Lionheart: Legacy of the Crusader

aka: Fallout Fantasy, Lionheart Saga: Juujigun no Isan
Moby ID: 8635

Description official descriptions

During the Third Crusade, King Richard the Lionheart ordered the massacre of three thousand prisoners during the Siege of Acre. The spiritual consequences of this act were used by a mysterious person in a ritual that tore the very fabric of reality, opening a dimensional rift that allowed magical energies and demonic creatures to invade our Earth. Four hundred years later, a lowly slave is suspected of possessing magical powers. Through a series of events he discovers that he is a descendant of King Richard, and his unique abilities may be the only key to humanity's battle against the dark forces.

Lionheart is a role-playing game set in an alternate version of the sixteenth century, where magic and monsters exist openly. The game is set in various countries, from the city of Barcelona to locations in the Middle East. Real historical figures such as William Shakespeare, Galileo Galilei and others appear in the game, though often modified according to the game's fantasy setting. The game utilizes the S.P.E.C.I.A.L. system of character development taken from Fallout, with the same main attributes and some common skills and perks, with the addition of new ones pertaining to magic. There are also racial differences, with four races to choose for the protagonist: Human Pureblood, Demokin, Feralkin, or Sylvant.

The first half of the game takes place in and around the city of Barcelona and involves questing and free-form character building, with various factions to join and different ways (combat, stealth, diplomacy, etc.) to overcome problems. The game becomes noticeably more combat-oriented in its second half. Combat in the game is action-based and similar to Diablo in execution. Various characters may join the protagonist if certain conditions are met, and aid him in combat. These companions are fully controlled by the AI.

Spellings

  • Львиное Сердце - Russian spelling
  • 狮心王:十字军的遗产 - Chinese spelling (simplified)

Groups +

Screenshots

Promos

Credits (Windows version)

197 People (159 developers, 38 thanks) · View all

Producer
Co-Producer
Lead Programmer
Programmers
Art Director
Artists
Lead Designer
Designers
Lead Writer
Writers
Additional Sound Effects and Editing
Additional Character Dialogue
[ full credits ]

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 62% (based on 40 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.2 out of 5 (based on 39 ratings with 4 reviews)

Lionheart almost hit the mark -- but ended up whacking a wandering pedestrian instead.

The Good
Erm...sorry about that. I couldn't think of a reasonable metaphor.

Lionheart is one of the more original games I've played as of late. It takes a different approach to the genre by throwing you into an alternate history setting in which magic has completely changed medieval Europe. This alone made me enjoy the game -- even in its most frustrating moments, which I'll mention in a second.

Along with the unique alternate history setting, you'll meet (and fight or ally with) several historic characters, including Leonardo De Vinci, Gallileo, Shakesphere, Cortez, even Don Quixote. And the dialogue and voice overs are top-notch.

Lionheart uses the SPECIAL system which was used in Fallout, Fallout 2, and (sort of) Arcanum. This system allows you to make a character in which can really become anything he wants. You are not stuck being one single class from start to finish, and you can excel in any one or more skills. Meaning, if you want to be a smooth talking merchant type character, you certainly can be. Want to be a magic-casting brutish thief? With enough work it's certainly possible. For me, I chose to be an unarmed necromancer who dabbles in the field of thievery. And, as with the Fallout series, you begin by choosing your traits and every three levels you gain perks. This makes the game all the better. Some perks you can only gain by completing special quests.

There are four "races" you can choose from, and three spirits to choose from who guide you as you progress in the game. This adds diversity and replayability, as your race and spirit will have different effects throughout the game. As I chose the "Feralkin" race, very few people had respect for me...which usually ended up in a fight of sorts.

The graphics in the game I thought were very good, though others would disagree. Barcelona in particular -- and the surrounding lands -- looks very, very good. I didn't even realize the game was running at 800x600. It did its job.

The first half of the game (the second half I'll get to in "the bad") is your standard modern CRPG. Quests aplenty, some easy, some harder, your usual romp through the sewer, etc. This isn't really good or bad. In a sense, it's getting tired, since EVERY RPG nowadays has this sort of start, but I enjoyed this one a lot more, since utilizing the SPECIAL system, different routes can easily be taken. For example, there was a merchant who would insult me based on my Feralkin races, and so I threatened to bash his head in if he said another word. Because of this, he refused to sell to me, so I proceeded to lockpick his chest and steal everything he had. Unfortunately, my sneak skill was pretty pathetic, so he attacked. I knocked his skull in, and took all his loot. After that, I was marked as "Merchant Killer", by the "Underground". Not really sure who or what the "Underground" was, but it was a neat trait.

Your first real task in the game is to join one of the four factions in Barcelona. While I joined the Knights of the Templar, who fight for justice, honor, and all that crap, I decided to go start trouble with the Inquisition. One particular quest I received was to free a certain prisoner from the Inquisitor's Chambers, and since, as I mentioned earlier, my sneak skill was the sux0r, I had to just go in fists swingin'. And that lead to trouble, but after some work I dealt with the pesky Inquisitors, freed the captives, and even freed a demon who granted me a perk for my efforts! The Knights never found out (perhaps because I left no witnesses?) and I made it my own personal quest to wipe out all Inquisitors I found. Unfortunately, that also meant destroying potential allies.

You are mostly alone in the game, but allies can join you. You don't have any control over them, other than to tell them to stand still, or to unsummon them, but they're still useful. I remember Cortez, a madman searching for some figment of his imagination, a Templar Knight and a summoned Soul Reaver fighting hordes of war dogs on the battlefield. It was great fun.

Speaking of magic, the spells in the game are quite good. There are three doctrines of magic, with four schools of each. Did I get that right? Doctrines and schools? Well, anyway, you are not limited to any school or doctrine, but you can only get the higher level spells by putting more points into that particular one. In theory, though, you could be an insanely powerful spellcaster, if you play the game long enough. That would be interesting to see. The spells range from your standard "magic missile" type spell, to summoning creatures undead or just from ethereal planes, to buffs (or de-buffs) and so on. Pretty much the standard, but there is some variety here. And I loved that I could be an unarmed necromancer in the game. I don't know many RPGs that would allow such a combination.

Also, at least for the first half of the game, you really don't have to fight anything. You get 3/4 (I believe) experience just for sneaking by a monster, and you get experience for finding traps, secret doors, talking your way out of trouble, etc., just as it was with Fallout. So if you want to play that diplomatic sneaky stay-out-of-trouble character, you can...well, at least, until halfway through the game, in which you are screwed hands-down. Read "The Bad" to see why.

Because of a random item generator based on your level, you could have some Diablo-esque episodes playing this game, always searching for that rare and powerful item. I've not played multiplayer, but from what I've read, the more people in your party, the harder the monsters are and the more there are. I think a group of three of four running through the game would be a lot of fun.

The first half of the game is really great. Standard quest-and-kill stuff, with a lot of Fallout-like freedom. Great graphics, random items, and wonderful dialogue and voice overs...

The Bad
But the second half of the game absolutely sucks.

Did I mention the combat in "The Good"? No? Well, that's 'cause it fricken sucks. Hands down, worst combat in any RPG I've played. And what really sucks is that the second half of the game is nothing BUT combat. I'm not talking about a lot of combat-heavy quests. I mean, you have ONE quest, and you do nothing but FIGHT for the next twenty-give-or-take hours of the game. I didn't mind fighting so much in the first half, because it was for a purpose. It was a pain in the ass, yes, but the random items, the quest experience and quest plots made up for it. But second half...no. Just, no.

Combat comes down to your ability to click on the enemy. That alone is half the task, since every single thing you fight moves at roughly 99.977% the speed of light. Sure, you can pause the game. And while the game is paused you can switch inventory around, change your spell quickslots, do other stuff, but you cannot issue commands or even target an ememy while paused. Also, your allies are pathetic fighters. Useful when you're fighting stuff you can kill, but once you face a hard foe, your allies are dead before you realize it. Combat simply sucks, and the second half of the game is just that. Not even the random items can save you from it.

And it seems the developers didn't think the game was difficult enough, since once you reach that halfway mark, the difficulty skyrockets. Once you reach that point (unless you discovered the most powerful character skill combination...though an unarmed necromancer was fun to play, I doubt it's the most ideal fighter combination) you'll be spending most of your time healing. Fight, run away, rest. Oh, no, you can't "rest". You have to sit there while your health and mana slowly regenerates. I sort of aided myself in this by having armor and weapons that increased my healing/mana regeneration, but not enough to make it very acceptable. I actually had a book on my desk ready for when I have to go rest, as I could finish a few pages by the time I was ready to fight again.

Money's not much of a problem in the game. Once you reach halfway, you won't find many merchants for quite some time, so your best chance is to find anything good to use will be in chests or on monsters. But once you do find a merchant, you're still screwed, since every merchant in the game has about 1-3 healing potions -- not nearly enough to help you.

Also, there really aren't enough spell quickslots. Even as a necromancer, I used five of the slots at a time, and my primary skill was unarmed combat. I can't imagine being a wizard-like class as my primary skill, since there just aren't enough quickslots. Plus, once you're out of mana, you're pretty screwed, and mana potions are almost as rare as healing potions. Fortunately, monsters usually leave a mana-thingy behind, but you have to kill a monster before you get those.

Now, here's where I must shame myself. I had to use a trainer. This makes me a huge hypocrite, since I'm always getting on everyone's case when they resort to such methods. But I reached a part in the game that was absolutely impossible to beat. See, I had to run through a temple (I couldn't stop running due to a river of acid chasing me down) while about fifty to sixty archers and spell-casters stood on the edges (where I couldn't hit them) and fired down on me. Even if I DID have the healing potions and protection scrolls to reach there (and considering how conservative I am with those things, I should have!), there were even more bad dudes waiting for me there. I don't know how anyone was able to beat this (I read on a forum that people used speed potions and had some really nice armor -- which I didn't have) but it would simply be impossible for me. And there was no option for me to "return at a higher level" because monsters never respawn, and I make it a personal duty to clear every map of every monster in sight. Here's the funny thing - even with the trainer which enabled my health to regernate at an "insane" speed, I still died several times before finally being able to race to the exit of the map. It was that difficult.

Also, the animation sort of sucks. There are maybe two variations of each type of animation, and they're not very good. Your character looks as bland as any of the (human) enemies. You can't even tell your own race except when you have your helmet off (I could tell I was Feralkin because I had a mohawk.)

Also -- music and ambient noise is completely missing through most of the game. I expect to hear birds and/or pretty foresty music when I'm out in the wilderness, and the drips of water and sludging around in the sewer. Instead, I heard music very occasionally during certain points, and ambient sounds that were so very quiet I wondered if it was my computer making odd noises.

And the ending is absolutely awful. There are (I think) a few different endings, depending on your choices in the game and how well you do at the very end, but the one I got was just one of those "The evil has gone away...for now! But he'll be back! Stay tuned for the sequel!" type endings, and that just sucks. Also, there are no cinematics in the game. Now, the voice overs and dialogue were great, but as gamers, we're accustomed to a little eye-candy reward for beating the game, and at least one for the intro. But alas, just dialogue and voice overs. I guess it's not that bad, but I would have liked to have seen more.

Come the end of the game, I didn't feel like much of a hero. Just a nobody who kicked some ass and went home.

The Bottom Line
Lionheart came so very close to being a great game. Its original setting, the use of the SPECIAL system, the great art, and dialogue and voice overs make the first half of the game great. But come the second half, it completely goes downhill from there. Not just on a downhill slope -- it dives off a cliff. And lands in a bed of razors. That are on fire. While some snob pours gasoline on it. And then a big bird flies by and takes a crap on it. And some other bad stuff happens. It's that bad, man.

With a part of, like I said, three or four people, it might not only make the second half bearable, but even fun. But this game probably isn't going to stay on my hard drive long enough for me to find out. Indeed, I might play through the first half again, as I really enjoyed it. How will a Sylvant archer do in the same situations? I might see...but once I reach halfway, it's gone. I ain't going through that again.

Windows · by kbmb (415) · 2003

Promises more than it delivers, but can remain enjoyable if you can tolerate some frustration.

The Good
I had this ordered very differently in my mind, but since I'm submitting it here as well, I'll again try to stick to this review format and start with the fact that I did rather enjoy the setting and the alternate history idea, including the use of known characters and events. Sure, it could have been much better, but it was nevertheless done well enough, and the presence of daevas and spirits and the little specific information about them was also just enough to make that aspect interesting as well, albeit mainly early on. While some might consider it an oddity, an annoyance or even a bug, I also found the fact that English soldiers have no spirits, no souls, to be a nice touch, making a certain sense if you think about it.
It is true that most of that atmosphere, most of the enjoyable and perhaps in some cases even memorable elements of that setting, are found in the Barcelona area. Since I mentioned that nice touch, even those few dying soldiers that can provide a little added context if you realize you can click on them are in Barcelona. However, by far the most important areas in terms of gameplay for an ARPG are the dungeons, and from this point of view it was the Montaillou Crypt that stood out for me, seeming more complex and created with more care than the others.

When it comes to good design choices, I must make a special note of the fact that you receive full experience for all kills made in your presence. It's so terribly frustrating when, in other games, it depends on who lands the killing blow, or having companions reduces the amount of experience received, or it even matters how many times a character hits the enemy or how much damage they deal, and kills made by allies that aren't party members or indirectly, for example by using the environment, may well grant no experience at all. However, none of that matters in Lionheart. If there's a kill and you're around, you will receive the experience.
Since I'm on the topic of experience, summoned creatures also grant experience when killed, so keeping enemy summoners around for a while can be desirable. Very importantly, there's no level cap and until the point of no return you can use the ethereal areas to grind if you so desire, turning those times when the teleport crystals malfunction into something potentially positive while also largely putting the player in control of this aspect. There are a few enemies that respawn in the regular areas as well, but that's also kept in check, not becoming a problem or creating that feeling that you're not really doing anything because areas don't remain cleared, and the crystals also malfunction relatively rarely and will in fact gradually become completely safe as you gain levels, so you'll be able to return to earlier areas without risking to waste time while still being able to specifically seek out such fights by using those that may still malfunction.

Otherwise, while there's no container UI, dropped items don't vanish, so if you so desire you can gather everything from an area, dropping items in a pile when you end up carrying too much, and then make multiple trips to sell everything off once you're done or just want a break from the fighting. In addition, inventory management only means caring for the weight, since there's no limit in terms of size, and the fact that stackable items have the same weight regardless of their number, while perhaps strange, helps as well.

Targeting and attack frequency would also be interesting mechanics, but those using fighter characters would be able to say more about that, as in my case it just meant that sometimes I'd select torso and calculated and hope to at least get the odd hit, while selecting hectic helped me cast faster when every little bit helped, which was rare. So I'd file that under positive odds and ends, albeit as something much more notable than the fact that the descriptions for the secret treasures you find struck me as a nice touch. Considering the character development system, I'd also add here the lack of a separate disarm skill, meaning that you can disarm any trap you spot. And, while I'm at both traps and design choices that mitigate problems caused by others, the fact that companions don't trigger traps and don't get affected by them is quite a relief.

The Bad
Also a relief is that I can now finally get to what I meant to start this review with, which is that what I most often read about Lionheart was that it has a pretty good first part, but after a certain point it all falls apart and all that's left is a tedious battle that may feel endless and is an exercise in frustration for anything except pure fighter characters, while for those it's too easy and boring. And there is truth in that, which I'll get to later, yet at the same time it wasn't quite as bad as those comments made me expect, and my Smite / Fortitude mage, Wielder, with 1 strength, 3 endurance and not a single skill point used on any fighting skills over the course of the entire game did quite fine.

I didn't need to get far in the game to bump into the first thing that really bothered me, however. In fact, that came before actually starting, during character generation, when I saw the SPECIAL system, which I'm not fond of at all. That may be in some part because I associate it with Fallout 2, which I couldn't get myself to enjoy at all and eventually abandoned, but I'm definitely bothered by needing to know exactly what skills you want to use from the beginning in order to tag them, stick to them almost exclusively, and being so very limited when it comes to raising attributes. The fact that there are diminishing returns for improving skills to high levels but the costs increase sharply makes it even more frustrating, feeling like a waste and a loss whether you choose to stick to a specialist character or spread the points around a little.
There are also some ways to lose experience and things that the perks that increase experience gain don't seem to apply to. Yes, you can grind until the point of no return, so you can make up for it, but the fact that you may need to remains unpleasant, and this method only works up to that point. Was definitely not keen on the very different rewards for faction quests and the different number of such quests either, and receiving up to 75% of the experience for killing an enemy for sneaking around them seemed like an odd choice, both because that's not exactly what you do in an ARPG and because it still meant you got penalized if you did try that route, since what you receive for sneaking is deducted from what should be granted for the kill, if and when you do kill the enemy. But what bothered me the most from this point of view was that there are pieces of equipment that increase the number of skill points per level, so those skill points are lost until you find and afford such items. Again, the game does allow you to make up for it, lacking a level cap, but it means spending a lot of time making up for what's essentially random chance.
One more thing I'll mention when it comes to character development is the way in which magic skills develop. While somewhat interesting, it means you can't focus on the more powerful spells, or get access to them earlier by sacrificing something else. And, on this topic, I kept wondering why Greater Resistance didn't also protect from cold, making it so there's no way to protect companions from cold. Can't protect them from disease either, but then again, there's also no way whatsoever to cure them of poison or disease, needing to just wait it out all the time and heal the damage as needed.

Speaking of companions, the entire concept seems tacked on and a complete mess. There's no information given about any of them in terms of attributes, you can't give them any commands other than to follow or not, they tend to wander all around a spot you'd expect them to stay in if they're around you, get stuck in tighter places, get in your or each other's way, stop where they are if they fall behind, attack whatever enemy they please, whenever they please, have no skills they can be instructed to use, also have no inventory and are stuck with whatever equipment they have by default, which you again get no actual information about, and if they die that's the end of it, there's no way to resurrect or otherwise get them back. Couple that with the fact that they never improve and you'll be making a lot of effort to just keep them alive, often being more focused on that than on the enemies if you want to keep them around for as long as possible. And the thing is that they're not some random, generic companions, but individuals with stories that you'll learn at least some bits of when they join you, which may make you, or at least made me, care about them to some extent and want to keep them around and alive, but once they join they do become completely generic, just a sum of some attributes you can't even know, not having a single line of dialogue or any use other than to mindlessly hit things.

Combat is also a mess, even without companions, though it of course becomes an even worse one with them. The option to reduce the speed may offer some relief for those who manage to make some good use of it, but the system is not at all suited for real time and it's not real time with pause, since you can't give commands while paused, so you'll often be struggling to click the right enemy, or even an enemy, as they run around at lightning speed, or to move somewhere and maybe avoid picking up an item that will make you encumbered or, more often, a spirit before you need it, leading to excess mana or health that will quickly drop back down to the normal maximum on its own and therefore waste what you could use later. With companions around, you'll also need to do that while hoping to avoid clicking on them, as that will start a dialogue even in the middle of combat, the only options of course being to tell them to keep following or stay behind. And you do need all that clicking, because the character won't even attack automatically, instead just standing there even when attacked in melee, and not doing anything else after casting or after the current enemy is killed. And there are also moments when casting just won't work without moving the mouse to some other spot on the screen that the game for some reason likes better, even if the spell doesn't require a target.
Complicating things further, there are way too few quickslots and for some reason buffs can't be reapplied before they expire. What makes it even worse for mages, however, is that mana regeneration is awfully slow, health regenerating faster even when attributes completely favor magic and early on, and health regeneration improves with levels and there are also feats improving it further, which is not the case for mana. The Magery equipment attribute would greatly help, but it seems among the rarest, so I for one had to make do with Spirit Regeneration, ending up with two items with it and still spending much of the 120 hours the in-game timer said I needed to finish waiting for mana to recover. Admittedly, there are plenty of mana spirits much of the time, but you tend to need to kill something first, and it's still far too easy to run out of mana over the course of a battle, which also encourages leaving mana spirits around in case you'll really need them at a later point and wait for regeneration even when there would otherwise be enough spirits available to allow you to just keep going for the moment.

Mentioned accidentally picking things up above, and that may well happen even outside combat, though at least you can avoid picking up spirits along with items or when you interact with other things if you move far enough for the spirits to no longer be visible. That range can be annoyingly short when you're actually looking for spirits though, as you need to be really close to see them. On the other hand, I have had a few items end up in unreachable places, which can be frustrating, and so is the fact that a small number of otherwise common scenery items can be interacted with, usually to obtain some items, but there's no way to know which those are except to hover the cursor over everything and notice when it starts spinning, which is hardly the most noticeable indicator that an interaction is possible in the first place.

Movement itself, simply going from one place to another, can be rather frustrating as well. The lack of a minimap doesn't help either, and neither does the fact that there are no map markers, not even for exits, or any way to add notes yourself, but what most often annoyed me from this point of view was the short maximum distance between the character and the destination. Click more than a screen or so away, or in a spot you can't actually move to, and the character won't try to get as close as possible or even just continue to the previous destination if already moving, but simply stop, which will also happen if you do anything while moving.

To finally get to those later parts that so many complain about, the game does indeed get worse after the point of no return, which you aren't even warned about, only suddenly finding that everything changed once you get back. Maybe also because of the low expectations created by what I had read, it didn't strike me as being as bad as I had been led to believe, but the design of the locations becomes, for lack of a better term, lazy, even most of the Barcelona area is no longer accessible when you return to it, you pretty much just keep fighting enemy after enemy and the English not leaving spirits does cause problems for magic users, even if that is compensated to a fair extent by more spirits being available from the beginning, and even some other ways to recharge mana.
That's not an issue in the desert, the scorpions leaving powerful spirits, but that desert is by far the best, or in fact worst, example of that lazy design. Yes, it is a desert, but it's a desert in a game and also comes between two so and so dungeons, so it should have been somewhat refreshing, yet instead it's just a large and mostly empty place, filled with swarms of giant scorpions. And the fortress that follows it was underwhelming as well, especially as a final dungeon. Maybe I'm no longer used to how such games were back when Lionheart was released, but while this can be understood and excused as standard practice in the rest of the game, entering that place and having all those assassins just wait calmly, usually in pairs, for you to pick them off at your leisure just seemed wrong.

Even those portals used to travel between locations once you get to the point of no return struck me as lazy design, but I was making a note of that ever since leaving the Barcelona area, the crystals becoming the only way to travel between areas. Admittedly, the large distances involved made simply walking no longer possible, but some other methods could have been used, DaVinci's inventions likely offering possible solutions. After all, he does make use of one himself... Even if that makes him end up being in two places at once from that point forward, which becomes three places since at least for a long time he's not removed from the vicinity of the machine but can be found in the tavern as well.
But these are little things, though probably the smallest one I made a note of was the fact that the icon indicating that you're encumbered vanishes after a while. Also found myself wanting some more detailed information when it came to the effective damage dealt by spells, separated per type, or wondering how come vendors quite frequently had better items in the regular stock than the special one. Something more notable would be that I didn't like the fact that vendor stock scaled with the character's level, and having enchantments make certain equipment types heavier was unpleasant as well. And something that kept being frustrating was the search mode being turned off when attacking or talking and needing to be turned back on manually each time even if there's no penalty for searching and therefore no reason to ever want it off, but forgetting to turn it back on each time meant ending up either running into traps or realizing I had to go back to look for any possible hidden treasures.
On the other hand, making so little use of the character's spirit was a wasted opportunity. It seems like it'd be an important aspect at first, but it pretty much just says a few things early on and warns you before meeting daevas. What bothered me more, however, was this implication that, despite the obvious questions about their methods, the Inquisition was on the good side, while the Druids, and possibly extending to Pagans, were clearly evil. The fact that the Inquisitors would have clearly been the best choice of faction for my character, considering the rewards offered, made it even worse, but I wasn't going to get on that path under any circumstances.

The Bottom Line
Overall, Lionheart is indeed a game of two parts, with a rather interesting setting and atmosphere that devolves into a chain of battles in areas plagued by lazy design after a point of no return that the player isn't even warned about triggering before it's done. It seems to promise more than it ends up delivering, but it can, for the most part, remain enjoyable if you know what to expect and can put up with some frustrating elements, even that second part not being as bad as some would make you believe, while at the same time the first part being equally plagued by the combat system that's unsuited for real time, the downright bad implementation of companions, the fact that magic users are at a disadvantage and various other design issues and quirks, plus that I personally rather dislike the character development system used. Nevertheless, there are some good design choices as well, some of them mitigating some of the flaws to some extent and a few, perhaps most notably the one ensuring that you won't lose experience in combat, even standing out in a good way.

Windows · by Cavalary (11445) · 2020

Nice magic system and backstory, but they botched the conversion to realtime and they botched game balance overall

The Good
The interesting alternate history and the rendering of the culture and characters were very well done. The interesting magic system, firmly rooted in the gameworld, was a welcome change from the two extremes one usually sees in CRPGs: cookie-cutter mix-and-match magic and idiosyncratic and interesting but unbalanced thematic magic. Many of the characters and quests in the first part of the game are interesting and at least a little original, taking advantage of the unique parts of the gameworld.

The Bad
Although a good conversion of the SPECIAL system for real-time combat could undoubtedly be done, this isn't it. Replacing sequence and action points with a small modifier to attack frequency seriously unbalances the basic stats (which were carefully balanced in the Fallouts). Making room for three magic colleges by sweeping all charisma-based skills into one makes it worse. All in all, SPECIAL was carefully crafted by designers who understood rule systems, and Lionheart's modifications don't work.

Worse, they upped the pace of combat to something frenetic enough that I find Diablo II easier to play. And despite the apparent understanding of how SPECIAL and Fallout allowed for diplomatic and sneaky characters as well as charging warriors, they made all of the NPC companions near-useless in combat and made the entire second half of the game require combat as the only solution.

They are very heavy-handed about borrowing historical characters, to the extent of moving famous characters through space and even time: The reason why Shakespeare is in Barcelona is extremely flimsy, and his conversation consists almost entirely of quotes from his plays. Cortez is given a flimsily-excused magical longevity reason to be in the game at all. Machiavelli, who could be a very interesting character and drive a great plot, is severely underused - I can't be more specific without including a spoiler. It's all pretty graceless.

The Bottom Line
If it weren't real-time, or if it weren't claiming a relationship to Fallout, this would be a decent game but not a great one. Certainly, the alternate history idea is so cool and - for such things, at least - believable that I plan to steal it for my high-weirdness FtF roleplaying campaign. But compared to the classics in whose shadow it stands, I'm very disappointed in this game.

Windows · by weregamer (155) · 2003

[ View all 4 player reviews ]

Discussion

Subject By Date
How is it? Unicorn Lynx (181788) Sep 2, 2014

Trivia

Fallout

Long before Lionheart's title was even released, it was being referred to as Fallout Fantasy due to its use of the SPECIAL system (originally found in Fallout) in a fantasy setting. Because of the common alternative, this spawned a rather humorous, if short-lived misinformed following of people actually believing the next Fallout game would take place in a fantasy setting.

Title

Black Isle Studios used to code-name its projects after U.S. presidents and vice-presidents, an idea by Josh Sawyer. Since Black Isle was not the main developer for this title, the code-name was Project Quincy, a name never held by a U.S. president.

Awards

  • Computer Games Magazine
    • March 2004 - #3 Worst Game of the Year 2003

Information also contributed by PCGamer77 and Sciere

Analytics

MobyPro Early Access

Upgrade to MobyPro to view research rankings!

Related Games

Crusader: No Remorse
Released 1995 on DOS, 1996 on PlayStation, Windows...
Crusader Kings
Released 2004 on Windows, 2005 on Macintosh
Dice Legacy
Released 2021 on Windows, Nintendo Switch
Rogue Legacy
Released 2013 on Windows, Linux, Macintosh...
FireFly Studios' Stronghold Crusader
Released 2002 on Windows
Stronghold Crusader II
Released 2014 on Windows
Legacy of Kain: Defiance
Released 2003 on PlayStation 2, Xbox, Windows
Lionheart
Released 2017 on Windows
Lionheart
Released 1992 on Amiga

Related Sites +

Identifiers +

  • MobyGames ID: 8635
  • [ Please login / register to view all identifiers ]

Contribute

Are you familiar with this game? Help document and preserve this entry in video game history! If your contribution is approved, you will earn points and be credited as a contributor.

Contributors to this Entry

Game added by kbmb.

Additional contributors: Unicorn Lynx, Apogee IV, Kabushi, Trond Berntsen, Patrick Bregger.

Game added March 13, 2003. Last modified February 13, 2024.