Title: Inquisitor
  Publisher: Cinemax Games
  Developer: Cinemax Games
  Console: PC
  Release Date: September 5, 2012
  Genre: Action RPG

An ancient evil has unleashed holy hell upon your world. What do you do? You stand up and fight of course! Gather your resources and your wit to save your fellow humans. The introduction to Inquisitor sucked me right in. I was ready to kick some butt and set the situation right. As I settled in to create my character my excitement grew, thinking of all the beasts I would soon be slaying. I shall persevere and make the world once again a safe place to dwell.

Inquisitor is a game that while it was recently released gives you a very old school style of look and play. The best advice I can give you is to read the manual. It comes with a very in-depth one and it’s worth the time taken to glance over. If you ignore my advice and decide not to then we shall all sit back and giggle later when you are forced to admit that you had to at least give it a gander. This is especially true if you are new to this style of game.

The first decision you make while creating your character is which class you are going to be. Choose between a Paladin, a Priest and a Thief. Each character will offer a different type of gameplay. A Paladin will give you a more aggressive fighter while a Priest relies heavily on magic and the Thief gets his own set of skills and is of course more stealthy. One thing that as a modern female gamer I have grown to expect but was let down with in this game was the lack of a female option. In theory it’s not the end of the world and might not even truly affect gameplay. To me, however, it’s an important choice that the makers should have included.

The basic controls are what you would expect. Point and click or scroll your mouse towards the area you want to walk. When you reach an area that is going to take you to a new destination the main map will appear. You choose the location you want to go to by simply clicking on it.

The battles can get a bit repetitive as they are pretty basic. Click on an enemy until it is dead. You can mix things up a bit with spells which you set up in your game slots located on the right of your screen. These are activated by right-clicking them. In addition to your health you have to keep an eye on your stamina and mana while in battle. The only time this really presents a problem is if you are surrounded by enemies and run out of stamina, which is what allows you to attack.

The gameplay does have a few glitches. Your “loot”, or items found on the ground, can often be irritating to try and pick up. This isn’t necessarily a glitch; just something that I found distracting when I would try to quickly pick things up and then run to the next battle. The mouse also locks or acts up at inopportune moments. I was surrounded by enemies, trying to keep myself and my side kick alive, when the mouse inverted on me. Thinking this was possibly a problem with my computer and not the game I saved, rebooted and tried again. The same thing happened over and over at this spot however.

Visually this game looks like something released 10-15 years ago. It does fit with the game’s style however. You’re supposed to be in an old world where people lived in villages, not chrome and glass modern designed areas. While the game won’t win any graphics awards I liked the fact that it was keeping in with the overall theme of the game.

Sounds in the game are very keeping in with the over all theme. Nothing spectacular but everything seems to be appropriate. You can hear enemies as they approach which I found helpful since it served as a reminder to check my health, stamina and mana. The ambient sounds as you explore the towns and dungeons are very fitting.

The overall story of the game is told to you through talking to characters found in all of the lands. Talking to every person will open up a wide array of side quests that will start to fill in pieces of the main story as well as give you inside glances into the lives of the people you are helping to save as well as the ones you will be arresting. The writing throughout the game is very eloquent and that’s a good thing since there is a LOT of text to read through. I did find some minor errors in the text; nothing too distracting but that should really have been fixed before releasing the game.

During the main events of the game you take on several quests or side quests. You can rack up several in just a few short moments of talking to the villagers. While there is a quest journal offered, it doesn’t break things down into categories. You get several paragraphs thrown into a few pages that you have to read through in order to find the information you are looking for. A quest heading with information stored under each quest would have been much more efficient.

VERDICT

If you like games that offer a challenge and you’re willing to overlook a few flaws then you will enjoy Inquisitor. If you only play more modern games that are slightly easier and offer things like maps that overlay the screen and directions as to where to go, then this game may not be for you.

Review Score
Overall

Oprainfall’s Review System:

• 5 Stars- A Must Own Game. Games don’t get much better than this. We recommend you buy it if you can.
• 4 Stars- A Great Game. It’s not perfect, but it’s close. If you like the genre, you should like this game.
• 3 Stars- A Good Game. This game may have some flaws, but is enjoyable. Give it a try, you might like it.
• 2 Stars- A Poor Game. There is something off about this game. Fans of the series or genre might like it.
• 1 Star- A Bad Game. There are obvious flaws that keep the game from being enjoyable. We cannot recommend this game.