Nox

The Good
First of all to mention, Nox comes on two compact discs (2CD) and by that, everyone (including me) would expect that second disc to be used. Well, you're wrong, everything's on first CD, and more, you do the installation from it, play the game, even multiplayer mode, and watch the animations. Well, the reason of second CD here is mainly for multiplayer purposes. You see, it has everything but the main game, so they included it so you could borrow it to your friend and play it over Internet or Network connection. I wish they did that to Firestorm, hehe. However, since CD has to be in for Nox Quest add-on, you can as well play it from the second CD (I mean, only use it to be present).

Let's start with the story for instance. Your name is Jack (which you can change when generating your characters, T-shirt color, pants, shoes, etc.), and you're a low-life scumm. Naaw, you're just an ordinary don't-wanna-be hero who lives in a trailer with his girlfriend. Just as you were watching the TV, and waiting Tina to get you something for dinner, in the land of Nox, evil queen & sorceress Hecubah is up to some magical mumbo-jumbo to get the power orb which she later plans to install on the ultimate legendary staff weapon, but you'll assemble that first, unlucky for her (unless you play as a wizzard :)). I dunno how much does it seem strange, but that orb is just on top of your TV in the living room (at least you called it a living room). Once she makes it work, you, the orb and your TV have been sucked in in the world of Nox. Lucky for you you fell on the zeppelin alike baloon ship, but it was still high enough. With your trading capabilities, you soon managed to exchange your TV for your life, but that's only one part of a deal.

Now you've brought up to select whadda ya want to become, a warrior (uses mainly brutal ways to achieve his goals, not likely to negotiate with Hecubah), a conjurer (using his ability to control, and later create, creatures and its accuracy lies in bow equipments), or a wizzard (using staff weapons mostly, but not as often as your magic pockets, wizard is the slowest, weakest, but most wicked in combat). After that, you'll start in the position according to the character you chose to become. The best thing in whole game is that with every character you experience completely different story, with different dialogues, places, tactics and foes. For example, when you play as a wizzard, you'll never get attacked by some hammer hacking guy with a shield so up you cannot even se his face. Nevertheless, for those meaner foes, when you play as a wizzard, only one hit will most of time be enough to end your life for good. And since most of characters has the ability to heal by themselves (including our Jack), it's not just enough to hit someone and then run far away for a longer time as that could be wasted hit.

The intro is the same, but the ending animation is different, according to the character you use. The weakest character will reward you with the best animation and vice versa. For example if you finish the game with a warrior, you see Jack being sucked back in his trailor, with a hair messed up, holding some skull in his hands, and missing your TV, as a conjurer you control the two ogres to save you and grab Hecubah, but when she kills them you entrap her in the orb, and as a wizzard, after exchanging some spells with her, you strike her with her own lightning bolt of a greater shock, and she turns into almost naked nice looking gal, with the final quotes; IHecubah: "You're not from around here?", Jack: "Nope, but I'm beginning to like it."I.

As Diablo was really something when it came out, same stands for Nox, and for those foolishly delusioned by Diablo II I can only say they have not the slightest idea what they're missin'. Now, let us mention some real things to look forward if playing the Nox. As you start from nowhere with some rather puny stick as a weapon, you'll get a few hints along the road as you read the signs, like discovering what walls you can break, use the magics, jumping over lava pits and such. Mainly the first thing to do is to join your selected guild, either by prooving youreself worthy by passing the gauntlet and becoming one of the fire knights, or if conjurer, first to learn the power to control creatures, and later even summon them, and if mage aka wizzard, you'll have to retrieve the stolen book for Horvath, the main wizzard (later rather easily killed by Hecubah). During your first few missions and exploration, word of Hecubah will be quite unknown as you wander the villages, wreck havoc upon the ogrish village, exploring the mines, or run through the forest. As you talk with the villagers, you can get some side-stories for which you'll mostly be rewarded by large bag of money or some weapons and stuff. On some points, which whomever you play, there'll be some rumours of Hecubah raising the army of the dead, and you'll be directed to do the sweep on the graveyard. There you'll find Hecubah in the middle of raising the zombies, but something will go wrong as she'll fire them out (here's a tip, they can only be killed by fire-power). As she'll see you, she will unleash her necromancer minion to stop you.

As you'll break the news to the world that Hecubah is really up to something, you'll be sent to assemble three-parted staff weapon as the ultimate weapon against her, and in the end, you'll get the power orb from your TV, mount it on your staff, and obliterate thee. Thus follows the mano-a-womano fight and the rewarding end scene.

The Bad
There's hardly anything I could add against, but mostly noticeable is a step backward in animations. How come? Why? They were always at the top of any kinda animations, and these are brilliant, but comparing to their older games, they're definitely a step backward. Guess that's the price when setting the game on only one CD.

The Bottom Line
This game is definitely worthy buying, as it is probably the best game ever made considering RPG genre. First installment of Diablo was good, Eidos' Revenant was something new, but as always, Westwood put standars on everything, especially when it has exceeding the limits inclueded. Maybe you'll finish this game in just two days, but there are three different ways to prolonge that time, and if you're not enough with it, you can always D/L the Nox Quest. This game definitely deserves to be at the top of RPG genre so far, as the enemies are so detailed and possess a nice scream of extinguishing, lol, you can move almost anything, if not, you can at least crash, kill, bang... destroy it. Take it, and you'll experience something really new in the world of Role-Playing Games.