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BLACK ISLE STUDIOS HAVE a wonderful success rate with their RPG games and their new game Lionheart looks like it will represent another quantum leap in RPG design.

Like all good RPG's this game has a good back story. In this instance they have out done themselve

"The years 1188 to 1192, King Richard of England embarked on a holy mission against the unholy infidels, an undertaking known as the Third Crusade. Toward the end of this time, he felt his position had become strong enough to demand tribute. When the opposing leader, Saladin, refused to pay, one of Richard's advisors suggested gathering several relics in order to perform a divine ritual blessing his forces and cursing the enemy. Unfortunately, bringing them together caused a rift in the fabric of reality. The forces of magic surged through along with spiritkind, demons and other unnatural beings. Setting aside their differences, the two leaders fought their way to the portal and sealed it. Nonetheless, the few hours it was open, a time now known as the Disjunction, allowed the arrival of powers that changed history forever."

This use of an alternative history has allowed the producers to create a world where magic and religion are opposed. This dark age sees the Inquisition seeking out the purveyors of magic and the unnatural beings spawned by the disjunction. This interesting mix of real world history and fantasy takes players on a familiar journey through Europe where it's inhabitants are nothing but familiar. There are some geographical changes where most of France and portion of Britain have sunk into the sea as a result of a huge earthquake. The English that are left however are more tolerant to the use of magic (it's the mushrooms I tell you - Ed)

The game plays over some 100+ gorgeous 2D maps that evoke a time of darkness and struggle. The detail on some of the maps is absolutely stunning and as we played the demo we often found ourselves exploring the maps just to admire the graphics.

In all good RPG games the development choices and options open to players to develop their character is a key to a games success. Lionheart has a huge myriad of options both from the perspective of character profession and the variation of skills. You can chose to pour points into magic and take the dangerous route of going against the church or the more pious route of a Knight Templar. There is no class system as such but rather the points allocation you make will determine the type of character you develop, The options and skill system owes much to previous games such as Fallout 1 and 2. There is not arbitrary determination of your characters alignment but rather your actions will determine how you are perceived by others.

You will be able to chose various races of course including: -

Pureblood – untainted by the effects of the disjunction

Demokin – Their horns are a dead give away

Feralkin – More beast than human

Sylvant – Elemental of spirit

Each have specific racial traits and abilities that again will provide players with a host of different character build strategies. Already the forums are fill of differing opinions of what will be the most effective build however given that quests and missions have multiple ways in which they can be completed there is likely to be no one dominating character.

Combat is handled much in the same vein as Diablo and with heaps (over 50) of differing monsters to challenge players and some interesting loot to find this game is one that will have a lot of replay value.

The full feature list is as follows: -

• Incredible story taking place on a historical divergent Earth during what should be the renaissance after a mystical cataclysm has occurred.
• SPECIAL rules system (from Fallout 1 & 2) adapted to a real-time fantasy setting - including 30 skills, 40 perks, and 15 traits.
• Classless system allows the user to customize their character however they want as they advance to as high as 60th level.
• Eight major areas of the world contain over 80 levels that range from pure story and dialogue areas to pure combat challenges.
• Fast paced combat in a rich and detailed world where dialogue interaction and story play equally large roles.
• Characters in the world that can join your party and fight for and with you.
• Cooperative multi-player allows as many as four friends to play through the single player game.
• A random item generator allows the player to find literally thousands of different weapons and items.
• Beautiful 2D rendered backgrounds with 3D characters allows for maximum beauty and frame rate.
• Four different player races.
• Over fifty enemies to challenge your combat and spell-casting abilities.
• Over thirty spells that evolve and grow with as your characters' abilities increase.
• Simple and intuitive game play with a clean interface.

NOTE: The game has just been released in New Zealand - check back soon for our full review.

Show me the screenshots!

Check out the Official Site.