Demon Stone

The voice acting by Patrick Stewart is great as Khelben "Blackstaff" Arunsun though it's very, very easy to often just think of him as Captain Picard or Professor X in a funky robe with a funny staff. The other voice actors are ok, though strangely the ones for the actual playable characters are only average...

Finally you also get to not only meet but play as the legendary Drow Ranger Drizzt Do'Urden. I won't spoil too much for you, but it's a blast.

And unfortunately that's where the good parts of this game seem to come to an end. The gameplay itself is repetitive... you get a handful of combos to do, but only a very small number, and they are exactly the same button layout no matter who you're playing as. And even then, it just turns out to be easier to run around mashing X over and over and over again... so you begin to wonder what the point of the combos are in the first place. Also, when you learn new combos as the game progresses, many of them simply replace the older ones, which is a little dissapointing, especially so for the sorceror. I for one would like to be able to choose between fireball, lightning bolt and cone of frost... instead each spell just ends up leveling up to a different one, which takes out a lot of variety.

Second, the overal story is horrible, it is so terribly cliched... you have the: Fighter who tried to save his village from attack but failed and now carries their guilt forever because he refused to just get over it... the sorceror who was born into a family of knights and therefore outcasted because he chose to study magic instead of martial combat... the half Wood Elf who, because of her Drow half, was feared by her village as she grew up and therefore despises her Wood Elf half until she suddenly learns that they're not as week as she thought they were... even the main storyline is straightforward, with hardly any twists or turns in it at all, it might as well not be there at all. Basically it's even worse than a second or even third rate Forgotten Realms novel.

But wait a second... isn't that R.A. Salvatore's name in the credits as the writer? Isn't he supposed to be one of the best Forgotten Realms authors ever? Now I have to admit I haven't actually read any of his books... I've only read a few Forgotten Realms novels, when it comes to Dungeons and Dragons books I've always been about Dragonlance (still waiting for an official Dragonlance game... yep...) but from what I've heard of his novels, he ought to be ashamed for admitting he wrote this game...

The biggest, most obscenely horrible flaw though is the friendly AI. It's not a pain in that you constanty have to save the neck of the other two players you're not playing as, but it isn't effective at all. At first it's only a minor thing, where you can find yourself thinking "Gee, I would have coordinated that a lot better if I actually had real people fighting with me..." but then you get to some boss fights where the sorceror has to blast targets at a distance while the other two protect him from ground troops. Here, it all falls apart. As the sorceror, you start off blasting away but then you're knocked down constantly by ground units. Hey wait a minute, you ask... where are the other two? Aren't they supposed to be protecting me? Instead, you find them slashing away nicely... on the other side of the level! So you have to fight off the ground units yourself... by the time you've gotten clear to start shooting again, your targets have regained all their health, and you're back to where you started except suddenly you only have a fraction of your health!

Ok, no biggie, you think... I'll just play as another guy and let the sorceror blast away on his own. Except he doesn't! He runs around like an idiot attacking the constantly resupplying bunches of ground units, and maybe takes two shots at the targets he's supposed to get rid of!

All in all, if you're into Forgotten Realms than see if you can rent this game, just for the visuals and the chance to see your two favourite characters and the world they live in come to life, but if you really, really want some hack 'n' slash action that'll keep you satisfied, go out and play God of War instead, because this game is just too repetitive and frustrating to be worth it.

The voice acting by Patrick Stewart is great as Khelben "Blackstaff" Arunsun though it's very, very easy to often just think of him as Captain Picard or Professor X in a funky robe with a funny staff. The other voice actors are ok, though strangely the ones for the actual playable characters are only average...

Finally you also get to not only meet but play as the legendary Drow Ranger Drizzt Do'Urden. I won't spoil too much for you, but it's a blast.

And unfortunately that's where the good parts of this game seem to come to an end. The gameplay itself is repetitive... you get a handful of combos to do, but only a very small number, and they are exactly the same button layout no matter who you're playing as. And even then, it just turns out to be easier to run around mashing X over and over and over again... so you begin to wonder what the point of the combos are in the first place. Also, when you learn new combos as the game progresses, many of them simply replace the older ones, which is a little dissapointing, especially so for the sorceror. I for one would like to be able to choose between fireball, lightning bolt and cone of frost... instead each spell just ends up leveling up to a different one, which takes out a lot of variety.

Second, the overal story is horrible, it is so terribly cliched... you have the: Fighter who tried to save his village from attack but failed and now carries their guilt forever because he refused to just get over it... the sorceror who was born into a family of knights and therefore outcasted because he chose to study magic instead of martial combat... the half Wood Elf who, because of her Drow half, was feared by her village as she grew up and therefore despises her Wood Elf half until she suddenly learns that they're not as week as she thought they were... even the main storyline is straightforward, with hardly any twists or turns in it at all, it might as well not be there at all. Basically it's even worse than a second or even third rate Forgotten Realms novel.

But wait a second... isn't that R.A. Salvatore's name in the credits as the writer? Isn't he supposed to be one of the best Forgotten Realms authors ever? Now I have to admit I haven't actually read any of his books... I've only read a few Forgotten Realms novels, when it comes to Dungeons and Dragons books I've always been about Dragonlance (still waiting for an official Dragonlance game... yep...) but from what I've heard of his novels, he ought to be ashamed for admitting he wrote this game...

The biggest, most obscenely horrible flaw though is the friendly AI. It's not a pain in that you constanty have to save the neck of the other two players you're not playing as, but it isn't effective at all. At first it's only a minor thing, where you can find yourself thinking "Gee, I would have coordinated that a lot better if I actually had real people fighting with me..." but then you get to some boss fights where the sorceror has to blast targets at a distance while the other two protect him from ground troops. Here, it all falls apart. As the sorceror, you start off blasting away but then you're knocked down constantly by ground units. Hey wait a minute, you ask... where are the other two? Aren't they supposed to be protecting me? Instead, you find them slashing away nicely... on the other side of the level! So you have to fight off the ground units yourself... by the time you've gotten clear to start shooting again, your targets have regained all their health, and you're back to where you started except suddenly you only have a fraction of your health!

Ok, no biggie, you think... I'll just play as another guy and let the sorceror blast away on his own. Except he doesn't! He runs around like an idiot attacking the constantly resupplying bunches of ground units, and maybe takes two shots at the targets he's supposed to get rid of! These boss battles happen an awful lot right near the end of the game, and they will almost always leave you clenching your controler as you scream "HELP ME, DARN IT YOU USELESS COMPANIONS!" only you'll be using a lot more less Amazon friendly language...

All in all, if you're into Forgotten Realms than see if you can rent this game, just for the visuals and the chance to see your two favourite characters and the world they live in come to life, but if you really, really want some hack 'n' slash action that'll keep you satisfied, go out and play God of War instead, because this game is just too repetitive and frustrating to be worth it.

The voice acting by Patrick Stewart is great as Khelben "Blackstaff" Arunsun. Even though he can be a bit of a grouch, Khelben has always been one of the coolest characters in the Forgotten Realms world, and Patrick Stewart brings him to life amazingly well, the only problem is that it's very, very easy to often just think of him as Captain Picard or Professor X in a funky robe with a funny staff. The other voice actors are ok, though strangely the ones for the actual playable characters are only average...

Finally you also get to not only meet but play as the legendary Drow Ranger Drizzt Do'Urden. I won't spoil too much for you, but it's a blast.

And unfortunately that's where the good parts of this game seem to come to an end. The gameplay itself is repetitive... you get a handful of combos to do, but only a very small number, and they are exactly the same button layout no matter who you're playing as. And even then, it just turns out to be easier to run around mashing X over and over and over again... so you begin to wonder what the point of the combos are in the first place. Also, when you learn new combos as the game progresses, many of them simply replace the older ones, which is a little dissapointing, especially so for the sorceror. I for one would like to be able to choose between fireball, lightning bolt and cone of frost... instead each spell just ends up leveling up to a different one, which takes out a lot of variety.

Second, the overal story is horrible, it is so terribly cliched... you have the: Fighter who tried to save his village from attack but failed and now carries their guilt forever because he refused to just get over it... the sorceror who was born into a family of knights and therefore outcasted because he chose to study magic instead of martial combat... the half Wood Elf who, because of her Drow half, was feared by her village as she grew up and therefore despises her Wood Elf half until she suddenly learns that they're not as week as she thought they were... even the main storyline is straightforward, with hardly any twists or turns in it at all, it might as well not be there at all. Basically it's even worse than a second or even third rate Forgotten Realms novel.

But wait a second... isn't that R.A. Salvatore's name in the credits as the writer? Isn't he supposed to be one of the best Forgotten Realms authors ever? Now I have to admit I haven't actually read any of his books... I've only read a few Forgotten Realms novels, when it comes to Dungeons and Dragons books I've always been about Dragonlance (still waiting for an official Dragonlance game... yep...) but from what I've heard of his novels, he ought to be ashamed for admitting he wrote this game...

The biggest, most obscenely horrible flaw though is the friendly AI. It's not a pain in that you constanty have to save the neck of the other two players you're not playing as, but it isn't effective at all. At first it's only a minor thing, where you can find yourself thinking "Gee, I would have coordinated that a lot better if I actually had real people fighting with me..." but then you get to some boss fights where the sorceror has to blast targets at a distance while the other two protect him from ground troops. Here, it all falls apart. As the sorceror, you start off blasting away but then you're knocked down constantly by ground units. Hey wait a minute, you ask... where are the other two? Aren't they supposed to be protecting me? Instead, you find them slashing away nicely... on the other side of the level! So you have to fight off the ground units yourself... by the time you've gotten clear to start shooting again, your targets have regained all their health, and you're back to where you started except suddenly you only have a fraction of your health!

Ok, no biggie, you think... I'll just play as another guy and let the sorceror blast away on his own. Except he doesn't! He runs around like an idiot attacking the constantly resupplying bunches of ground units, and maybe takes two shots at the targets he's supposed to get rid of! These boss battles happen an awful lot right near the end of the game, and they will almost always leave you clenching your controler as you scream "HELP ME, DARN IT YOU USELESS COMPANIONS!" only you'll be using a lot more less Amazon friendly language...

All in all, if you're into Forgotten Realms than see if you can rent this game, just for the visuals and the chance to see your two favourite characters and the world they live in come to life, but if you really, really want some hack 'n' slash action that'll keep you satisfied, go out and play God of War instead, because this game is just too repetitive and frustrating to be worth it.