Customer Reviews

Wheel of Time

5 star:		(26)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

This is a review of a game, not the books. Yes this is loosely based on the Wheel of Time books by Robert Jordan. Yes it supposedly takes place before the books begin and yes, the idea of an Aes Sedai using only ter'angreal instead of using her ability to channel is far-fetched. The game, however, is good. The Unreal engine is used here, with some modifications. I thought the scenery was tremendous and the level with Shadar Logoth is outstanding. If you like first-person shooters this is a great game, with enough differences in weapons and story from such notables as Quake and Half-Life to make it worth your while. If you are looking for an RPG based on the Wheel of Time books this is not it and you will be disappointed. I agree with another reviewer to download the demo if you are unsure. It covers two levels in depth and gives an excellent taste of the finished product. Its a big one so make sure you have a stable connection before you download it.

This game is great. Don't get me wrong: I'm not one of Jordan's fanatic cult members who would say this game was great if the graphics were stick figures and it was so buggy you can't run the game 3/4 of the time. The game really is good. The multiplayer is great, especially in Citadel games. In these, you summon creatures & lay traps to defend your area while trying to invade others. The only problem I have with the multiplayer are the creatures that you summon. Each of the four multiplayer characters (Aes Sedai, Whitecloak, Forsaken or the Hound) has a weak, a middling and a strong creature. Those for the Hound and for the Whitecloak are fine, but for the Forsaken and the Aes Sedai the strong creatures aren't very creative. The Aes Sedai's middling is another Aes Sedai and strong is an Aes Sedai Sitter, a higher ranked Aes Sedai. Couldn't they have spent a little more time on this? Maybe an Aes Sedai summoned from the Age of Legends or perhaps an Aes Sedai from the Green Ajah, with a band of Warders? Same thing with the Forsaken. The weak creature is a Trolloc, then the strong is a Trolloc Clan Chief. This is even worse because the middling is a Myrddraal (no Trolloc could ever defeat one of them) and because there are even more obvious choices for his strong creature: a Darkhound, a giant, evil dog that can only be killed by balefire, a Dreadlord, an evil wizard, or a Drahghar, a kind of bat-like flying thing. In the single-player mode, you play the part of Elayna Sedai attempting protect the four seals to the Dark One's prison. The various environments are amazing. In the haunted city of Shadar Logath, for example, creepy whispers swirl through the halls while red eye peer out of dark corners. In the Fortress of the Light, the guards curse at you as you fight them. One of the best levels is The Ways. The Ways were a system of swift transportation in an earlier time, until they were corrupted by a terrible evil. They crumble as you walk over them and Machin Shin, the Black Wind, threatens to destroy you as you flea through the final waygate. Other than the little problem with the multiplayer, the game was great. The visuals are stunning, the music is great, and the plot near Jordan's own. (I said I am not one of the fanatics, but that doesn't mean that I can't like the books.) I recommend the game highly.

The developers of this game figured they had a combination that couldn't miss: A game in the wildly popular First Person Shooter genre, with a tie-in to one of the best-selling series currently on the SciFi / Fantasy racks. Instead of strengthening each other, the collision of these two design philosophies produces something that isn't entirely satisfying to either fan demographic. While there are plenty of good points to this game, that constant core conflict is all too apparent.

I'm not normally a FPS player, but I used to think I was a decent one. After playing the first bit of this game, I had a rather rude awakening: this game is *hard*. Especially for reflexes used to Civ and Icewind Dale! Being stuck on the shores of the Manetherendrelle (the very first level), torn apart by a combination of missile and melee attacks coming from the dark, dark shadows, was not precisely my idea of a grand time. This is the first game where I've had to reach for the cheat codes on the very first level.

Fortunately, the pangs of conscience were quickly forgotten in my appreciation for the graphics. This is one of the most beautiful games I have ever played. WoT sets a new standard for FPS games; future entries will be expected to have equally high-calibre artists on the staff instead of simply coders with some latent skill. Unfortunately, you still have to deal with your opponents. That's a nuisance, and kind of pointless, what with god-mode on and all.

The puzzles are interesting, if a bit more basic than old-school adventure gamers are used to.

As a fan of the WoT series of books, the plotline was a treat. It's simple enough, and made clear enough by the various cutscenes, that non-readers should be able to catch on very quickly too. I'm don't think Jordan wrote it himself, and I'm sure it's not part of the "canonical" plotline, but it admirably serves its purpose as a framework for the game.

I didn't play the multiplayer version, as I saw little point in matching my skill against people who could actually *beat* this game. The demonstration in the tutorial looked like fun, though, and I understand that those who do play multiplayer think it's great.

If you're an FPS god *and* a WoT fan, this game is a must-have... give it a whirl and you won't be disappointed.

It's a great game, from a visual and gameplay standpoint. It is beautifully crafted, with hands down the finest architecture I've ever seen (makes Quake 3 Arena look sad by comparison). The story is also well though-out, with awesome voice acting and great plot twists. Everyone complaining about this game not being like the books keep two things in mind: It's not SUPPOSED to be a book, and Robert Jordan himself loved the game, calling it true to his vision. There is no higher reccommendation, people it's HIS world not YOURS. I dinged it one star because, contrary to what the developers think, the music is pretty weak.

Being a somewhat recent addition to the list of WoT fans, I was a bit aprehensive about spending almost 50 bucks on the game. I shouldn't have been. Probably one of the best games I've ever played. The graphics are incredible. Good work GT, and thanks to R. Jordan for letting this game be made.

This game is one of the best i've ever played. I don't really get into games like Quake but this one is truly addictive.

There are some MINOR problems fanatics about the books find wrong it it, but so what? It's a game and a very fun one. It has a great and compelling plot, and although after a while the SP levels get a little redundant, multiplayer is wonderful. Even Legend admits that the demo was a HORRIBLE example of what the game is actually like. I for one find multiplayer incredibly fun as well. But what's kept me playing every day for about 5 hours is citadel mode. It's very addictive and adding it to the already great balance of weapons and defense it makes for one very fun and challenging game.

A little side-note: Some of the "best" players are known to play on 56k modems, so don't worry about lag. However, if you aren't planning to play multiplayer, the game would not really be worth it, at least until the point release comes out and adds bots.

While I enjoyed the game (and it is a good game) I have to downgrade the game because it became apparent to me that it was not finished. As I approached the end of the game bugs started to appear and there was a level which I could not save without crashing. When I reported this I got the stock 'Known Bug' response, and I do not think it was ever fixed. After completing the game I was extremely disappointed in the ending. Understand, this is a game which had used some fantastic cutscenes to keep the gameplay moving along, so when I got to the end I expected something that would satisfactorily wrap up the hours spent completing this game. But you get nothing. The game just ends and you get credits--no closure to the story, nothing. I hate to be a spoiler but how can you spoil something that doesn't exist? This was one of the worst endings to a game ever, and left me considerably disappointed. In retrospect I realized that the beginning and middle parts of the game had been fleshed out and well crafted while the ending felt tacked on and it is apparent the game was rushed to market. I enjoyed the game, but feel the lack of care on the decision to cut short the development to get it to the shelf was a terrible business decision and is a detriment to the overall appeal of the game.

I've enjoyed playing this game both in single player and multi-player mode. The graphics are great and it is very fun to play. As a reader of the WOT books, I've enjoyed fighting the monsters from the book, walking through the Ways, seeing the White Tower, and finding your way through Shadar Logoth.

Multi-player takes much more strategy than other 1st person shooters. You have a wide variety of offensive and defense ter'angreal. Using the right shield when being attacked can mean the difference between getting killed or not being hurt at all; such as a fire shield against fire balls. It is always fun to reflect a spell back at the caster, taint the ter'angreal of an opposing player, or call a minion to fight for you. Of course it is hard to beat tearing someone out of existence with balefire.

I always wanted to give this game a try but never did purchase the game. It always had very good reviews and perked my interest as a WoT fan. Gamespy recently put it in their top 25 underrated games, it was in the top 10, so I tried to hunt down a copy. Atari still sells it directly from their site.

This is an awesome FPS game, one of the best I've played and I've played them all. Great story, and great graphics given the game's age. Better game then Half Life in my opinion.

Game play is awesome and very strategic. You need to conserve your resources and use them wisely and you are given many options for getting through the levels. The level design is another awesome aspect of the game, the levels are extemely well designed and beautiful.

I was surprised how good the AI was. There are quirks and expolitable situations but I don't remember playing a game recently that had AI as good as WoT. The enemies are very agressive.

For the price you can get the game for from Atari, its a steal.

I was almost surprised to see the few negative reviews here, but none of them really give an indepth review of the game. Of course its expected that some WoT fans would be disappointed but as a fan myself I feel Legend did the right thing. They did not try to adapt the existing books to the game, they merely used the world Jordan created and did a great job of it.

This is an FPS, through and through. Its not an RP game, though it does a great job in story telling. Piece of advice, keep CD2 in the drive while playing the game or you will miss the movies that explain much of the plot and add a lot of atmosphere. I noticed a few reviewers seemed to miss the thread of the story and most likely its because they missed the movies. You need to have QuickTime installed to see the movies, provided on the game's cd though its an old version. Movies ran fine with QT6 on my machine. You can also run a setup from CD2 and install the music and movies to your hard drive. (Yes, this means you can run the game without having the cd in the drive, this feature really dates the game.)

What can I say, I thoroughly enjoyed this game and I'm kicking myself for not having playing it in 1999/2000. On a P4 3ghz, ATI Radeon 9700 Pro on WinXP the game runs perfectly. The version available from Atari does not need any patching, they're already applied.

I was really impressed with this game! I have been an avid reader of Robert Jordan's series the Wheel of time for quite a while now, and was excited at the thought of a computer game.as soon as I got it home I began playing. The graphics were superb and the story paralled the books. Anyone can have a good time with this game - even those not familiar with the books. I strongly urge others to buy this game!