Probably one of the most approachable, easy to get into, complex strategy game I've played. One of the few strategy games I own where the AI actually thinks like a human player might. It also, has just enough of a challenge to make the normal victories rewarding and the desire to get a perfect score seem just out of reach but attainable.

If you pass this little gem up you'll regret it.

I think I love this game. Although it might just be Stockholm syndrome. There are certainly times when it seems to want you to hate it, like when you get to the endgame and discover that if you don't have at least one character who can cast the lowest level fire spells from their spellbook (not scrolls), the game is unwinnable. And yet, I just can't make myself do it.

This is unabashedly a 90s-style dungeon crawl, making only the most minimal concessions to modern gaming aesthetics. It's the usual 4 characters stand in a line and choose combat maneuvers combat system of the era and, yeah, after 30 or 40 hours it does start to wear a bit thin. But there's just enough variety in enemies and your own abilities to make it work. The combat movement system is silly and simplistic, but making its limitations work for you is part of the fun and challenge of combat. There are the usual ton of puzzles. And, as usual, some of them are a fun and challenging and some seem designed specifically to make the game as unpleasent as possible to play (I'm looking at you, knock spots!). Fortunately, this is the 21st century and there are plenty of detailed walk-throughs available online to provide hints or hold your hand through the ones that aren't any fun to figure out on your own.

There are some concessions to modernity. There's no encumbrance and your pack size is large enough not to be limiting until near the end of the game, when you have enough money that you don't have to haul all your loot back to town to sell, anyway. And yes, I did say "enough money." Like most such games, at the beginning you're struggling to save enough to pay for skill trainers. But then a funny thing happens. By the mid-game, you actually have enough money to get all your skills and spells and still buy the occasional magic item from the shops. And by the end, you have so much money you can walk into any shop in the kingdom and buy anything you want without even glancing at the price. Yes, shops you can actually afford to buy from! Even better, your mages actually have the mana to use their spells! Yes, it depeletes and doesn't auto-regen. But the shops have an infinitely regenerating supply of mana potions and, by the mid-game, you'll have the cash to buy as many as you need. So, unlike many games, your casters don't spend all game hitting things with their swords so they can save their precious spell points for the boss fights.

It's big, too. I'm not sure about replay value (there's 12 classes and you can only play four per game, so that's enough for three play-throughs with completely different parties — but I think I'd want a pretty long break before wanting to face it a second time). But, even if you play it obsessively, it'll take you weeks to finish. I didn't count my hours, but it was somewhere in the 40-60 range. So, even if you pay full price, that's $1 per hour or less.

My big complaint would be the graphics. I don't agree with the other reviewers' complaints about them looking cheesy. I thought they were well done and fit the tone of the game well. But, as is so often the problem, they appear to have been made in a windowless room with the lights off and it seems not to have ocurred to the designers that someone might try to play during daylight hours in a room with natural light. Fortunatelly, they at least have a gamma adjustment slider, but it only does so much good. You also definitely need to read the discussion thread about using 32-bit mode to avoid crashes.

If you loved this kind of game back in the 90s and have been wanting to play one again, this is your game. If you came to RPGs via Dragon Age and are looking for something that feels like it was made in the 21st century, you've come to the wrong place. But I loved it. Despites its best efforts to the contrary.

I heart space opera-type games but this, like most, in the long run lacks the sophistication needed to engage anyone over the age of 13 for more then a few days of play.