Lionheart Nostalgia

[greylord]

All the talk about Arcanum with the nice game but terrible combat reminded me of another title...a bit newer, but sort of fits the bill. Lionheart was actually a pretty fun game. I really enjoyed it for the first...1/2 of the game...maybe even 2/3.

 

However, it's another one of those games where combat was more like...hmmm...not exactly stelllar there. I don't think it was like Arcanum...I think maybe they should have had a party dynamic with BG style gaming instead of what was with Lionheart...not exactly my cup of tea with the combat.

 

The latter half of the game could be enjoyed...and I did enjoy getting through it (much like I enjoyed finishing up KoToR 2...believe it or not...I actually did enjoy the endgame...even if it wasn't nearly close to being even remotely as stellar or even good like the rest of the game)...but it didn't stand a candle related to the earlier portions of the game. In fact the early portions of the game are almost like a different game in the approach.

 

When I boot it up, I REALLY enjoy the first portion of that game...seriously. So, with all the talk on Arcanum...thought maybe I'd boot up the Lionheart Love. Plus I think it has a better chance for a sequel than Arcanum...and I probably could go for a Lionheart Sequel as long as they fashioned it more after the first half with a DIFFERENT combat dynamic.

[Slowtrain]

Yep, I remember Cabal and Reflexive. IIRC he/she really alienated the potential fanbase back on the forums. And they ended up making a game that was far worse than anything Troika could possibly have imagined on their worst day.

[Jaesun]

I bought this at the store the day it came out. I have never ever played it...

[Enoch]

Lionheart nostalgia?

 

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Edited April 15, 2011 by Enoch

[GreasyDogMeat]

I bought this at the store the day it came out. I have never ever played it...

Why not? As one of those people who played the city sections but gave up when it turned into a grind fest I'd say playing the first half of the game is worth it even if you don't finish it. Lionheart had such a cool setting, good art and quests in the city. It is shocking how great the game starts and then how bad it gets later.

[greylord]

I bought this at the store the day it came out. I have never ever played it...

Why not? As one of those people who played the city sections but gave up when it turned into a grind fest I'd say playing the first half of the game is worth it even if you don't finish it. Lionheart had such a cool setting, good art and quests in the city. It is shocking how great the game starts and then how bad it gets later.

 

The city part was absolutely awesome! It was a shame how it turned later on. I did enjoy Arcanum...but I think I enjoyed the first part of Lionheart MORE. (on the otherhand, the later portion of LH wasn't exactly stellar by any means). Another one that sort of fits in these ranks of what was a good game in many parts, but bad combat execution (at least in my opinion) would be the original Divine Divinity (but that had a sequel...and a sequel to the sequel which came out pretty recently even).

[GreasyDogMeat]

The city part was absolutely awesome! It was a shame how it turned later on. I did enjoy Arcanum...but I think I enjoyed the first part of Lionheart MORE. (on the otherhand, the later portion of LH wasn't exactly stellar by any means). Another one that sort of fits in these ranks of what was a good game in many parts, but bad combat execution (at least in my opinion) would be the original Divine Divinity (but that had a sequel...and a sequel to the sequel which came out pretty recently even).

I'd agree about Lionheart being more fun but it also got a lot worse. I never finished Lionheart but I did finish Arcanum. While I enjoyed myself, I've only played it once, have little to no interest of playing it again and just don't have as fond a memory of it as I do for other classics like the infinity engine games and Fallout.

 

Lionheart, on the other hand, I'd like to give another chance in the future. Try joining different factions than I joined the first time through, maybe give the later half of the game a more serious try. First time through was with a rogue type character who excelled in city life, talking his way out of situations etc. but got his butt royally kicked when the game turned into a bad Diablo clone.

[Tigranes]

I played it at release until a little bit after Barcelona and to be honest, even the first half isn't that good. As in, certainly the first half is much much better and is a pretty decent game, but it's not as if it's an unmissable piece of awesomeness that's been buried by the tripe that comes after. I don't think you *really* miss that much.

 

Certainly the combat was odd and quite frustrating all the way through, mainly involving finding roundabout ways to avoid getting smashed by powerful beasts and running like hell around on a weird pseudo-ISO map.

[Jaesun]

I bought this at the store the day it came out. I have never ever played it...

Why not? As one of those people who played the city sections but gave up when it turned into a grind fest I'd say playing the first half of the game is worth it even if you don't finish it. Lionheart had such a cool setting, good art and quests in the city. It is shocking how great the game starts and then how bad it gets later.

 

It was the last PC game from Interplay as well as it's Death Knell. So it preserves it's proper place as the last Interplay game I will never play.

[Rosbjerg]

I played it in coop with a friend, which actually made the game much more enjoyable and fun.. I was really impressed by the originality of the setting, even if the combat was a cheap clone of Diablo.

[Amentep]

I loved the setting and the lore.

 

The Barcelona sections were awesome.

 

Once you left the city, the story was still interesting but it became wave-after-wave of opponents and IMO the games combat mechanics weren't well designed for mob fighting. Could be they thought people would play it more in co-op but I found it near impossible to get through the mobs outside of the city as it got near the end game.

 

Still a really, really cool setting. I actually have an itch to go back and replay the game (at least through the Barcelona stuff anyhow).

[Volourn]

Arcanum had good combat. Don't spread rumours, myths, and innuendo.

 

Lionheart was a huge disspaointment that was plain crap. The city was alright but I quit once I entered some of the worst sewers ever.

[HoonDing]

Is Arcanum better than NWN, Volourn?

[Volourn]

No, no game is. But, it is better than the OC. Though, only a troll like you would ask such a question like that when it is irrelevant.

Edited April 15, 2011 by Volourn

[Amentep]

Arcanum had good combat. Don't spread rumours, myths, and innuendo.

 

Lionheart was a huge disspaointment that was plain crap. The city was alright but I quit once I entered some of the worst sewers ever.

 

Arcanum had bad combat - that's my opinion. Not a rumour, myth or innuendo anymore that your opinion that Lionheart was plain crap.

[Hurlshort]

I agree with Volourn, Arcanum is a fantastic game with flawed combat.

[Walsingham]

For those who haven't played Lionheart (and I have):

 

Imagine The Merchant of Venice being performed by an ace squad of actors and its funny and moving. Then in the second act they have Steve Buscemi come out and play the ukulele non-stop without singing for two whole hours. Then the curtain comes down. And you're left sitting there trying to pretend to yourself that it was a genius misdirection and somehow still fulfilling, for a while. Then you fly into a rage and burn the theatre down.

Edited April 15, 2011 by Walsingham

[Gorgon]

I had fun goofing around in starter ville, then quickly lost track of what I was doing while the difficulty curve increased exponentially. Gave up around 2/3 in. I think. Not sure since the main quest appeared broken.

 

Definitely not a memorable experience.

[Gorgon]

Actually that goes for both Arcanum and Lionheart, although in Arcanum I restarted a bunch of times to get my build tolerable and had significantly more fun in the middling parts.

[Oerwinde]

I thought the dev team's justification for it being so heavily front loaded was priceless "Well we figured players would do a bunch of sidequests, move on to the main quest, then come back and do more sidequests later"

 

Combined with the entire forum community telling them it was a mistake to focus the game on combat, then the reviews come out saying the game's combat was crap and focusing so much on it was a bad decision.

 

I think Obsidian should snap up the rights to the setting and show them how its done.

[GreasyDogMeat]

I think Obsidian should snap up the rights to the setting and show them how its done.

They probably wouldn't care because Lionheart was their first and last RPG. That said, I'd love to see Obz do a proper RPG in the Lionheart setting. The game already used the SPECIAL Fallout rules.

[Slowtrain]

iirc, reflexive has done very well with their casual gaming stuff, but Lionheart appeared to be way over their head.

[Volourn]

That's because they had the wrong publisher. Interplay/BIS were joking around at the time and pretty much ready to keel over.

[Walsingham]

I think Obsidian should snap up the rights to the setting and show them how its done.

 

Interesting notion.