Legend of the Prophet & the Assassin

Rating:
Summary: A quest of redemption and betrayal in the Holy Land.....
Review: "Legend of the Prophet and the Assassin" by French developers Arxel Tribe (distributed in North America by Dreamcatcher Games) is a partial sequel to an earlier Arxel Tribe game, "Pilgrim: Weapon of Faith" (1997). In "Legend," which is actually two games, "The Legend of the Prophet and the Assassin" and "Secrets of Alamut," you play as As-Sayf, a Frankish knight and Crusader who has become a renegade in the scorching deserts of the Holy Land. As-Sayf is a feared warrior who is skilled with his scimitar, but he is haunted by his days of killing and plundering innocents.

The tale begins with As-Sayf (Tancrède de Nérac by birth, from Languedoc, France), arriving at the gates of Jebus, a utopian city built by the followers of Simon de Lancrois, the main character from "Pilgrim: Faith as a Weapon." But he is betrayed when he arrives to find a deserted city, inhabited only by an old grouch and his dog. As-Sayf sets off to Jerusalem, the city where he swore he would never return, fuelled by his hatred of Simon and his desire to find him and kill him.

Tancrède's past is quickly glossed over in the manual and a few brief mentions in cutscenes. Apparently he was wounded during the Crusades by an arrow in the throat, recovered and took up the name As-Sayf at the side of Uvak Khan. Later he became a renegade alongside Caradoc, a fellow Crusader. I wish they would have shown more of As-Sayf's Crusader past--perhaps another prequel is in store.

Graphics are fantastic--360-degree panning, lots of detail and vibrant colours. Sound effects are equally good, especially animal noises (camels, horses, dogs) and background noises (Jerusalem souk). Voice acting is above average, although some of the dialogue is a bit strained at times (i.e. archaic English). The soundtrack uses authentic Middle Eastern instruments, although there is not music in most of the scenes. The cutscenes were gorgeous, movie quality and the 3D modelling was incredibly lifelike. I only wish that there were more to fully flesh out the origins of our hero/assassin. I would love to see "The Legend of the Prophet and Assassin" in book form by Paulo Coelho, it would be a fabulous read.

I have read where readers have had massive problems getting the game to install/run properly, and I only encountered one small glitch during setup: I had to download an updated Windows Installer (v. 2) for the game to install. Also, at one point during part two (the slider puzzle with the days of the week) the music would lock up every 30 seconds or so, freezing the screen for a few seconds each time. But it was not enough to dampen my enthusiasm for this most unusual and enjoyable tale.

To be fair, "The Legend of the Prophet and the Assassin" is actually ONE game and should have been marketed as such. You have to uninstall Part One before you can install Part Two and vice versa, and you can't load your previously saved games from Part One in Part Two and vice versa, which makes for a bit of a hassle.

Part One ends with virtually NO ending, only a "To Be Continued" and a brief narration of tantalizing things to come accompanied by watercolour stills taken from "Secrets of Alamut." However, the conclusion to Part Two satisfied me on some levels but not all. You do not truly carry out your mission, and little is told of what became of As-Sayf. Still, the gameplay was filled with memorable characters and locations and had a great story (written by Brazilian author Paulo Coelho) to boot. There is little violence; emphasis is on problem solving and logic puzzles.

This is a game that will leave you thinking about the meaning of true faith and followers as well as the path to personal redemption and our accountability for past actions. This is a great game (games?) that deserves more attention. And if you can find "Pilgrim: Faith as a Weapon" (try eBay or Arxel Tribe's website) be sure to snatch it up as well.

Rating:
Summary: 1001 Arabian Nights for the Thinking Person
Review: as a warning -- this is an arxel tribe product. dreamcatcher hides this fact by placing his logo (a very small logo) on the bottom of the box, where most people never look. if you like games by him, enjoy. the vast majority of people who i've talked to don't like his games and won't buy them. usually, you can spot the designer logo on the front of a box. the fact that they put it on the bottom indicates that maybe publisher is trying to hide it ?????

Rating:
Summary: BEWARE - another arxel tribe piece of junk
Review: as a warning -- this is an arxel tribe product. dreamcatcher hides this fact by placing his logo (a very small logo) on the bottom of the box, where most people never look. if you like games by him, enjoy. the vast majority of people who i've talked to don't like his games and won't buy them. usually, you can spot the designer logo on the front of a box. the fact that they put it on the bottom indicates that maybe publisher is trying to hide it ?????

Rating:
Summary: 1001 Arabian Nights for the Thinking Person
Review: I prefer puzzle games to first-person shooters. I like to use my brain rather than my reflexes. I found the plot of Prophet and Assassin to be compelling. It was rewarding to help the desert bandit, As-Sayif, turn into a tragic hero.

This game seems to be orignally designed as two separate collections of Arabian adventures. While I had a few technical problems with the sound during the animated sequences, the game gave me many enjoyable hours of gameplay. Sometimes it's the plot and not the interface that matters. For this price, the Prophet and the Assassin is a steal.

Rating:
Summary: 1001 Nights, Templar Edition
Review: OK, lets jump right into the meat of it; why the 4 stars?
Star 1 goes to STORY: This is one of the most engrossing video game stories to be penned in recent memory.
Star 2 goes to GRAPHICS: Gorgeous, lusheous, outstanding movie quality stuff here, really a work of art.
Star 3 goes to SOUNDTRACK: Authentic sometimes hauntingly beautiful Arabic music complete with modal 1/3 and 3/4 tone melodies played on genuine Arabic instruments, by what I suspect are real Arab musicians.
Star 4 goes to VALUE: You WILL get many, many hours of playtime from this product, and it rivals many other similar products sold for double this amount. Additionally, and oh what a pleasant surprise, the game ran just fine on my Windows XP home addition Notebook!
Now then, since it's so good, why not 5 stars you may ask? Well, to use an Arabic proverb appropriate to the subject matter; Perfection is for God alone. The interface, though it is the comfortable old style point and click type, is at certain moments cumbersome and annoying. Oh well...

Now that we have dispensed with the technical, let's touch upon the story, settings, and actual gameplay which are the game's most impressive features: This story is so strong and engrossing it should be developed into a full scale novel, or at least a fully fledged screenplay. This is an epoch of history that has received little attention in modern literature. And although bookstores (and your friendly e-tailer) are full of books concerning the Templars, and the military and sometimes sociological aspects of the crusader period (1099-1291 AD), there are far too few epic adventure accounts from what surely was a most remarkable and crucial turning point for both Islamic and Christian civilizations. From a writer's perspective, the period just screams for romance adventures and tall tales of heroes, poets and fools. This is such a tale, and therefore it comes off as fresh, imaginative and engrossing. It successfully intertwines Arabic history, folklore, and mysticism (Yes, there really was an "Old man of the Mountain" and an assassin sect - the word comes from the Arabic "Hashashin"), with the most noble of western quests: The heroic, chivalric, sometimes tragic and ultimately romantic quest for meaning through the discovery and unfolding of the hero's inner self. I particularly enjoyed the mystical and appropriately open ending, since self discovery quests are very personal and intangible to a secondary party by nature, and the ending here is true to the form and succeeds brilliantly, leaving the player with a sense of not only satisfaction but most importantly wonder. Sure some would like a more definitive knowledge of the ultimate fate of our hero; however the point here is not to mimic crass Hollywood, but to leave the door open for personal speculation and imagination; to pave the way for the personal interpretation of the legend or myth. This is an aspect seldom achieved in the electronic gaming medium, and is most refreshing here. Again, the strength of the story, characters, authentic settings, backdrops, dialogue, scenarios and the sheer immersive quality of this game all serve this well.

This is not to say that this game is just an active stroll through the hero's personal mystical movie; here are puzzles requiring feats of deduction and intuition, a whole cast of genuine characters including demons, idiots, ghosts and kings to be grappled with, plus an array of interesting and sometimes thought provoking tasks and challenges requiring emotional, logical, and quick witted thinking or reactions, where the slow reaction, answer, or blade is a passport to a certain quick demise. For some players a walkthrough may be necessary, and many are found easily on the net.

If you are at all interested in the subject matter and the time period, then I highly recommend this game. It works well on all levels of the gaming experience. It is designed and rendered with intelligence and almost faultless attention to the game world's details. It engages the mature game player both cerebrally and viscerally, and leaves one most satisfied. A true epic adventure and well worth your time and money. Happy gaming!

Rating:
Summary: 1001 Nights, Templar Edition
Review: OK, lets jump right into the meat of it; why the 4 stars?
Star 1 goes to STORY: This is one of the most engrossing video game stories to be penned in recent memory.
Star 2 goes to GRAPHICS: Gorgeous, lusheous, outstanding movie quality stuff here, really a work of art.
Star 3 goes to SOUNDTRACK: Authentic sometimes hauntingly beautiful Arabic music complete with modal 1/3 and 3/4 tone melodies played on genuine Arabic instruments, by what I suspect are real Arab musicians.
Star 4 goes to VALUE: You WILL get many, many hours of playtime from this product, and it rivals many other similar products sold for double this amount. Additionally, and oh what a pleasant surprise, the game ran just fine on my Windows XP home addition Notebook!
Now then, since it's so good, why not 5 stars you may ask? Well, to use an Arabic proverb appropriate to the subject matter; Perfection is for God alone. The interface, though it is the comfortable old style point and click type, is at certain moments cumbersome and annoying. Oh well...

Now that we have dispensed with the technical, let's touch upon the story, settings, and actual gameplay which are the game's most impressive features: This story is so strong and engrossing it should be developed into a full scale novel, or at least a fully fledged screenplay. This is an epoch of history that has received little attention in modern literature. And although bookstores (and your friendly e-tailer) are full of books concerning the Templars, and the military and sometimes sociological aspects of the crusader period (1099-1291 AD), there are far too few epic adventure accounts from what surely was a most remarkable and crucial turning point for both Islamic and Christian civilizations. From a writer's perspective, the period just screams for romance adventures and tall tales of heroes, poets and fools. This is such a tale, and therefore it comes off as fresh, imaginative and engrossing. It successfully intertwines Arabic history, folklore, and mysticism (Yes, there really was an "Old man of the Mountain" and an assassin sect - the word comes from the Arabic "Hashashin"), with the most noble of western quests: The heroic, chivalric, sometimes tragic and ultimately romantic quest for meaning through the discovery and unfolding of the hero's inner self. I particularly enjoyed the mystical and appropriately open ending, since self discovery quests are very personal and intangible to a secondary party by nature, and the ending here is true to the form and succeeds brilliantly, leaving the player with a sense of not only satisfaction but most importantly wonder. Sure some would like a more definitive knowledge of the ultimate fate of our hero; however the point here is not to mimic crass Hollywood, but to leave the door open for personal speculation and imagination; to pave the way for the personal interpretation of the legend or myth. This is an aspect seldom achieved in the electronic gaming medium, and is most refreshing here. Again, the strength of the story, characters, authentic settings, backdrops, dialogue, scenarios and the sheer immersive quality of this game all serve this well.

This is not to say that this game is just an active stroll through the hero's personal mystical movie; here are puzzles requiring feats of deduction and intuition, a whole cast of genuine characters including demons, idiots, ghosts and kings to be grappled with, plus an array of interesting and sometimes thought provoking tasks and challenges requiring emotional, logical, and quick witted thinking or reactions, where the slow reaction, answer, or blade is a passport to a certain quick demise. For some players a walkthrough may be necessary, and many are found easily on the net.

If you are at all interested in the subject matter and the time period, then I highly recommend this game. It works well on all levels of the gaming experience. It is designed and rendered with intelligence and almost faultless attention to the game world's details. It engages the mature game player both cerebrally and viscerally, and leaves one most satisfied. A true epic adventure and well worth your time and money. Happy gaming!

Rating:
Summary: Tedious and outdated
Review: The game looks beautiful, at least to start. It has a great, authentic soundtrack and an excellent premise. But the gameplay is very awkward.

It relies on a technology that I first saw at least six years ago, the clicking of the mouse to advance one picture frame at a time. No sense of realism at all. Sorry guys, but in the age of games like Thief and even Quake, this is just dull.

The commands don't always seem to work. Right at the beginning, I had to try one move at least six or seven times to get it to work (involving clicking the mouse in the correct area onscreen), and I'm not an inexperienced video game player.

Plus, the installation CD is also the first CD to insert to play (there are four CDs as the game progresses), so everytime I insert it to play, it wants to automatically install the game! I cannot figure out how to stop it from doing this, other than to cancel out of everything. There's no explanation for this in the booklet.

So, save your money. It looks good on the surface, but there's some real problems with it, and the mechanics of it make it feel like a game from the early 90s.