Minimum System Requirements (recommended) :
Windows 95
Pentium PC 100 Mhz (166 Mhz)
16Mb RAM (32Mb RAM)
Quad-speed CD-ROM Drive
DirectX 5.0 (included on CD)
120Mb Hard Drive space (300 or 560 Mb)
100% Microsoft Mouse or compatible
DirectX-certified Sound/Video cards
Die By The Sword
Playing the Game
There are different ways to play this game :
Tutorial
This helps you get used to the control system and to learn the fighting
techniques involved without the pressure of combat and with text and verbal
instruction throughout.
Arena
This allows you to hone your skills since you can choose which type of opponent
- and how many of them at once - you wish to fight against, as well as choosing
one of several arenas to fight in. It also gives you another chance to hack the
body parts of your enemies. In addition to fighting as Enric, you can also
choose to fight as one of the enemies themselves.
Tournament
This is an extension of the arena idea. Level upon level of bad guys and
different arenas await you, each of which is more challenging than the last
and there are some which seem downright impossible when you get a mix of orcs
and kobolds, both of which require different techniques to be killed. This
isn't very easy when they're all coming at you at once.
This and the arena part of the game reminds me of a Virtua Fighter -type
game, but with swords, which adds an extra element to the overall package. If
you ever get stuck during the Quest and want a breather from it, this serves
as the perfect alternative.
Quest
And so to the main game itself. Beginning in a series of caves, you'll go
through each scenario which contains kobolds initially but soon progresses to
more evil characters, a brief list of which follows :
Custom Moves
Graphics, Sound and Playability
I played this game with a 3Dfx card and the look of the characters and
surroundings cannot be faulted. Even as you walk along to your next battle,
various shrubbery and plants come into close-up view with the camera following
Enric, since the game is played in third-person view. In a lot of other games,
you'd expect such items to be sparsely detailed as they are rarely seen in
close-up. However, this is not the case here as they appear just as detailed
in either case.
If I had a gripe though, it's that the camera viewing Enric in third-person
sometimes has to swing about more than you'd like as more enemies come into
view. As a result, sometimes battles will be viewed from behind the enemy rather
than Enric, all of which does take a bit of getting used to, hence the slightly
lower score for playability.
For the sound, there's plenty to shout about as battles provide some meaty
thumps as you wave your sword about in the vicinity of the enemy. As you fight
against some higher-level characters, if you're winning Enric will shout in
Brian Blessed-like tones, "You fight like a Kobold!", but if you're losing
badly, after another swipe (or if you're unfortunate enough to lose a limb!),
he'll similarly-shout "Bloody hell!"
The background music which plays from the CD is also excellent, providing the
perfect atmosphere, sometimes with quiet ambience and at other times building
into a crescendo as you engage in battle. Finally, another sound worth repeating
is the bone-crunching (literally) sound as you hack a corpse into pieces, just
for fun of course (!)
Overall
The Quest game can get a bit repetitive as you go from scene to scene killing
more and more of the same enemies and is also quite hard if not played on the
easiest skill level (Squire). Hence the tournament section lengthens the
interest in the game.
Overall, the Quest game came across initially as a medieval Tomb Raider
with swords but the more I played it, the more it reminded me of a 3D version
of an old ZX Spectrum classic Fist II , the sequel to the fighting hit
Way Of The Exploding Fist , in which you progressed from one scene to
the next battling a series of enemies along the way.
GRAPHICS : ****
SOUND EFFECTS AND MUSIC : ****
PLAYABILITY : ***
ORIGINALITY : ****
ENJOYMENT : ***
-------------------------------
OVERALL : ***½
If you're after some more info on Interplay's games, check out the official
Website at
www.interplay.com
Review copyright © Dominic Robinson, 1998.
[Up to the top of this page]
Amazon.co.uk Widgets
DVDfever .co.uk - Est. February 25th 2000
As of April 2009, Blu-rays and DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TH-37PX80B
37" Plasma TV with a Sony BDP-1500 Blu-ray player and played through a Yamaha DSP-AX820 amplifier.
PC games reviewed by the editor are on:
