Prince of Qin is an historically-based action RPG set in the last years of the Qin Dynasty 2,200 years ago, developed by Chinese game developer Object Sofware (known in the North American market with two RTS titles, Fate of the Dragon and Dragon Throne). You play the role of Prince Fu Su, the first Qin Emperor's eldest son and the Crown Prince of Qin. According to historical records, Fu Su committed suicide in obedience to a supposed imperial decree. However, in this game Fu Su does not die but lives and launches himself on a mission to seek vengeance against those who had plotted against him and his father. There's much more about the story, but I don't want to give you a lessons of history, I don't like history anyway, especially history with so many weird names, but you should know that it's definitely pretty unusual theme for a role-playing game, so you will get bored pretty soon if you don't like Far East's history.

Those who have played Baldur's Gate and Diablo II will see that the gameplay of Prince of Qin derives directly from both these games, though don't expect much Diablo-like killing here, this game focuses more on the team spirit amongst all team members. But unlike Baldur's Gate, this game doesn't have anything to do with AD&D, only you can pause the game, and then carefully plan your actions. Yeah it's still an action RPG where you control a group of five characters - Paladins, Musclemen, Assassins, Wizards and Witches, all equipped with various skills and magic. This character system is actually more reminiscent of Diablo, each character has six attributes (strength, dexterity, constitution, savvy, wisdom, charm), and 20 skills (such as muscleman's ability to jump, whirlwind, an assassin's lock-picking skills, chain arrows etc), leveling up is frequent and the addition of stat points (a lot points are awarded for completing quests) to the characters' attributes makes a significant difference to the power of the upgraded character. What separates Prince of Qin from other role-playing games is its use of the concept of the Five Elements - Metal, Wood, Water, Fire and Earth, as the basis of magic. These five elements interact with one another to enhance or reduce skills and abilities. For example, Water restricts Fire while Wood promotes Fire, and and Fire restricts Metal. Of course, you can enrich the fighting modes and effects by making use of the interactivity between the elements.

Prince of Qin features eleven chapters (over 50 hours of gameplay), over 90 various quests, more than 150 NPCs, many opponents such as Bandits, Rebel Troops, Assassins, wandering Warriors, the Hun and the Qin soldiers~generals~wizards, Beasts, Ancient Monsters etc, over 100 independent scenes (including cities, villages, famous mountains, caves, an underground palace), country scenes such as snowfields, grasslands, forests, mountains, rivers and caves and massive multiplayer capability with up to 500 players in a single game with a dedicated server. I didn't test the multiplayer option, so I cannot honestly comment on the multiplayer gameplay. I would like to test it, but to join either a LAN or Internet game, you must know the IP address of the server :] Well, the official Prince of Qin website claims that you can play over battle.net, but this option wasn't available in the multiplayer options, even on the CDROM :(

Prince of Qin teaches you about the Qin Dynasty as you play, so if you like both role-playing games and history, maybe you should try this game. For more information download a playable demo and visit the official Prince of Qin homepage.

System requirements: Pentium II 266 MHz, 128 MB RAM, 1.2GB HDD space, 2 MB DirectX-compatible video card supporting 640x480 at 16 bit, DirectX 8.0 or higher, Windows 9x/2000/XP