Arcatera: The Dark Brotherhood

The Good
I hated this game.......there is no other way I can put it.

The Bad
First of all, the graphics made the game feel so unrealistic and the gameplay was just horrible. I couldnt stand to play this game for very long so feel free to correct me if I am criticising this game needlessly. But from what I saw of it (and played of it) this game is one of the worst RPG games to ever hit the market.

The Bottom Line
If a games store were giving these games away for free it still wouldn't be worth getting. In other words.....its a waste of space.

The Good
Story: The game has an intriguing plot that revolves around conspiracy and deceit in the city of Senora. The game is heavy on plot and story, each of the characters having their own unique background (A little more on this later).

Graphics: The graphics are amazing. Backgrounds, Characters, Effects, they all look great and are quite detailed. There are a couple of oddities however, such as NPC's walking through each other or suddenly disappearing...

The Bad
Poor Translations: The heading says it all. The game was originally in German, and had to be translated to English. Unfortunately, it didn't work out too well, the result being a mixture of old English with slang.

Sound: Sound is just a big disappointment in Arcatera, not because it's bad, but because they don't work well together. The music, while being lovely, is repetitive and loud, so loud that you'll have a hard time hearing the mediocre voice acting. Finally, as far as ambient sounds go, they're pretty decent...

Combat: The combat system has to be the worst in an RPG. It's just plain difficult and confusing. Once you finally figure out how to use it, there's little or no strategy to it. Basically you just keep hitting enemies and casting an odd spell until someone dies. Pausing the game allows you to issue commands to your party members, but the game unpauses right after issuing a command to one of your followers, so you'll have to pause again for the others.

Gameplay: Like I mentioned before, when you start the game you chose the character you wish to be from a fighter, a thief, a mage or a monk. They all have their own backgrounds and motives for heading to the city of Senora. I was thrilled at the prospect of tackling the game from 4 different angles until I actually started playing the game. The interface consists of pop up windows to carry out actions, this isn't bad, but there are just so many pop ups that they obscure your screen. Speaking of the screen, the camera angles make navigation difficult. What most annoyed me was when you talk to someone and find out an important piece of information that information may become void if you talk to someone else who doesn't know anything about the same subject. Finally, the game is just too vague. You'll spend most of your time wandering around the city trying to find that particular NPC who can give you some information that might move the story along. By the way, did I mention NPC's keep moving all over the city? While this does add a bit of realism (NPC's have their own life, they don't just sit around waiting for a stranger they've never met...) it's a chore tracking them down, and just unpractical.

The Bottom Line
I'm afraid the story and graphics just weren't enough to motivate me to even finish the game. And it's a shame too, because the game had so much potential. Big disappointment.