Heretic Kingdoms: the Inquisition

by Got Game

Product Features

• Play through over 50 quests with multiple outcomes, as you work out your own moral code -- be an altruistic heroine, a selfish & thirsty killer, or just a woman doing her job
• Battle more than 30 monsters, each with their own habitat -- plus whenever you clear a dungeon
• More than 100 Attunements for maximum choice of expression - empower your character by choosing the path of warrior or sorceror
• Dialogue Engine reflects the changing nature of the world, based on the player's actions

Product Details

• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B0007KQ6EW
• Item Weight: 8 ounces
• Media: CD-ROM
• Release Date: March 1, 2005
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #33,220 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)

Product Description

Heretic Kingdoms: The Inquisition is an RPG is set in the world of the Heretic Kingdoms a world where God is dead and religion heresy. You are cast as the young female Inquisitor assigned to stamp out the last remnants of religion. On instructions to destroy a relic which the Inquisition considers a significant threat you are drawn into a battle between two warring secret societies a conspiracy of mages whose goal is true power and a shadowy cult seeking resurrection of the Dead God.Placed in an amoral world you are left to decide your own morality. As in the real world your actions have consequences and you must decide if you can live with those consequences. Play as an altruistic heroine a vicious and selfish egotist or just a woman trying to get her job done. Your actions will lead you to one of six different endings depending on where you decide your loyalties lie.Will you crush religion underfoot or become its savior?Only you can decide...Features:Over 100 attunements for ultimate character customizationOver 50 quests with multiple outcomesApproximately 50 beautifully rendered locationsMore than 30 monsters each with its own habitatEngaging storyline written by a script team lead by critically acclaimed game writer and designer Chris Bateman (Discworld Noir Ghost Master)System Requirements:Minimum: 1.2 GHz Intel compatible processor 256MB RAM 32MB DirectX 8.1 Compatible Graphic Card Windows 98/ME/2000/XP DirectX 9.0a or later 2GB free hard drive storage CDROM Recommended: 1.6 GHz Intel compatible processor 512MB RAM 64MB DirectX 8.1 Compatible Graphic Card Windows 2000/XP DirectX 9.0a or later 2GB free hard drive storage Sound card CDROMFormat: WIN 98NT2000XP Genre: ENTERTAINMENT Rating: M - Mature UPC: 851612000243 Manufacturer No: 000024

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Worth the time of any serious RPG fan, April 30, 2005

By 

Ravenbrand - See all my reviews

This review is from: Heretic Kingdoms: the Inquisition (CD-ROM)

Tired of seeing the same game mechanics trotted out over and over again? This might be the action RPG you're looking for. With many innovations, and a dynamite story this is a great game for fans of the RPG genre.

If, however, you need your graphics to be cutting edge; if you wouldn't play an old game on an emulator because you can't give up your million poly budgets or you generally only play the "hit" games - this game is definitely not for you.

I like to believe there are lots of RPG fans out there who would play another Ultima or Baldur's Gate or Diablo or whatever even if it didn't have greatly revised graphics - provided the game was fun to play and/or the story kept you interested. I'm not saying this is a bad looking game - seriously, compare the screenshots to the games I mentioned above and you can be in no doubt this is the best looking isometric RPG ever made. Trouble is, of course, most people aren't making isometric games any more, so to many people it will look dated.

If its gameplay you're looking for, I reckon Heretic Kingdoms has it in spades. It *does* take a while before you really appreciate it - as you have to unlock about a dozen or more (of the more than a hundred attunements) before you really appreciate the system. In this respect, it's a slow burner and the demo really doesn't do it justice.

I mentioned innovations. How many people, like me, are tired of most RPG games coming down to how well you can stockpile healing potions, or spotting that you need to use a healing potion... I'm certainly bored of this. HK does away with this old chestnut of a mechanic and instead gives you healing items that you can use infinitely. However, they don't heal you perfectly... For that, you need to make it back to town and rest up. The result is that you sort of explore the world in expeditions - heading out and trying to last as long as you can before you're forced to return and heal up to full. It's a very different feel to most RPGs and really quite refreshing.

The Attunement system is also really satisfying. It allows you to completely customise your character as you go - as you can swap in (and swap out) any of the Attunements that you unlock. The downside is that there isn't much of a system to getting them (each item has an Attunement which you can unlock) so it lacks a sense of directed progress - but the plus side is that you can set up some really dynamic character configurations. By changing my Attunements I was able to make my character absolutely fatal to the opposition in some areas (and some apparently useless Attunements have secret uses that are very satisfying to discover!). There are also some great combinations of Attunements - combining one that reflects attacks onto the foes with one that has a chance of instant death gave me my best "tank" configuration, which caused mages to drop dead of their own spells!

The character mechanics are very simple, which I didn't mind, but might disappoint people who like tenty different attributes to play with. The Attunements are the meat of the game mechanics, and allow you to create the character class you want (and change it if you don't like it).

The story, though, is what really drives the game forward. This game starts where most epic fantasy games end - an evil dictator has been overthrown and freedom has been won. But without the control of the Theocracy, civil order starts to break down. Political instability is rife, and into this chaos steps the Inquisition with its dogmatic plan to erradicate religion forever.

I really enjoyed following the story of the central character, and near the end I actually wasn't sure who I was going to side with. The game lets you do what you want with many of the quests - you can make your own moral choices, and the game doesn't punish you for what you choose. (Not to mention that some of the choices are also very funny!) That aspect of the story alone was highly satisfying. The fact that at the end of the game you can decide more or less the fate of the world is also a real plus for me. This is not the case of the ending having been decided for you and you just have to beat a certain boss. You'll know the characters you have the option to fight by the end of the game, and if you're like me, you'll know where your loyalties lie when you face the choice.

(It really doesn't hurt that the cut scenes are voiced by Tom Baker, who I could listen to reading a takeaway menu and still be enraptured....)

So, by now you should really know if this game is for you or not. If you played Divine Divinity and thought "wow, there's some interesting RPGs coming out of Europe" then you owe it to yourself to check out this game, especially at its low price point. If you need the cutting edge graphics to enjoy the game, this isn't going to be for you, but if you'd like to see a fresh new take on the old chestnut action RPG, Heretic Kingdoms is absolutely worth both your time and your money.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Pretty Good So Far, June 11, 2005

By 

Amethyst Moonstar (United States) - See all my reviews

= Fun:4.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Heretic Kingdoms: the Inquisition (CD-ROM)

I bought this game after having been extremely disappointed with Dungeon Lords. What a highly refreshing experience this game is! It actually works, you can customize your character, and you don't have to spend hours traipsing from village to village without an automap or even a teleport spell. Woohoo!

The graphics don't suck, there is actual music in the background, and the voice effects actually work.

If you're tired of crappy games and are looking for a fantasy RPG that actually does work as advertised, pick this up. Okay, it does seem to be a bit more hack n' slash rather than role-play, but so far it is interesting. And no game-stopping bugs yet, either. Although I updated it right after I installed it.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Simply a wonderful game, August 3, 2006

By 

Majestic 12 "MJ12" (Seattle, WA USA) - See all my reviews

= Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Heretic Kingdoms: the Inquisition (CD-ROM)

Overview

Heretic Kingdoms: The Inquisition (known as «Kult: Heretic Kingdoms» outside North America) is a hidden gem among RPG games and is one of the few RPG games that surpasses the standard set by the Diablo series and does so with flying colors.



The Warrioress and Gameplay Mechanics

You play Alita, a female warrior for a movement called "The Inquisition." She is no ordinary woman; she is in fact is a descendant of the God Emperor, Arkor. For the sake of not spoiling any surprises, I will not go into detail on how her ancestry factors into the story (more than what it says on the box). You can customize her appearance (there is even a nude skin of Alita in the game's texture folder, if you are into that), her starting skills and even change her name when starting the game. Although Alita is the only character you can choose, the game makes up for this in its innovative form of character development (the Attunement system)

The Gameplay is both innovative and a refreshing change from the RPG norm. In place of the usual character class system is a system of magical augmentations called attunements, which also replace the usual spell and mana system. These attunements are earned by using a given weapon or piece of equipment in battle long enough and give her additional abilities. Attunements can only be activated or deactivated when Alita sleeps and not all of them can be used at once, although the more she levels up, the more attunements she can have active at any given time (some attunements -- called focuses -- only work if you use a certain piece of equipment).

One of Heretic Kingdom's most innovative systems is the healing system; instead of stockpiling healing potions, you have a healing object that can be used indefinitely. However, every time you heal, a pool of points called "blood points" is consumed and the less blood points you have, the less hit points you can be restored to -- if you lose 5 of your 100 total blood points for example, you can only be healed to 95 health. Each time you heal, you lose blood points. To restore both blood and hit-points, Alita must sleep either at a campfire, a hotel or a house (if you buy one). The attunement system is perhaps the game's most powerful system and allows you to customize your character in more ways than usual.

Another innovation is that addition to being in the real world, you can enter a parallel realm known as the "Dream World," which is useful to get extra skill points, attunement points (for unlocking attunements) and even to escape danger (although the Dream World has its own hostile denizens).



The Setting, World and Story

The Story in a nutshell is set in a nation-state called Corwenth. Just after the fall of an oppressive theocracy that had ruled Corwenth until a rebellion overthrew it, a movement known as the "Inquisition" has moved in and started stamping out all traces of religion while a shadowy cult conspires to resurrect a dead god. You, the player, starts out investigating the theft of a sword known as the "Godslayer," a powerful weapon and religious symbol. Over the course of the game, however, things are not as they seem and everyone has their own agenda. The game's story is not entirely set in stone and depending on your actions, you will be led to one of six different possible endings. Parts of the story are told through cutscenes consisting of beautifully crafted paintings and a narrative voice by Tom Baker.

The game world itself consists of 50 large, beautifully rendered and highly detailed maps with several N.P.C.s to talk to interact with (more to interact with than in any other game except Deus Ex) and some 50 side-quests. Each quest can be completed in multiple ways and have multiple outcomes. In short, this game is a sword-and-sorcery equivalent to and worthy of the standard set by Deus Ex.



Graphics, Sound and Performence

Visually and audibly, the game is simply beautiful. This Isometric game departs from the isometric norm by using 3D models to render the characters, weapons and objects and you can zoom in on our lovely heroine without losing detail as a result. The detail is very lush, with weather effects, day and night cycle and even wildlife (some of which you can kill and sell their meat for money).

The game's audio does not disappoint. The music is good and dynamically changes in combat much like Deus Ex. The sound effects are rich and varied. You will not hear voices except in the cut scenes, but this is forgivable.

The game will run well even at its minimum system requirements and is one of the few post-2003 games that does not need a pixel-shading capable graphics card. However, you will want at least a 2 GHZ CPU, 512 MB of RAM and a 64MB card to run it at maximum detail at 1280 x 960 (the game's maximum resolution). The only crunch is that even on a high-end system, the fog will reduce frame rates at resolutions higher than 1024 x 768 (the fog occurs only in three missions of the game and is intermittent).