Rating: 
Summary: I have enjoyed this game
Review: I knew this product was Black Isle, so I was hoping it was on the same level as the Fallout series. I was not disappointed.This game is not a straight dungeon crawl. There are a multitude of quests to go on, and a lot of them involve running back and forth to places you have already been. (I personally hate that!) I think this may be more combat oriented than Fallout, and there isn't that dreaded timeline you have to beat. You simply get a quest, and accomplish it. Also, unlike Fallout, this game doesn't appear to have a turned based mode. It is live, which is fine, because that enforces more tactics, while still allowing you to function easily. I'm almost done with it, and I am looking forward to loading it on the wife's computer, so we can try multiplayer. A solid game.
Rating: 
Summary: What's that smell?
Review: I love history, and I love RPGs, so it goes without saying I was anticipating "Lionheart" for a long time. The game has an interesting premise, and it uses Fallout's "SPECIAL" system. I thought that Reflexive and Black Isle could not possibly screw up this great combination. Boy was I wrong. "Lionheart" is poor in every category. This terrible game simply does not have one redeeming quality about it. To start off with, the 2-year outdated graphics are mediocre, creature and character animations stink, and the artwork is nonexistent. Every screen is covered end-to-end in grey or black and has the visual appeal of an IRS 1040 form or a dirty ash tray. You can let your imagination run wild with how exotic and cool Medieval Europe could have looked after a great big cosmic magical rift. I say "you" could, because the designers for this game obviously didn't. Where are the snow-capped mountains, exotic palaces, beautiful forests, and lakes? They're in "Divine Divinity", that's where. "Lionheart" looks more like Wyoming after a great big forest fire. "Divine Divinity" is but one game puts "Lionheart" to shame in the graphics department (and everything else as well). All of the recent Dungeons and Dragons games look better than this, because of their exceptional artwork and creativity. Even the flop sci-fi "Harbinger" looked better than this. But graphics don't really matter that much do they? I guess not - I could easily ignore them, but the gameplay is terrible too. The way that the turn-based SPECIAL system has been butchered in this game is inexcusable. A real-time game that uses a turn-based system can succeed if you can pause the game to issue orders. That is why real-time Dungeons and Dragons have been so successful. However, this game has the mind-bogglingly stupid feature of NOT letting you do this. You can pause the game, but not to issue attack orders. There is no autopause feature that stops the game for you when someone rushes onto the screen. The tactical genius and elegance that made Fallout's combat great is nonexistent. That leaves you with a real-time, extremely low quality Diablo clone, complete with a red bulb for health, and a blue bulb for mana. You left-click to attack, you use a hotkey to select your active spell, and then right-click to cast the spell. How groundbreaking. "Diablo clone" would be a compliment for "Lionheart" though, because the combat engine is pitiful otherwise. Enemies are unoriginal and poorly animated. You reveal the fog of war by exploring ugly areas and run into ugly, repetitive enemies bit-by-bit. They simply yell out a "raawwrrr!" and rush at you at light speed, before you can cast more than one spell or fire an arrow from your useless bow. If you specialize in ranged combat or magic, you literally will not survive the first area of this game, no matter how many times you reload. This game is more unbalanced towards melee characters than "Arcanum" was. The game's intrusive interface blocks your view of the world by taking up almost a third of the screen, but it somehow still manages to be functionally inadequate. (A dubious accomplishment). You only get 7, that's right, 7 hotkeys for spells, and other actions. Compare that with games like Neverwinter Nights, which made full use of the "F" keys for 36 total hotkeys. Expect to find yourself casting the same few unimpressively-animated spells over and over. Needless to say, I did not finish this game, so I cannot comment about the story from start-to-finish. However, I can say that the portion of the game that I played through offered no indication that it would be special. "I am some sort of mysterious chosen one, and some bad men want to kill me because of it" is the basic premise. A cliche storyline is nothing new, and some games are still great in spite of it, but it's not enough to make you want to toil through a game that is just plain bad. I wanted to love this game, but I can't. I tried to like it, but I failed. Reflexive alienated hardcore RPG fans by screwing up the "SPECIAL" system, and then screwed up the mindless action so that "Diablo" fans could hate it too. I wish that I could say that it's a simple hack-and-slash adventure, but I can"t, because the hack-and-slash aspects of the game stink. "Lionheart" is by far the worst RPG that I have played since before Baldurs Gate, and I am thinking it might be the worst I have ever played. A trashpile like this doesn't even deserve the bargain bin.
Rating:
Summary: Do not buy this game unless...
Review: I repeat do not buy this game unless you are completely desperate for a crpg (i.e. you have played all others in existence). I played the demo and the full release is just as bad.
Rating: 
Summary: Game had an unfinished quality...
Review: I'm at a lull in between playing the newer releases, and decided to pick up Lionheart on a whim. Even at a fraction of the original cost, I found this game virtually unplayable. While the premise is original, I found the subject matter distasteful (too much focus on the inquisition), and the graphics tiny, outdated, and the character avatars really, really ugly. The game had an unfinished quality, and I found the combat at the beginning way too hard. Entering into dungeons my character was immediately mauled and killed. There is almost no tutorial, and no learning curve for new players, and hardly any place to get money or weapons. Also I chose and built a female character, I was surprised to discover that her voiceset sounded very male! Err.... I'll have to give this game 2 stars. The game had promise, but needed about another year of development. Black Isle has produced better.
Rating:
Summary: A sad, sad day for CRPG's...
Review: I've been playing CRPG's since the early 90's. Currently I've been desperately searching for a decent CRPG. The last one that I've really enjoyed was Baldur's Gate 2. Now enter Lionheart. I've read about it last year and couldn't stop thinking about how great it would be. Fallout SPECIAL ruleset in an interesting fantasy setting? I figured I couldnt go wrong so I purchased it without reading a review. BIG mistake. From the onset I was plagued with various gamestopping bugs. Some of the bugs actually made it so you couldn't continue playing the game... I was only 3 hours into the game and it was crashing to desktop continuously. Later I found out in the Lionheart Forums that there was a KNOWN?!?! bug that would crash you to desktop if you had a companion of any sort. Since then a patch was finally released to fix that issue. Read any gamesite and the reviews will tell you of the MANY other issues this game has. Trust me when I say don't waste your money on this VERY poor quality game... if you do you'll regret it. Buyer beware..
Rating: 
Summary: Wonderful
Review: If you like games from Interplay especially in the genre of Baldur's Gate, Fallout and Planescape Torment, I would highly recommend this gem of a game from Black Isle. The game is a very interesting and very fun to play fusion of a real time type game like Diablo or Nox and the more turn based character development type games like Fallout and Baldur's Gate. The story plays a central role as does the character development. The depth to which certain groups can be played is truly a role playing experience. Try your hand as an inquistor or a knight, or dable in the forbidden arts as a wielder or even the darker arts as a necromancer. The action is similar to Diablo, Baldur's Gate and Nox but its slow paced enough and the pause key allows you play more turn based. The role playing aspect and well written and interesting story make it a pleasure to play and the depth to which you can play an evil character is very very impressive. Do to the skill based system and parallel story lines the game has a great deal of replayability.
Rating: 
Summary: Diablo II revisited
Review: If you liked Diablo II, you will most likely enjoy Lionheart. - Yes, the storyline and quests are rather shallow. But they are just complex enough to keep you interested in finding out what the next zone holds. - I really enjoy how quests are organized by active, completed and failed. With semi-completed portions of quests being greyed out, it is very easy to track what you need to do. - Learn lockpick and detect secret early on. You'll need them. - 800x600 video? C'mon, this is 2003. You'll be using F2 alot to minizime the control bar. I enjoy ranged attacks, and 800x600 does not offer alot of reaction time. - Someone else mentioned this, but its worth reiterating: there should be a chart allowing users to know how a skill strengthens based on the points pumped into it. For example, I keep pumping up heal, yet I don't seem to heal any faster everytime I use it. Very frustrating. - Amazon just dropped their price on the game. At $30 its worth the cost.
Rating:
Summary: WOW
Review: If you're a big fan of Fallout 1 & 2, and you also like games like Baldur's Gate and Icewind Dale series, then this game is for you. For the magnitude of this RPG, the graphics are great. The characters, spells and monsters are fully 3D, while the highly detailed backrounds are 2D. This game is like Fallout on steroids; in preproduction it was called Fallout Fantasy. If you're like me then you're a person who doesn't like the limitations of a certain class. This game utilizes the Fallout's SPECIAL system to let you shape your own character. I have actually heard of a game tester from Black Isle studios who invested all his points into Speech, Barter and Sneak, and he passed the whole game hardly fighting. As you progress thru the game, you can invest your skill points into the sneak skill and never fight an enemy (by successfully sneaking past enemies you gain 75% of the experience as if you would have killed the enemy), or you can choose to be good at Unarmed combat (like Monks) and also be good at Magic (Magic Monk) . I've been reading these peoples previews and laughing the whole time. At least give this game a try, it is not the best RPG ever, but its a very, very solid RPG and i rate it 8.7 out of 10.
Remember, Ignorance is the epitome of stupidity.
Rating:
Summary: Starts well, ends up badly
Review: Lionheart is an RPG game that uses the SPECIAL system, inherited from the '97-98 hit games Fallout and Fallout II. I expected Lionheart to be good, but frankly, it was not... The graphics are pretty bad. 2D, max resolution locked at 800*600, nothing to signify the 21st century. The music is rather repetetive. The sounds are annoying - all monsters in the game emit indistinguishable sounds. The Englishman (in this game the poor Brits are monsters, sorry) sounds the same as the goblin. The gameplay starts very well with a lot of interesting quests in the intial city - Nueva (New) Barcelona. It's not a terribly big city, but it's still fun. Regretfully it's the only city in the game. After Barcelona is done, the player is forced to play a completely linear hack and slash game. After Barcelona, there are no quests. You are in for 40+ dungeons if you decide to continue the game past the city. The NPCs in the game are completely useless. Past a certain point they die so fast it's not worth it to bother with them. They also support two commands: "Stay here!" and "Follow me." Whcih reminds me - the AI in Lionheart is non-existant. There is just a single script that forces every monster you have "activated" to attack you as fast as possible. I hope you enjoy crossing cleared out maps by clicking in your character's feet, because pathfinding is awful too. On top of all that Lionheart is unbalanced. For melee fighters the end of the game is very tough. The final boss can be impossible to kill for such a hero.
A ranged character, on the other hand, has little problems. My final advise is: If you want to play a good RPG and have missed Fallout, Baldur's Gate or Morrowind, go play them instead. If you have played them all... Replay them or go play outside or something, just don't waste your money on this game.
Rating:
Summary: This game is a trick
Review: Lionheart plays like the demo. If you've tried the demo, you know that the combat is a hectic clickfest, with too-fast moving monsters and a poor targeting system. And the latter half of this game is pretty much exclusively combat. Which makes it incredibly unsatisfying. I call the game a "trick" because of the first half. The first half of the game takes place in Barcelona and another town, and there are interesting characters to talk to, fun quests, and palpable tension among the various factions that control the city (or oppose it). Because the game is set in "real" history (1588) but with a twist (what if magic were real), you find yourself talking to characters such as Shakespeare and Da Vinci, although their personalities and agendas have shifted with the influence of magic. And with the crusades going on, there are some real moral dilemmas: will you support such an oppressive regime, or oppose it and deal with the disadvantages and hostility your character will face? So people who have only played the game a little bit seem to think the game is fine. Then they change their minds after they've played a little more. The game is built upon an improved version of the SPECIAL engine, which was used for Fallout. So the gameplay is similar, although the combat is real-time, not turn-based. But it just ends up lacking. The real-time combat is a chore, and there is no way to get it back to turn-based. Although you can pause the game, you can't target while paused. Later in the game, the story progression is very linear, with few diplomatic/stealth solutions. The character animations are poorly done, and the interface appears rushed (certain parts are poorly designed or lacking obvious features). Oh well. If you're willing to buy a game only to play half of it, you'll have fun. If you feel that a game should actually be compeleted, you're in for drudgery and monotonous combat.
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