Braveheart

DEVELOPER : Red Lemon
PUBLISHER : Eidos

Ratings

Graphics: 5.0 Just plain average.

Audio: 3.0 Very sparse. Very, very, sparse.

Interface: 4.0  Could be worse, but it doesn’t help simplify things.

Gameplay: 3.0 Skip it…there is so much better out there.  Too bad that didn’t stop Eidos from shipping it .

Replayability: 5.0 Games are randomized, and you can play skirmish battles against the AI, but I don’t think many people would play this much.

Multiplay: 3.0 Crappy game = Crappy mulitplay.

Learning Curve: 5.0 Tutorial is pretty good, but there are too many buttons!

Manual: 3.0 Pretty skinny for a game with so many icons.

Pros: Mel Gibson looks cool, I guess.

Cons: Another butchered license.

Overall: 3.7

This is a tale of freedom.  A tale about a man, William Wallace, who led the clans of Scotland against the English.  A tale about how an excellent movie portrayed this time in history, followed by an ambitious game that wanted to rise above the ranks of other strategy titles and gain dominance on store shelves.  Unfortunately it lost, and is heading straight for the bargain bin.  This…is Braveheart.

 And for me, this was the most disappointing game of the year.  Just thinking about a game based on such a wonderful movie, rich with history, made me giddy.  But movie games have never been that good (high expectations and high budgets generally equals crap…it’s a vicious cycle).  So where does Braveheart go wrong?  Read on.

I opened the box, popped in the CD, and started the install (weighing in at a hefty minimum of about 450 megs).  I browsed the manual while I waited, impressed at how much detail they put into the game, but surprised at how thin the manual was for the amount of material.  Installation done, I started it up in Direct 3D mode…it crashed.  I tried Glide…crashed.  Boom, software even crashed.  I tried reinstalling, uninstalling, troubleshooting, but to no avail.  I had to play it on a different computer.  This was the only experience I had with bugs while playing (not to say it wasn’t a MAJOR one).  Once I got it running, everything was pretty stable, although one must take into account I was playing the patched version that is shipping now.

 After a decent intro, albeit a bit grainy, I fired up the tutorial.  The narrator’s performance was solid, and it led me through the basics.  I was ready to tackle a game on my own.  First, players select which clan to play.  Each one has their own strengths and weaknesses, as well as a specific leader.  Once I did this I was taken to the main interface.  It is from here that players can access all the windows and manage their Scottish empire.  Not familiar with all of the surrounding territories, players must send out scouts and spies to get the skinny on your neighbors.  You can send out trade carts to get money or resources, allocate labor to concentrate on food, armor, or weapons production, assign leaders to armies and commission troops, and perform a variety of other tasks.  The problem is that each one seems to have their own screen, accessed by the icons on the bottom of the interface (small icons I found hard to interpret).  Even with all the detail, managing your empire seemed like it should be a simple enough affair, and a better interface could have made things easier and more enjoyable.  After all, even with the plethora of resources to maintain and weapons to build, players only have to perform a few basic functions…trading, spying, and sending out armies.  There are diplomacy options, but this is a time of war!  I was looking forward to the 3D battles, and if they were good, I could forgive the mediocre strategic interface.  I had visions of warfare with tactical finesse similar to that in Bungie’s Myth. 

 I was dreaming.  I sent my first legion to a neighboring clan in order to “persuade” them to join me.  I put my troops in formation and used the radar to locate my enemy.  Sending my men out to fight had an interesting effect.  They sloppily broke formation and ended up in a jumbled, confusing melee with the enemy.  I tried redirecting troops, but they were unresponsive.  I no longer had control, and had to wait it out.  Fortunately, or unfortunately for the game, there is a surefire way to win every battle…have the most troops.  It does not matter what weapon your troops have, be it an ax, sword, or pike.  Hell, the manual or game does not even specify attack or defense values for weapons or armor.  More troops equals victory! Fun.  Also, the graphics are nothing to brag out.  If the battles were good, they would be serviceable, but as it stands, Red Lemon did not deliver decent gameplay or graphics.

So what about the sound?  I don’t even recall any music besides in the intro, so the atmosphere isn’t very thick.  Also, the only sounds I can remember in the strategic portion are little clicks from pressing icons.  In the battle mode, I heard only a few random clanks of weapons and garbled screams of people dying.  The voice used to utter “OK” when moving your troops is a perfect imitation of a drunken sailor.  What were they thinking!!! Where’s the dramatic battle music, or the beautiful bagpipe music used in the film?  The only thing that resembles the movie is Mel Gibson’s painted face.  What a waste.

What does this all boil down to?  A somewhat confused but serviceable strategic portion combined with an atrocious battle portion.  But when the game emphasizes combat over everything else, and you have to engage in plenty of it to win, you get a game that just is not worth playing.  If you want excellent medieval strategy, go pick up Age of Empires II.  If you want cool 3D battles, go pick up the new Myth anthology. Either way, avoid this mess called Braveheart. 

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Reviewed by Anthony Micari