 |
For gamers willing to tolerate substandard graphics and linear gameplay, Betrayal in Antara succeeds in providing an enjoyable role-playing experience. Antara is a good, old-fashioned adventure, complete with a princess, otherworldly monsters, and a noble quest. Gamers familiar with Krondor should be right at home with Antara, which uses an enhanced version of the Krondor engine. Like Krondor, the world of Ramar is besieged by political corruption, warring factions, plague, and civil unrest. Unfortunately, Antara is also assaulted by universally poor voice acting and occasionally horrendous writing. Like Krondor, Antara is divided into distinct book-like "chapters" of varying lengths during which your characters must complete certain objectives in order to advance the plot. There are usually five to six sub-quests in each chapter, and these optional sub-quests have traditional RPG objectives and give you the opportunity to strengthen your characters while adding depth to the game. One of the strengths of Antara is that the world of Ramar becomes an increasingly interesting place as the plot develops. In addition to the various factions of human inhabitants, each with its own agenda, Ramar is populated by a number of other intelligent races: the formerly war-like Grrlf, the flighty bird-like TrKaa and subterranean Montari molemen. Although Antara only gives a shallow introduction to the inhabitants of Ramar, with much of the world's complexity implied in conversations rather than displayed, Antara fleshes out the characters and their motivations sufficiently to keep you interested in the story. Gameplay in Antara essentially consists of traveling from town to town and discovering treasure while occasionally running into bands of enemies. The biggest flaw with Antara is its 3-D graphics engine, which is, unfortunately, likely the first thing you'll notice when you initially boot up the game. The quality of the graphics is less likely to concern die-hard role-playing gamers, but Antara is unlikely to attract a broader audience with such a sluggish and unattractive 3-D engine. Even though Antara is one of the first RPGs to utilize high-resolution SVGA graphics, the graphics are, frankly, as ugly as an orc. All of the game's 3-D objects are blocky, with square edges and predominately monotone textures. Graphics within store shops and other buildings, on the other hand, replete with colorful scenes of medieval life, are detailed and well done - although occasionally repetitive. Although the graphics of Antara may be dated, the interface and skill systems are topnotch. The interface is intuitive and lets you quickly access desired information. There are approximately a dozen basic skills and 20 spell skills which can be improved through use and by training. As Aren improves his magical skills, he can research new spells. Both the skill and spell systems are relatively simple but work well. Worthy of particular mention are the automap, which can be annotated, and the flashback function, which allows you to replay conversations with key non-player characters. Combat in Antara is played from a third-person perspective in turn-based fashion, on hexagonal grids of varying sizes. Enemy variety is also particularly limited, as there are only around 30 distinct types of enemies, and most of those are similar human opponents. The combat spells have some entertaining effects, although the combat engine slows to a crawl. Worth it to a classic RPG fan.Read full review
Current slide {CURRENT_SLIDE} of {TOTAL_SLIDES}- Best Selling in Video Games
Current slide {CURRENT_SLIDE} of {TOTAL_SLIDES}- Save on Video Games
Current slide {CURRENT_SLIDE} of {TOTAL_SLIDES}- You may also like
