Thus begins your journey as the Summoner. Is this a journey that you will enjoy, or should your path take you elsewhere? Read on...

PC developer Volition - best remembered for the excellent Descent and Descent:Freespace games bring their expertise to the PS2, shifting their emphasis away from the stars, and into the stuff of sorcery and prophecy.

Summoner at it's most basic is a beat-em-up role playing game with heavy emphasis on quests and storyline. The world created within it is large and perhaps even daunting to view - the cities themselves are beyond the expectations of most, filled with detailed marketplaces, alleyways, dead ends, temples and sewers. Living within this realm are hundreds of people - each you can interact with. Most have nothing important to say but it is pleasing to see that they do not murmur the same three lines that the next person does. Each person offers up a unique tale or question, making Summoner's populated areas more personal and solid. This is great to see and important in a game of this type where interaction with people is as important as battling demons and elementals.

While there are some truly splendid locations to view unfortunately the camera angles on offer deny you the pleasure of viewing them. Locked in a 'high-behind' isometric view players are always given a view of the immediate area around them. The camera may be swivelled 360 degrees and zoomed in or out, but that is all. This can become a problem when in combat, or when hunting for enemies. It is difficult to see enemies from afar as the viewpoint will not allow you to do that. Having a free-roaming camera control ala Tomb Raider would have helped in this respect well.

Early in development Volition released details explaining that they had overcome the much maligned 'aliasing' problem - where the outlines of objects on-screen would appear to be 'jaggie' or 'shimmer'. For the most part they have succeeded, but not without some sacrifice. Gamers will note that the graphics are indeed quite smooth, crisp and detailed, but with some exploration within the towns draw distance becomes very noticeable. Castle walls disappear, and reappear with calm regularity. Thankfully this draw-in is quite fair off and does not pose a problem for navigating the vast cityscapes - merely distracting. Another noticeable weakness is the drop in frame rate - which at times can be extreme. For the most part drops are noticed in towns where the camera is far off and many people are seen, but in combat if a gamer is too quick and attempts to summon a monster to assist, then at times the PS2 almost comes to a halt while attempting to load that data. This is a rare occurrence thankfully and for the most part does not detract from the gameplay.