Lionheart: Legacy of the Crusader

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Lionheart: Legacy of the Crusader

Developer(s)	Reflexive Entertainment
Publisher(s)	Interplay
Engine	Velocity Engine
Release date(s)	^NA August 13, 2003 ^EU August 29, 2003 ^JP November 19, 2004
Genre(s)	Role-playing
Mode(s)	Single-player, multiplayer
Rating(s)	ESRB: T (Teen) USK: 12+ PEGI: 16+ OFLC: M15+
Platform(s)	Microsoft Windows
Media	2 CD-ROMs
System requirements	600 MHz CPU, 128 MB RAM, 2 MB video card RAM, 4X CD-ROM drive, DirectX 8.1, Windows 98
Input	Keyboard, mouse

Lionheart: Legacy of the Crusader is a computer role-playing game, developed for the PC by Reflexive Entertainment, and released in August 13, 2003. The game is viewed from a 3/4 isometric camera angle (as is common in many third-person role-playing games, such as the Diablo series). It focuses on a protagonist, controlled by the player, as he travels on a quest that constitutes the central focus of the game. The plot stipulates a rift in reality that drastically altered medieval history by allowing demons and other similar beings to enter the mortal realm. During the game, the protagonist encounters and interacts with numerous historical figures such as Joan of Arc, who are represented as non-player characters.

Lionheart utilizes the SPECIAL role-playing system, which was first used in the Fallout series, and in this game functions primarily in adding points to specific skills in separate trees to strengthen a character's "Spiritkind," which has a personality and nature chosen by the player at the start of the game. Lionheart was also codenamed Fallout Fantasy early in its development.^{[citation needed]}

Lionheart was poorly received by critics, only achieving a ranking of 64% on Game Rankings.^[1]

1 Gameplay
2 Story
3 Criticism and praise
4 Notes
5 See also
6 External link

[edit] Gameplay

A player character in combat with a "Mongol Goblin" - one of Lionheart's many enemies.

As Lionheart implements the SPECIAL system, the character creation is inherently similar to the Fallout series. A player begins by setting the values of his or her character's strength, perception, endurance, charisma, intelligence, agility and luck, and selecting "traits," which alter a character's inherent abilities for either better or worse, for the duration of the game. In addition, the player must distribute points to "skills" - abilities which a character uses to achieve various effects. One skill, "diplomacy," allows the player to talk their way out of situations gone awry, while another, "sneak," allows the player to move undetected by enemies. Unlike the Fallout series, Lionheart also allows the player to select magical skills - an example being "discord," which turns hostile enemies against one another.

A player also selects "perks" during the course of the game - abilities similar to traits, which effect a character's abilities in some form; for example, the ability "Superior Senses" grants the player character a +1 bonus to his or her perception and +15 skill points in the "find traps/secret doors" skill.

Another element newly introduced by Lionheart is the player's selection of a "Spiritkind" for their character, which is done during the "character generation" at the game's start. A "Spiritkind" is a spirit, which is either demonic, elemental or beastial, that resides in the player character and occasionally rouses to explain happenings or gameplay mechanics, or advance the plot.

Notably, the character generated by the player is the only character a player has direct control over, and though characters will occasionally join a player's adventuring party, they are AI-controlled without exception.

[edit] Story

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Lionheart's historical chronology puts forth that Richard the Lionhearted's massacre of 3000 prisoners at the Siege of Acre, during the Third Crusade, was used by a villainous character as fuel for a ritual which tore the fabric of reality. This resulted in magic invading the game's world from other dimensions. The game itself takes place during the 16th century, which, due to the alternate reality setting, has been ravaged by uncontrolled magic and demonic creatures.

During the course of the game, a villain seeks to fully and permanently open the dimensional rift which was only temporarily cracked during the Third Crusade, while the player character, who is a descendent of Richard the Lionhearted, attempts to stop it.

Several famous historical personas appear during the course of the game, most of them residing or imprisoned in Barcelona: William Shakespeare, Galileo Galilei, Machiavelli, and Leonardo da Vinci. It should be noted that this is impossible in the real-world history, but it is presumable that the game operates on an alternate timeline.

Spoilers end here.

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[edit] Criticism and praise

Lionheart was poorly received by many critics. GameSpot's Greg Kasavin noted that although Lionheart seems to promote diverse character creation, the significant focus on monster-infested areas "all but forces you to play as some sort of combat-oriented character."^[2] The game has also been criticised for its attempts at combining "Diablo-style," hack-and-slash gameplay with a more dialogue-driven approach. IGN's Barry Brenesal wrote, "the problem of deciding what kind of game it really wants to be, RPG or Diablo clone, is probably the most serious problem its got." He continued, Lionheart "feels like a good game got lost somewhere en route, and ended up being pushed out the door with some basic features missing."^[3] RPGamer assessed that the game "starts out so promising," but "once you get out of Barcelona and into the wider world, [it] falls flat on its face."^[4]

Conversely the game has been praised for both its musical score, which has been called "excellent," and voice-acting, which was exclaimed to be "top-notch."^[3] The SPECIAL system-fueled character creation was called "great."^[4]