Games like this always make me wonder "
what went wrong?"
In theory this could have been an early action RPG/FPS hybrid, somewhere between Hexen and Ultima Underworld and remembered fondly nowadays. There was clearly
some effort put into making it, with all the animations, voice acting, monster variety and (IIRC) 24 large levels where even from the first level you
have to use the automap to orient yourself. There is inventory management, spell lists, being able to equip different armor pieces in various body parts, different melee and ranged weapons (magic or not), etc, the core elements were
there in some form.
But in practice it all feels so janky, the speed is all over the place even on slow hardware and your immediate threat isn't the enemies but the controls and the
very narrow FOV. That the first level has ice floor that slides you around before you even get to familiarize yourself with the - almost broken - controls doesn't help it at all. This weird mix of effort and lack of effort is demonstrated perfectly when you die: on one hand they put the effort to record a laugh track (for the big bad enemy) with several variations, on the other hand after dying and looking upwards you can often just keep turning and walk around while the screen fades out.
I've read some comments from people who played the 3DO version saying they spent a lot of time with the game, so i wonder if it is the PC version that was bad. In which case i wonder if the GOG release will be the PC version or they'll bundle the 3DO version with some emulator.
Though really the best would be to do a Nightdive-like remaster/rework and try to fix the engine with better controls, FOV options and smooth framerate.
