bryce777
Erudite
First off, the game is buggy. Not quite TOEE buggy, but at least as buggy as fallout 2 and probably more. It needs a patch, and I am guessing it'll take 6 months to get a decent patch going that addresses the bulk of the issues, and longer to test it.
Second, it is good. Surprisingly good. I am no graphics whore, but I was pleasantly surprised by how good it looks. For its paradigm, of course. Some of the artwork itself is kind of goofy, but overall I was surprised at how high quality it was - state of the art...for 1991 at least.
The game system. It is VERY reminescent of wizardry 7. if anyhing, I think it borrows too much, but it is still pretty good, and I enjoyed multiclassing a lot. There are also tons of items, and lots of very rare items from what I have gathered talking to other beta testers - I have played through the game quite a few times now and there are lots of neat items I have only seen in one game. Also, there are lots of choices where you can only pick one skill or one item to learn/obtain. I thought this was a nice touch.
The story. Here is where the fun is. If I did not know about Cleve's proclivity towards racism, I would not think anything of it except that sometimes the writing is bombastic and over the top...and in other places just plain ludicrous. Overall the writing is not too bad, though. The story focuses rather heavily on the Star Child. The Star Child is the last vestige of the Old Race. As you go through the game, you learn about a great war between the Old Race and the animal-like races that are like half man half dog, etc. Before the Star Child is found, you need to find and prepare an Old Race base and its robotic defenses (til then the game was purely magic based) to fight off the hordes of evil halfhuman races(especially the half gorillas who are the most vile of them all!!!). They don't come out and say halfhuman, but that's basically what it is. Then, you have a bunch of choices, but the 'good' choice is you bring the Star Child back and he will lead the way into a new and glorious future, and will give your characters superhuman Old Race powers by turning them into full humans (again it doesn't say this but this is what's implied).
So, overall it is an 8 as for playing it, and a 10/10 for humor value.
Second, it is good. Surprisingly good. I am no graphics whore, but I was pleasantly surprised by how good it looks. For its paradigm, of course. Some of the artwork itself is kind of goofy, but overall I was surprised at how high quality it was - state of the art...for 1991 at least.
The game system. It is VERY reminescent of wizardry 7. if anyhing, I think it borrows too much, but it is still pretty good, and I enjoyed multiclassing a lot. There are also tons of items, and lots of very rare items from what I have gathered talking to other beta testers - I have played through the game quite a few times now and there are lots of neat items I have only seen in one game. Also, there are lots of choices where you can only pick one skill or one item to learn/obtain. I thought this was a nice touch.
The story. Here is where the fun is. If I did not know about Cleve's proclivity towards racism, I would not think anything of it except that sometimes the writing is bombastic and over the top...and in other places just plain ludicrous. Overall the writing is not too bad, though. The story focuses rather heavily on the Star Child. The Star Child is the last vestige of the Old Race. As you go through the game, you learn about a great war between the Old Race and the animal-like races that are like half man half dog, etc. Before the Star Child is found, you need to find and prepare an Old Race base and its robotic defenses (til then the game was purely magic based) to fight off the hordes of evil halfhuman races(especially the half gorillas who are the most vile of them all!!!). They don't come out and say halfhuman, but that's basically what it is. Then, you have a bunch of choices, but the 'good' choice is you bring the Star Child back and he will lead the way into a new and glorious future, and will give your characters superhuman Old Race powers by turning them into full humans (again it doesn't say this but this is what's implied).
So, overall it is an 8 as for playing it, and a 10/10 for humor value.