Arkadian Warriors - Review

Added January 3rd, 2008 by LightK

Team together developer Wanako Games (Assault Heroes) and publisher Sierra Online and you’re guaranteed to experience an unusual offspring. This time around from the union is Arkadian Warriors. A dungeon crawler! Fondly recalling time spent on Baldur’s Gate, I jumped right in, ready to return control of Arkadia to the townspeople.

At the start, you’ll choose to play as a soldier, sorceress or archer. Each job has their own unique fighting ability and alter ego (YEAH! You get to shape-shift!). I chose the cute little sorceress and was on my way. After quickly finding myself viewing the “game over” screen, I realized I had unwisely chosen and restarted as a hack-n-slash warrior. Looking back, I know I should’ve reigned in my excitement and spent time in the extremely thorough “how to play” section.

You’ll begin equipped with a weapon and armor. Time to locate the gold dot on the mini-map/radar and speak to the townsperson NPC handing out the quest (19 quests in all). Each will have its own objective such as find a lost doll, kill “X” number of monsters, free the lieutenants among others. You enter the dungeon (either solo or in local or XBL co-op) ready to complete your mission. To this end, you’ll be presented with treasure chests (make sure you plunder those for gold, health or manna potions, and even weapons), traps (spikes thrust from the ground), and a multitude of monsters. As you battle, you’ll gain experience in true RPG fashion. Leveling up enables you to purchase and equip better weapons and armor.

At an easy glance, you can determine your health (red bar), magic/manna (blue bar) and alter ego (yellow bar). In the same area, you will be able to tell if you are currently carrying any potions. With a simple push of the d-pad, you can instantly replenish health, manna and your alter-ego. Controls are easy to learn and master.

Visuals are superior to what I expected to see (remember, it’s still an XBL game). The music stays where it should be, in my opinion, in the background and not distract from the game. When close to death, you’ll hear the rapid thumping of your heart warning you to heal NOW.

You have the option of repeating any and all quests, whether you played solo or co-op. Each time, the monster spawns, drops and map will change. This prevents the same ol’, same ol’ that prevails in so many games today and I applaud this distinction.

As with any game, “I wish” and “I hate” are abundant. Arkadian Warriors is no exception. Story line is nil. I found myself becoming “stuck” with the camera angles more than once. The last boss was too easy. But, with the amount of fun to be had, both solo and multi-player co-op and length of game, I cannot recommend this title enough. It is definitely worth the 800 Microsoft Points.