Windows

Catechumen

The game is easy to install. The graphics and scenery are good. Sound effects are good too. The voice acting is so-so. The game is stable, I had no problems running it. However there is a patch available. The controls are easy to use. There is no multiplayer in the demo. The only complaint I have is, I wish the AI was a little smarter. But I would highly recommend this game to any child or Christian.

The setting is ancient Rome during the heyday of Christian persecutions. As a Catechumen you've spent the last year learning all about Christianity through your mentor. Your contact with other believers is very limited but soon you will graduate to full fellowship and be welcomed as a true member of the Christian community in Rome.

So what do you say about a game that sings a chorus of hallelujahs when your character is slain, that scatters scrolls about that contain Biblical verses for spiritual reflection when the game is paused, that bathes heathens in a heavenly light when they are converted to Christianity? You say it is different, and different is not always bad. If nothing else, the N'Lightning staff has proved that a game does not have to be violent to be involving and tense. Now let's put that talent to work on a Christian-themed adventure game. A killer who leaves scripture as clues, a detective who is a defrocked priest with a mysterious past. I think this may be the beginning of a wonderful relationship.

Когда поверженный князь тьмы рыкнул на прощанье зычным басом что-то обескураживающее, мне невольно послышалось сакраментальное “I’ll be back”. Потому как если принять во внимание время действия игры, остается непонятным, кто же совершал все мировые пакости последующие тысячу с копейками лет.

This could have been a good, if not great, game. Let the player truly play the part of a Bible student, engaging in debates with the soldiers instead of shooting them. Teach the players as the character learns and grows. Take out most of the shooting and add in quests that show good deeds speak louder than violence. Maybe the creators hoped to hook first-person shooter lovers and then expose them to the Bible, but Catechumen won’t work that way. FPS vets will avoid it, and the Christian teens who play it — if any do — won’t really learn anything by flashes of verses.

I bet there were some really goodhearted people behind all this goodhearted fragging. And sure, it might be possible to make a decent Christian video game. As a Christian myself, that might be something to see. But it would have to be deeper, more complex, and with a story less simplistically self-righteous and more open to a broader audience. And most of all, make it fun to play. Sadly, Catechumen is none of these things. The only thing saving it from an F is our healthy fear of God. The 11th commandment: Thou shalt not play sucky games. Can I get an amen?