Harbinger

Sadly, the game fits a bit too well.

I grabbed the game when I saw it, since it looked good, and really, who wouldn't like diablo2 in space?

...Apparantly people who don't like glitches, poor performance, poor gameplay, and an overall "bleh" feel to the game mechanics.

The plot's good though... whot I saw of it anyways. It had a good start, and apparantly the 3 classes (yeah, only 3, compared to 7 on diablo 2: LoD) have unique story paths which intertwine in parts. Unfortunately, that's whot was seen of it. The overall battlemechanics are... well lacking isn't a strong enough term. Nonexistant seems better fitting.

Basically, they took a diablo 2 like engine, put all the time into plot (yay!) and graphics/voice acting (fairly yay?), and then had no time left over to do any sort of programming on the actual game. So it's very pretty, descent voice acting, and nice plot... but oh how the gameplay is AWFUL. Think back to the original diablo, and then notch the quality back a few points and yeu're almost there.

Enemies are boring, repetitive, yeu don't really learn any new abilities, and most items are about the same, just with slightly different stats. The manual constantly tries to say the game rewards smart playing, such as using an EMP weapon against mechanical stuff, but the effects are so weak it's hard to really notice any difference anyways. The abilities of the characters are bland, uninteresting, and yeu get hardly any. Yeu basically get melee attack and ranged attack for spells in most cases, with the collumbine getting a nova-like spell.

There's really not much too the game except running back and forth and firing at range at stuff, which isn't all that amazing because it's about as repetitive a gameplay as I've ever seen.

Next, is the glitch. Well there's a moderate amount of them, probably fixed in patches, but none outshine this one... it runs slow. Sure that's not a glitch yeu'd think, but it's kind of a pretty game, but it's nowheres near pretty enough to give rediculous lag on a 2400mhz system with a radion 8500le. Not the most top notch system ever maybe, but there's no way this game should suffer such painfully obvious strain upon it since it's really not that amazingly pretty or anything.

But the worst part about the lag... is that yeu CAN'T HIT WHILE LAGGING! Yes, baddies can fire shots at yeu, and yeu can fire back, but yeur shots will miss about 90% of the time when it's lagging, which's very frequent. How can yeu play a game where the entire thing is basically firing a few shots, running backwards, firing a few more, and repeating until everything's dead, when yeu can't even hit?

Anyways, if yeu're really, really, really into diablo 2, like a die hard fanatic, but lurve sci-fi stuff, or like more plot to a game than D2 had, then yeu might consider this one... but be forewarned that it's frustrating, incredably repetitive and rather boring in most parts. For me, it wasn't worth the trouble to keep playing, since the gameplay was bleh for quality, and the upsides weren't good enough to cover for it.

...Oh and the human character has an insanely annoying southern texan accent that has just the right sound to it that yeu want to beat him with a blunt object. Collumbine's neat, but the human outright was impossible to play for me since I couldn't listen to that stupid voice for more than 3 minutes before just quitting that one's story.

Take it or leave it, but I *REALLY* suggest yeu download the demo to it first to see if yeu'll be able to withstand the pitiful gameplay quality. If so, the plot looks like it could be well worth it, and even if the human's voice makes my ears bleed, the voice acting, his included, is some of the best I've seen, though still not able to outdo the soul reaver series. If yeu can handle the awful basic gameplay, then the rest of it will be fine, if yeu survive the odd lag, which I checked around a bit and it seems to be a major flaw in the game somewheres that almost all reviewers I checked noted. It's not an isolated incident.

Anyways... it's potentially a good game, with some good ideas, but yeu'd probably prefer Sacred which is out now, though I've heard to be overflowing with almost as many brilliant ideas as it has glitches, though the bugs are being worked out, which's good, since it was released about 6 months early.

Best bets: Buy Diablo 2 instead and the Lord of Destruction to go with it. Battlechest gives both togeather cheaper.

If yeu want something a bit more interesting, try for Sacred, but it may be best to wait a month or two for them to patch it up some more until it WORKS. Though I have to admit this screenshot of armour being displayed as a sword is oddly amusing.

If yeu're desperate for diablo 1 style gameplay in space, go harbinger, but note that yeu've been warned

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