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Review GameSpot reviews Lionheart

Spazmo

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Tags: Lionheart: Legacy of the Crusader

<a href="http://www.gamespot.com/pc">Gamespot PC</a> have put up their <a href=http://www.gamespot.com/pc/rpg/lionheart/review.html>review</a> of <a href=http://www.lionheart.blackisle.com>Lionheart</a>. Much like everyone else who's played it so far, they didn't like it very much and give it a disappointing <b>6.5/10</b>.
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<blockquote>Regardless of your character, the combat's definitely got some problems. The action feels hectic and jerky, and it mostly just involves you left-clicking on enemies to auto-attack them with your weapons and right-clicking on enemies to cast spells on them. Most enemies rush straight at you, fast, and the speed of the game isn't adjustable, so you'll often find yourself desperately trying to click on the moving targets to gain the initiative. Once one enemy falls dead, you'll need to quickly click on another. You can pause the action, and while you can't target foes or issue move orders in this state, you can quaff as many healing potions as you need to when the action's stopped. With all that said, aside from it being repetitive and not particularly interesting, the combat's biggest problem is its difficulty. Some of the battles in Lionheart are flat-out punishing, and in them, you'll just keep dying and dying until you luck out and land a series of critical hits, or something. At least the loading times after death are brief.</blockquote>
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Now there's nothing strictly wrong with an action RPG, but when you get the action wrong and there's hardly any RPG to back that up, you're left with some serious troubles and not much else.
 

triCritical

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Spazmo said:
Now there's nothing strictly wrong with an action RPG, but when you get the action wrong and there's hardly any RPG to back that up, you're left with some serious troubles and not much else.

This is what I found most surprising before the LH threads were deleted on the old IPLY boards. To justify a games merits by qualifying it as an action game should not mean that the action element itself not be held to some standard.
 

Crazy Tuvok

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I'm not really much of a fan of action RPGs; Div Div was about as much as I could take and eventually I couldn't even take that, and it had a lot more going for it then it sounds like LH does.
Don't think I'll be getting this even in the bargain bin, tho Barcelona sounds cool seems like the rest of the game is nothing like it.
Pity really - it really is a neat idea for a setting.
 

Jed

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That's the thing that boggles my mind: why waste such a seemingly intellectual setting on a game that was allegedly planned as an "action CRPG" from the start?
 

HanoverF

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MCA Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Codex USB, 2014 Divinity: Original Sin 2
LH starts with a lot more promise then DivDiv does, but it all falls apart around the second hour of play...
 

Saint_Proverbius

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XJEDX said:
That's the thing that boggles my mind: why waste such a seemingly intellectual setting on a game that was allegedly planned as an "action CRPG" from the start?

I think this is probably the big problem people are having with all the historical cameos. When you have a decent setting idea, and toss it in to something that's really a mediocre action game.. Well, it just makes everything seem like it comes off as a trick to fool you in to thinking it's better than it really is.
 

Psilon

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Demolition Man notwithstanding, it's like finding out you dressed up for a date at a posh restaurant only to get served Taco Bell food by a snooty waiter. The ambience starts out great, the decor is nice, but once the "meat" arrives everything falls apart. Unfortunately, right now virtually all RPGs are Taco Bell. Even if we're forced to get fast food for $50, can we at least get a mighty tasty Kahuna burger?
 

Greenskin13

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Psilon said:
Kahuna burger?

Kahuna burger! That's that Hawaiian burger joint, right?

Ahem, anyway. It really is sad when a game with a fantastic concept and setting decides to become a mindless action game. That really does depress me. A SPECIAL Action RPG could be done in any hackeneyed setting, but now the alternate history has been used. Or more accurately, misused.

Now the combat isn't even that good. Is this the end for the Crusade-alternahistory setting? That's too bad, I could have gotten into it.
 

Psilon

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It's like sci-fi. People say it doesn't sell because Harbinger tanked, when in fact Harbinger merely stank. The only reason fantasy has most of the popular and/or good RPGs is that everyone uses it. Of course everything's going to concentrate in sword-and-sorcery.

I just wish I could see some good new RPGs in a nonmagical setting.
 

Jed

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Psilon said:
I just wish I could see some good new RPGs in a nonmagical setting.
I couldn't agree more...

...but I could even stand fantasy more if it weren't all Tolkien-based. Blah. Monte Cook's new d20 setting, Arcana Unearthed is pretty interesting; not an elf nor an orc as far as the eye can see...
 

Crazy Tuvok

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If I were a doe-eyed optimist I'd say this might be a "live and learn" kinda experience for Reflexive; oth Star Trek Away Team should have been one as well.

Psilon: Demolition Man reference - nice.

The writing was on the wall for LH all along tho really. I just hoped that they were going to defy all my worst fears about the game. They did not.

I now look to Vogel or Troika for a good sci-fi RPG; Harbringer was *not* a RPG. It was just a crappy game.
 

Maelstrom

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That review says basically the same stuff as all the others...I still think i'll buy it and give it a shot. The demo wasn't THAT bad.
 

Spazmo

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Maelstrom said:
That review says basically the same stuff as all the others...I still think i'll buy it and give it a shot. The demo wasn't THAT bad.

Yes it was. And frankly, one wonders why you bother reading reviews in the first place if you're just going to go out and buy every damn game to see for yourself anyways.
 

Saint_Proverbius

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It's actually fairly hard to get a bad review if you're a big name company or a well known brand. Look at all the IWD and IWD2 reviews that were positive. Look at all the Fallout Tactics reviews that were positive, most likely because of the Fallout name. The fact the game has BIS's name on it, and it's getting poor reviews should tell you something.
 

Section8

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I think the fact that Interplay didn't take Lionheart to E3 also implies that they weren't willing to cough up the goods to get a few decent reviews. It's not necessarily the big name that gets the good reviews, it's the traffic that exclusive content from said big name game/company generates.
 

Voss

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I think they didn't take it to E3 because they were aware of how little it would impress, and they didn't want criticism from E3 hurting initial sales. As long as they could pretend everything was fine until release, they could hope to hit profit.
 

Maelstrom

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Spazmo - I read reviews so that I know what a game is like before I buy it, and to make sure its not a total piece of shit. From the reviews I have read of Lionheart, it is not a total piece of shit. It has annoying combat and lots of dungeons. I can deal with that. I liked the interface, character creation and setting of the demo. It wasn't brilliant - but what is nowadays?

But...thanks for your concern.
 

Sol Invictus

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That's no good reason to waste your money on something you -know- isn't going to make you happy. It'd be one thing if you actually enjoyed the demo but to go as far as to suggest that one should spend money on a mediore product merely because it's 'not as mediocre as some other products' is a poor excuse to throw your money away. There are better things, like hookers, which you can spend your 50 dollars on.

All reference to prostitutes aside, wouldn't you feel better if you spend your money on a product you felt worth purchasing, or perhaps even several products (from the Bargain Bin, due to their age) which would no doubt occupy your interest longer than any 'mediocre' game would?

Here's some products you should get your hands on, if you haven't already:
Planescape: Torment
Morrowind
Medieval: Total War
Shogun: Total War - Mongol Invasion
Fallout 1 & 2
Arcanum
Diablo II & Expansion Pack
Jagged Alliance 2 Gold pack

They all cost less than 50 dollars. With 50 dollars, you could probably buy 2-4 of those products together.
 

Saint_Proverbius

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Escape Velocity Nova.. I've been playing it since it came out, still not tired of it. Well, I've been playing the Polycon TC of it, but it's all good. Still haven't played the EVC and EVO TCs yet either - and it's $30, $20 cheaper than Lionheart.
 

EEVIAC

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Maelstrom - if you're looking to play a good RPG, you could try Gothic 2, if you haven't already. Its $50 AUD. Just a suggestion...
 

Astromarine

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Exitium, don't recommend Mongol Invasion. That's the expansion. The Original game + expansion is called Warlord Edition. That's what he should get
 

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