The Elder Scrolls Adventures: Redguard

The Good
Okay, I’m primarily an adventure gamer so maybe I remember this game because it was harder for me than normal. Redguard attempts to combine adventure with action and it handles both fairly well.

Redguard is strong on adventure. The Adventure Elements include:

• Loads of conversation with various types of NPCs – The conversations are sometimes the only way to actually solve some of the many situation-oriented puzzles. You’ll be traversing back and forth to talk to characters again because things change as you progress.
• Puzzle solving – finding keys, helping NPCs with their unique problems, assembling strange machines, reading star charts etc.
• Items & inventory – Picking up, using and even combining objects.
• Exploration – Many different areas to investigate. Inside buildings of the towns, out in the countryside, caves and caverns, behind waterfalls, up on rooftops.
• Involved story – There are people to save and secrets to be discovered. The story evolves as you talk to characters and explore the many areas of the game.

Your character is a mercenary, so naturally he’ll need to go where a normal person might hesitate to go. This is where the action comes into play. Learning the keyboard controls was fairly easy and with a bit of practice I was climbing, jumping, swimming, and sword fighting, albeit a bit awkwardly at first. I vividly remember the first time I backed up at a ledge and fell down, only to have my character grab hold of the ledge. Then left and right lets you scoot along the ledges, pulling up when you reach the next platform.

According to what I have read, the engine used to make Redguard was outdated by the time the game was released, so it appeared that the designers took a step backward instead of forward. Since it had been ages since I played an Elder Scrolls game (not to mention an action game), I didn’t know what I was missing. Walking around and interacting with the environment seemed to play well, so I took it in stride.

The Bad
Redguard had some serious design flaws that surfaced while I was playing. No patch was released to help the situation either. The problems that I encountered had to do with loading an area map. I was completely unable to continue when the fatal crash occurred. Only by a little troubleshooting on my part was I able to bypass the coding errors and get beyond the problem.

Being able to look all around a screen is nice, but adjusting view angles in this game was disorienting most of the time. Looking up in the wrong way would bring the pixels even closer and cause claustrophobia to set in quickly. Don’t get me wrong, I thought the graphics were very nice, but I didn’t want to see them directly in front of my nose! (I played the standard software version, so I don’t know if the 3Dfx version was any different.)

As I said before, this game was hard for me – mainly the jumping accuracy with my keyboard. (I can’t remember if this game supports a game pad or joystick, but either of those would probably have worked better than the keyboard.) One of the trickiest jumping sequences in the game required you to jump from a high ledge down onto some strategically placed mushrooms perched in an underground lake. Somehow you had to jump from mushroom to mushroom, aiming your jumps in mid-air!! I thought I’d never get across to the far ledge (which was almost impossible to see from your start point, by the way).

When a game makes the player feel awkward, inept or stupid, like it did me, you can’t help but dislike it.

The Bottom Line
I enjoyed Redguard, despite the fact that it made me feel inadequate, but it could have been so much better. If you are experienced with games like it, you’ll probably find it much easier than I did. I did finally complete the game and felt a great deal of satisfaction having done so.

The Good
Redguard is truly a great game. The island is large, theres plenty of places to explore, great music, nice voice-overs, and a great fighting system. The story is great, very deep, plus you don't have to follow it a set way, you get go thr way you want, you can go in different orders, you can find the restless league before you go to the dwarvn ruins, and vice-versa. The fighthing system is simple, with 3 slashes, and 2 lunges, all easily preformed. The music fits the game very nicely. With plenty of people in town to talk to, each with there own personilty. Also you get to explore the history of Tamerial, and its set in Tiber Septim. The game also has The Pocket Guide to The Empire(tpgtte).

The Bad
A few bugs, some Voodoo 3 problems, 3dfx only. Theres also a few sound card problems, with certeain, sound cards. Some bad voice acting (Mariah's voice.

The Bottom Line
The Voddo3, and sound problems can be fixed (offical Redguard fourms, on the site to see how) You don't have to talk to Mariah. Knowing the history is nice, The Pocket Guide to the Empire is reason enough to buy it. This is a must have for Elder Scrolls Fans, even if they don't like adventures, the tpgtte is great.

The Good
When I saw this game advertised on the shelf for $10, I thought "oh what the heck, probably just another boring 3d game". I was wrong. This is one of the best 3d action - adventure games I have ever seen!!! Best $10 I ever spent!!! The game is very long (It'll take you about a week to finish it even if you know all the solutions to the puzzles!), the puzzles are well-structured and the voice acting is superb!!!

The Bad
I think I have a Beta version, because the sound and voice crackles. Sometimes the game is slow. Other than that, it was fine.

The Bottom Line
Go out and buy this game today!!! This is one of the best 3d action - adventure games I have ever seen!!!