The November 2003 Computer Gaming World gives Lionheart a well-deserved 1.5 stars out of 5. Among other reasons:
“Lionheart is an aggressively unpleasant , schizophrenic experience that steadfastly ignores every significant interface advance of the last half decade while serving up a steaming helping of repetitive, unbalanced, uninspired aggravation masquerading as play.”
Robert Coffey does give them credit for the setting, as did most of us. Too bad they didn’t do enough with it.
People still remember Diabloheart? I thought there was kind of an unspoken Net-wide agreement to just sort of pretend it never happened. I’m sure Black Isle is hoping so.
Lionheart is the biggest disappointment of the last year for me. I was REALLY looking forward to it because I liked the setting and that it used the SPECIAL system. However, it did nothing with either of those perks. I would have preferred turn-based combat, or at least pausable combat, so that there would be SOME tactics. A more detailed character system would have helped as well. The combat was broken in many ways that have already been mentioned over and over. But I think what really bothered me the most is that I couldn’t play as whatever kind of character I wanted. Because it was just an action click-fest, you had to specialize in weapons and/or attack spells. Since you didn’t control a party, you couldn’t even have other people with interesting quirks or anything. The NPCs were almost mindless, the dialog was spotty, etc.
It still hurts…
That was the most accurate review of the game I have read yet, based on my experiences with the game.
olaf
Thank god I missed that one… ToEE is disappointment enough.
Started of great, then it fell off into the Mariana trench.
I like ToEE though I can understand people’s disappointments with it. So close, yet so far.
“Lionheart is an aggressively unpleasant , schizophrenic experience that steadfastly ignores every significant interface advance of the last half decade while serving up a steaming helping of repetitive, unbalanced, uninspired aggravation masquerading as play.”
Don’t you just hate it when reviewers mince their words? :)
Hehehe… another shite game dodged. Makes a nice change anyway. :)
Puzzles me that we haven’t had a good ‘hardcore’ rpg in a while… you know the Might and Magics and Wizardrys… BRING EM BACK! Enough RTS / ACTION rpgs.
etc
Spiderweb software make decent old skool Ultima style RPGs if you want something to pass the time. Really generous demos too. I’d welcome a big budget offering though.
“Puzzles me that we haven’t had a good ‘hardcore’ rpg in a while… you know the Might and Magics and Wizardrys…”
Why do people associate ‘hardcore’ with old games, as if they did it all right. I can only think its because so many years have passed since they have played the games they only remember the fun they had back then and assume it would hold up today.
As for the examples you can play Wiz8 if you want, and as for the M&M games well those have thankfully been stopped, hopefully forever.
Yeah, the Spiderweb RPGs are pretty cool. The Windows version of Geneforge 2 should be out soon.
I’ve played Avernum 2, wasn’t too bad though never finsihed it. I really just want a sequel to Might and Magic and Wizardry, thats about it.
etc
I tried Wizardry 8 once. I would have actually played it if it weren’t for the ridiculous use of the first-person perspective, which irritated me so much that I never got past the very beginning of the game.
EDIT: Oh yeah, just to be clear, I’m not in support of worshipping old-school games as though they were miracles from God. Only Fallout gets that kind of adoration. I could probably install it now and get ten hours of fun out of it. :)
The FP perspective is a convention of the Wizardry series. The way you phrased the above quote, it appears you weren’t aware of that. But I find that hard to believe. Do you have any idea how much the fans would freak out if it Wiz 8 were in the third person? :)
As much as Fallout-fans would if Fallout 3 was in full 3D?
Not quite as much because it would still be third-person, but I know what you’re talking about. I’ve seen some of the fans ranting about how Fallout 3 would be ruined by a 3D environment. I don’t understand that fear. Fully rotational maps and zooming into the action would be cool for Fallout.
A better analogy would be if they made Fallout 3 a first-person game. That might cause enough vitriol from Fallout fans to crash a message board or two.
Oh really?
PRESS RELEASE
Dec. 15, 2003IRVINE — Black Isle Studios today announced a new alliance with a startup development company, One Armed Bandit, made up of former employees from Westwood Studios.
The Las Vegas-based studio will assist in the design and development of Fallout 3, the long-awaited sequel to Black Isle’s critically-acclaimed series of life on Earth following nuclear annihilation. The title will be published by Interplay, who has agreed to bankroll the project entirely in Pez candies and Mountain Dew.
Fallout 3: Renegade will feature a first-person perspective. Black Isle officials said the transition from a top-down view familiar to Fallout fans to first person is akin to the transition fans of Westwood’s Command & Conquer series had to make with Command & Conquer: Renegade. Fallout 3 will feature many of the same interesting yet derivative gameplay elements that led to a minor hit, followed by the untimely disbandment of Westwood as a game studio. Why the hell do you put a goddam game studio in Las Vegas, anyway. Jesus.
Fallout 3 will be released exclusively on the GameCube, thanks to a last-minute infusion of cashola from Nintendo, announced last week by Interplay. Release is expected for 2005, provided Interplay doesn’t run out of Pez.
December 15, 2003? Did I wake up on the wrong side of the Way Back machine this morning? Exclusively on the GameCube in 2005? That’s optimistic.
But then, we’re reading a press release obviously transported in Doc Brown’s Delorian. And pretty damn funny. Too bad it’s not real; it would be even funnier.
Because it was just an action click-fest, you had to specialize in weapons and/or attack spells.
Well, you can sneak by or talk out off most fights, and I really liked the “sneaking gives XP”-method they used.
Unforunately, all spells were combat related, so why bother? Still playing it though, is there a method to advance the story without joining the “order” side (Templars/Inquisition) or the mages?