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What's that smell?

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 19 / 24
Date: September 19, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I love history, and I love RPGs, so it goes without saying I was anticipating "Lionheart" for a long time. The game has an interesting premise, and it uses Fallout's "SPECIAL" system. I thought that Reflexive and Black Isle could not possibly screw up this great combination. Boy was I wrong. "Lionheart" is poor in every category. This terrible game simply does not have one redeeming quality about it.

To start off with, the 2-year outdated graphics are mediocre, creature and character animations stink, and the artwork is nonexistent. Every screen is covered end-to-end in grey or black and has the visual appeal of an IRS 1040 form or a dirty ash tray. You can let your imagination run wild with how exotic and cool Medieval Europe could have looked after a great big cosmic magical rift. I say "you" could, because the designers for this game obviously didn't. Where are the snow-capped mountains, exotic palaces, beautiful forests, and lakes? They're in "Divine Divinity", that's where. "Lionheart" looks more like Wyoming after a great big forest fire. "Divine Divinity" is but one game puts "Lionheart" to shame in the graphics department (and everything else as well). All of the recent Dungeons and Dragons games look better than this, because of their exceptional artwork and creativity. Even the flop sci-fi "Harbinger" looked better than this.

But graphics don't really matter that much do they? I guess not - I could easily ignore them, but the gameplay is terrible too. The way that the turn-based SPECIAL system has been butchered in this game is inexcusable. A real-time game that uses a turn-based system can succeed if you can pause the game to issue orders. That is why real-time Dungeons and Dragons have been so successful. However, this game has the mind-bogglingly stupid feature of NOT letting you do this. You can pause the game, but not to issue attack orders. There is no autopause feature that stops the game for you when someone rushes onto the screen. The tactical genius and elegance that made Fallout's combat great is nonexistent. That leaves you with a real-time, extremely low quality Diablo clone, complete with a red bulb for health, and a blue bulb for mana. You left-click to attack, you use a hotkey to select your active spell, and then right-click to cast the spell.

How groundbreaking.

"Diablo clone" would be a compliment for "Lionheart" though, because the combat engine is pitiful otherwise. Enemies are unoriginal and poorly animated. You reveal the fog of war by exploring ugly areas and run into ugly, repetitive enemies bit-by-bit. They simply yell out a "raawwrrr!" and rush at you at light speed, before you can cast more than one spell or fire an arrow from your useless bow. If you specialize in ranged combat or magic, you literally will not survive the first area of this game, no matter how many times you reload. This game is more unbalanced towards melee characters than "Arcanum" was.

The game's intrusive interface blocks your view of the world by taking up almost a third of the screen, but it somehow still manages to be functionally inadequate. (A dubious accomplishment). You only get 7, that's right, 7 hotkeys for spells, and other actions. Compare that with games like Neverwinter Nights, which made full use of the "F" keys for 36 total hotkeys. Expect to find yourself casting the same few unimpressively-animated spells over and over.

Needless to say, I did not finish this game, so I cannot comment about the story from start-to-finish. However, I can say that the portion of the game that I played through offered no indication that it would be special. "I am some sort of mysterious chosen one, and some bad men want to kill me because of it" is the basic premise. A cliche storyline is nothing new, and some games are still great in spite of it, but it's not enough to make you want to toil through a game that is just plain bad.

I wanted to love this game, but I can't. I tried to like it, but I failed. Reflexive alienated hardcore RPG fans by screwing up the "SPECIAL" system, and then screwed up the mindless action so that "Diablo" fans could hate it too. I wish that I could say that it's a simple hack-and-slash adventure, but I can"t, because the hack-and-slash aspects of the game stink. "Lionheart" is by far the worst RPG that I have played since before Baldurs Gate, and I am thinking it might be the worst I have ever played. A trashpile like this doesn't even deserve the bargain bin.

Doesn't live up to its early promise

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 11 / 12
Date: August 27, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Lionheart starts out promising, with its interesting and (at least among computer RPG settings) unique premise. The game is set in an alternate 16th century Europe, roughly four centuries after the Crusaders were tricked into unleashing demons and magic into the world. The first part of the game works well, centered on the city of Barcelona, which is the stronghold of the Inquisition, which tries to put down magic and demons by extreme means. There are many opportunities for real role-playing, in the sense of an opportunity to make decisions (such as whether you want to operate on the side of the strict Inquisition, or work for less legal groups, such as the magic users). The quests of the various groups intertwine, so that you can't please everyone, and will ultimately be forced to make a choice on who you want as your allies. Barcelona also is home to a number of interesting variants of real-life 16th century people, such as DaVinci, Galileo, and Shakespeare, which adds extra interest.

Unfortunately, once your quests send you away from Barcelona, the game turns into a slogfest of ceaseless combat. When you've finished some of the later areas, the floors will literally be covered wall-to-wall with corpses. With all the fighting, the opportunity for real decision-making vanishes, and the game becomes truly linear. Your only task is to move from one map to the next. This is highly disappointing, as the game starts out with such a fresh premise.

A second problem with the fighting is that it is hampered by a cumbersome interface. The fighting is done in real time, much like Baldur's Gate or Icewind Dale, but the enemies move at much greater speeds. Thus, you have no real chance to use ranged weapons, as the enemies close on you after the first shot. Second, because the enemies move so fast, it is hard to click on them. Frequently, you miss, and your character simply walks over to the spot where the enemy was. Inexplicably, the game will not allow you to target an enemy while it is paused.

Lionheart is also terribly buggy. You have a chance to acquire companions during the game, but roughly 10% of the time, having a companion will corrupt your game such that you can't move from one map to another (or, if you can, the next save game may be corrupted). Put together, the collapse of the storyline into meaningless fighting and the bugginess suggest that this game was rushed out the door far too early. It has a lot of promise, but doesn't live up to it.

This game is a trick

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 10 / 11
Date: August 29, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Lionheart plays like the demo. If you've tried the demo, you know that the combat is a hectic clickfest, with too-fast moving monsters and a poor targeting system. And the latter half of this game is pretty much exclusively combat. Which makes it incredibly unsatisfying.

I call the game a "trick" because of the first half. The first half of the game takes place in Barcelona and another town, and there are interesting characters to talk to, fun quests, and palpable tension among the various factions that control the city (or oppose it). Because the game is set in "real" history (1588) but with a twist (what if magic were real), you find yourself talking to characters such as Shakespeare and Da Vinci, although their personalities and agendas have shifted with the influence of magic. And with the crusades going on, there are some real moral dilemmas: will you support such an oppressive regime, or oppose it and deal with the disadvantages and hostility your character will face? So people who have only played the game a little bit seem to think the game is fine. Then they change their minds after they've played a little more.

The game is built upon an improved version of the SPECIAL engine, which was used for Fallout. So the gameplay is similar, although the combat is real-time, not turn-based. But it just ends up lacking. The real-time combat is a chore, and there is no way to get it back to turn-based. Although you can pause the game, you can't target while paused. Later in the game, the story progression is very linear, with few diplomatic/stealth solutions. The character animations are poorly done, and the interface appears rushed (certain parts are poorly designed or lacking obvious features).

Oh well. If you're willing to buy a game only to play half of it, you'll have fun. If you feel that a game should actually be compeleted, you're in for drudgery and monotonous combat.

A bad arcade style game. Nothing like fallout. Not an RPG

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 8 / 11
Date: September 07, 2003
Author: Amazon User

This game is pretty annoying in many ways.

The combat is simply clicking on people and watching them unil they die.

The magic system is poorly thought out and playing as a mage is very tedious because the simplest spell costs too much mana, yet spending massive spellpoints barely increases their power. Heal heals 4-5 points of damage at level one, and 12-13 at level 81!!!

NPC tagalongs are useless in combat because they are destroyed with amazing ease by enemies and there is no way to bring them back, and worse than useless since they like to run around and lure lots of monsters to you.

Once you get out of barcelona, there is really no questing just more hacking and slashing. Even this might be ok if it was more involving; you just watch you guy hack them to pieces and occasionally run away. The spells are pretty useless in combat and hard to select anyhow so you do not end up using them much.

There is no marking of exits/entrances etc. even after you have been through them, so that walking around is VERY tedious and annoying at higher levels, especially since in the first half of the game you will be going to the same places in the sewers OVER and OVER. Finding all the entraces to the various levels takes careful attention to detail, too.

Anyhow, I think this is the last black isle game I will buy; maybe I will get Baldur's gate III if such a thing is ever made, or fallout 3, but only from the ten dollar clearance rack....

A sad, sad day for CRPG's...

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 7 / 10
Date: October 06, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I've been playing CRPG's since the early 90's. Currently I've been desperately searching for a decent CRPG. The last one that I've really enjoyed was Baldur's Gate 2. Now enter Lionheart. I've read about it last year and couldn't stop thinking about how great it would be. Fallout SPECIAL ruleset in an interesting fantasy setting? I figured I couldnt go wrong so I purchased it without reading a review. BIG mistake. From the onset I was plagued with various gamestopping bugs. Some of the bugs actually made it so you couldn't continue playing the game... I was only 3 hours into the game and it was crashing to desktop continuously. Later I found out in the Lionheart Forums that there was a KNOWN?!?! bug that would crash you to desktop if you had a companion of any sort. Since then a patch was finally released to fix that issue. Read any gamesite and the reviews will tell you of the MANY other issues this game has. Trust me when I say don't waste your money on this VERY poor quality game... if you do you'll regret it. Buyer beware..

Mediocre RPG Game

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 6 / 8
Date: September 24, 2003
Author: Amazon User

This game should be a wake up call for Black Isle and Interplay.

Graphically the game is fine, with decent background, characters, and special effect (i.e. spells). The first third of the game is defining your character (good or evil, mage or warrior, etc.) through "errand" style quests. It offers some decent role playing, but since there isn't any long term interaction with NPC's the player never develops an affinity for anyone. With very few exceptions, most of the NPC's that join the party, are too weak and die off quickly. Once your character proceeds to the main quest of knocking off the bad guy, it's purely hack and slash, i.e. Diablo style. Puzzles, while they do exist, are trivial.

Some other complaints:
The skill point system is very frustrating. A chart should have been released to display the advantages/disadvantages of points per skill (e.g. at 100-200 points you will do 36 pts of damage with a fireball, with a 67% chance of knockdown). As it is, you don't know where the point system tops out, and if you're wasting your time pumping up a given skill. I had to recreate a character 3 times before I found something worth sticking with.

You can't give items in your inventory to an NPC so you can buff them up.

A major annoyance is the lack of autonavigation. On a completely explored map, you have to lead your character by the nose to get it to walk across it.

Automaps don't show major points of interest, e.g. Leonardo's workshop, Eduardo's smith, entrances and exits, etc.

Melee combat is pretty flat, just click on an opponent and watch your character hack away. Some feats (like BG II's whirlwind) would have been nice.

Finally, the treasures are purely random. I built a character loaded with one-handed melee skills, but most of the treasure was two-handed items or ranged weapons. I'd understand this approach if it was feasible to create a character with broad skills but if you don't max your skills, you die a lot.

Overall, I really can't say the game is worth the price.

Play the first chapter, then quit

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 7 / 11
Date: July 08, 2004
Author: Amazon User

As the title says, the first chapter of this game is very intruiging. You get to choose which factions to follow, how to develop your character and have an interesting world at your fingertips. Unfortunately, after that, the rest of the game is a major letdown. The plotline is obvious and very linear (your beginning choices no longer matter) and it quickly becomes boring and painful to play. If you can find this game cheap and used, go for it, play the first chapter and then stop. You'll be left with happy memories of a fun game.

I have enjoyed this game

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 4 / 5
Date: November 25, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I knew this product was Black Isle, so I was hoping it was on the same level as the Fallout series. I was not disappointed.

This game is not a straight dungeon crawl. There are a multitude of quests to go on, and a lot of them involve running back and forth to places you have already been. (I personally hate that!)

I think this may be more combat oriented than Fallout, and there isn't that dreaded timeline you have to beat. You simply get a quest, and accomplish it.

Also, unlike Fallout, this game doesn't appear to have a turned based mode. It is live, which is fine, because that enforces more tactics, while still allowing you to function easily.

I'm almost done with it, and I am looking forward to loading it on the wife's computer, so we can try multiplayer. A solid game.

Unplayable for me

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 8 / 18
Date: December 01, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I bought this game and was hoping for a fun RPG experience. I thoroughly enjoy almost every RPG type game I play, and I was really excited about this one. My fiance and I both bought copies so we could play the multiplayer version as well! We instantly had problems installing and loading the game, we each had to uninstall and reinstall it once in order for it to work. We have high-end systems, since we both work in the computer game industry.

We finally got them both working and we started playing. The character generation is pretty fun - I give them points for that. It's complex and interesting, I enjoyed making my character. So then we do this getting out of jail quest, and get a spirit and that all is interesting too. Finally we get unleashed in to the game and that's where it all goes downhill.

First thing is you're in this gigantic town and you basically have to talk to everyone. I enjoy this part of RPGs, but in moderation. We spent about 30 minutes talking to different NPCs, then decided to go find something to kill. We immediately got our butts kicked by some critter, I can't remember what. My fiance quit at that point and I decided to go back to the town and talk to more NPCs. I get one to give me a quest - Go find this guy and talk to him (yippee!). So I go find the guy, he immediately calls over a bunch of thugs, they kill me, game over.

At that point I quit, because playing a game is supposed to be FUN, not frustrating. I don't recommend this game, I think it's a waste of money. There are so many good games out there! Try Dungeon Siege for a much more fun RPG, or even the D&D games like Temple of Elemental Evil and Pool of Radiance. Also, Morrowind is much better than Lionheart. Any of those would be a better choice!

Another excellent Interplay game ruined by crippling errors

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: August 22, 2003
Author: Amazon User

After loosely following the production of this game for several months, a friend informed me that it was out. Being a Fallout buff (the SPECIAL system being used in Lionheart and all) and a (former) fan of Black Isle and Interplay, I immediately ordered it. When it came, I tore into the box, read the instruction manual... installed the game... and six hours later it sat uninstalled.

Why is this? After spending three hours playing a game, I experienced a severe error that caused me to crash to the desktop whenever I tried to leave the map I was currently on. I had no saves beforehand, and would have had to start over. Normally, I'd just try over again and hope for the best, but after checking the official Lionheart Support Forum, I found that it is apparently a common occurence, usually happening when you have a companion in your party, and seemingly at random. Since I had Cervantes in my party at the time(an interesting character who acts like a real life version of his creation, Don Quixote), I can only assume that he triggered the errors. Just like so many other Interplay games (Fallout Tactics: Brotherhood of Steel comes to mind), it's a great looking, innovative game that is rendered almost unplayable by Interplay's complete and total lack of quality assurance and debugging.

I only gave this game such a bad rating because, quite frankly, I can't stand the prospect of playing a game for several days, only to have a small random error destroy the time I've spent on it. If you're deadset on buying it, then it's strongly suggested that you watch out for patches and pay attention to the support forums beforehand to see what you're getting into. Were it not so buggy, it'd probably get four stars as opposed to two. The NPCs you run into are interesting, the gameplay is unique, and it managed to integrate the SPECIAL system into real time combat nicely (without a Fallout: Tactics Continuous Turn Based setup, which surprised me). Hopefully, Interplay will release some patches quickly, but given their track record, it will most likely be too little and too late.

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