Review Codex Reviews Seal of Evil

[Sol Invictus]

Tags: Object Software; Seal of Evil

We’ve all been waiting for the next fun RPG to load up and play to our hearts content on our computers. Needless to say, it’s been a long time coming. In my hands, I hold a copy of Object Software’s latest foray into the RPG genre, Seal of Evil. Does Seal of Evil fulfill the role of the much needed boost of life to a currently lifeless RPG playfield? <a href=http://www.rpgcodex.com/content.php?id=116>Read on and find out</a>.

 

[Naked_Lunch]

Good review, I think I'm gonna pick this one up.
BTW, is there a way you can turn off the voice acting?

 

[Sol Invictus]

Yeah.

 

[Naked_Lunch]

Thanks, I'm definitely picking it up, then.

 

[undead dolphin hacker]

What's the cheapest I can import this game to the US for?

 

[Sol Invictus]

You can try Australia or England. Amazon.co.uk might have it, I'm not sure. You can probably import it direct from GMX.

 

[undead dolphin hacker]

Bah, amazon.co.uk has it for ~$15, but they won't ship to the US.

The cheapest I can find is $40 at GoGamer.com.

 

[Sol Invictus]

I think that's 15 pounds.

 

[Fez]

He's converted the price to dollars, Ex. It is only £7.96 on amazon.co.uk. Works out at USD $15.02. You'll have to pay delivery on that though, but only within the UK I think.

 

[Otaku_Hanzo]

I for one want this game. Bad voice acting aside, Prince Of Qin plain rocked. This one sounds even better.

 

[Fez]

Prince of Qin was good, a lot of folk just didn't give it a chance, I don't know if it is just because of the theme, perhaps they'd have liked it more if it was medieval europe instead, but I thought it was great. The magazines were harsh reviewing it and this game too. At least they tried something other than a LOTR rip-off.

 

[Expresso]

Looks pretty good. I placed an order at play.com for 15.99€. Play.com has free delivery to most European countries, but unfortunately they don't deliver to US.

 

[Elwro]

Or Poland. I really wanted to try Prince of Qin, but it didn't get released in my country...

 

[Ekodas]

Hello all.

I got a copy of SoE two weeks ago. At first, the game wasn't that bad (reminded me of Baldur's Gate, with less freedom - yes, that doesn't leave much freedom at all), but eventually I ended up quite disappointed.

As pointed in the review, the game is linear ; but the side quests fail to break this linear feeling. Basically, the only kind of choice given for a side quest is : do it or not. But once you accept a quest, there's only one way to go. The dialog options (if you may call it dialog 'options') are quite meaningless. Consider yourself lucky if you can choose between "What is your problem?" and "Goodbye".
Storytelling is also awkward : from time to time, the characters in your fellowship will stop to chat for a while or you'll have a quite long cut-scene (with the in-game engine) à la Evil Twin. Well, I love games with deep and complex stories, but during these little chat you hardly feel involved : just sigh and let the NPCs chat...

Tactical combat : could have been great. Problem is, the monsters will eventually swarm à la Diablo II : since you can't hack and slash, at the end you'll spend 1+ hour to cross a small zone. Things get really ugly past the Beastmen village (the last decent zone in-game) : the game get really combat heavy starting from here, and you'll spend about 10 hours grinding through 6-7 maps. Worse : you'll have to fight the same boss again and again and again. I almost popped a vein when it happened. I mean, you just kill a boss on map Z, and guess who's waiting for you on the next map ? Good ol' "YouCan'tKillMeCuzI'mAGod".

Overall, because of its flaws, SoE reminded me of Lionheart.

 

[undead dolphin hacker]

Eh, I'll wait til it drops under $40 in the states. I've still got Geneforge 2 and Blades of Avernum to catch up with.

 

[Kamaz]

What says Ekodas does not sound very good. Lionheart has become an ethalon for fucked up RPGs with good beginning but arse sucking/combat heavy second part of the game. So, has nayone else besides Exitium and Ekodas played this game to comment on?

 

[Sol Invictus]

You must be on crack, Kamaz. Yesterday you told me you hated the setting of Seal of Evil since all you like is post-apoc or dark medieval fantasy. So why do you care? Go play with your boofed swords, Kamaz.

For the record, no, it's not like Lionheart at all. The amount of combat is similar to its predecessor Prince of Qin. If you liked that game, you'll have no problem liking this one.

 

[Kamaz]

I am on no crack, Rex, yes I hate the setting, but if the game is worth it? Like I hate fantasy but at least try to play Torment. Or BladursGate. Or Lionheart for that matter. Troika's Vampire also is fine example, since I really hate that setting, but the game I liked very much. So.

 

[Sol Invictus]

Yes, it is worth it. It's not even selling at full price anymore, 15 Euro is a very low price to pay for a good game. If you were looking at a 49.95 Euro price, then maybe you would have second thoughts, but as it is, it's definitely worth it.

 

[HanoverF]

Will there be a second review when Ex decides he hates the game, and everyone involved in making it should be killed?

 

[Diogo Ribeiro]

Will there be a second review when Ex decides he hates the game, and everyone involved in making it should be killed?

Yes, but likely you'll just have to wait until it's that time of the month again for him.

 

[Volourn]

Well written review. Maybe even the best yet on the 'Codex. That said, ironically enough, it failed in making me want to play the game. Ha.


R00fles! @ Hanover and Role-player!

 

[Sol Invictus]

*snip*

If you have no reasonable comments to contribute other than your usual derogatory spiel, might I suggest the door?

Your posts contribute little to nothing, other than distracting from the thread. Try sticking to the topic. If it's too difficult, don't participate.

 

[Jennifer]

so how's the translation Rex? (didn't RTFA) i remember you saying in #fallout that the voice acting is much improved. i might just try it out since that was pretty much what killed prince of qin for me.

i actually like the qin-era setting, so it oughta be neato completo. they really need to make more cRPGs based on semi-historical, semi-mythological settings like this. lord knows there's plenty of them to choose from, and they're a hell of a lot more interesting than generic fantasy trash

 

[Sol Invictus]

The translation's perfect but the voice acting is horrible. That's just the GMX version for England, though. The Australian, International and American versions will feature the original VO in Chinese. Prince of Qin's translation was pretty bad. Readable, but bad.

SOE's got proper use of English/American expressions and the like, since the translators were English educated and it was done in Taiwan and not in China.