Soulbringer is an epic dark fantasy RPG by Infogrames, which never attracted much media attention. It was published, and soon forgotten by most. But there are those of us who remember ...

A thousand years ago, six demon kings, known as the Revenants, ruled the world with an iron fist. Only one man could fight the League of Six, and his name was Harbinger. He fought the Revenants, and cast their souls into the Well of Souls. Yet were they truly defeated?

A long time has passed since the destruction of the Revenants. All the great empires but Thardolin have fallen. An endless winter has begun. The world is a dangerous place once more. You are a young man whose real name is never revealed. You live in the little town of Kalaran. Your father’s last wish before he goes to the Well is that you travel to the town of Madrigal and find your uncle, Andrus. The game begins as you reach Madrigal on a ferry. You do not know what awaits you: you will have many adventures, and travel to many places. You will follow the footsteps of Harbinger, and succeed where he did not. You will become the Soulbringer.

This story does not sound original at first, but believe me, it is. At first, the game world seems simple. But as the storyline unfolds, you will find that the world of Soulbringer is one of the best ever seen in a work of fantasy. It is brimming with detail and life. The Bloodkin, the Hex-Seekers, the Thardolin empire, and the souls of the dead ... the world of Soulbringer is amazingly detailed and original. It will draw you in, and in your mind it will become real.

I don’t want to reveal too much about the story, but there are a few things that must be said. First of all, remember that it takes a while to get started. The game is huge, and the introduction to the world is huge, too. By the time the game really begins, you will have explored mines and temples, defeated tons of undead and solved several mysteries. And when you think that soon the game will be over, the story begins to pick up and you realize that you’ve barely started.

Soulbringer does some things that few games, if any, have done before. Soulbringer dares to be epic. Truly epic. Now there are some people who would say that Final Fantasy 7 was epic, but how can you call a game with so much sillyness in it epic? When I say epic I mean epic in the literary sense, like the Arthurian legends. In Soulbringer, you won’t find any characters that look like blue jelly and bounce around shouting ‘weee!’. The writing is, simply put, brilliant. The dialogue is the best I have ever seen in any game. It feels like reading a really good epic fantasy novel..

The story in itself is epic, too. Many games have followed the ‘chosen one fights evil lord’ story, but in most of these games, you were never treated as a hero, and you always had to fight on your own. There were no actual battles between armies - they were always mentioned as an event in the past. The fight between good and evil was just the fight between you and some bad guy. In Soulbringer, there are actual battles. Yes, you actually take part in several relatively large battles. Believe me when I say that nothing can be compared to this. Marching on Tortalaran and fighting against the undead with the Bloodkin is one of my fondest gaming experiences. What could be more epic than helping an exiled race fight against their greatest enemy, the King of the Vampires? And, as you become more and more famous, the other characters begin treating you with more respect (or more hate). Your powers grow, and so do the numbers of your followers. In the end, you truly feel like the chosen one, leading the armies of light into battle.

The story will take you to many places, and all of them have been realized very well. Everything is believable. The characters are extremely well-done, also. Two characters are especially interesting: the ranger Chant and Barthelago. I should mention that unlike other games where you have to do everything yourself, in this game the characters have a part to play in the story. That makes them feel much more ‘real’. Soulbringer is on of the few games that made me feel for the characters in a serious manner. The main character’s evolution is also interesting. You start as a humble young man, but slowly you become the hero that you are destined to be. The character’s attitude changes. He is less and less afraid and humble, and in the end he is truly heroic. These changes can also be seen in the character’s portrait. The atmosphere in the game is also of note. Few games have had such a perfect and consistent atmosphere. You will never feel that something is out of place. Not for a single moment.

Design-wise the game is pretty good. The combat difficulty might seem to be a bit unbalanced in the beginning, but that has more to do with the controls than with the strength of the enemies. The designers have made some pretty intelligent choices, which make the game a lot more fun. Once you reach a certain point in the story, you will gain access to the Hex - a special headquarters that you can access by touching certain obelisks. In the Hex you can do several things. You can keep your magic books there, repair your items, get some free potions, and store your items. In the beginning you will only be able to store your items there, until you find certain artifacts which will allow certain spirits entry to the Hex. For example, once you have found the Anvil of Horath, the spirit of Crucibus will be allowed entry, and he will able to repair damaged items. An interesting inventory feature is the Send to Hex option. Once you have the Hex, you can send any item to the Hex. This is very practical, as there is a weight limit. Another feature that I loved was the compasses. There are two, one which points to the north, and another that points to the closest source of magic. A good example of the kind of details that make Soulbringer unique is that the normal compass often stops working, and you have to click on several times it to get it to work. If you buy a better quality compass, this won’t happen.

Character development in Soulbringer is simple, but effective. You have five stats. Every time you kill a monster or complete a quest, you get experience points. When you get enough of these, you gain a new level. Every time you get a new level, you get six points which you can freely distribute. Every point makes a difference.

There is another aspect of magic which makes the game unique. Your character is a Warlock, which means that he can communicate with the dead. There is a spell called Death’s Recollection, which you will have to cast pretty often. By using it, you can talk to the spirit of a dead person (if you are near his body). You will cross the barriers between life and death pretty often; in how many other games can you do that?

Now we get to the combat system. Soulbringer’s combat system is unique, and therefore hard to understand at first. But once you understand it, you won’t want to trade it for any other. The whole idea is actually rather simple. The higher your combat stat, the more attacks are available to you (up to five). Combat is real-time. You click on the enemy that you want to attack, and he becomes your ‘target’. Then you click on the attack that you want to use, and your character attacks. Note that this is not hack’n’slash - the attack you choose is important, and combat is not simple. If you’re on higher ground for example, you will need to use a low attack, or you won’t hit. There is a combo option, but I never used it. It’s not worth it. Don’t try using it if you’re a newbie, because it will only confuse you.

At first, fighting will seem almost impossible, but once you get used to the system battles will become a lot of fun. Just don’t give up too early. This is very important with games such as this one. Some reviewers complained about the interface, but I find it to be OK. It’s not the best interface of all time, but it works. Moving the camera is easy, and there are few substantial problems. Using items could be easier, but it’s not that difficult. It’s not the end of the world if you have to click more than once to do something.

The graphics are 3D and the camera can be moved in many ways around the character by holding down the right mouse button. The graphics are not perfect, but the atmosphere they create is great, and I wouldn’t have it otherwise. What I really liked was that they don’t look artificial and shiny. The weather effects are great. Watching the snow fall in Madrigal is just beautiful. The magic effects are just as great. The effect for Death’s Recollection is just brilliant. You have to see it. But what I loved above all was the way the characters moved. It was incredibly natural, and gave the game a whole new feeling of reality. Another thing which was a very wise choice on the designers’ behalf was that the cut-scenes use the game’s engine. You never feel like you’re being thrown out of the game world to see a fancy 3D animation.

Most reviewers complained about the music in Soulbringer, saying that there wasn’t any. They didn’t hear any sound, either. Obviously they didn’t think of putting the second CD into their drives (which is silly, isn’t it?). If you do put the CD where it belongs, you will hear some of the best music ever composed for a game. Sadly, the music only plays during specific events or something like that (I’m not quite sure about the music in the towns). But when it plays, whoa! Great stuff. And when there’s no music, the sound makes up for that. Just stand next to the river in Madrigal (wearing headphones) and watch the snowflakes fly. Pure beauty. As for the characters’ voices ... these people should get Oscars! Especially Chant, Barthelago, and Soulbringer. They’re fantastic. When I played the game for the third time, using headphones, I noticed that some of the voices were done by the same people, but don’t let that distract you. When playing the game for the first time, you won’t even notice. The developers made a very wise choice when choosing their voice actors. Most characters have accents. Some are seemingly Irish or Scottish, others Russian, etc. This makes the characters sound a lot more authentic. Characters with Texan accents don’t belong in fantasy games.

Now you will probably be thinking ‘if the game is so great, why have I never heard of it?’. The answer is pretty simple. The controls, while simple in nature, are very different from those in most games, and I think most people give up before really getting into the game. Another problem is that the first part of the game, where there’s not too much story, is rather large. Compared to the size of the entire game it is nothing, of course, but when you’re starting the game you don’t know that. I don’t think that was a mistake in the design, though. The beginning is great the way it is, because the game needs a large intro. The problem is that many people have way too short an attention span. The final problem that this game has is orientation. We are all used to having automaps - there is none in this game, and you can’t see very far (at least not on my computer). Most people will get lost in the village in the beginning. This takes quite some time getting used to, but believe me, it is worth it.