Lionheart. -or- I actually bought a game.

Now that's truly a surprising thing to encounter such a flaw in a new game.

 

thats ridiculous! if this is actually true, i bet if you look at the credits section there are NO beta testers listed, because there werent any, or at least the list would be identical to the current members roster of that Hellen Keller foundation.

 

I'm glad Milo has shared with us. I, for one, now know not to buy Lionheart. I prefer games that are less violent or leave open a path of non-violence. Hopefully, their future games will be better.

 

You're shitting us, right? :lol:

 

You seriously expected the game to be non-violent? You're going to have to wait quite a while for a game that suits you... May I suggest The Sims: Superstar?

Well things are looking pretty black against Lionheart right now.. my friend got the demo and he's been screaming his head off over the fixed resolution and combat. Hope Milo's next post will tell us how they're all wrong, it;s such a GREAT GAME!

 

Actually, I decided to download and play the demo yesterday

Pro's:
-SPECIAL System
-Storyline/Setting

Con's:
-Unless you press Spacebar regularly to pause the game, casting spells SUCKS
-Too much melee-oriented combat
-Certain quests must be done in order to gain EXP; I entered a new area and got mauled by enemies :thumbdown:
-Unless you put plenty of points in some melee-type skill, whether it be Single or Double-Handed fighting, you're going to be ****ed

The only way I can describe this game is by calling it..."The Thinking Man's Diablo 2". It's THAT good/bad!

Personally, I'm going to buy it since it's such an interesting game. I'd give the demo a 82/100

 

The demo is just making sure you get disappointed. But by its nice background it may yet worth playing...... after some balancing patch. The demo tell you not to use magic, or you die..... like using tech heavily in Arcanum demo. But then in Arcanum Tech is very powerful later in the game. The balance of the demo just doesn't matter.

Yet the speed is really...... inhuman. I bet there are very few test-player and all of them are melee at first, and they found running to oppsing ranged attacker in light speed very fun! When I try a bowman 95% of my combat time is the enemy bite me and I shoot it in melee range. So what is the use of bow? Just a sword need arrow?

For arcanum guns are strong enough to kill in 2 or 3 shot, but in Lionheart it cost many blow. With the click select problem you gonna melee whatever you are mage or shooter.

It seems that ToEE is a better choice...... although the stroy is less attactive, it is, at least, SEEMS playable.

 

Well, I got a copy & so far it looks good.

Character Creation; verry similar to Fallout. Stats, traits, skills & tag skills, add Sprit (which links you to a branch of magic, is voice acted & your guide to the world. It has been around a lot longer than you), races with racal traits, & magic (under skills & tagable.) The perks are there too. I haven't seen an in game perk, like gecko skinning, yet.

Backstory; during the third crusade, King Richard (in this universe hetrosexual & you are decended from his adventuring) makes a big booboo & unleashes demons & magic into the world. (Black Isle does a better job of describing this BTW.) Scince then, the crusades have been against the demonic forces, much to the relief of the Saracens, I imangine. The Inquisition does not have to hunt witches, heretics, or superstition here. They hunt mages & the possesed. Happily for them, you are both, even when human. Tread carefuly around the inquisition.

Races; Pureblood, orignal humans, upside, never supected automaticly & no preduce, downside, no racal traits. Sylvant, who remind me of Elves, nature linked & pointy ears. Feralkin, these remind me of the Gangrels of Vampire, the Masquerade & V:TES, animalistic, their racal traits are animal like or linked, & the Demokin, the only ones who can be able to pass for Pureblood. If you can't pass for human, try taging spech... er diplomacy.

The graphics are much like NWN without camera control. Bright, colorful & detailed. Much better graphics than Arcanum.

Combat, RTC only. Still learning it. On the plus side for archers, you will never run out of ammo. So far only two types, arrows & bolts. Another plus, if someone hits you, you hit back automaticly.

Rating so far, ammused, not adicted. Stay tuned.

 

I've given up on the game. At least for the moment. I got it, and I played it for about two days. Staying in Barcelona as long as possible. I frankly hate the combat. Being a big fan of turnbased RPG's this is a big let down.

I was hoping for something along the lines of BG where at least you are able to give orders while the game is paused and the enemies don't run at 100 mph. It reminds me of playing Arcanum in real time. It is possilbe if you are a big strong melee char. But you get raped over and over again as a magic user. After leaving Barcelona behind it was pretty much all combat. I don't mind combat but the problem with LH is that when the action in an action rpg doesn't work there isn't really much left.

I frankly couldn't stand it so I quit right there. I might try the game again some day when I'm really bored or think of something I'd like to try. For now tho, its going back to the shop. If I'm able to get a refund that is...

 

Ok, back.

I haven't played the game for at least a week. I made it through the sewers (which weren't as bad as everyone's making it out to be, IMO), and then the game just sat there. I played some more today for about a half hour and just can't muster up any more enthusiasm to continue.

The combat is really boring in this game, and there's a lot of it. The quests are ok, I guess, but I wanted something more, and didn't get it. It's not a BAD game, it's just boring. If anything, I'll end up finishing it eventually just for the story, but I won't be surprised if I never do.

Final verdict? It's not worth the asking price. It's a bargain binner, tops. If I had the chance to do it over again, I'd hold the $$$ and wait for ToEE.

 

Got the game, came up with my half-baked verdict after 9 hours gameplay time:

Pros:

-Fantastic setting-
The alternate setting is imaginative and absorbing. Meeting famous characters from the Renaissance and seeing how they adapted to the existence of magic is great. There are constant references to history: the Inquisition, journey of Marco Polo, the Spanish armada, etc (you even get to re-enact a segment of The Merchant of Venice).

-SPECIAL system
As robust as ever. They managed to insert magic into it quite well. Although I feel it could have been a lot more transparent, but for the people who don't like number-crunching the game also explains its system quite well. Fortunately they had the foresight of not tying magic to Intelligence, but rather Charisma and Perception, so distributing points among attributes is a challenge, not a no-brainer. And maybe it's just me, but the perks generally aren't as interesting as from Fallout.

-Graphics and Interface-
Plenty sweet. A *little* too clean for my tastes though. You get used to 800x600 after a while. The interface is a little too big (about 1/3 of the screen) but all the info you need is pretty accessible. Only glaring omission are map annotations. Targeting an enemy is easier to do in this game - the cursor kinda "zooms out" when mousing over a target.

Actually they don't stay in the order you picked them up: all weapons automatically go to the front of the pile, quest items to the back, armour after the weapons, etc. To sell and item you double click on it. Potions stack; buying twenty potions from a merchant (although they usually only stock 4) only requires one double-click. There are tabs to go to armour, weapons, etc. as well.

-Voice Acting-
Unsually evocative! No sign of Virgil anywhere. You can tell the designers really paid attention to this.

Cons:

-Diabloesqueness!-
For a setting which is supposedly averse to magic there is an abundance of magic items in the game. It cheapens everything when all magic items come with prefixes. Five minutes into the game I procured a "Scimitar of Fleshseeking", and I thought "Hey, I already have a cool sword! I'm so |33t!" - then as I got on I realized if you're lucky enough you get a Supersword of Fleshseeking, Carnage, Revealing, and Vampirism. I hate that. Monsters come with the prefixes too.

And that's not all, the inventories of shopkeepers change every time you level (apparently when you level up a shockwave booms through Barcelona that makes people stock better items and chests change their contents). If you see an item you like at level 5 you'd better buy it before level 6. At the beginning of the game they hand you Arrows of Infinity and Bolts of Infinity. Which basically extrapolates to every archer in the world having infinite arrows. Ouch.

Time is not a factor in this game and you don't have to rest (No inns).

-Combat-
It isn't that bad, but it's still a con. Every one in the world (followers and enemies) have the innate ability to spot someone as soon as even a pixel enters their line of sight and dash up to you to start wailing. The pace of combat itself is managable (assuming liberal pausing) but it's this dashing-up-to-you thing. Even with my finger on the spacebar they're already next to me by the time I pause.

It is viable to have a character with no weapon skills tagged, but be prepared to hit and run. As with Arcanum a melee giant can plough through enemies while wizards have their job cut out for them, at least at the beginning.

-Companions-.
At first I was impressed. Came across a guy who was slashing at trees and buildings, trying to kill a le bestia which only he could see. After talking to him I agreed to help him track down the monster. So I followed him through town for a while but couldn't see anything. Then I talked to him again and told him to follow me instead. Ting! First follower. "Cool!" I thought. Then I clicked on him again and all I got was two options: <Release Companion>, and <Nothing>. That's it! He was lower in status than a pack mule! Couldn't give him anything, couldn't ask him to do anything more complicated than <Follow> or <Stay where you are>. When I finished his quest he thanked me and just took off. Two other followers did the same thing. (The only follower I found I could keep around was a bear - who fell far short in usefulness than Dogmeat from FO, K-9 from FO2 or even the Brute from Arcanum. Could barely keep him alive).

I'd give this game 6 out of 10, with Arcanum being 8.5. It isn't a bad game, but for something from BlackIsle, its flaws are surprising, because they usually do well in coming up with great combat, good companions, cool items, etc. (glares at Reflexive). This game had a lot of potential with the setting, voice acting, and SPECIAL. Which is why it's more like an up-and-coming studio's debut.

There's a patch coming out that will enable players to adjust combat speed up to 30% slower.


Counting the days till ToEE...

 

After 35 hours of gameplay I finished the game. Geez, how remarkably... LAME. What was all that fuss about being the "scion of Lionheart" about? Things really petered out after Barcelona.

Don't buy this game, guys.

 

My two bits, having played for a while.

Best feature, the art & animation. Worst feature, lack of access to the folowers.

As a TBC fan, I find the RTC in this game surprisingly easy to use & easy to get killed using. Where is that healing spell? Never mind, just relaod, you are dead. The pure mage thing works, the sneak expert works, the archer works. I cannot see that the pacifist would work unless he was allied with the Wielders & a sneak expert. Probably not even then.

Gripes. One quest, easily done with speech of 35, cannot be done with a sneak of 100+, enough to tiptoe past dungeon crawlers & wolves in the forest. Quite enough to get past a pair of bored guards one would think. Another is easy with that same high sneak, but not with a speech of 130. I guess that Trolls don't listen much.

Story, not as engaging as Arcanum. Historical setting, rocks. PC motivation, weaker than Arcanum. Combat, not as bad as you have heard, if you usualy run RTC, it should be easy for you. Style, you do need some thought, but a bit more hack & slash than Arcanum. Art, just great. (I cannot spell magnificant.)

Rating, a must have for the graphics junkie. Game players can wait for the price to drop. Value, I have over 40 hours in. Less than $1 / hour, that makes it cheaper than my digital cable subscription.

 

ummmmm, i dont believe most people run play in Real Time to much. if you do and there is some secret way to make it fun, or playable, please share it.

 

Still working on it, dying lots. maybe we should ask some Fallout I fans. Wasn't that one RTC only also?

It's single worst feature, lack of interaction with followers. Not only do you have to cary all your own gear, you can't use a healing potion on them, or see if they need one. One spell, fortunatly early, cheap, & fast, heals the party, & there is the Potion of Mass Healing. That's all folks.

 

You are kidding, aren't you? Please tell me you're kidding, and don't honestly believe that Fallout (or Fallout 2) for that matter was a real-time game.

 

Jar, belive it or not there are still a few things I don't know. Don't have Fallout I, & thought I remembered reading that it was RTC.

So far I am still dying lots, & don't have much time to use much more than healing magic in combat.

 

Really sorry I did not read more reviews before I bought the game. Oh yeah 'tard the south sucks. Love and kisses

 

I had to go deep underground. There was a pack of angry hillbillies after me. I mean you saw Deliverance didn't you Thakfully I was more Burt Reynolds than Ned Betty