I heard some good things about this game, and the price for it was $20, new.  So, I bought it and was rather excited to play this old style RPG.  What I experienced instead of old school, was the feeling of a new school completed class project.  The game, although worth the $20, did not give a thrill of nostalgia.  In fact, it had less to offer than the late 90's RPG with a little better graphics.

To make this game out to be a wasteland would be unfair.  It has a simple and interesting premise.  You get taken along a journey that you can move in real time, but combat reverts to turn based.  It is first person for traveling and talking, while going third person for fighting. 

It does separate itself a little from the classic RPG.  The combat system has no hexagons in it whatsoever.  It feels more like a colonial battle with two lines drawn.  One line shoots, and then fills their muskets while the other line takes its turn.  Its fun for a little bit, but grows old fast.  There just aren't enough ways to strategize.  You pretty much just fight the same way each time, and so does the game's AI.  Why would you either side do it any other way?

I believe fighting is what will turn most off to this game.  Again, it's not terrible.  However, the pieces are not enough to make a whole.  You can (and need to) play rope a dope too often, which makes battles too long at a stalemate type atmosphere.  They even bookend the battle with extremely similar beginning and ending animations, every time.  It makes you want to avoid all battles all together at points in the game, which is not a bad idea if you could.

The game builds itself on more than fighting.  In fact, you might surmise that it is more of an economy game where fighting just lets you use your money.  In this regard, it is more of a true RPG and probably the game's biggest selling point.  You can essentially make as much money as you want as long as you put the time into it and understand how and who to trade with.  It does get a little tedious, but there is a portion of the gamer population which would love this.

The downside, besides being tedious, is the actual the act of buying and selling.  When you are buying from someone, there is no GUI which allows you to sell at the same time, and vice versa for the selling.  You also don't get to look at your inventory when you do sell, so you can't even compare the shield you have with the one that you want to buy.  This makes no sense to a game that put effort into its financial system.

The GUI is a big issue through the game.  It is a bit incomplete and seems to have been made by a novice.  Even the shell menu is laborious.  You have to rotate a round menu by arrow clicking just to get to a close button ...every time.  Yum.  Why not just make an ever-present close button?  Flash was invented over a decade ago.  The entrance to and from the game are extra long because of this system, and it doesn't appear to be for any reason like loading times.  They just want to show you their logo each time you load your game, Iguess.

Getting back to the economy, and off the rant, you do see some other RPGish elements built off the model.  You have to eat, which cost money, and therefore you have to find a way to make more than you eat in money.  You have to sleep, or be no good in battle (similar to eating).  Although, this is pushed more by night visibility.  So, you have many small elements of a good game here.

You even have the neat old school party crashers.  You pick up people along the way and put them into your party.  You also lose people along the way.  That adds a fresh breath in some of the more drawn out parts.

There's not much better in the way of plot.  It is a little RPG-lite in the way of character development.  The storyline seems to make sense to the people who made it but comes off convoluted to much of the rest of us.  It even has a totally idiotic non-ending.  The ending stinks, and they also seem want to set up the sequel.  Yeah, I don't think so. 

Like I was saying before, this seems like someone school project, or maybe they just ran out of money 1/3rd of the way through the development stage.  Shall I give more examples?  You've already made it this far in the review.  Why not?  Most have already skimmed past this part and are about to click on another link. 

There are some bare spots and some basic errors in logic.  An example of the bare spots is the music and sound.  It sounds somewhat okay in parts, but for the most part it isn't up to snuff of pretty much all modern games.  I won't take off for this because at least it's a good try, but music aficionados will be let down. 

Errors aren't terribly common but are frustrating when run across.  They force you into an arena gauntlet fight with no escape, but they don't gauge if you can win any of the battles.  You're stuck with no way of completing the gauntlet.  I had to go back 3 saves past and build up better armor and stats.  If I hadn't saved so much, I would have quit.

They also make you find this part of a mythical Drydomax after completing a part of the story.  The only problem is that they don't give you a hint where it is.  It's out there.  Go find it.  Needle in a haystack time. It ends up being in a part of the map that wasn't previously there.  That makes sense ...?

The manual is weak, too.  In fact, they use the old excuse that you are meant to learn through playing.  It's more like trial and error with a helping of "We never got around to that."

Graphics people won't be impressed either.  They actually have great looking ice, but most of the rest isn't up to modern or 5-year old standards.  It might be better than 90's graphics as far as polish.  I'm not so sure as far as art design. 

Wow, I'm really hammering this poor game now.  Time to say something nice.  Hmm .... Oh, it does use unique plotting that forgoes a fog of war for an updating map.  How's that?

I guess overall, I sound harsher than I should.  There is a good basis of a game here, and I'm sure some people love it.  It just lacks a professional touch.  I've always been leery of buying Strategy First games, because they have such a mixed bag of quality.  This one is about 2/5ths from the bottom.

Recommended: No