Hard to Be a God

I was looking forward to reviewing this game as I have fond memories of adventure games. Baldurs Gate, Diablo and Titan Quest all got my blood pumping and gave me a great gaming experience.

The story of Hard to Be a God (HtBaG) revolves around you playing a medieval intelligence agent type who has to investigate strange goings on; wow super plot device! As the story advances, in its own quirky and annoying way, you discover advanced technology which makes the locals see you as some kind of god. Honestly, this really is the story line.

As the plot unfolds, the technologies are found to be from an advanced race that portray themselves as gods, hang on, is this Stargate SG-1 the game but with a different title? Once the main character discovers that they are not gods he sets out to find 'the real gods'.

HtBaG, is from the outset painful to play. The interface is broken, almost I would say, beyond repair. Conversations take twice as long as there is a seemingly dodgy way of having to click with the left button to select your conversation reply, then a right click to confirm. Why?

Then there is combat. Not since the horror of 'Rise of the Robots' have I found a combat system so difficult to use. The camera is fixed to a weird angle so you have to sometimes guess where the enemy who is pounding the living bejeezus out of you is. Fighting on horseback, which could have been a great addition, just makes this game even more infuriating. The level system too is broken. I mean when at level 5 you don’t expect to get killed in one hit by a level 1 wolf, do you?

Graphically HtBaG has similar to Baldurs Gate era graphics, which considering that title came out 10 years ago is no recommendation. At least Baldurs Gate had a decent storyline and gameplay to cover for the graphics. HtBaG however does not.

Come on, this has to be the lamest story ever told. I am disappointed that this title has the audacity to even put itself into the same ring as classics like Diablo, Baldurs Gate and Titan Quest. Save yourself some money and buy any of those three on budget and avoid this title like the plague.