The Chosen: Well of Souls Review
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The control scheme is actually a little strange since you can't use the mouse to completely control the camera, which games of this sort usually allow you to do (in Neverwinter Nights 2, for example, you can control all aspects of the camera with the middle mouse button). I didn't like using the mouse wheel to rotate the camera, and that meant I had to rely on the keyboard for camera movement. Since The Chosen doesn't have any sort of (smart) camera system to help you out, that means the game puts a higher emphasis on your non-mouse hand than usual, since you also have to use that hand to do things like quaff potions, summon familiars, teleport to the Alchemist base, and pause the game. I didn't really like this balance between the hands, and I wish Rebelmind had put a little more effort into the interface to provide more options. As for the actual gameplay, what you do mostly in the game is kill thousands of enemies. There are a handful of side quests and a few story moments, but these are few and far between. The background summary I listed in the introduction is roughly just as detailed as what you see in the game. You never learn who Marcus Dominus Ingens is or why he's trying to take over the world or where the Alchemists came from or how the Chosen One is selected or why there are Wells of Souls or anything like that. Rebelmind just provided the barest of bare-bones histories to support the game, and then stopped there. Anybody who plays role-playing games for the character interactions or for the stories involved will be thoroughly bored by The Chosen.
Luckily, the combat system works pretty well. Rebelmind did a nice job in varying the locations you explore and the enemies you face to keep the combat interesting. Some enemies can turn invisible, some are rooted in the ground, some can resurrect fallen comrades, some lie in wait and try to ambush you, and others are weak but cast nasty spells. That means you have to pay attention to what you're fighting, and you have to adjust your tactics to the situation. You can't just run forward and kill everything that gets in your way (like in, say, Dungeon Siege II). You have to target some creatures right away, or attack and retreat, or simply run away, and it's nice when an action role-playing game makes you think a little.
Followers and Economy
There are two parts of The Chosen that I thought worked very well: the characters who follow you and help you in your adventures, and the economy. Let me start with the followers. In The Chosen, you can gain assistance from three types of characters: people you meet on a map, and who stay with you until they die or until you move on to the next map; (helpers) who you can summon at will, but who are expensive to heal or resurrect; and demons, who you capture each time you close a Well of Souls, and who only stick around for a short period of time.
The three kinds of followers each have their strengths and weaknesses, and have different situations where they're useful. For example, the regular followers can be healed using the (tend) skill / aura, but if they die then they're gone for good. Helpers, meanwhile, can be summoned at any time, but they only heal when they gain a level, and they only earn experience when they do damage, and so you have to get them involved in combat but keep them protected as well. Finally, demons are very powerful, but they require (faith) to be summoned, and they only last for about 10 seconds, and so you have to save them for tough fights. I liked having different options for my followers, including having two types of helpers (a flying ranged attacker and a big bulky melee fighter), and I liked that they changed how I approached battles.
As for the economy, in most role-playing games developers don't even make an attempt to keep money in check. Usually the problem is pretty basic -- you find money but then there isn't really anything you need to spend it on -- but in some games (like Fable and Dungeon Lords), so little work went into the economy that you can actually make money by repeatedly buying and selling an item at a shopkeeper.
