Loki

Rating Teen Genre adventure Publisher Dreamcatcher Interactive External Links Official Loki Website

In a world overrun with MMO’s, it was a breath of fresh air to see a “hack ‘n slash RPG” out there with a chance of great potential. But Just as Loki deceived Hoor into slaying his brother Baldr with a poisonous dart, I have been deceived into believing this was a good game. With its fabulous graphics, seemingly decent” plot” and offers of a fantastic multiplayer option who wouldn’t be fooled?

In this obvious Diablo clone you will find yourself choosing from 4 separate character classes: a Norse fighter, a Greek warrior, a Egyptian magician or an Aztec shaman. Slim pickings, I know, but I’ve seen worse. Each character that you choose has a distinct starting area, which honors the god they worship and receives quests from. As one of the characters you have chosen; you fight to aid your god in holy war vs. Seth, the Egyptian God of darkness and evil, who has returned from the kingdom of the dead.

Granted that all sounds great and all but ….execution! Execution is this poor games problem.

Aesthetically I must say that this game is stunning to the fullest extent of the word but nowadays in a world in which even the slowest/cheapest computers have high powered video cards, that is simply not enough. The standard on screen interface is completely borrowed form some of the most popular MMO’s, so at least you know that it’s somewhat streamlined. The AI in this game is laughable at best. I found myself pulling maneuvers similar to the first Diablo, such as running from the butcher, closing a barred door and letting loose on him with my bow and arrow at level 1. Ok, well maybe not that bad, but still it’s the year 2008 I want a little more in my hack n slash role playing games. Is that so much to ask?

Creatures don’t respawn, so you wont be able to pull complete power gamer moves in the first areas, and that I can fully respect. There are a few bugs, though. Projectile weapons/spells some time glitch out and never reach their intended target and some enemies disappear for absolutely no reason. These are all things that can be easily remedied with a standard patch I can say that I honestly appreciate its completely solid multiplayer function, which is currently now completely free of cheating. Since it’s a new game, only time will tell if it will truly remain cheat free.

It’s a pretty standard RPG in the fact that you complete your mission and receive experience points to further strengthen your character. Essentially, if you have played any game in the Diablo series or any of its clones, you are completely ready and you already know how to play this game. I feel that this is a poor clone of a game that did very well in the past and if you wanted to a bad clone of a good game, why not just play the good game in stead. This being said I feel that the game is worth a try if you are into Diablo clones and you are willing to wait for a patch to get past the minor glitches.