The First Templar Reviews
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Eurogamer, 6
The narrative makes very little sense, not least because there's no logical reason why these three ideologically opposed characters would join together. Marie veers from anachronistic smartarse quips to fawning submissiveness at random. The conspiracy is so convoluted, and takes in so many monolithic institutions, that it makes The Da Vinci Code look like a nuanced and well-balanced history textbook.
And throughout, there's a wonderfully bizarre, uneven tone that leaves you unsure as to where the next unexpected laugh will come from. Maybe it'll be an immortal line of dialogue like "That owl sounds... strange" or a secondary objective with the description "Help the crazy man find his SHINY THING". The First Templar never scales the giddy WTF heights of Deadly Premonition, but sits at the bottom end of the same curve.
Front Towards Gamer, 7
The fighting is better then I expected. It reminds me of what little I have played of God of War, but with less quick time events. You feel in control of the fighting. Combos are powerful, yet simple to pull off, and you can break at any time to block or dodge. It is far better than some fighting games that I have played, but it's not as good as Arkham Aslyum. If the enemies were better, and if you had more combo choices, then you would have a seriously good time on your hands.
This game is designed to be played as a co-op experience. You always have a companion with you at all times, and if your playing alone you can switch characters with a button press. You can jump in, or out, of your friends game at any time. If you are desperately lonely, you can allows strangers to join your game. For some bizarre reason, you can even allow the game to link to your Facebook account and see your friend's games. There is a couch co-op mode, which is really welcome since most games ignore it, but it's flawed by half the screen being consumed by black space.
Strategy Informer, 6
The whole affair just suffers from a lack of polish all round. The combat's passable but lacks any oomph, the visuals are passable while veering between expansive vistas and low quality textures up close, and the sound is mediocre at best. While it has some nice touches, like the expansive upgrade options and the fact it tells you where the outfit unlocks can be found, it's nothing more than a reasonably solid, entirely unspectacular third-person adventure that'll almost certainly sink without a trace and with barely a whimper.
Games Pundit, 6.4
To sum up, I will stop short of encouraging you to pass this game up, but I also won't encourage it as a must-buy. The reader will remember I'm never one to make someone's decision for them, so you're best playing it for yourself, as long as you're not expecting anything ground-breaking in terms of gameplay, or eye-popping in terms of visuals. But do yourself a favor, and at least wait for the price to come down. Which it will. Probably tomorrow. Just saying.
