. You're cast into the unenviable position of a)trying to find out why someone wants to kill you and b) ultimately stop them from initiating a Second Disjunction. To that end, the first half of the game is spent in wandering around Nuevo Barcelona and the surrounding countryside, gaining experience, and getting new equipment. The game is non-linear in the beginning, but eventually becomes as straight as a ruler in the second half. This jarring change left the impression that the creators just wanted to rush the player on to the Final Battle, but not before running the player through several gauntlets of enemies. My other complaint is that, just like in original Fallout, the companions you have the odd chance to pick up are useless for the most part. In a turn based combat system, they might last longer. But, in real time combat, they burn up like snowballs in Hell without their hats. To add insult to injury, they never gain levels like you do, nor are they particularly intelligent when it comes to engaging enemies. They just run pell-mell at the nearest baddie and nearly every time they get their heads handed back to them on silver platters.

On the other hand, playing in the alternate universe of 1588 was rather fun. Besides Leonardo Da Vinci, you also meet the likes of Galileo, Hernan Cortez, William Shakespeare, Machiavelli, and Miguel De Cervantes (who, like Don Quixote, is slightly off base). I also found it to be interest piquing game for European history at that time. Until I played the game, I never knew of the religious movement of the Cathars. So, I read up on it. Wow, who would have thought that a game might cause interest in the history that it's using as a backdrop?

Final standings:
Character Creation: A-
Game mechanics/Graphics/Music: A
Game Background and Plot: B-
Overall: B+

The Legacy of the Crusader. . .

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 2 / 4
Date: September 05, 2003
Author: Amazon User

"Lionheart: Legacy of the Crusader" is a good, if not quite great, role-playing game that may not live up to the usual standards of Black Isle Studios, but regardless it's yet another deep and vastly entertaining jewel in the company's sparkling crown.

The game casts you as the scion of King Richard the Lionhearted in an alternate reality setup which blends magic and historic fact into an interesting, and refreshingly unique, world. It assumes that the events immediately following the Crusades caused a disjunction in time and space, and magical spirits and creatures were unleashed upon the Medieval world. Naturally, it is your job to defeat a great evil (or become a great evil if you prefer), and you begin this endeavor by joining one of four factions that actually determine how the first portion of the game plays out. You can ally yourselves with the Inquisition (who seek out the world's magic-tainted "heretics" and purify them through pain or death), the Knights Templar (who seek to cleanse the world of evil magics), the Wielders (who embrace magic and employ it in secrecy beneath the searching eyes of the Inquisition), or the Dark Wielders (who are much like their good counterparts, but seek instead of acceptance the power to rule the world and remake it as they see fit). Even though the game world can still feel a little bit Dungeons & Dragon-ish, it remains exceptional enough to make a lasting impression. Expect to bump into all kinds of historic figures, including Galileo and Leonardo Da Vinci, to name but a few.

Yes, the world is quite interesting, but the storyline doesn't quite live up to that same pervading quality. Even so, you'll find a lot to do in this game apart from the main campaign. Hardcore RPGers rejoice - you will get your money's worth out of "Lionheart." Like many games of its type, it also packs in a high replay value, since there are multiple beginning and endings. If you take up with the Dark Wielders and choose a darker path through the game, the finale will reflect that - and so will the quests your faction requires you to perform. Early on in the game, the Inquisition may want you to remove the magical taint from the Barcelona Temple District, while the Wielders require you to construct a magical staff to prove your worth. "Lionheart" does not force your hand, but offers you choices instead.

Thankfully, "Lionheart" does away with the stereotypical roleplaying class system. You will choose your character's race and gender, and the rest you decide through tweaking your statistics, your strengths and abilities. Do you want to be a fighter and a wielder of magic? Go ahead, nothing is stopping you. It's a delightful change of pace.

Unfortunately, "Lionheart" has its share of problems, and the worst of those problems is its interface, which takes a lot of getting used to - and even then it's more trouble than it should be. Combat can be mildly engaging, but generally becomes tedious, and isn't all that exciting to witness. The game's production values are a mixed bag as well. On the one hand, it has a beautiful orchestral soundtrack, but repetition of the particular pieces can become monotonous. Some of the game's sound effects do their job nicely, while most of your opponents will do their best to annoy you with their repetitive shrieks and cries. The graphics are crisp and clear, and the game's environments are quite attractive. The game's characters, however, could have benefited from more detail, and they are generally quite badly animated - and they're not always smart either. I once released magic-infused "heretics" from the Inquisition dungeons in plain view of Inquisitor guardsmen who simply looked on dumbly. They did not make any attempts to thwart my rescue efforts, and when I spoke to them after the fact they were very polite and apparently oblivious to my rebellion. That kind of thing can get in the way of the suspension of disbelief, it goes without saying. Oh, yes, and brace yourself for an anti-climactic finale - and I don't just mean the end game sequence, I mean the end game all together. What begins as a genuinely deep and compelling RPG degenerates into a mindless hack-and-slash dungeon crawl with very little story to propel it. And yes, the end game sequence is just plain bad, almost insulting when you've poured so many hours into the game. When will developers realize that endings ARE important to a game's overall level of satisfaction?!

Ultimately, I liked "Lionheart: Legacy of the Crusader," and I would recommend it to any fan of its respective genre with only a few reservations. The game offers you a wealth of roleplaying options and flows at a decent clip. It certainly has its flaws, but none of them are crippling, and its virtues are plentiful.

Final Score: C+ (four stars on a curve)

Diablo II revisited

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 2 / 4
Date: November 03, 2003
Author: Amazon User

If you liked Diablo II, you will most likely enjoy Lionheart.

- Yes, the storyline and quests are rather shallow. But they are just complex enough to keep you interested in finding out what the next zone holds.

- I really enjoy how quests are organized by active, completed and failed. With semi-completed portions of quests being greyed out, it is very easy to track what you need to do.

- Learn lockpick and detect secret early on. You'll need them.

- 800x600 video? C'mon, this is 2003. You'll be using F2 alot to minizime the control bar. I enjoy ranged attacks, and 800x600 does not offer alot of reaction time.

- Someone else mentioned this, but its worth reiterating: there should be a chart allowing users to know how a skill strengthens based on the points pumped into it. For example, I keep pumping up heal, yet I don't seem to heal any faster everytime I use it. Very frustrating.

- Amazon just dropped their price on the game. At $30 its worth the cost.

Game had an unfinished quality...

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 2 / 4
Date: April 18, 2004
Author: Amazon User

I'm at a lull in between playing the newer releases, and decided to pick up Lionheart on a whim. Even at a fraction of the original cost, I found this game virtually unplayable. While the premise is original, I found the subject matter distasteful (too much focus on the inquisition), and the graphics tiny, outdated, and the character avatars really, really ugly.

The game had an unfinished quality, and I found the combat at the beginning way too hard. Entering into dungeons my character was immediately mauled and killed. There is almost no tutorial, and no learning curve for new players, and hardly any place to get money or weapons.

Also I chose and built a female character, I was surprised to discover that her voiceset sounded very male! Err....

I'll have to give this game 2 stars. The game had promise, but needed about another year of development. Black Isle has produced better.

Whatever they say........

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 2 / 4
Date: May 31, 2005
Author: Amazon User

When you play a RPG game, what matter mostly is a really good story. LionHeart has one of the best. Sure game is kind of slow 'cause the game is not only "hack and slash" all the time. If you are interested and History and Fantasy this the game for you. You will have the chance to meet one the greatest personalities in History like: Leonardo DaVinci, Miguel de Cervantes, Hernan Cortez, Nostradamus, to name a few. Game has really good Graphics, game control is easy to learn.

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