Product: Revenant
Company: Eidos Interactive
Website: http://www.eidos.com
Estimated Street Price: £29.99/$39.99
Review By: Byron Hinson

The Features

I am not usually a big fan of Role Playing Games but with the recent release of System Shock 2 and Baldur's Gate I have really got into them in a big way. I have been following the progress of Revenant for quite some time after it was announced that it would be using some 3D acceleration features in the game.

• Real-time 3D polygonal characters with motion captured animations provide unparalleled realistic combat.
• SVGA graphics with 65,000 colors.
• Day and night cycles plus special animated lighting effects.
• Developed using Direct 3D - compatible with nearly every 3D accelerator on the market.
• Spectacular environments where gamers are free to explore following the non-linear storyline, hacking a few monsters along the way.
• Fantasy artwork developed with the help of Canadian artist, Den Beauvais, a premier fantasy and science fiction illustrator.
• All original music created exclusively for Revenant by Ronie Moorings of the European band, Xymox.
• Full 3D surround sound with environmental audio effects.
• Multiplayer for up to 4 players on modem, lan and Mplayer.com

Installation, Settings and Intro

Revenant comes on three CD's. The first one contains all of the installation files that you will need to get up and running, while the second CD has music and FMV files. The third CD is just a bunch of Eidos demos that you have probably played before. The game takes up around 400 MB's of drive space on your PC but doesn't take all that long to install.

Once the installation is out of the way it is on to the game, when you first load the game up you are presented with a well made introduction FMV movie that lasts about 5 minutes, when that finishes it is time to setup the games options. Most of the settings are already made for you, there is one that isn't though, and that is 3D lighting (Which I can't get to work).

Gameplay

Here is the basic storyline before I get started on the gameplay: You play the character of the Revenant who has been brought back from the dead to save a maiden who has been captured and to rid the world of an evil group called the Children of the Change. The Revenant (Locke) has no recollection of past life and because of this he must learn  the combat and magical skills that he has lost.

Revenant isn't your usual RPG fair, it has a lot more emphasis on action during the game and there are no options to select a character other than the one of Locke. Stat wise the game is quite in depth, you can get experience points for basically everything you do. You can balance things out to become more of a warrior or a magician if you wanted to.

Magic is controlled by twelve talisman which, when used in a certain order will cast spells. There are also ten magic scrolls which have been placed throughout the land which give you the combinations of the talisman so you can cast spells.

The combat side of Revenant is very nice indeed, you can play using a keyboard, mouse or via a gamepad (Which I used), You don't even have to have full control over the battles you take part it as you can use the mouse for all movement and attacks and the computer will choose which attack would be best to use based on your current fatigue level. I preferred using the gamepad for my battles though. New attack moves are learnt via the main towns martial arts expert.

The game may seem pretty long too, but in reality it isn't too difficult to complete if you keep at it, it also doesn't really have any replay value and the multiplayer aspect of Revenant is quite buggy (It'll be fixed in a later patch)

Graphics, Sound & Music

Revenant only runs in 640x480 mode, but this doesn't mean that the graphics suffer in any shape or form as they are beautiful. Revenant also features real time and enhanced 3D lighting that can be turned on or off, but I couldn't get this to work with my main graphics card (The G400). There are also options of reducing the amount of blood shown on screen.

Revenant has some very good sound and music, each of the NPCs have specific voice-overs and as usual, some are good some are very bad. Musically the game is spot on, if a little short on tracks (There are only 3)

Final Comments

How It Grades
		Originality: 80% Gameplay: 82% Story: 80% Graphics: 90% Cutscenes: 80% Sound: 85% Music: 80%% Manual: 88% Interface: 85% Multiplayer: 70% Overall: 82%

Revenant isn't quite on par with Baldur's Gate but it is far, far easier to get into and play. The combat system Revenant uses it also excellent. All in all a worthy purchase for RPG fans even if it is a little lacking in the multiplayer department.

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