Customer Reviews

Heretic Kingdoms: the Inquisition

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

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.

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.

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).

I guess that I am just spoiled by the many truly great RPG's that have been released (i.e. DiabloII, NeverWinter Nights, Divine Divinity, Beyond Divinity, the old Might & Magic series, Knights of the Old Republic 1 & 2, etc.). Unfortunately this game, although it has potential, falls way short in the entertainment category.

I played the game for a couple of hours, found it extremely tedious and boring, and quit. I loaded the game again today and played for another couple of hours, found it still tedious and boring, and quit again. The CD is now in my "Games I will never play again" drawer.

If you are an RPG fan playing this game, you will probably ask yourself some of the same questions that I did:

"When does the RPG part start?"

"Where do I sell all this loot that just keeps piling up on the ground?"

"Where did I put my Beyond Divinity CD?"

The graphics are ok, the Dreamworld idea is ok, but the fun factor is just not there.

Maybe it is just me, but what makes this game an RPG anyway? Every once in a while you can just add a point into either Melee, Ranged, Magic, or speed... That's it???

I played this game a few months ago, so I don't recall every single detail about it. However, it is one of the few games that I've actually finished - it was interesting enough and the gameplay was good enough to allow you to progress without getting "stuck" anywhere. Technically, it is stable. I remember, towards the end, mostly going through the motions, just to finish, but nevertheless for the majority of the time it is a very fun game.

Ok, so the graphics are dated, but not distractingly so. They are serviceable enough. So many new games I've played with fantastic graphics fall hopelessly short. Examples are the Witcher and Assassin's Creed, all of which had breath taking graphics but non-existant plot and feed-it-to-you actions. This game is great! Creative world, where there is a "physical" world and a "dreamworld". The character is limited creatively but the game makes up for that by choosing magic, items and extras. The game play itself is easy. The music is simple and not annoying or cheesy. The dialogue is text rather than spoken which I am coming to prefer. It skips horrible voice acting and lets me skip through as fast as I can read. Many other games seem to jump or freeze when I try to rush through boring or bad spoken dialogue. You are told where to go and what to do, but there are enough choices in the game that I'm not left with the same old point and click joke game play. Overall, a fun game. Glad I bought it. I will warn everyone that I could not get it to install and run on Vista. That is the reason for the four stars. I want to get myself down to one computer, not two. I tried everything - compatibility mode, patches, and any suggestion I could find online (which were were very few of). It seemed many Vista owners could not get this game to install or run properly. So be warned, it may not work on Vista. I'm glad I haven't gotten rid of my old system just yet so I can get some play time in.

Heretic Kingdoms: The Inquisition is one of many games that I - along with most gamers and reviewers - overlooked when it was released. Playing it in 2011, the game is clearly dated in terms of look and feel, yet this does not detract from my enjoyment of it at all. At a time when it seems that anything marketed as an RPG requires micromanagement of resources and dealing with buggy group AI, playing a single-character game with a limited number of relevant stats and skills is actually a breath of fresh air. There were some negative comments about how short Heretic Kingdoms is, but so many modern games struggle to keep a player occupied for more than a few hours, so between the main quest, side quests and random exploration, I found it to be quite satisfying. On the other hand, I didn't spend more than a couple hours at a time playing, as many of the battles tend to get pretty repetitive.

Character customization is limited, there is very little spoken content, and the game employs illustrated (not animated or "live") cut scenes that seem a bit simplistic by current standards. However, there are so many types of armor, weapons and abilities (mainly in the form of item-based attunements) that the game actually has a great deal of depth if you spend a little time getting accustomed to it. The Dreamworld environment, unique healing system and a couple of opportunities to buy a house kept it from being too run-of-the-mill. Other than a map bug that was fixed with a patch, I didn't run into any problems, but that's not to say that the game is flawless. Minor annoyances concerning inventory management and targeting, and the click-fest combat later in the game, made some of the dungeon-based quests a chore to get through. Furthermore, while there certainly are some situations where choices early in the game can affect NPCs' disposition toward you later on, this is not going have the same impact found in games where faction or reputation have a major bearing on your progress. While there are different endings available depending on choices made along the way, I didn't find there to be much motivation to play through a second time.

If you're like me and enjoy the old-school approach to RPGs, but don't want to spend half the time second-guessing decisions about stats (Baldur's Gate) or spending most of a too-short game (Fable) rehashing things you've already done, Heretic Kingdoms finds a good middle ground. For me, it is one of many games that I can play casually in between sessions of MMORPGs, with minimal investment of time and money.

This is not actually a bad game - with high system requirements the graphics are okay and the game is relatively stable. The big issue of course was that this game seems to have been rushed from design to end product (earning it the distinction of being one of the fastest produced RPG games from design to finish stage).
But there are certain elements of the games that do not seem to be fleshed out and it feels like certain ideas that could have been put in the design phase were not fully implemented. For example, the gems in the games have pretty good descriptions and make you think that they somehow can give you more abilities through interactions with either your items or your attributes. But other than using them for money and quests, I didn't find any other use for them. It is as if the designer(s) of this game decided or was forced to shelve the idea somewhere in the production process of using gems as something useful. Or maybe I could be wrong - there could be a hidden use for gems. But after scouring google search engine for an on-line guide for this game (of which I only found one - and it was hard to find), I couldn't find a use for them. Although except for the attribute and weapon system, this game really doesn't need a guide - the plot and missions are so linear and simple and easy to remember.
Another thing that seems to be cut is the length of the game. This game is roughly 1/2 to 3/4 as long as many other RPG games that I've placed on the PC platform. Not saying that I don't mind a short game as long as it is well done - and some people don't like exploring every nook and cranny of an RPG game. But this game only took a week and a half of part time playing to finish.
So even though - unlike the RPG game "Beyond Divinity" - which was truly an unfinished game that resulted in bugs and unfinished maps. This game seems to have been shortened in the production and design phase - making it a game that could almost have been something really good - instead turning it into another standard RPG hack and slash fest. Fun, stable, complete, yet at the same time feels like it was "shortened" and with not enough depth.

This game is under rated, fun and addictive.
You are a female warrior; you can pick your magic from 4 categories fire, water, earth or air. The best is fire I tried all 4, if you find a magic staff for another element you can still use it, which is good. Your magic works through attunements from all your items armor weapons and rings ect. There are 2 worlds to play in the real world and the dream world. Say, you are getting your butt kicked in the real world you can switch you the dream world and visa versa.
My only complaint is it was too short. The game makers (3D people) are in the process of making a sequel to this game, Looking forward to that. I really liked this game. Enjoy!

I loved this game, I'm a huge fan of Diablo II and the Expansion Pack for it. This game brought back wonderful memories, similar to Diablo but a COMPLETELY DIFFERENT and NEW game. The only problem with it, is it didn't last long at all. I beat the game within a week, where's the fun in that for that price?