Reviewed: January 24, 2003
Reviewed by: Mark Smith
Publisher
JoWood Productions
Developer
Metropolis Software
Released: November 30, 2002
Genre: Adventure
Players: 1
ESRB: Mature
7
7
8
7
7.8
System Requirements
Recommended System
I got my start in gaming more than 20 years ago when I played a little text adventure called Zork: The Great Underground Empire on a 10” black-n-white screen on a TRS-80 computer. Now, PC gaming seems to be on the verge of withering away and dying; the life-giving light of consumer interest and dollars being blocked out by the massive shadow of console gaming.
So whenever a new PC title come along for review my curiosity is immediately peaked. Who dares to defy the overwhelming power of the almighty console? It seems that most of the newer PC games are being developed overseas and brought to domestic shores by visionary publishers like JoWood Productions, the very company responsible for bringing us Archangel.
Archangel is a unique – very unique – adventure game that offers an eclectic mix of weapon combat, spells, explorations, puzzle solving, and one of the most interesting stories to come to the PC in a long time. The game opens with our unnamed hero driving down a lonely stretch of winding road…suddenly…blinding lights…CRASH…and all goes dark.
When you regain consciousness you are lying on the cold stone floor of an ancient monastery with a crow picking at your flesh. You are quickly met by several brothers of the Order who don’t do a very good job of filling in the missing pieces of your past, but they do have very specific plans for your future. After finding out your name is Michael and receiving your initial “quest” you undergo some brief training and then you are sent out into a strange and frightening new world.
Archangel features:
- Thrilling and atmospheric plot, set between science fiction and fantasy, creating a unique world that offers the player unusual conflicts and characters.
- Player character development is dependent on the players decisions: one of two character classes can be chosen, offering different abilities and advantages.
- Three main chapters, divided into several sub quests and dozens of locations, combine real locations with never seen before landscapes and fascinating architecture.
- Computer controlled characters get to life. The AI system is not behaving passive, but is reacting on the players actions and is a vital part of the plot.
- The best elements of RPG's - character development, exploration, "thinking" NPC's and Monsters - meet the best elements of action games
- Epic story with hundreds of audio samples, completely localized.
Archangel blends a unique mix of fantasy and science fiction that manages to lurk in the shadows of the story until you suddenly realize you have magically shape shifted into a super-warrior with a magical sword and are cleaving your way through neo-nazi-like soldiers wielding machine guns in a futuristic Germany.
The game spans three large chapters, each taking place in a unique era and world environment. When you first start off, the game appears to be your typical medieval romp with fanciful locations, wild creatures, magical spells, and supernatural events, but once you step through that portal and end up in the future, Archangel becomes an entirely different game. You may trade in your sword for an shotgun, but you still have your supernatural abilities given to you by the Lord of Light plus any magical spells you have acquired up to that point.
I must make a special mention of the Lord of Light. You meet this god-like being early in the game and he offers you the choice of two supernatural paths to take throughout the rest of the adventure. You can choose to become a powerful warrior or a mystical ghost-like being. In RPG terms, this is basically you choosing whether to become a Thief or a Warrior, but your choice not only affects your future abilities, it also tailors the gameplay for the next 15-20 hours effectively giving you two complete games for the price of one. The warrior is the “in your face” fighter and the ghost is the stealthy prowler that sneaks around and avoids many encounters.
Gameplay mechanics are as basic as they can get, and Archangel plays much like any third-person action-adventure title. You move around using the WADS cluster and look and fight using the mouse. You will acquire plenty of weapons in addition to your magical extensions given to you based on your character selection.
The inventory is nicely handled with a pop-up grid that shows all your weapons and spells. You navigate this grid using your normal movement keys and click the fire to activate the spell or arm the weapon or use an item. My big complaint here is that as you add items to your inventory your cursor position is constantly shifting. One of my favorite tactics was to keep my cursor on the Health or Warrior icon then in a tight spot I could open inventory and fire and do whatever I needed to do. But, if I had picked up any new items in the meantime my inventory cursor has now shifted and I may inadvertently use an item or activate a spell I didn’t really want to.
My only other complaint with the actually gameplay is the fact that you have to manually pick-up every item you want to add to your inventory. Those of you who are used to simply running over items and have them leap into your backpack will be in for quite the shock. If you find yourself standing in a room with 8 ammo clips, 4 rockets, and 2 health packs you are going to have to hit the spacebar (or whatever your “action” key is) 14 times to get them all. And it’s not instantaneous either; there is a pick-up animation that plays for each collection so you literally have to watch him pick up each item.
Michael has a Physical and a Spirit bar that shows you his current status at any time during the game. Spirit energy will slowly regenerate over time and is used to power the spells and magical weapons in your inventory. Essence points are awarded for slaying the enemy and you can spend these to purchase new spells and upgrade existing ones. There are plenty of creative spells that lend themselves to challenging gameplay including shield, invisibility, night vision, and even a powerful spell to convert spirit energy into physical energy – a fancy way of saying “healing”.
You are given a diary that you can call up at any time to get details on any available quests. Quests are given to you by the monks, the Lord of Light, and the various other characters you will encounter throughout the rest of the game. You are rewarded with essence points upon completing the quest. Some quests are merely optional diversions while others are critical to advancing the main story.
Despite my few minor complaints, Archangel is a very enjoyable game and one of the better PC adventures I have played in a long time. I loved the large arsenal of weapons and magic attacks. There was always something new and exciting to experiment with. I REALLY loved the “auto-health usage”, which saved Michael’s tattooed butt on more than one occasion. Basically, if you lose all your health and you have a healing item in your inventory he uses it automatically. Every game should at least make this an option. There is nothing worse than dying with a health pack in your inventory.
The levels are HUGE and often confusing and I was constantly wishing for a map; either one I could find within the confines of the story or at least an auto-mapping function. While it was clever at first to have to ask cops for directions and then read street signs to navigate the giant city in chapter two, it just got annoying after about an hour.
The load times were painfully long (on my 1.6ghz Athalon) and with all of the “backtracking” between map areas this game forces upon you I spent a lot of time looking at those orange splash screens. Even hitting the QuickSave key prompts a 2-5 second save bar. You might be inclined to forgive these lengthy load times when you discover that every monster or person you have slain is kept in the game forever. I ran across the very first creature I killed nearly 6 hours after I had killed it, and only then did I realize (in shock and amazement) that all of my victims’ bodies were still lying around the levels. This creates an amazing sense of continuity, but in the end I would trade the effect for shorter load times.
Visually, the game was hit and miss. There are some spiritual and demonic overtones to the title and plenty of violence to warrant the M rating. There’s not a whole lot of blood, but some of the imagery was quite disturbing, mostly in a creative design sense. I loved the haunting, almost alien-like demon designs and the huge (yet simple) architecture. Some of the indoor areas like the monastery and the castle in the haunted cemetery were amazing in scope and detail. The Crash Test Dummy bar was awesome as was the multi-level Blue Moon Hotel with glass floors that let you see all the way to the ground floor. I must make special mention of the final chapter that literally takes place in "hell". This has to be the sickest, most evil, vile, and coolest level I have ever seen in an action game. I literally had chills the entire time I played this final chapter, and some of the animated textures such as the dripping red sheets of eyeballs and bolts of blue electricity simply have to be seen to be believed.
Character design is excellent with the muscular tattooed body of Michael dominating the screen for most of the game. When he shifts into the Warrior of Light complete with glowing giant sword that crackles with energy, the effect is mesmerizing. Other enemies like the fire-spitting pod plants, treacherous archers, deformed zombies, and lumbering Yeti all look and move with great artistic flair. There is even an informative “monster manual” included in your diary to give you info and tips on beating these creatures.
The outdoor areas and character design had the graphical style of Anarchy Online (if you have played that), that tend to keep things simple in order to create vast environments and keep them moving at adequate speeds. I never had a problem with framerate in this game. Everything was smooth, even in the most populated of areas, and there was only minimal pop-up in the larger city levels when buildings would pop onto the horizon.
Special effects were wonderfully original and vibrant with colorful animations, particle effects, and real-time lighting that enhanced everything from a simple healing spell to going partially invisible or morphing into the Warrior of Light. Some of the most atmospheric moments were in the Cave of the Seven Signs, a dark catacomb lit only by these colored crystal shards sticking out of the floor and the walls. Very cool!
The opening movie and various cutscenes in the game are all created using the game engine graphics. This does a great job of blending the movies and the game together in a seamless fashion that may have you wondering when you actually have control over Michael.
Voice acting ranged from horrible to terribly horribly. The causal encounters on the street were acted out better than most of the leads in this game with the exception of Arquan who managed to pull of a consistently good performance. Mark was perhaps the worse. He ran his sentences all together and didn't even follow the punctuation cues of the subtitles. Very confusing. Michael had that Lance Henricksen or Michael Ironside monotone drone that was kind of cool when playing the “tough guy” but often it seemed inappropriate in routine conversation with somebody like a cop or a desk clerk.
As bad as the acting may have been, the music certainly rises to the occasion with the absolute best soundtrack of any PC adventure game I played in 2002. The haunting orchestra music combined with chanting choir voices did an incredible job of enhancing the gameplay experience, especially in the early fantasy levels. And when you go into specialty areas like the nightclub you get some authentic techno dance tunes that really help to immerse you in the experience.
Special effects were all really well done ranging from typical machine gun fire to the supernatural sounds of demonic voices, arcane spells whizzing and fizzing, and plenty of realistic environmental effects such as forest wildlife, ambient city effects, and such.
Once you get past the bad voice acting you find that Archangel offers one of the best quality audio experiences of the year, but that leads me to my one major complaint in this area and perhaps my biggest complaint with the entire game. As of this review I have logged about 27 hours with this game, having finished it as a warrior and now playing as a ghost. Without fail, at least once an hour I will lose sound effects in this game and have to exit to Windows and restart to get them back. The music continues just fine, but all speech and sound effects simply vanish. Archangel has been out for about 6 weeks as of this review and there have been no patches or even an answer to my tech support request regarding this issue, which seems to be affecting many people who are playing this game. It’s not a huge issue, but it is certainly annoying and mood breaking to have to restart the game once an hour. It might not be happening to everyone but be warned - this problem does exist.
You can easily expect 15-20 hours of intense action out of Archangel and then you can do it all over again as the character type you didn’t pick the first time. While the quests are laid out the same and the game follows the same plot, each character class offers a substantially unique experience to encourage a second trip through Archangel.
Some of the secondary quests are not even readily apparent, and I’ve stumbled onto a few new quests that I missed on my first trip through simply by finding NPC’s that I overlooked or failed to talk to during my first adventure. If you play this game to total completion you can expect 30-40 hours of gameplay before you stick it on the shelf.
Archangel is a truly unique experience. It is part action, part adventure, and all style. The character class divergence at the beginning of the game is a brilliant move on the designers’ part and is guaranteed to make you play this game at least twice. The story is quite clever and even though you will be figuring things out long before the characters in the game do, there are still plenty of surprises to keep you on your toes.
If you are looking for a superior action-adventure title that spans fantasy and sci-fi, with spells, weapons, and a great supernatural storyline that revolves around the ultimate battle of Good vs. Evil then Archangel is the game you have been waiting for. There are a few flaws, but nothing that can’t be overlooked or pushed aside long enough to enjoy this wonderful experience.