Lionheart. -or- I actually bought a game.

I went to Fry's today and bought Lionheart; The first game I've paid for since Arcanum. No wait... since Civ III. First impressions?

Well, I haven't installed it yet. But otherwise, first impressions are:

• Where the fuck are the games at? Seems they moved the PC Games aisle at the local Fry's since the last time I was there.
• Wow, game boxes sure are small now. I like it.
• Wow, Civ III is still like $40!
• Wow, some teenager took a break from playing Madden 2004 on the big-screen to turn around and call me a fag for saying "Wow!" over and over again in the PC Game aisle while looking at RPGs.
• Wow, your shoe's untied you little shit. Whoops elbow to the back of the head! You little turd...
  
  (Back in my car in the parking lot)
• So THIS is what a "manual" looks like. It's kinda nice having instructions.
• Wo... err... this game uses the Fallout stats and perk system. Neat.
• I feel kinda good for paying for a game. I'm gonna clear a space on my bookshelf and display the box proudly next to my Fallouts/Arcanum/Civ III boxes. Hopefully, the game will be in my drive and not on the shelf.
• Also, hopefully I won't regret buying this rather than Pirates of the Caribbean. Carribean. Carribbean.
• How the fuck do you spell Caribean?
• That dude waiting for my parking space is getting pretty pissed that I'm sitting in my car with the engine running reading my manual. Time to go, sorry for the wait bud.

So yeah, lame start to a thread. I'll be back with a better review once I've actually played it (here's hoping that I can get it to run on my computer).

If any one else has played the game or demo, feel free to contribute your thoughts, no spoilers please.

 

please give us your opinion on whether or not it is worth buying

 

Will do.

I just found out the game is real time combat only. Maybe I should have read something - anything - about the game before spending $40 on it... But I'm hoping for the best.

The idea behind the game was too good to pass up. Last time I said that, I ended up with Arcanum; A good, if flawed, game that didn't live up to my expectations. But then, I expected Fallout with magic, so my expectations were unreasonable. With this game, I just hope it entertains me for a while.

 

I too am eager to read your opinion of the game. Since it was released there's been a steadily growing tidal wave of negativity on the IPLY boards which has pretty much scared me off it. Then again, nobody there likes Arcanum either, and that's my favorite game. Ah well.

Mine too. Must be a conspiracy. What theme does your Fry's have? Mine's a retro 1950's alien invasion theme, with a flying saucer crashing through the roof, shootouts between aliens and army guys in the ailes, convertable cars to sit in instead of tables at the food court, Gort, giant radioactive ants and a spider hovering over the home appliance department, and, for some reason, Darth Vader. It's the best Fry's ever! :heart:

 

I've got this game pre-ordered, and I'll have it in about 10 days or so. I just want this game to be good...oh please, let them have made a good game!

All I know gameplay wise is that the demo is not like the final version.

 

I find it odd that you had the time to visit this board twice before even getting the game onto your hard drive or reading the instructions. I would ask you to please play a game for a bit before thinking of posting a review here. Prereviews are worse than the commercials they put in front of movies these days (or used to, in some places). And the suspense is KILLING me! The game reviews are making me think that this is Black Isle's sell out premier (as in, they "sold out").

This is the correct spelling of Caribbean.

 

I don't.

Missed the part where I said "I'll be back with a review once I've actually played it"?

Started playing the game last night. Stay tuned.

Thanks. Guess I got it right the first time.

 

Ignore him, Milo. Just stop posting here (or anywhere else) until you come back with a damn review!

I've heard bad things about the combat (frenetic was the word, I believe)and the screen resolution. Does the combat break the game? Is it as crazy as an Apprentice Bowman with Ellunym's Bow in real-time?

Well, Lionheart is supposed to be Fallout with magic (it was coded Fallout Fantasy early on, I believe).

What game reviews? Do you mean just the people who have played the game? I've been scouring the Net for an "official" review from gamesites but haven't found any.

 

The combat is very fast. You can get swarmed and killed before you know it. It's very, very quick. All the movements in this game seem kind of quick. People run around, your character runs everywhere. It takes a little getting used to, but I've found it okay so far. Not game breaking by any means; At least not yet.

The combat, though fast, is pretty simple. You click on an enemy and your character attacks it until either (a)you die, (b) it dies, or (c) you click on a different enemy. I haven't got heavily into magic yet (my character is a straight up unarmed/evader type), but I've heard the magic interface can be sort of clunky. Seems pretty simple to me, though. Right Click casts the spell you have loaded. You can put spells into your quickslots (you have 10) and use the number keys along the top of your keyboard to quickly load spells into your active slot. A little burdensome, I guess, but not too bad. If you want a spell that you haven't put into a quickslot, though you're fucked. You'd have to navigate through the skill trees while bad guys are charging you at insane speeds. Forget about it.

Other impressions:
-I'm not too sure how effective ranged attacks can be in this game. When I said the monsters move fast, they fucking move fast, man. They can close gaps in no time, and be right in your face. I haven't tried a ranged character yet, so take that for what it's worth. My main concern is that I'm not sure you can keep your distance and pick off enemies. You may be able to get off a few shots and then run, but I'm not sure your character will automatically keep attacking the enemy once you've stopped running. If so, fine. If not, then it would be a major pain in the ass having to click "attack" on the enemy again as it runs after you at 100mph.
-The interface is fucking huge. It takes up literally half of the screen. It doesn't bother me too badly, but it might bother others.
-The resolution (and hence your viewing distance) is limited. It's stuck at 800x600. Despite this, I find the graphics nice. The backgrounds, the buildings, all that is beautifully done. The character models, which I've read are 3d models rendered to 2d sprites and anti-aliased on the fly are just ok. They lack detail. The character animations could also use some work. They come off as stiff and akward. This combined with the lightspeed "walking" looks pretty funny. But, again, this is the sort of thing that I can overlook.
-The voice acting is pretty good, and there seems to be a lot of it.

It isn't Fallout with magic. There's a lot of similarities, but it's not Fallout. Some of the same perks are there, and the dialogue system and SPECIAL, etc... those will all be familiar, but it just doesn't have that same "it" that Fallout had. It's still been very enjoyable so far, but I'd advise not going into it expecting that Fallout magic. You'll be disappointed.

 

isnt there a gameplay speed option in the options or gameplay part of the menu interface?

if not i wouldnt be to worried, the problems you described will probably be fixed in the first patch.

that said, thanks for your analysis, i'm kind of excited about this game and it doesnt sound like the bugs and gameplay problems are that bad :thumbup:

 

I'm really disapointed with the game. The story and setting is vey nice, but it's probably the worse game engine I've ever seen.

Here are lots of user review about the game.

There is also a free demo available. I suggest you try it before buying the game.

 

Dude, please, for my sake, LEAVE HERE, you fucking pox. I swear, if you can't appreciate humor, do everybody a favor, and don't post anything.

Milo, what about the story, the setting? And, how do you feel about the game now that the initial "Dude this game RAWKS, no...no wait a minute, this game sucks" indecisiveness has passed?

 

Yeah, Milo that's more like it. Thanks!

Based on what you say.. right now I think I might hold off getting the game, at least until a patch comes out. But then ToEE seems for far away I don't know if I can stand the wait... It seems weird that the designers didn't realize how crazy the combat speed is (I checked your link Luvian, and that was the main gripe of most players - that's why I asked if it was game-breaking).

Then again, I don't play games just for the combat, or I wouldn't have bought Arcanum. Echoing retard, how's the setting so far Milo? Is it as immersive as Arcanum? Believable? The storyline?

I heard that the demo really really puts you off the game, so I think I'll pass on that.

Er... that sounds remarkably like Diablo. Forgive me for that dirty word. You said the enemies move really fast, how bout the actual combat animations? Do you hack and hack even when you're using a rapier like in Arcanum, or do you dance around doing cool stuff like in Neverwinter?

And someone with the game try out the magic system... wanna see how magic in the 15th century would look like...

I find it great for all of us

 

Sounds a lot like a revamped Nox.

 

The demo is the first chapter of the game, it is about as big as the Arcanum demo. If you think the Lionheart demo suck, then you think the game suck.

As for the setting, it's awesome. You get to choose your Attributes just like in fallout, there are new feats and skills. There is magic too.

You can play as one of 4 races. Human, Demonic, Sylvain, and Beastguy (forgot the real name). Each have their strength and weakness.

You also get to choose which is your guardian spirit. THe demonic, holy, or animalist one. They have an interesting personality and are voice acted.

If you are one of the magical race, most normal people won't like you, as you can expect during the crusade and the inquisition.

The problem come from the game engine. It SUCK. The combats are horrible. Monsters move very fast are are very small. It take about 1 second for an ennemies to cross the screen, so forget about using magic or missile weapons. All you really do is equip a melee weapon and keep clicking, just like in Diablo I. (not like diablo II, at least in that game you get to use skills while fighting).

The interface is split in multiple "akward" screens, and there is no central character sheet.

You get no control over your enchmen. You can't access their inventory, you can't see their character' sheet. You can do nothing, they are basically monsters that follow you around and kill stuff.

The inventory suck. You can't organise your items. It's an arcanum style inventory, with little squares, and items taking up a number of squares, but you can't move items around, they stay in theorder you picked them up, even if there is wasted space between them. They also don't stack. When you wantto sell or buy items, you must do them one at a time, even if you are trying to buy 20 potions, of sell 10 short swords.

Those are only some of the things that are wrong about this game. It has a awesomestory and setting, but the worse engine. If it was made with an updated Fallout engine, or even the Infinity Engine, I'd be worshipping this game right now, but as it is, it suck.

And the devs keep posting on the official forum that they don't intend to make a patch to fix those things, they intended the game like that and want it to stay that way.

Hopefully then will patch the sounds and musics bugs.

Edit: The animations SUCK. I think one of the guys from the link I posted earlier talk about them.

By the way, I know I made lots of typo, but it's a long post, and I really don't want to double check it.

 

and on the other hand, why do i need to buy a silly old diablo, fallout, backdoor man porn hybrid game if i just stayed up all night playing fallout 2?

 

Wait... wait.. where did you see porn?

 

Well, I won'r be getting this game for a while anyway, since it's not out in Britain until 29 August, but then, the ToEE is out on the 1 September, so I guess I'll be going for the latter instead. Or maybe both.