Heaven Bound

Details: Category: Computer; By CCGR; 01.Jun; Hits: 12786

System Requirements

OS: Windows 98/Me/2000/XP CPU: Pentium 500Mhz RAM: 128MB HDD: 600MB VIDEO: 32MB Direct X 8.1 compatible SOUND: 16 bit Age: Everyone

Based on the famed Pilgrim\'s Progress novel by John Bunyan, Heaven Bound is set in a world of Christian Allegories. Our lone adventurer, Christian, must find the narrow pathway leading to Heaven. He is aided on his journey by Evangelist and other characters he meets along the way. Beset with trials and tribulations he must overcome ancient mysteries and vicious demons. Seek always the prize and do not be discouraged, for though the road is long and hard, great indeed is the reward. *

How do I play?

So you want to go to Heaven? Well talk to people around the towns and see what they have to tell you. What, they don\'t want to talk? Well seek the evangelist, he\'ll tell you what to do. Follow his directions and you\'ll begin your journey. Be careful on whose advice you take, there are some people out there that will give Godly advice and others who give worldly knowledge. When you start the game, the evangelist will give you the staff of Moses to ward off demons. To charge it up, find the altars and answer some Bible questions correctly and get ten charges for each correct answer. Later on in the game you\'ll get the armor of God and the sword of the Spirit. From then on you only get three charges per correct answer. There are some jumping puzzles in this game. If you install the latest patches they are not as difficult. I would highly recommend patching to the latest version. Be warned that you\'ll lose your save games! I learned this the hard way. :(

What kind of enemies are there?

You\'ll encounter hell hounds and some demons. The fire throwing demons are quite tough. There are some giants and a few bosses including Apollyon. The AI was decent, the enemies will attack when you hit them or come close to them. Often times you can lure them into danger and take advantage of their stupidity. Even though they are not always bright, when they do manage to hit you, it HURTS. Some of the demons fly in the air. The best way to fight these buggers is to switch back to the good ol\' rod of Moses. Your sword of the Spirit is good for close combat and Moses\' Rod is good for picking off baddies at a distance.

Glitches/Complaints?

I\'ve encountered a few bugs along the way. For starters the game detects your joystick and there is no way to disable it. I had to unplug mine to stop my character from moving out of control. I\'ve also noticed the way damage is calculated it\'s not always consistent. The area of effect damage needs some tweaking. Sometimes when enemies would be attacking my general direction I would get damage even if they didn\'t hit me. One last complaint is that it would be nice to pause the game when I access the menu.

Appropriate?

This is a Christian game so naturally it\'s pretty clean. It\'s all about spreading God\'s truth to those who do not know him. Along the way you\'ll fight demons and bosses but there\'s no blood, just cool explosions when you defeat them. I liked how they included a message on how to become saved right in the game menu, way to go!

Overall experienceEase of use

This game is easy to install and play. The graphics remind me of Final Fantasy VII in a way, not sure why. The characters are cartoony and the environments are decent, not a whole lot of detail but you can tell what objects you have to interact with. Although the buildings look 3D at certain angles they are paper thin, kind of like a Hollywood studio. The voice narration is good and very fitting. There are some sound effects when attacking monsters, nothing spectacular. The game engine does support OGG music files so that\'s cool. I really enjoyed the game\'s music, in fact it\'s the best musical score on a Christian game yet! Although I don\'t remember hearing it all (must be random), but going back into the directory and playing the files, I must say that the musical score is well done. Some files are repetitive or offer simple though usually effective ambience, but overall the music files are keepers for me. I love the Baching.ogg one. There is no multiplayer from what I\'ve seen, nor can you adjust the difficulty. So the replay value is a bit limited. I\'d say there is about 10-15 hours of game play for the seasoned gamer. If you like adventure games and don\'t mind the occasional jumping puzzles, Heaven Bound is worth checking out. It\'s got a great message and you might learn more about God\'s word while having fun! Check out the demo! The full version of the game retails for $29.95.