The First Templar Review
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Starting with the story, there wasn't ever a time where I wondered what was actually going on. I knew what was going on, all the time. It was a comforting feeling to be sure, but it never let my mind wander enough to entertain other possibilities, which might or might not be fulfilled. It is an action title, so this is somewhat understandable. However, the plot has the grandness and scope of something you would see in The Witcher or Assassin's Creed, so to have it be so unilateral in direction is ultimately doing a disservice to itself.
The gameplay presents similar frustration. My first and consistent gripe is that the camera was incredibly difficult to control. It's set at a fixed distance above your character, but moving it forward would always bring the camera forward and under. It made it so that I had to keep my hand movements limited to horizontal swipes to the right or left to maintain a consistent vantage point. Action sequences are solid and challenging, but the game lacks a targeting system, which can get very frustrating when you're trying to juggle multiple enemies in an efficient manner. Combined with the quirky camera, I would often end up on the floor, being stabbed by countless enemies simply because I couldn't keep track of everything that was happening at that particular moment. However, after a few battles, I quickly acclimated, and the combat became a lot more enjoyable. With the added bonus of cooperative multiplayer, combat becomes much more manageable, and even garners a little bit of replay value.
Combat is closely tied to your character progression. Character progression is based off of skill trees, with each skill tree being able to branch out in four different directions. You can tell that Kalypso spent some time thinking about what went into this the skills I unlocked always helped improve my effectiveness in combat. As such there's definitely a sense of strategy as to what moves you want to purchase for you and your partner. Unfortunately, the skill trees aren't labeled, and you can only see what skills you can unlock if you purchase the skill before it. I was essentially leveling blind because of it I had to use my intuition to create a well-balanced character.
