The PROWLER Reviews:Highlander
Jaguar Game Title STR Review - Highlander: The Last of the Macleods
Highlander
Available Now
By Craig Harris
Published by: Atari Corp. Price: $59.99
Before I begin, I have a confession to make: I've never seen a single
film in the Highlander series. I've never stayed up late to watch the
syndicated TV version and I'm never home to see the cartoon on the USA
Network. In fact, I've never seen a Christopher Lambert movie before "Mortal
Kombat."
I admit it, the game might have been in better hands with one of those
drooling Highlander fan-boys. They would have appreciated the plot and
atmosphere more than I could ever have. But it's a game, dammit - I'm a
gamer. I'm unbiased, unfinicky...I don't care if a game stars little blue men
living in mushrooms. It's here for me to play, I'm here to play. With that
said, be prepared for an enjoyable (but blatantly flawed) role-playing game
from Atari.
/// The Plot
The Highlander series follows a race of immortals. Each of these
immortals, vying to be "the only one," spent their entire existence running
around lopping each others' heads off (apparently the only way to kill an
immortal). In "Last of the Macleods," an oath has been formed between the
immortals. Each has decided to dedicate their lives gathering all the
knowledge necessary to allow the fading mortals to rebuild their society.
They became the Jettators.
However, one immortal chose not to take the vow. Kortan decided that
this was the wimp's way out and declared himself the last immortal. Connor
Macleod, another immortal, did not allow this announcement to go
unchallenged. However, since he was a Jettator, Connor could not win this
challenge. Connor was booted out of the land by Kortan's army, allowing
Kortan to continue his evil rein over the land.
The Jettators decided that this challenge could be carried out by
another immortal, one unbounded by the Oath. They await the birth of an
immortal who, when old enough to wield a sword, will inherit the Jettators
knowledge and carry out the challenge, and finally defeat Kortan.
Enter Character...
You are Quentin Dundee. As the game opens, your village is ransacked,
looted and pillaged by Kortan's army, and the residents are taken prisoner.
You suffer a fatal wound during this attack. While lying lifeless on the
dusty ground, a miracle of sorts occurs: you awaken. In her last breaths,
your mother explains that you are an immortal named Macleod adopted into the
Dundee clan. She tells you of a man you must meet to save the Dundees and
complete your ultimate destiny...
/// Gameplay
If you've ever played any of the games in the Alone in the Dark series,
then you'll feel right at home with Highlander. You control a polygon
constructed Quentin Macleod in a continuously shifting third-person
perspective. Quentin can be moved, within limits, anywhere in this world
while the camera constantly shifts to give a better view of your persona.
Quentin can run, jump, punch and kick. Once the coveted Highlander sword
is found, you can also dodge, parry, thrust and block. Control is on the
tricky side, with the pad doing triple duty at times. A normal button push
will do one motion, while up and a button does another, and still a double
tap and a button provides another. If you've got a ProController (the new 6
button pad), life got 3 times easier.
If an item can be picked up, walking over it will offer four choices:
Pick up, examine, use, or drop. You can also bring up this menu by
hitting the Option button. Items that can be picked up are easily spotted:
every item manipulated is constructed in polygons; everything else is SGI
rendered. When you use an item, you're treated to a short, rendered scene of
that item falling into place. Don't even *think* about booting this game
without a Memory Track in the cartridge slot. If you don't own one, it's
worth the $30 to save your game as well as your sanity: it is humanly
impossible to beat Highlander in one sitting. To bring up the Load/Save
screen, pause the game and hit button C. 5 separate games can be saved on one
Memory Track cartridge.
/// Graphics
As stated above, Quentin is constructed of polygons. In fact, all
humanoid characters are. The benefit to this technique is smooth, lifelike,
versatile animation. Actors/acrobats were motion-captured in a studio. These
motions are then mapped to the character's skeletal construction. The
downside: characters lack detail, having a "pasted on" look to the more-
realistic, and motionless backgrounds. Backgrounds are brilliantly rendered
in still, hi-res and hi-color pictures. The developers did a bang-up job
rendering 3D worlds on high-end computers, then taking stills from prime
locations to provide the shifting camera angles.
To prevent the character from walking in an area he shouldn't, the game
engine utilizes "invisible walls." Unfortunately, places that look accessible
sometimes aren't, and your character is left walking in place. I've actually
found a bug where Quentin could step over the bounds of the invisible walls,
but couldn't get back. Lesson learned: save often. Plot segues are provided
by relevant clips from Gaumont Productions' "Highlander: The Animated
Series." These animated sequences are chock-full of sub-standard production
values, yet provide informative hints that nudge you on your way. And if the
developers couldn't find a specific animation clip to provide, they rendered
their own. Case in point: The death sequence, since Quentin never dies in the
animated series.
/// Sound
One would assume that having CD media would be excuse enough to provide
mind-blowing music. With Highlander, however, one would be wrong. Every scene
has a looping, 3 second sample accompanying the action, or lack-thereof.
While that looping sample is appropriate for scenes with a solitary
atmosphere, like blowing wind in a canyon or dripping water in a sewer; that
looping sample can get quite annoying as a 3 second music riff. I've known
many a man who've gone completely mad walking around in an abandoned hut.
Sound effects are minimal, but effective. The standard "Urg's" and
"Oof's" provide the violent sounds of fist and sword contact, and each
character has their own scream of pain when they kick the bucket. Not that
the sounds lack a special touch; Quentin's footsteps are effected differently
on different terrain. They "tap-tap" on metal, or "thud-thud" on the desert
floor.
/// Other Elements
The "load/save game" option, a pain to bring up in the first place, has
one of the worst interfaces I've ever had to use. One, it's extremely easy to
mistake "Save" for "Load," offering the opportunity to mistakenly save over a
precious file. Two, the game never prompts you when you're about to overwrite
a saved file. Three, it never tells you which file was the last file saved;
you cannot name a save file, and there's no indication of which file is the
file you want, other than "File 1," "File 2," etc. Also, even though a Save
file stores your inventory, health points, and body count accurately, it
refuses to remember if you had a weapon at the ready - every time you load a
saved game, you have to equip a weapon. Annoying.
Speaking of saving your game, I stated above that a Memory Track is
required to do so. It would have been extremely nice for the developers to
design a password generator for those who have not yet purchased a save cart.
As it stands, when you pick up Highlander from your local Babbage's, pick up
a Memory Track too. You'll need it. The control itself takes much patience -
I've clocked over 25 hours on the game, and I still can't get some of the
combinations down. Plus the fact that Quentin sometimes stops when you want
him to move, jumps when you want him to stab, etc. A few more days in the
control tweaking department would have done wonders.
The game is laid out with "milestones" of sort; you'll know when you
cross one when the music fades out after leaving a scene. Apparently the
Jaguar's memory needs to be dumped and refreshed at this point.
Unfortunately, the system doesn't remember what position you were facing when
you walk from one area to the next. For example, in the village, if you enter
a hut and notice that two guards are about to jump you, chances are you'll
back out. When the village scene reloads, Quentin will be facing away from
the hut. And, if you are still holding down at this point, Quentin will walk
right back into the hut. While it's nice to have the option, I have yet to
find a way to successfully block a swing. I find that a few forward thrusts
will kill any enemy easily anyway...
/// All-in-all...
I know I'm not alone. I know there are those out there who could care
less about the Highlander license, those who sneer when picking up the video
off the shelf at Blockbuster, those who promptly change the channel when the
TV show airs. To these people I say this: Don't judge this game by name alone
- You'll be missing a great, and probably the only, Jaguar role-playing game.
The same goes for everyone else - if you have a Jaguar CD, it's worth your
time to give Highlander a shot.
Ratings -
Graphics 8.5 (Brilliantly rendered backgrounds, character's pasted-on
look brings the ratings down a shade.)
Sound 5.0 (Annoying background music, not much sound otherwise)
Control 7.0 (Complicated layout, too loose. Lots of options, though.
The Load/Save game option screen needs a new layout)
Manual 8.0 (The only instructions needed, Control Layout, is
provided quite well)
Fun Factor 8.5 (Puzzles are a little on the easy side up-front, but
become significantly more difficult as the quest continues.
Sword play could have used a little more tweaking; it's extremely easy to
find a pattern that works)
Overall 8.0 (The only RPG for the Jaguar, the first (and probably
last) in the Jaguar's Highlander series. Good first effort.)
PROWLER The Atari Console Disk Magazine February 27, 1996
Copyright (c) 1996 All Rights Reserved Issue No. 01