Clayperboy (id: clayperboy) |
Posted on 09/07/03 @ 12:00 AM
The Paladin of Destiny
By: X-King
In this campaign you play the roll of Heinrich the Paladin, who by request of the king, leaves his home and takes on several tasks, that eventually helps him gain the support and following of other soldiers. In the second part of the game, you find yourself mysteriously teleported to another dimension, where you have to defeat a Cruel leader, Duke ???.
PLAYABILITY: The first portion of the scenario is a basically taking on different jobs, that builds your strength, and adds a couple of soldiers that are willing to go with you on your journey. I found this portion of the game played a bit easy, but still offered up a challenge. There was some confusion about Heinrich’s servant, who seems to be caught behind some buildings. I played the game over, and took down a building that freed the servant, but it didn’t seem to alter the game, other than providing an extra blade, plus he was not teleported to the second part of the game. The second part of the game has a nice cutscene of a Wizard engaging in battle against ???? From then, on the game was more of a build and destroy, that boosted the playability.
I did encounter a small problem, which left me wandering around for quite a while. Heinrich, has to get really close to an ally monk, or a trigger doesn’t fire, and the game stops. The instructions, indicated that I had to defeat Duke ???, and his hero to win. I never encountered him or his hero in the second portion of the game, but did receive a victory signal when his town was all but destroyed.
BALANCE: The first part of the game I found a bit on the easy side, and I did not have to save the game often. There were lots of enemy units, but my group was superior, and had access to healing, even during the larger battle in the forest. Luring the enemy out in smaller numbers made it quick and as painless as possible.
The second part of the game was more challenging, especially at the beginning when I received a town. The Duke of ??? had a large band of soldiers patrolling, and it wasn’t long before he attacked. Building the right structures made for an interesting but heavy battle, which finally died down.
CREATIVITY: There is much in the way of creativity in the game. The first cutscene introduced a wizards roll, and the progress he was making with spells,, then a little latter on where the Drunken rider is, you can find another somewhat humorous add-on by the crazy wizard. Another cutscene was found when you finally meet up with the king, then your teleported to another dimension where you see yet another battle, and experience the drastic outcome of that wizard. Then off coarse there’s the teleporting idea.
MAP DESIGN: At first glance the map looked ok, then I noticed some sea rocks on much of the dry land. Although it looked out of place, I thought it could portray a town that had just had rained on it. The huge deep sea Marlins in the small lake however was definitely out of place. And finding them again jumping out of the ground in the forest was confusing to say the least. I thought that it would be explained as a wizards trick or something, but saw no mention of it. The rest of the map seemed well made and realistic.
STORY/INSTRUCTION: There is little in the way of a story, and could only be seen in the History box, where it says, Heinrich was given orders to meet with the king. The sidequests had dialogue and contributed a little to he story. The other in game dialogue pretty much covers the individual side quests that Heinrich embarked on, but added nothing to his real objective,”to destroy Duke??? And his hero”. The second part of the game added to the story, but only covered that cutscene, and left no further story, or instruction. There is a basic instruction as to how to win the game, but the game itself is lacking direction. An example of this is when the cutscene for the second part of the game was over, I did not know what to do, so I wandered around for a long while looking to set off a trigger but did not find anything. On my second try, I happened to get close enough to a certain monk, and fired a trigger, thus continuing the game. There could have been some instruction or at least something in the hints that would indicate a need to seek out a certain person. Travelling with a small group can sometimes prevent the hero from being on a certain spot, especially if someone is already standing there. There are a few minor grammar and spelling errors, for example, the objective state “If I kill Heinrich’s servant I would loose the game.” Perhaps it is a spelling error that should have read ”If Heinrich’s servant is killed, you will loose. Minor errors, but nothing that takes away from the game enjoyment.
An enjoyable Game
Download a must |