Knights in shining armor, imposing castles, heretics and the inquisition, everything you would expect from the Middle Ages... and the occasional hero running around in weird armor, brandishing his brand new rocket launcher. Some would say that an RPG that mixes good old fashioned swords with high tech elements like laser guns is a killer combination that is sure to attract a large number of fans, while others remain skeptical. Let`s see if "Hard to be a God" is indeed a revolution for RPG games everywhere, like it was advertised to be.
"Hard to be a God" proved to be one of the worst gaming experiences I`ve ever had. At first, grinding my teeth, I decided to give the game a chance to the very end, but unfortunately the game didn`t give me one. When, near the end, four recent saves (including the quick save and the auto save) were inexplicably corrupted and crashed my game every time I tried to load them, I proceeded with uninstalling the game, feeling great relief in the process.
My name is Bond. James Bond. Oh, wait, it`s not, although it very well could be. Your character is a medieval secret agent of sorts, with a somewhat unclear mission ahead of him. After graduating (read this as "completing the tutorial") you will be sent to Arkanar to complete your assignment. Of course this will mean that you will have to solve a huge number of dumb quests to progress the story. They vary from the simple "take this and deliver it to X" quests, "rescue my children from the woods" quests, or "find out who the superior beings from a different planet located in a parallel universe are" quests. Since these quests provide about 1000 times more experience than killing a monster (no, I`m not exaggerating) it is advisable that you complete as many of them as you can.
While trying to complete the tutorial, the low frame rate of the game finally started getting on my nerves, so I decided to fiddle a bit with the options menu, to see if I could make things smoother. Unfortunately, the three or four options available have no impact what so ever on the performance of the game, and changing the resolution of the game just made it look worse than Diablo 1, so I just had to accept it. As you can imagine, there is no enjoyment to be had when playing at 15 frames per second, although the game`s performance was quickly shadowed by other, more irritating issues.
I quickly realized that this has nothing in common with most RPGs and it`s nowhere near an RPG revolution, more like a complete involution of the genre. First of all, the game can hardly be called an RPG. There are certain elements that define an RPG, and Hard to be a God certainly misses most of them. There is no character customization when starting the game, but I didn`t have a problem with this (remember Dungeon Siege?). I did however mind the fact that this customization is completely absent even during the game. You can`t choose a certain role for you character, such as priest, mage, warrior and so on, and neither can you customize him to fit your playing style. Also, there is no sense of character evolution, you`re as weak at level 15 as you were at level 1.
When leveling up you will receive 3 skill points to place anywhere you desire. It`s not like you have a lot of choices though... You have one skill point to assign to weapon categories (light, medium and heavy) and 2 others to assign to your misc. skills. You will discover that diplomacy is bunched here, together with health, stamina, ranged weapons (why isn`t this in the weapons category?) and medicine. Those are all the skill that you have, from start to end. You can assign a maximum of 10 points to each of the weapon categories, and you will unlock certain devastating hits as you progress. Before finishing the game you will receive about 20 skill points to assign to your weapon skills, so you can complete two weapon trees, probably medium and heavy. All fights in the game will then revolve around using your combos (depending on what weapon you are using, you might have access to one or two) and then blocking until their cool down is complete. This monotonous and retarded system will make you try and avoid combat as much as possible, as there is no fun in blocking 90% of the time.
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If you`re foolish enough to try and take on the enemy without blocking or using the combos, and resorting to normal hits, you will become best friends with the loading screen... Keep in mind the fact that you have stamina that is used every time you attack, block, or use a combo. If you don`t assign points to stamina, it will run out in 5-6 hits and you will be left standing there absorbing hits with your thick skull. While you`re blocking, the stamina bar will fill up, allowing you to use another combo. Since combos deal a lot more damage than regular hits, it is preferable to use them when you can, especially since they can hit more than one person. Without the combos, the fights are nothing more than a clicking frenzy, until you`re out of stamina and forced to block.
While we`re on the subject of combat, let me tell you that the computer AI is inexistent. Don`t let the fact that archers flee when you approach them fool you into thinking they are smart. They just run into the nearest log (kinship?) or branch, getting stuck. You will have the opportunity to observe just how smart your opponents are every time you cross swords with them, when one of two things will take place. They will either hack away at you, even though you`re blocking or get stuck in the block stance for a long while (yes, even if you`re blocking yourself, so you`ll just stand there and look at each other). Even running towards you in a straight line seems to be too difficult for some of them, as the ever present rocks and trees will stop them dead in their tracks.
Earlier I mentioned stamina, represented by a blue bar below your health. You can assign (secondary) skill points to it, to make it last longer... or you can leave it like it is. Just like stamina, you have the same problem with health. You can either allocate skill points to it, or you can leave it at level 1. The problem is that you can`t survive with either of them at level 1. With 100 health a measly wolf will kill you in 2 hits, and with 200 stamina, after 2 swings of the sword you`ll have to catch your breath. Now, from those 2 (secondary) skill points that you receive every level, most of them will have to be assigned to these important skills. Since all skill points will go towards improving your health and stamina, what about the other skills, you might ask?
Forget about them if you want to be any good in combat. I only saw a chance to use diplomacy 4 or 5 times during the game, so you can safely drop that. It can be compensated with more money anyway. "Ranged weapons" is the other skill in which you will have to invest if you want to do damage with rifles and other weapons from the future. Medicine, unfortunately will have to be dropped in favor of fighting skills, and it`s a shame since healing is scarce during the game. This is indeed a troublesome thing, since there is no health regeneration, you can`t rest, and healing potions are very expensive. Even a wolf will make you gulp healing potion after healing potion so be prepared... Anyway, we have 2 skill points per level, and 3 skills worth investing in. Ah, the problems of the modern RPG :)
Sooner or later you`re going to get tired of all the melee weapons present in the game, and the ridiculous fights, and you`re going to want to try some ranged weapons. Preferably from the future, since that is one of the highlights of the game. I must admit I had high hopes for this part of the game, imagining my hero in some sort of power armor, polishing his brand new bazooka while exterminating everything that moved. So, when I found my first ranged weapon from the future (some sort of rifle), I proceeded in testing it against the local wolves. To my surprise, the wolves didn`t seem to notice my investment of 9 points in "ranged weapons" and started chasing me while I tried to kill them with my high powered rifle (which did about 1/3rd of my main weapon`s damage). Ammo is extremely hard to find for most weapons, so you`ll just get to watch them in your inventory for a long time.
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You can buy and ride horses in the game and you get one right from the start (it won`t stay with you for very long, but it`s enough to get a general idea about the riding system). Riding the horse and trying to use it in combat was about as much fun as watching a tree grow. The controls are even more clumsy when you`re mounted and attacking is a whole lot more difficult. The only advantage I could find was being able to out run the ever present wolves and other pests that are more than capable of killing you in the beginning.
Since I`ve probably made it clear by now just how stupid the combat system is, let`s move on to one other major element that defines an RPG. The story line was supposed to be another major selling point for Hard to be a God, with twists and turns that should have kept you puzzled and just itching to know more. Instead, we have a story that wouldn`t even keep a 3 year old interested, with no memorable characters or events. It`s truly a chore trying to write about the story line, since the main quest is divided into several smaller ones involving Prophets, immortal beings, travelers from another universe and so on. Complete and utter non sense, since every time the story comes close to becoming interesting, it is ruined by a bug, graphical glitch or bad translation.
At several points in the game, the character you`re supposed to talk to is under attack and you have to help him defend himself. Nothing wrong with this, but there are several bugs with the combat system that will make this truly difficult. The game has a hard time deciding who your allies are and if you`re supposed to hit them. Sometimes, during a combat, you will hit allies together with enemies, while at other times you won`t even be allowed to hit the enemies. I remember one such encounter at the gates of an enemy Baron, where one soldier was completely invulnerable to my attacks... Too bad he could beat the crap out of me while I could only run. Anyway, let me get back to the point. If you`re in one of those unlucky situations where the game decides you can hit your own allies, then tough for you. You can`t just jump into the combat while using your most devastating combos, since your ally will probably be the first one dead. Neither can you just watch and hope that he will be victorious because he will usually lose.
Furthermore, you will not give a damn about any of the characters, so their death will probably only cause a yawn. While I`m on this subject, I must also mention the voices chosen to give life to characters. Your main character won`t say a lot, but when he decides to do so, you`ll have the urge to turn off your speakers. He sounds as if he`s dying and every word causes great pain. I`d give him an award for "worst sounding voice of a knight in shining bullet proof armor". Don`t worry, all the voices in the game are just as awful. You shouldn`t be surprised when an elderly bar tender, with a beard and mustache, will sound like an adolescent going through puberty and neither should you spend too much time thinking if the person you just talked to is a man sounding like a girl, or a girl in disguise.
As the story unfolds, more factions will be revealed to you and knowing them will be very important. "Hard to be a God" introduces a new concept that I like to call the "Superman concept". Your character doesn`t have a specific role in the world and as such you are free to change roles and factions as you please... by changing your clothes. No, there aren`t any sort of promotion quests, the only thing you have to do is find some cover and change your clothes. If only phone booths had been introduced into the game, I`m sure this would have been a lot easier than ducking behind houses. Is a nasty rogue chasing you? Are you in peril of getting butchered by 10 soldiers? Don`t worry, run from them, find a safe place, open your inventory and change your clothing and tadaaa, you`re now part of the Scum Coalition (rogues), or the local militia. Even Lois Lane would have had trouble keeping up with your character as you go from mercenary to rogue to monk to FRA to grey to monk to... In case you`re wondering, changing your role to a thief does not mean you can hide in shadows or do backstab damage. There just isn`t any Role Playing part in "Hard to be a God".
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Conclusion:
Calling this an action RPG is a joke. Calling it an RPG in the first place is even a bigger joke. Your character does not "grow" as you play, the story line is boring and at times confusing and the enemy AI is too stupid to even be mentioned. I wouldn`t recommend this game to anyone, not to Diablo fans, and certainly not to AD&D fans. While the idea behind the game is certainly excellent, it is a shame that it is not used to its fullest potential. I`m sorry to say that nothing in this game was even remotely attractive, starting from the bland dialogues, going through the abysmal character development phase and ending with the incredibly annoying combat system. This was certainly a disappointment, as I was expecting a lot more from the game, after watching the trailer and reading about it for some time and this is the first game I actually regretted playing, and this says a lot...
Gameplay: 33
Trying out a new combo move is fun. For the first 5 seconds. Then it`s back to the same block-combo-block routine. There are a lot of bugs that seriously hinder gameplay and while some of them aren`t that important, there are some that will make you replay the last 5 hours... Corrupted save games became a regular occurrence, but I could never get used to the "Artificial Intelligence". Yes, I`m including it in the bugs category, since I`m sure there is a serious bug somewhere along the line. I haven`t seen a game, in a long time, where enemies run in straight line towards you and get stuck in the first thing that gets in their way. Intelligence, yeah, right, what a good joke. Even if I ignore the bugs, the gameplay part of the game is seriously lacking (in fact, all of them are...). This is another case of good intentions gone out the window.
Graphics: 75
Graphically speaking, the game looks fine. There are times when all the vegetation gets on your nerves since you can`t see anything and you just end up attacked by all sorts of critters, but these are rare occurrences. Most of the models in the game end up repeating themselves, and it`s really funny when you`re walking down the street and two identical old men pass you slowly, dragging their cane. The water looks very good, for an RPG game, but there are some cases where the textures used are very low-res and look horrible. I must mention the main menu that I really liked, so you can install it if you want to see that :)
Sound: 59
The ambient sounds and music were really nice, soothing and calm. It really frustrated me that whenever combat started, the music changed, since the combat music wasn`t as nice. I spent some time just standing in one place, taking great care not to attract the huge number of wolves patrolling the forest, just to listen to the music. The voice acting part of the game is worse than anything I have ever seen (or in this case, heard). I dreaded the cut scenes just because I had to listen to my character think...
Multiplayer: n/a
Hardware: 45
The poor performance of the game is inexplicable. The options available in the menu won`t help you out, so I recommend playing it at max details, where at least it looks decent enough. Don`t try to use alt tab to check your messenger, as that screws up the game, and maybe your save as well. Always keep a back up of your saves if you want to finish the game.