The First Templar Reviews

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Written by WorstUsernameEver on May 17th, 2011

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Even among hack and slash titles, The First Templar's combat is rote and repetitive. Players will spend most of their time mindlessly mashing two attack buttons, slaughtering waves of faceless enemies. Though the game features a sort of pseudo-combo system, it doesn't really offer any kind of compelling reward besides a hit counter that usually hangs out in the single-digit range. Holding down the primary attack button releases a charged attack that's theoretically devastating, but it really only serves one purpose: smashing the otherwise-invincible shields of enemies. Throw a few more useless abilities into the pot, like grabs and spin moves, and the result is a beige, soporific draught that's as unremarkable as it is anesthetizing.

The developers seem to have focused The First Templar on co-op with the hope that it would ameliorate the tiresome hack-and-slash concept. Throughout the 10- to 12-hour adventure, two players can choose from a small band of warriors: Celian, the strong-willed and stoic main character; Roland, his hot-headed and zealous brother-in-arms; and Marie, a knife-wielding noble whose presence is totally inexplicable and mostly without purpose until about two thirds of the way through the game. (For those playing solo, a surprisingly reliable A.I companion picks up the slack.)

The action is plentiful, backed by the varied combat system and skill tree. As you take out enemies, you'll earn experience which can be put towards new combos and abilities (counterattacks, strong attacks, quick recovery, etc). Many of these depend on 'Zeal' -- depending how much of this you have at a given time, you can perform a variety of special attacks. Enemies are varied in look and ability, some packing shields you must break, some with more health, and some with different styles of fighting. In some situations you can opt to go the stealth route -- simply sneak up behind an enemy and cut his throat. Sadly, this is about as far as the stealth elements go.

A wide range of locales, light puzzles, unlockable outfits, and the Steam-exclusive "Arena" (survival mode, sadly not co-op compatible) help complement the main game and may keep you playing, but only go so far. Roughly halfway through, many fights become an excercise in tedious repetition on Normal difficulty (even Marie says, "These guys are getting on my nerves; they just keep coming and coming"), so you may want to bump it up to Hard to force yourself to at least occasionally make use of all the mechanics have to offer.

Speaking of skill trees, leveling up a character in The First Templar is rather interesting. Breaking down into four different distinctions Health, Strength/Defense and two different styles of attack the tree will slowly unlock, granting players added bonuses on health, an additional combo strike or more Zeal, which is used to revive partners or strike enemies with a devastating charge attack. Yours for whatever reason seems to be the only skill set that matters in the game, leaving your friend to deal with their own insecurities.

Another little issue that depending on your luck crops up is the AI (if playing solo). They may help, or just as easily may give players something else to worry about. Fighting or moving around within the busy and oftentimes burning cities and towns, the AI will get caught up on barrels, trees, walls and anything else around as their energy gets drained away while fighting off fifteen enemies solo.

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