Windows

Neverend

In summary, I really liked this game. The game reminded me of a graphic animated adventure, had arena-style, turn-based combat, and an interesting exploration system. The quality of the graphics, animation and voice acting were good to excellent. The music and sound effects were also better than average. I have to give the game a grade of A-. I enjoyed it. This game may not be your cup of tea, however, since different people like different things.

The game has a lot of good ideas like the battle system and the how you are free to chose what to spend your points in the leveling system. However, the graphics hold the game back as most PC RPG's are better looking. If you can get past the graphics then you will discover a world full of side quests and some humor. The storyline is well thought out and has a nice pace throughout the game. With the way you can choose how your character levels and the setting on how hard you want the game to be gives the game a moderate replay value.

Despite its flaws, I enjoyed playing Neverend. The quests were creative and the story line was strong. The opponents were varied and different in appearance and abilities from any other game I’ve played. I will be looking forward to the next venture from the development team, Mayhem Studios.

If you can get past the technical issues, Neverend is a very good entry in the RPG/Adventure genre that's best suited for those who play games to experience new worlds, not new technology. It's not going to knock The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion off the block or hell, even Dungeon Siege II, but if you keep your expectations at a comfortable level and just play to enjoy what's here, you'll most likely appreciate the work Mayhem has done all the more.

Even though The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion is already available and Neverwinter Nights 2 and Gothic 3 are poised to strike during the holidays, that doesn’t mean that we mush ignore less known RPG games. From my experience with Zanzarah: The Hidden Portal I have learned that these smaller titles can have some interesting ideas, which can bring satisfactions far greater than those offered by the so-called AAA titles, which usually are just sequels in a successful series.

Wenn Vadda plötzlich besser pennt, dann liegt’s gewiss an Neverend – irgendwie passiert nicht viel bei Feen-Göre Agavaen. Außer, dass sie alle paar Minuten Waldpenner zerhackt und im Alleingang Wolfspopulationen niedermacht. Spannend? Anfangs ja, Kampf- und Magiesystem sind angenehm taktisch. Beides verheizt Neverend aber in immergleichen Zufallskämpfen. Zwischendurch gibt es doofe Dialoge Marke »Ich rauche gern Sumpfkraut. Oh, meine Pfeife ist leer!« Belanglos.

Championing pre-rendered backgrounds in this day and age immediately makes Neverend feel dated, and the gameplay does little to lift that 'samey' feeling. Despite its decent character models and combat system, there are plenty of other RPGs far more worthy of your time.

The graphics are also a joke at best, I know that there was a team of developers that probably worked way too hard on this and many nights of no sleep were forced down on them, but I am sorry, the graphics in the game are remedial at best. This is graphics that are dated to the late 90's and that's seven years ago. The character models are clearly unrefined as you can see that the character rendering ended at "looks like a person". And that combat view switch I talked about before, constantly switches each time an attack is conducted. It's as if the programmers thought if they kept switching camera angles we might not catch on to the poor movement and attack visuals. The environments also seem to be lacking that strange thing I like to call consistency.

Playing Neverend, all I really wanted was for the game to not live up to its name and die a quick, merciful death. From the miserable graphics to the flat yet somehow wildly unbalanced combat, there are a host of flaws in Neverend that drag down the parts of it that are at least average (the sound, for instance). The net result is a game that is boring, difficult (due to poor design) and repetitive. Sorry, adventurers-- you'll want to look elsewhere for your epic fantasy fix.

If you're a fan of role-playing games and point-and-click adventures, NeverEnd will offend you on just about every possible level. This cross-genre effort from Bratislava's Mayhem Studios is so far behind the times that it's about as modern as the telegram, with graphics straight out of a decade-old golf game and gameplay clunky enough to evoke fond memories of the Commodore 64. Unless you're looking for some laughs or a trip down memory lane, stay far, far away from this one.

NeverEnd is simply not a good gaming experience. No matter how desperate you might be for an RPG fix and how cheap this game is listed for once it hits the bargain bin, it’s simply not worth the time, money or hard disk space it takes to install it or try it. Stay away.

The game compass is left in a flat spin, giving Neverend zero direction, feeble magnetism, and a dreary sense of purpose. You're after an unnamed treasure, alongside an uncaring cast, equipped with only a comatose sense of adventure. Even considering its gaming-on-a-budget price point, purchasing this title will only give you a never ending spasm of Buyer's Remorse.

Neverend, like other games before it from Mayhem Studios (Empire of Magic, anyone?), had a lot of potential and promised a lot of nice features, but in the end couldn't deliver on any of those fronts. The game is an unmitigated mess of technical issues and features sewn together like Frankenstein, and about as appealing as the sum of its miss-matched parts. It's a shame, because beneath all the chaos of this game design, there are some interesting elements that are fun - it's getting to that point that is frustrating.