Review Lionheart pulped by VideoGamesLife

[Saint_Proverbius]

Tags: Lionheart: Legacy of the Crusader

<A href="http://www.videogameslife.com/">VideoGamesLife</A> has done their <a href="http://www.videogameslife.com/cgi-bin/vglarticle.asp?id=1308&formatid=pc">review</a> of <A href="http://lionheart.blackisle.com">Lionheart</a>, spanking it down with a <b>55/100</b> rating, giving it low marks in every area but sound. Here's a clip of it:
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<blockquote>An annoying quirk of the SPECIAL engine during the Fallout games was the limited interaction with NPC's that had joined your crusade. Only weapons and armour could be given but they had their own minds when it came to combat, which lead to them accidentally shooting you in the back. Unfortunately Lionheart takes a step backwards in this respect as communication is non-existent, equipment cannot be exchanged and they lack any sense of self-preservation. Coupled with real-time battles this usually leads to party members running around like a 3 year old child let loose in the world for the first time, only to wander off aimlessly and get splattered by a three ton truck or in this case, a tribe of goblins. This could've been partly forgiven if the NPC's had a fair amount of hit points to counter the lack of control over them but very few are of any use in this department. Nearly all potential party members encountered in Barcelona just won't survive past the half-way stage. Better equipped and stronger NPC's can be recruited later on but are nothing more than mindless drones with more hit points. Considering the advances Baldur's Gate 2 flaunted in terms of party intelligence several years ago, it beggars belief anyone could produce such pathetic AI like this.</blockquote>
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Ugh.. Must I even point out what's wrong with the first sentence there?
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Spotted this at <A href="http://www.bluesnews.com">Blue's News</a>.
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[EEVIAC]

Do many people even use NPC's in Fallout? I can honestly say that in a dozen replays of FO I've only ever adventured with Ian twice. Still, Ian has a lot of character. Forgoing the convention that states that RPG characters can be made interesting by giving them an unusual name, he stands out merely because he's Ian. He's essentially just some guy, like the Vault Dweller is, like almost everyone in the game is.

And why does everyone assume that Ian is accidentally shooting you in the back? There the two are, faced against one remaining mole rat. The Vault Dweller steps forward to engage the beast in melee combat. He lands a few good hits to the mole rat's eyes, blinding it, leaving it scratching helplessly at nothing. Ian lines up a shot with his SMG, a bead of sweat rolls down his head and he thinks to himself that he'd really like a cola and that even though his partner has a bunch of them that he doesn't drink or sell, he's never gotten one no matter how parched and tired he's been. His hand accidentally fires a volley of full auto at the encounter, one bullet shattering the head of the rat, the others ripping into the VD's leather armour.

"Watch it, you Chuck Cuevas!" screams the Vault Dweller.

"Sorry mate," says Ian appologetically, "won't happen again."

"No, it won't happen again," thinks Ian. "Next time it'll be a knife in the throat." He watches the Vault Dweller stoop down to the Mole Rat carcass, looking for loot, probably more colas. "No one calls me Chuck Cuevas - no one. And soon, very soon, the sodas will be mine..."

 

[Voss]

:D

 

[taks]

i'm just curious when the SPECIAL rulez system became an engine?

taks

 

[Saint_Proverbius]

I think the writer of the review thinks that Lionheart uses the Fallout engine from 1997.

 

[Seven]

BIS does like to reuse old technology.

 

[Psilon]

Yeah, but they prefer to pay for others' old technology. See LithTech, Descent, and the Infinity Engine. Contrast the two games made with Fallout's engine.

 

[Seven]

Yeah, but they prefer to pay for others' old technology. See LithTech, Descent, and the Infinity Engine. Contrast the two games made with Fallout's engine.

"Contrast", that's a big word in'nit? Lith Tech, well who could have seen that coming. I mean, why use the Lith Tech? It was an ass-ugly engine, it didn't do much, it wasn't designed for SPECIAL to begin with, so with retrofit they might as well of just made a new engine that was more competative. BTW, I liked the Descent engine (even with its flaws).

 

[Saint_Proverbius]

LithTech isn't a bad engine, it's just that TORN was ugly as hell because the BIS guys had no experience with 3D games. There are several games made with Lithtech that actually look pretty nice.

 

[Diogo Ribeiro]

Considering the advances Baldur's Gate 2 flaunted in terms of party intelligence several years ago, it beggars belief anyone could produce such pathetic AI like this.

Yes i'd forgotten the staggering ability they had to just stand there and be hit, even with a script assigned to them. And between assigning a script and choosing behaviouristic patterns for combat isn't all that different. I'd much rather be hit in the back by my party members in FO, at least i know they're trying to hit something, unlike BG2.

Speaking of pathetic AI, why do my party members in FO automatically switch to more powerful gear when its in their inventory, and i have to play dress up with my party NPCs in BG2?

Why do these people make claims like these if they haven't played the games? *sighs*

 

[Psilon]

Yeah, I agree. The Descent engine was good... for a Descent game. It's not really suitable for a DTU-style game. I would have liked to see Outrage's Fusion Engine used for something in addition to Descent 3, though.

As for LithTech, look at the NOLF games for examples of what the engine can do.

 

[Saint_Proverbius]

I'm rather amazed that Interplay didn't see the opportunity of the Fusion Engine, because it was a damned fantastic engine which rivalled all the other engines out there at the time. It supported every API, did bumpmapping, had both terrain and indoor engines, and so forth. They could have easily used it in a few other titles and saved a heap of money.