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Computer Times
Editors' Choice Game The First Templar Review by Angie Kibiloski
The First Templar (Retail $39.99 for PC, $49.99 for Xbox 360), from Kalypso Media, is a really enjoyable action title, set in the 13th century, during the time of the Order of the Knights Templar. Your ultimate mission is the search for the Holy Grail, but throughout your journey, you will undertake smaller missions for the good of humanity and the Christian church. Not only is this game a whole lot of fun, but it’s really interesting too. Along the way, you’ll find yourself learning quite a bit about the history of the Templars, from their beginning and the reason for their creation, to their values and the huge number of rules in their code of conduct. Of course, if history isn’t your thing, you can always skip the dialogues and go straight for the hacking, slashing, sword fighting battle sequences. Don’t worry about the body count weighing on your poor Knight’s eternal soul…all killings are sanctioned by your loving pope, in the name of the lord, and for the sake of honor and righteousness. It’s good to be a Knight.
As you journey through the world, you’ll travel around some very beautiful locations, like the island of Cyprus, the holy city of Acre, and the dark and mysterious Misty Forest. As stunning as the places are, they are also dangerous, and enemies can be found around any corner. You must keep your eyes open and employ all of your skills of caution, stealth, and swordplay if you want to stay alive. You’ll find yourself matching your blade with bandits, Saracen soldiers, dogs, and even a giant or two. Not every moment is about fighting though. Very often, you’ll take a break from the blood and glory to talk with the locals (in the form of nicely animated cut scenes) and get a feel for the situation, or acquire a new mission to attend to. You’ll even partake in frequent witty banter with your traveling companions. This banter isn’t necessarily helpful, but it is a nice little humorous touch. With each small mission, you feel like you are really working to accomplish something worth the effort, not just a meaningless menial task like in other games. You are freeing innocent people from evil or oppression, and making the world a more just place, one good deed at a time. You are a true knight with a pure heart. Unfortunately, all holy men and Knights are not as pious, and you may find betrayal and darkness in the ranks of men you would have once believed to be beyond reproach. Stay strong, and their evil will not touch you.
The game play mechanics are super easy, allowing for maximum enjoyment of the game. With a minimum number of keyboard controls, and the easy use of the mouse for fighting, you can keep your mind focused more on the action on screen and less on what your fingers are doing. There’s not a lot of HUD icons cluttering the screen either, only the convenient health bars and the mini map, which shows all of your mission locations, health items, and treasure to be found with handy color coded dots. You can get the lay of the land and the status of your character with a quick glance. You have 2 characters available to you at all times in the game: Celian, the main character in this story, and one of a couple companions, including Roland, a fellow Templar Knight, and Marie, a beautiful daughter of a Knight, both of whom are skilled fighters and great comrades in battle. You can switch back and forth between Celian and his companion anytime you choose, or you can play cooperatively with another player on the same console, or online in multi-player mode, to get the full benefit of both characters at all times. As you gain Experience Points, either through actions you perform, battles you win, or treasure you discover, you can unlock new skills, with each character having their own unique skill choices. The skill tree is easy to use as well, allowing you to ultimately unlock all the skills, instead of making you choose one specialty, like some games. You can also collect special weapons and outfits for the different characters, by discovering them in treasure chests. These don’t seem to benefit your fighting or defense, but they do look pretty cool.
It takes a lot to impress me with action games, usually because they use a fairly standard formula. A great game, which I will continue to play beyond reviewing, needs two things: playability and an interesting story. The First Templar delivers on both of these. A first time player will be able to jump right in without having to memorize massive amounts of controls. In fact, the game will prompt you when a new control is about to be introduced. The controls are very intuitive as well, and require minimum effort on the part of the player to employ. With the ability to change the difficulty level of the game, all types of players will be able to finish the game without either becoming too frustrated or too bored. The storyline is engaging, propelling you forward from mission to mission with a combination of historical facts and the desire to set the world right. Along with multi-dimensional characters, the quest to achieve the Holy Grail and rid the earth of evil should be enough to hold any player. It sets the perfect balance between battle and plot. The First Templar offers many hours of in-depth game play, spanning a wide array of locales, and a great variety of missions, and yet, at its heart shines the simple story of a devoted Knight, armed only with his sword and his religious conviction.
You can purchase a boxed retail copy or as a download through Amazon or Steam. System Requirements:
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