Passion! If I could sum up in one word what went into this game, \'passion\' is the word. Let me give you some background. I was recently at the \'Christian Game Developer\'s Conference\' and had the opportunity to meet part of the development team from Brethren Entertainment. At their table was \'Victory At Hebron\', a soon-to-be-released PC game based on the Christian card game Redemption. These guys were extremely friendly and enthusiastic about their game. You\'d think they were playing it for the first time. But talking with them, you can see the excitement they had in developing the game as well. Several people had their hands in the making of this game. Some for a very short time, and others for a longer period. They put in whatever amount of time they are able to give. From my first discussions at the conference, to my ongoing e-mails with the President, I continually feel a servant\'s heart attitude in the production of the game. The development phase of the game is starting to wrap up, but the release is still around a month and a half away. I had the privilege of getting a preview version of the game which allowed me a good look at what the final game will be like. I must say, I am extremely impressed. The game play is full of good strategy, the music is very nice, the cards contain some beautiful graphics...it is shaping up to be a good and high-quality Christian game. \'Victory At Hebron\' takes place during the time of Joshua. Several spies have been sent to the town of Hebron but have not returned back. You have been sent into the city to find the spies. On your quest, you must also find special items to unlock doors to each level and to the homes of each boss (big bad guy). As the game is based on Redemption (a Christian card game), you will maintain a 100 card deck. The deck is full of heroes and special enhancement cards (Sword of the Spirit, Breastplate of Righteousness, for example) giving you better attack and defense abilities. You are on a continual advance to gain better cards to eventually topple the final big bad boss of the game.

Game play

The game has you traveling throughout the city of Hebron. It\'s a top-down view of your character (controlled using the arrow keys) and the city. On your search for the spies, you enter houses. Upon entering, you will either find it empty, or find yourself in the house of an enemy. This is where the battle comes into play and where you get to play your hero cards. In addition to your hero and enhancement cards, there are also many other special cards. For example, you can regain your health during battle, wipe out all enemy cards on the playing field, or remove any enhancement placed on an enemy, dwindling them down to a scrawny weakling. But playing these cards are costly on your ability to place other cards down on the playing field. So you need to choose very wisely how you will play your cards. The game is very rich with strategy and the developers have done a terrific job creating a system that truly works. Mixed in is also a little commodity system. At Jalen\'s Shop, you can buy, sell, and trade your cards for better enhancements and some pretty powerful, one-of-a-kind items. Another cool thing is the addition of special brain-teaser puzzles. Each section of town contains a big boss. Once you defeat the boss, you are confronted with a puzzle. The puzzles range in difficulty and provide not only a nice mental challenge, but a really nice treasure chest of new items.

Christian Perspective

There are verses on the cards. I highly recommend reading them. There is also a cool biography section. These are short little bios of the heroes in your deck of cards. You will get nice descriptions of Moses and Mark, as well as lesser known characters like Hushai and Othniel. Several of the bios have a question or comment to make you think of how you can apply God\'s word to your own life. The game has no graphic violence and, of course, no bad language.

Graphics

The game runs in 800x600 and is rendered in 2-D graphics. The graphics fit well for this game, but having 1024x768 would have been helpful at times. The pictures on the cards themselves are sometimes very stunning and beautiful. Perhaps we will see some screensavers or wallpaper goodies (hint)? To save CD space, the images have been compressed, causing the card images to suffer a bit, but the images still remain a joy to look at. The town looks quite nice and contains shadows, rocks, plants, houses, animals, and more.

Sound

The sounds are somewhat limited, but this is due to a factor in time. There just wasn\'t enough time to get all the sounds they wanted into the game. What sounds are there fit very nicely and sound great. The music is wonderful with several different styles of electronic and rock.

Conclusion

\'Victory at Hebron\' is shaping up very nicely. It is rich with strategy, proclaims biblical verses, and has some very nice artwork. They are still fine-tuning things, adding a little here and there, and moving into the final stages of production. Gamer\'s (Christian and non-Christian) should really take notice of this one. It\'s fun, challenging, has unique game play, and is high-quality. Parent\'s looking for a good, clean game for their school age children might want to consider buying this game. Its focus on the Bible and the strategic elements promote high values as well as logic and mathematical skills. The game does not have multiplayer capability, but will take upwards of 70 hours to complete. There is also a randomness to the battles, as the cards are shuffled differently, and different cards may be awarded. I do have some minor issues, but they don\'t take away from the game play. And none of them were anything new to the developers; they had already thought about each one. What it comes down to is their goal of producing a game able to run on old PII machines and fit on a single CD. They want a game with good game play and is also very accessible to the Christian community who tend to run on older computers. The game play is great, and the passion introduced by the developer\'s helps make this a well-rounded and well worth it game. Keep your eyes out for this one! Expected release date: October 15th. For more information, check out Brethren Entertainment You can get it at CovenantGames.com.

Final Ratings

Game play A Sound B Interface A Graphics B Christian Perspective A+

Overall 92% A-