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> Results: Heretic Kingdoms: The Inquisition
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The year 2004 is not likely to be fondly remembered in the annals of single player role-playing game history. There were no traditional, fantasy turn-based role-playing games released. The genre received a single first-person RPG in the form of Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines, and a few action-RPG titles including Beyond Divinity and Sacred. Heretic Kingdoms: The Inquisition is in the latter categoryﾗthey are often called Diablo II clonesﾗand is also a product of the emerging Eastern European development community.
Heretic Kingdoms is an isometric two-dimensional action-RPG. The graphics are very good, but pretty standard and unremarkable for this type of game in 2004. They do an excellent job of conveying the atmosphere and locations. The premise of the game, which you learn from a mentor, is that God is dead, and religion is heresy. You play the role of a young female Inquisitor in training, and unlike so many RPG's of the past you do *not* wake up with no memory of what is going on. You have just led a very sheltered life since being rescued at 14. Throughout the game you learn the story of the world through a series of conversations with important and incidental people you meet. This leads you down a path where you can make several choices that will impact how others see you, what options are open to you, and ultimately influence the end of the game.  The character development is totally up to the player. You do not choose Mage or Rogue or Warrior from the beginning and deal with the limitations of that class forever. Instead, you choose to allocate skill points (done as letter grades from F to A+, with S as the maximum) to Melee, Ranged, Magic and Speed attributes, all of which impact your combat skills (Speed also dictates your Dodge ability). Magical abilities come in the form of elemental damage from Fire, Water, Air and Earth. You choose an element in the early part of the game, but unlike many RPGs this does not limit your ability to use different elements during the game. Indeed, using a single element will make the game much more difficult as you must conquer strong enemies that are resistant to a single element type, so having a backup plan will make the game more enjoyable. How you choose your character is also dictated by one of the unique elements the game offers, called attunements. Basically, through meeting certain requirements and using an item, you get ﾑattuned' to it, and get to tap into its inner powers. For example, if you choose Fire as your initial element, you get a small weapon from your master, called a ﾑFocus'. The Focus does a small amount of Fire damage in both melee and ranged combat, but as you use it, you will notice that the attributes for the Focus show a percentage meter that increases as you battle. Eventually you will unlock the ﾑFirst Circle' spell of Fireball, which you can then choose as an ﾑActive Attunement' at your next resting point. When you have the Fireball active, and are wielding a Fire Element Focus, you will shoot a fireball periodically (they take time to recharge). There are over 100 attunements possible during the game. Another innovative feature is a parallel reality called the Dreamworld. This world is occupied by spirits and other non-physical beings, some of whom you can interact with but most of whom you simply want to destroy. It is also a place to gain power and experience as there are randomly placed ﾑhex marks' that give you 10 ﾑadvancement' points (one tenth of a level) just for stepping on them. The Dreamworld can also be used strategically to get out of a difficult combat situation since you can leave the real world, move to a better position, then re-enter the real world. Of course, you can also find yourself in a worse position when you enter the Dreamworld with no safe escape in the real world. Healing is another thing that is done differently. In most RPG's you collect tens or hundreds of health potions and gulp them down in combat to keep you at full health for the duration of the dungeon. In Heretic Kingdoms, you carry a single healing element (you can get upgraded elements later in the game), and it has infinite uses. But there is always a downside, right? Right! Each time you heal, you lose ﾑblood points', which basically lowers your maximum health until your next ﾑfull rest' by a certain percentage of the amount healed. This makes you much more aware of how often you heal making you approach combat with strategy rather than just charging in and quaffing potions as you go. Combat is fought in real-time. Left-clicking moves the character, and right-clicking attacks with the currently selected weapon or spell focus. The game suffers from balancing issues. Early on I found myself struggling to stay alive. During the middle things seemed pretty fair. But late in the game almost everything was a ﾑone-hit' kill, with no damage to me.  The game flows very naturally and organically from beginning to end, with your main quest dictating action, but leaving you able to pursue side-quests and revisit old areas. You never feel lost, but there is plenty of exploration available. It will take you twenty or thirty hours to finish, depending on how much you tend to explore both worlds in all areas. Heretic Kingdoms is a satisfying action-RPG with an interesting plot and dialog, a number of unique and innovative features, and varied combat and settings. It's enough to make a very enjoyable game. It is short, as RPG's go, but in a very slow period for RPG players it stands as one of the best. 
This is not a kid's game, but would be very enjoyable to anyone who is a fan of action-RPG's. Anyone who has played Baldur's Gate would be able to handle the content. There is violence, but not extreme bloodshed or language. The isometric angle provides a strategic distance from immersion in the violence as well. Anyone who has played a normal T-rated game would be more than ready for Heretic Kingdoms.
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