This is what it would look like if Tim Burton made a video-game. Hundreds of years ago, in the kingdom of Gallowmere there was a popular and trusted knight, and when the sorcerer Zarok attacked, it was this man, Daniel Fortesque, who led the force against the fiend. It is said that he vanquished the evil warlock, though himself mortally wounded, after many days of war. Unfortunately, that isn't quite what happened. The end result is the same, but the poor guy actually fell in the initial charge. It's been a hundred years, and Mr. Z returns, in the mood for revenge. He curses the living(rendering them mindless and dangerous drones), and raises, well, those that aren't, anymore. What he didn't realize is that that includes Dan, since he's the only late warrior not found in the Hall of Heroes(think Valhalla). He's now gotten a second chance to prove that he can defend the land, and he's literally the only hope. This successfully sets the tone right from the start, being funny and genuinely creepy at the same time. While there are numerous kinds of jokes and gags... some are silly, several are verbal, there are clever ones, and there is plenty of strong irony, almost all of it is dark comedy. So you're playing as someone who's literally been dead for a century; he's a skeleton, and decomposition hasn't been kind to him... he's missing an eye(that would be where the arrow that took him out hit him... *ouch*), his jaw is gone making everything he says indecipherable(subtitles to the rescue, in fact, everything that is said in this, at all), and if it comes to that, he can take off one of his arms non-violently and use it as a weapon. And it doesn't stop there. A lot of what you fight is deceased, and the daft zombies are only the beginning. There are victims of medieval times methods of execution, still stuck in the machines of their demise, that pursue you, and the absurdity of the sight is one of the countless hilarious instances. Design in general is creative, colorful and imaginative. There are gorgeous Gothic visuals all through this, and while animation and so forth may be dated today, they hold up more than well enough and were excellent at the time. Cutscenes tend to be fully rendered, and look fantastic, a few are in-engine and aren't bad at all. The characters are all well thought up and memorable, and there are such nifty ideas in this. All the well-designed and nicely varied levels(that take you through many locations) are linear, though you have reasonable freedom of the order of them, especially considering that this is entirely plot-driven. The length is great, this certainly doesn't overstay its welcome or finish without having explored its highly original concept well, and how thorough you play this determines exactly how long it will take. Replayability is found in discovering the secrets, and especially in trying to collect all of the cup-shaped, and sometimes well-hidden, Chalices. Slaying enemies that work for your nemesis releases their souls, and the aforementioned drinking instrument gathers them, and once it's full, you can pick it up, and it will grant you a reward, provided you get it and then complete that particular mission. You can save outside of them, anytime, and since they're all fairly short, this is usually enough that you don't have to go back and redo a ton if you fail. Dying in-game isn't necessarily going to mean restarting... you can pick up Life Bottles, each is good for one resurrection, and can be refilled the same way your Health Bar is replenished. If a fall was the cause of your undoing, you are picked up, magically, and left by the edge of where you fell off. I suppose it's possible that there's too much jumping in this, though there's nothing wrong with the programming on it. There may be tougher VG's out there, meanwhile, this contains solid challenges, and definitely isn't the easiest. The difficulty is a tad uneven at points, and this can be frustrating. There is only one setting to it. Younger audiences can play, since it has no mature-rating type material, though it's not decidedly geared towards them, and older people can enjoy this just as well, it's not juvenile, and it does take effort. The game-play has you running around, defeating foes, getting Runes(that work as keys) and other necessary objects, and solving the puzzles, with a spectrum of how hard they are. You can gain a cool arsenal only consisting of useful means of causing destruction to aid you, and every mêlée weapon, and one of the projectile ones, have alternate fire. They differ in speed, effective range, amount of damage done, and they all have specific pros and cons. The ones you fire also have accuracy thrown into that mix. Add to that the magnificent auto-aiming system, which is a near-perfect solution to the problem of how to get the precision of where you want to, for example and in this case, shoot when it's on a mouse-less(and not Next Gen, I'm not getting into those here) console. There's a little green... darned if I know what it is, the important thing is that it flies back and forth between you and your target, and you're seldom unaware of where it'll go when you press the trigger. The camera is close to being spot-on, and you can enter first-person mode and/or turn it, to help. Boss battles are perhaps mixed, the vast majority are on the positive side, if the final one is arguably a relative anti-climax. Overall, this is satisfying, however, and in fact close to being my definite favorite PlayStation 1 title(Silent Hill 1 wins that, amazing). I recommend this to any fan of the genres of action, adventure, fantasy and horror in electronic entertainment. Go forth, and restore the honor and glory that Sir F's name ought to be endowed with. 8/10
4 Reviews
Dan might have aged but the game remains ageless
joannemcroy28 September 2018
20 years since it's release and this game still impresses me. It's one of those little gems that makes glad you were there to see it first time around. The visuals are great, the music is very good, the cutscenes are nice and although the voice acting is a bit 'silly', the gameplay let's that one slip by.
It's a simple premise, you control an old warrior called dan who's mission is to thwart the plans of zarok, a mean old dude who wants to cause a shed load of havoc for our hero. Along the way you fight some interesting bosses and collect some pretty cool weapons. You'll find yourself revisiting levels in order to get better loot and weapons.
On the whole it's a lovely game and one that, even in 2018, will keep you entertained and the hours will fly by.
It's a simple premise, you control an old warrior called dan who's mission is to thwart the plans of zarok, a mean old dude who wants to cause a shed load of havoc for our hero. Along the way you fight some interesting bosses and collect some pretty cool weapons. You'll find yourself revisiting levels in order to get better loot and weapons.
On the whole it's a lovely game and one that, even in 2018, will keep you entertained and the hours will fly by.
THE Medieval fantasy game of the decade.
anne-2531 July 2002
When the evil sorceror Zarok returns after a hundred years in exile to conquer the peaceful land of Gallowmere, he resurrects his ancient armies to aid him, and, unwittingly, brings back his old nemesis, Sir Daniel Fortesque, who defeated him a century before. Once back in action, Fortesque must fight his way through undead hordes of Knights, zombies, Dragons, demons and a power-mad wizard to save the world in this stunning yet humourous RPG style adventure.
A lot of hype with far too many issues.
zaisjr28 February 2013
Over the past couple years I have been playing older games that are in my collection. I have had the habit of purchasing popular games that are on sale or at second-hand stores for good prices. But I have always been a busy person so I haven't had the time to play video games. I have recently been able to play all of these games I purchased back in high school and college.
Recently I came across Medieval. The game had decent reviews and a few sequels so I figured it must have a decent game. How wrong I was.
Medieval is plagued by the same issues many other game franchises are when they are first released. The camera angles are decent, until you have to make a complicated jump, walk on a thin path, or focus on surrounding enemies. Far too many times the camera has spun away from my character when I am trying to make a jump. Far too many times my character has died because the camera refused to tilt at the very moment I needed it to. The fighting system can also become frustrating when using arrows and spears. Wasting valuable weapons because your character likes throwing them at thin air is one of the most frustrating issues any game has. A better aiming system would have been appreciated.
So do I think you should skip this game? It depends on if you can stand the above issues. If you can, then this game might be decent for you. Medieval does have a very nice feel to it. The sound is fantastic and the music fits the game perfectly. The storyline is quirky yet quite interesting. It's all so ridiculous yet it still works. But the technical issues with the game stopped it from being great.
Recently I came across Medieval. The game had decent reviews and a few sequels so I figured it must have a decent game. How wrong I was.
Medieval is plagued by the same issues many other game franchises are when they are first released. The camera angles are decent, until you have to make a complicated jump, walk on a thin path, or focus on surrounding enemies. Far too many times the camera has spun away from my character when I am trying to make a jump. Far too many times my character has died because the camera refused to tilt at the very moment I needed it to. The fighting system can also become frustrating when using arrows and spears. Wasting valuable weapons because your character likes throwing them at thin air is one of the most frustrating issues any game has. A better aiming system would have been appreciated.
So do I think you should skip this game? It depends on if you can stand the above issues. If you can, then this game might be decent for you. Medieval does have a very nice feel to it. The sound is fantastic and the music fits the game perfectly. The storyline is quirky yet quite interesting. It's all so ridiculous yet it still works. But the technical issues with the game stopped it from being great.
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