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Why is LIONHEART reciving bad reviews?
Posted: Wed Oct 06, 2004 4:31 am
by sheng
I was wondering why did alot of reviewer give it a bad review. I picked up a copy few days ago for £1.99 on sale and wanted to try it, because I'm a big Fallout fan. The game was great, yet I don't see why so many people review it as a oklish to bad game, can anyone explain?
Posted: Wed Oct 06, 2004 5:09 am
by Stilgar
To high expectations can do that.
Also the game can turn hack'nslash in the end.
I like the game, but didnt feel a great urge to play it over and over again like i had with some other RPG's.
Posted: Wed Oct 06, 2004 7:06 am
by fable
It was also a case of a lot of little things Lionheart lacked that other similar games had (such as the ability to point at an out-of-sight location on a local map, and have your character automatically move towards it), plus two major, related problems: 1) the game changed character abruptly midway from an RPG into a non-stop action game, and 2) after the first city, many RPGers thought the game felt incomplete.
I'm not saying you should feel that way, but surely, if you've read the reviews to observe the negative reactions, you already *know* why so many RPGers were severely disappointed with Lionheart. They made their opinions very obvious in detail. You're welcome to disagree with what they've said, as the same time.

Posted: Wed Oct 06, 2004 12:03 pm
by sheng
so there's not much NPC giving quest after the first city?
Posted: Wed Oct 06, 2004 2:20 pm
by fable
Afraid not. In fact, there's very little city after the first city.
Posted: Thu Oct 07, 2004 9:27 pm
by asurademon
The game is really really badly buggy, I didn't have problems with this, but a friend of mine had the game actually screw up his computer. Fortunately he was able to fix the problem.
Other than that the game play starts out great, but somewhere around half way through it, it becomes really monotonous hack and slash. The hack and slash is also ridiculously hard even if you have a powerful character, it's just really not balanced right. I cheated to make my character uber powerful, and still had a very very hard time not getting killed (in fact I did, over and over again) during the later half of the game. Lionheart isn't the type of game that is fun when it gets all hack and slash. Over all the game is a great concept pulled off badly. I really wish they'd do a new and much improved version of it.
Posted: Sun Oct 10, 2004 7:58 am
by fable
The only way a company will do an improved version of a game is if there was a great demand for the original--and negative impressions about Lionheart spread far and wide, very fast. (There was a good review up on IGN; I just found it again.
Here it is.) It didn't sell well, and few people in the gaming industry are willing to throw money down a bottomless pit. As a result, there's no interest in a second version of Lionheart, and the Reflexive developers have no doubt moved onto another project.
Posted: Mon Oct 11, 2004 5:30 am
by Legend
[QUOTE=asurademon]The game is really really badly buggy, I didn't have problems with this, but a friend of mine had the game actually screw up his computer. Fortunately he was able to fix the problem.
Other than that the game play starts out great, but somewhere around half way through it, it becomes really monotonous hack and slash. The hack and slash is also ridiculously hard even if you have a powerful character, it's just really not balanced right. I cheated to make my character uber powerful, and still had a very very hard time not getting killed (in fact I did, over and over again) during the later half of the game. Lionheart isn't the type of game that is fun when it gets all hack and slash. Over all the game is a great concept pulled off badly. I really wish they'd do a new and much improved version of it.[/QUOTE]
Well, you just gave up too easily, cheating in this game is absolutely unnecessary. What exactly do you expect from a game ? That you can finish it blindfolded on cruisecontrol or something ?
Posted: Thu Oct 28, 2004 1:23 am
by asurademon
No I don't expect a game to just be a cakewalk, but Lionheart became obscenely difficult and unbalanced towards the end, it was to the point of ridiculousness in terms of difficulty, really this is the only RPG I've played I can say that about. Try harder? There's a point that trying harder is a waste of time, and the game is no longer any fun, that was the case with this game. If I hadn't cheated I would have gotten bored with the game and never touched it again, because I got to the point where I was repetively dying and couldn't get anywhere. At least after cheating I eventually was able to see the story through to the end without being so bored by the badly done hack and slash. Though even with cheating the battles in this game were much more difficult than any in Torment or Neverwinter Nights, both which I've been able to beat without cheating. Almost makes me wonder if the difficulty of the game towards the end was a bug, maybe I should have downloaded the patch or something, but I don't have the game any more. I would really like to see a remake of it though, great concept.
Posted: Sun Oct 31, 2004 2:44 pm
by Legend
I'm curious how you're playing this game then, i mean honestly...compared to Icewind Dale 2, this game was a walk in the park. Are you sure we're talking about the same game here ?
Posted: Mon Nov 01, 2004 4:55 pm
by swcarter
[QUOTE=Legend]I'm curious how you're playing this game then, i mean honestly...compared to Icewind Dale 2, this game was a walk in the park. Are you sure we're talking about the same game here ?[/QUOTE]
If you're playing a melee character, then the end of the game is a little brutal. If you're playing an archer, then the game is pretty easy from start to finish. I never played a pure spellcaster because mana regeneration was so slow.
SWC
Posted: Tue Nov 02, 2004 2:43 am
by asurademon
I was playing a demonkin that focused on fire magic. I think that perhaps there was something wrong with the version of the game I played or something, because it was pretty easy (though not quite a walk in the park), and then at some point (I can't remember exactly when) it spontaneously got really really hard. Sounds like a bug or something to me, since by other people's descriptions I'm getting the impression the game play wasn't the same for them as it was for me. Personaly I like games best when they start out fairly easy and then keep steadily building up difficulty, mainly for the sake of letting me get a feel for the game.
Posted: Wed Nov 03, 2004 1:14 am
by fable
Actually, Asurademon, your experiences mirror what most critics and players have been saying since the game was released: it starts relatively easy, then suddenly turns into a Diablo style game with hundreds of repetitive monsters being hurled at you.
Posted: Wed Nov 03, 2004 11:43 pm
by asurademon
hmmm, ok so it's not just my version of the game then. Diablo II (haven't played the first one much so I can't really comment) pulled off it's style of game play great, I love that game. Lionheart did its thing great for about the first half of the game, but it did the whole Diablo hack n slash thing in the last half very badly.
Posted: Thu Nov 04, 2004 8:50 am
by fable
Exactly. You can't really create a game that plays like a hardcore RPG in the first half, and then turn into an action-based Diablo clone in the second. You'll displease the hardcore RPG crowd, and the Diablo fans will never get into it. All of which is what happened to Lionheart.
The sad/funny thing is that their forums were full of remarks by potential players for a year before release, telling the developers precisely what would happen if they went ahead with their plans to create the game just the way they did. Nobody listened.