Guardian: ?I must find the Lair of the Sleeping Wolf beneath the Gasping Caves in the Riven Flats of the Badlands. There is an ancient guardian there know as the Savage Matriarch who safeguards the urn!? No problem, I?ll just equip my ?Fierce Crested Warblade of Brutality? on my right hand, and then I think I?ll dual wield my ?Superior Razor Spatha of Flame? I might even don my ?Worn Valar Coat Chestguard of Malady? From the start of this game you get a bit of deja vu. It looks and feels like every other epic RPG, just put inside your pocket.

Game Play 19/20.

This game is a Hack and Slash RPG. Equip a weapon, and then be prepared to hit the X button for a while. There can also be "special attacks" assigned to the circle and square buttons, which very depending on class. [Note: there are four classes Represented by the brotherhood, the "Knight", the "Druid", the "Alchemist:, and the "Berserker." I only played through the game with the Knight, so gameplay may very slightly when another class is used] Many people compare gameplay to Diablo, or Champions of Norrath, neither of which I have played. To me the game most closely resembled to the combat system of The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker. You start out having you standard slash command and one special command (for a knight this is to swing your sword in a circle, for an alchemist it\'s a poison spell) as your progress through out the game you will gain more abilities such as spells, the ability to do more damage to your opponents, to hold more weight, etc... Every time you level up you are given more points to assign to a category of enhancement. Since your points are limited, and leveling up isn\'t very frequent (I made it to level 40) you have to choose wisely how to distribute your points. This adds some very interesting strategy to the way you approach the game. As you play through the game, after killing enemies, loot including weapons, armor and gold are dropped. There are many different types of armor and weapons varying in their abilities, strength and weight. If your weapon or armor doesn\'t have any abilities already, you can use a artifacts picked up (many times runic stones) to enhance your weapons. It\'s a very nice touch to be able to customize all your armor and weapons, but only being able to add once effect to you weapons is disappointing. I would have loved to be able to combine two effects and create new effects for your weapons. Overall, the game itself is addictive and fun. The story is another thing. No cutscenes are in this game, there is a text on images prologue and epilogue and the rest is told in text logs or books(items) you pick up. While the story itself is actually very interesting, the means of presentation is somewhat lacking. It can be hard to tell what\'s going on without going to your quest log and looking at what you have to do next. There is wireless Co-Op in the game (haven\'t tried it), but no PvP or Online modes.

Graphics 8/10:

The Graphics in this game are surprisingly detailed. The world is vast, with many levels/dungeons to explore, but you start in one small area and slowly get into the vast recesses of the world, which when every area is accessible is a quite large area (it\'s all connected by teleports) the cost for this is medium sized load times. The Last area of the world you access takes a sizable time to load, but otherwise this game is pretty good in the load/graphics ratio. There are a pretty good variety of enemies, but after while it all starts to look the same. The dungeons are randomly created, and sometimes get repetitive. The Character models are quite detailed, though there is a lack in customization of the looks of your character. Near the end of the game I figured out you can play the game in two modes, a zoomed in and a further back camera view (Similar to the way The Wind Waker camera is, but with two presets). The game looks alot better with the zoomed in view, but it\'s much harder to cram all the action onto the screen in that view. (I didn\'t play significantly in that view to notice slowdowns in this regard)

Sound 6/10

The Background music is the most unepic and annoying music in any RPG I have ever played. That being said, the sword effects and other sound effects are well done, but still not nearly enough to make up for the lack of good score.

Stability 5/5

I found no glitches of slowdowns.

Controls/Interface: 3.5/5

The Controls themselves are intuitive, but the menu systems are not in the least bit. The system of assigning a command to a button uses a circular system and the D-pad. The Result is that the items in the corners (of the 8 way circle) are hard to get to with a 4 way Digital pad. Bonus Points +3 pts (The story in this game delivers a good moral lesson. ) Without Giving away too much of the plot, the game promotes ideas such as bravery, self sacrifice, devotion, etc... Game total 44.5/50

Appropriateness

Violence 6.5/10 pts. -3.5 pts- Killing non-human, fictional beings Most all the enemies you fight are of the animal variety, though on occasion there are wildmen you have to fight Blood-0 pts No Blood Gore-0 pts No Gore Some of the chicken looking creatures twitch once after they\'re dead in a rather realistic way. Language 10/10 pts Foul Language -0 pts No Foul Language I heard no foul language in this game. Sexual Dialogue/Innuendo-0 pts No sexual dialogue. I Found no sexual dialogue. Sexual Content/Nudity category covers 8.5/10 pts. Nudity-1.5 pts Characters clothing is sexy or accentuates their sexuality (Ex. tight clothing or low cleavage) Unfortunately female warriors never seem to armor their legs, and the two female classes have low cut necks on their outfits. Sexual Content-0 pts No Sexual Content Occult/Supernatural 3.5/10 pts Occult/Supernatural in Game Setting-3 pts Game takes place in an environment with minor occult references. There are many dungeons which are in tombs where ghost must be fought, as well as a level (The Infernal Abyss) which seems to be portraying hell. Occult Supernatural used by Player
-3.5 pts Borderline magic (hard to tell if occult) is used by player. Cultural/Moral/Ethical 10/10 pts Authority-0 pts No authority issues involved with this game. Prejudice-0 pts No prejudicial bias in the game. Gross Humor-0 pts No gross humor in the game. Traditional/Family Values Decision Making-0 pts Good value decision making is required to progress in the game.