First, let me just say that I enjoyed the game, but a big part of the reason I gave this 4 stars is because I paid around $10 including shipping. If this were more like $20 or $30, I would probably give it 3 stars.



As my title states, this isn't a bad game by any means, but it's definitely not a great game either. As other reviewers have said, this game would be great if you're looking for something to kill time or something to hold you over until the next big game comes out, but it's not something that's going to suck you in and really hold your attention. I've been playing it off and on for the past couple weeks and I just don't have that desire to get back to it like I've had with other games.



The story is pretty linear, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it detracts from the reality of the game. For the most part, you can't really explore much of the world, you just follow the path that's clearly laid out in front of you. The area you're in may look big and open, but you'll quickly discover that you can actually get to only about 25% of it because of conveniently-placed debris and obstacles all over the place. It gets to be a little frustrating at times because things like small rocks or tree trunks that look like you should easily be able to get around (not to mention the fairly-common invisible wall) will forever keep you from going outside of the strict path the developers made for you. This makes exploration much easier though, not that you'll really need it since the majority of things you would want to find are explicitly marked on your mini-map anyway.



Everything is voice acted, which is nice, but it gets a little cheesy or over-dramatic at times. Overall it's pretty good though, so I'm not docking it for that. The character animations in cut scenes are also rather poor, but I think the details on the characters is actually kind of impressive compared to the scope of the rest of the game. The combat can get a little stale since you can play it as a straight hack-n-slash, but there are a few options you can use to spice it up a little. For instance, instead of clicking like crazy until all the bad guys are dead, you can time your swings just right to deal more damage or use button combinations to do different attacks. I don't really use any of the combination attacks though since they can be a little awkward to use and it's hard to remember which buttons do what. That's partly my keyboard's fault though. One thing I am impressed by are the "finishing" moves that your character does sometimes as the final blow to an enemy. The game will kind of go to a little cut scene where your character does a fancy manuever to kill the guy you're fighting. I'd have to say my favorite is when he spins and sweeps the enemy off his feet into the air then finishes his spin by kicking the guy in the chest out of mid-air.



I know I haven't done much besides complain about the game, but I honestly think it is a decent game if you can get it at a low price. It's a little easier than I would've liked because it pretty much spells everything out for you. You don't really have to figure anything out for yourself. But, the combat is decent if you don't mind hack-n-slash and it even has a few puzzles thrown in there to keep things interesting. There are treasure chests scattered here and there with little bonuses that you might have to actually look for, but anything essential to the game is pretty much handed to you, other than winning a battle anyway.



To sum up, if you're looking for something to immerse yourself in and get lost in the game, you should probably look elsewhere. But, if you're looking for a basic RPG to pass the time with, then you may have found your answer. I just wouldn't pay more than $10-$15 for it.



EDIT:



I thought of a few things I didn't originally cover that are worth mentioning.



As far as quests go, you have the main quest of searching for the Holy Grail which leads you from one level (or "chapters" as they're called in the game) to the next. Besides the main quest, you'll find a couple "bonus" quests that you stumble on in each chapter, which are normally laid out so that you finish them concurrently with the main quest (I use the phrase "stumble on" lightly as they will normally find you). The bonus quests mainly serve as a way to keep things interesting so the entire game isn't just "start at beginning of chapter, fight some bad guys, run to end of chapter, repeat." Completing these bonus quests isn't necessary to finish the game, but you might as well complete them since, like I said, their objectives are normally laid out in the path you take to get to the next chapter anyway. It's uncommon that you'll have to go out of your way to finish a bonus quest. On that note though, make sure you finish or find everything you're looking for while you're in the area before moving on to the next checkpoint in the main quest since there is no back-tracking, because in many instances, when you reach the next checkpoint the game will go into a cut scene and you'll instantly appear in a different area, leaving any unfinished or unexplored items inaccessible.



In each chapter, your mini-map will point you to the next main quest checkpoint with a yellow arrow. Any bonus quests you find will show up as a blue arrow, and chests will show up as a white arrow. However, not all chests will show up on your mini-map; some actually need to be found the old-fashioned way. Where this game differs from a lot of other games though is NONE of the items you find in chests are necessary, at least not that I can recall. Most things you'll find in chests are just temporary bonuses for that specific chapter (like extra health or a new combat move), additional experience points, or part of a new outfit/costume. New weapons can be found in chests, but do they actually benefit you at all? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ As far as I can tell, all weapons and articles of clothing that you can find are nothing more than a costume change. There's no stats in the game so any weapons you find don't really seem like they perform any better, they just look different from your old ones.



There's also no real "leveling-up" of the characters. Sure, as you gain experience points you can spend them on perks like new combat moves, extra health, extra zeal (basically stamina), etc... but that's about the extent of it. The characters never actually get stronger or faster as you progress through the game. Technically, I believe you could beat the game without finding a single chest or upgrading a single perk. Granted, the game would get rather difficult at times because some of the battles can be rather daunting. Now, I don't necessarily think games should require you to find upgrades just to beat the game, but in this case, the game doesn't really give you the satisfaction of improving your character that is found in other games, like in the Elder Scrolls installments. It's just a little disappointing that after all the battles and tribulations you go through, you don't really have much to show for it. Your character at the end is essentially the same as when you started, just in different clothes. Although now that I think about it, that's basically how the Zelda games are and I really enjoyed those... I guess take what you will from that.



All in all, for around $10 this game is fairly enjoyable. If you like RPG's despite no character customization or leveling, then I would recommend this game if you can find it on sale. Like I said, the gameplay is loosely akin to Zelda, but without any crucial items or weapons to find or interesting puzzles (most puzzles just involve switching between characters to pull levers in a certain order) and the game is shorter overall.



*Note: Just for reference, I ran this game on a low-end Windows 8 desktop. The majority of the game ran smoothly on medium to high detail, but in some areas with swarms of enemies or lots of burning buildings, the frame rate would drop considerably. Nothing that made it unplayable, but it was enough to be annoying at times. But like I said, that's probably mostly because I'm using a cheap computer though. Also, no internet connection is needed. My computer doesn't have internet and I was able to install it to the hard drive and run it without the disc.