Lionheart - Legacy of the Crusader is role-playing game developed by Black Isle Studios and Reflexive Entertainment (Zax: The Alien Hunter, Star Trek Away Team makers). Lionheart takes place in an alternate history Earth. During the Third Crusade (1192), Richard the Lionhearted gathered together several holy relics while the Middle Eastern city of Acre was under siege. When Richard took Acre from the Muslims, he was advised to bring the relics and put 3,000 captured Muslims to death. Unaware of the consequences, Richard complied, believing his actions would help his cause. Instead of bringing down the divine power he was promised, Richard's actions invoked the Disjunction, a ritual that brought magic into the world. During the Disjunction a rift was opened to a spirit realm and the denizens of that plane were unleashed upon the Earth. These spirits changed the geography of Western Europe and fused with the people, creatures, and even the earth itself. This fusion allowed for the use of magic and forever changed the course of human history. In this new, yet hauntingly familiar setting, you must decide how to best develop your character's skills and abilities to triumph over obstacles in order to discover the meaning of their true fate.

Lionheart features eight major areas of the world with over 80 levels, fast paced hack&slash combat, classless system with SPECIAL rules system (from Fallout 1&2), four different races (pure blood Human, Demonkin - sort of human demon cross, Feralkin - race with prominent animal traits, Sylvants - they are elemental in nature), over 50 enemies, three different types of magic (Thought, Tribal, and Divine) with 30 spells, cooperative multi-player, random item generator.

Characters in the system have Race, Attributes, Skills, Traits and Perks. The classless system with SPECIAL rules system means that you don't just choose to play as a fighter or magician, instead you define your character's core attributes (Strength, Perception, Endurance, Charisma, Intelligence, Agility, and Luck) and choose which skills he or she will excel at. Skills are measured in points and can generally go anywhere from 0 to 255, these numbers are used in conjunction with other modifiers to determine whether or not you do something successfully in the game.

You will start off in Northern Spain in the city of Nueva Barcelona, and go up through France and beyond. There are many areas to explore, including Inquisition Chambers, Mongol Camps and caverns controlled by Lycanthropes. The first half of the game takes place in Nueva Barcelona in which you can take on numerous side quests and meet many NPCs. It's somewhat reminiscent of Baldur's Gate 2. After questing in Nueva Barcelona for several hours, you are sent off on an important quest. Since you left the town, Lionheart shifts from a Baldur's Gate-type game into pure click-based hack-n-slash Diablo type game. So, If you are looking for an arcade style hack and slash game, that is easy to get into.

I have to admit I have mixed feelings about this game. Lionheart combines elements of Diablo with an actual story-line. There are some nice things and some very irritating things as well. I'd say this game had a lot of potential but in my opinion fell short of a great game. Try this playable demo (158MB).

Minimum system requirements:
Pentium III 700 MHz or Athlon/AMDK7 650MHz, 128 MB RAM, Windows 98 (or later) with DirectX (7.0 or later) installed, DirectX Certified Video Card w/8MB VRAM, DirectX 7 Certified Sound Card, 8X CD-ROM