Action/RPG hybrids have often been popular in the past (think Gothic), but alas, Archangel doesn't seem to live up to the standards. As one plays the game, there is something that seems to be missing in what could have been an excellent game.

The story is one of the many standard adventure stories. Michael, the main character, dies in an unfortunate collision. Suddenly, and with very little explanation, he is in a medieval monastery filled with monks, all in one piece(Michael, not the monks). There are the obligatory questions such as where am I, what am I doing here, but after a while, Michael just decides, what the hell, grabs his sword of light, and runs out the door to go do some old fashioned evil butt-kickin'. Good for you Michael! However, he steps out of the monastery and poof! He's in heaven, speaking to the good Lord himself. The Lord tells him that he is destined to fight evil, right wrongs, and all those other cliches. Now we get to the action.

The bulk of the game is action oriented. As you go through the three ages of the game, a medieval age, a futuristic Berlin, and some sort of evil city, you use your sword of light to kill weird monsters, demons, and whatnot. Added to this average game is something called a spirit meter. Off the bat, this is quite a mistake. It's the energy that is used for your magic weapon and spells, but it recharges VERY slowly. Worse still, some enemies can only be killed by using attacks that use spirit energy, and that means a lot of running away from enemies while waiting for your meter to recharge. Fortunately, this happens rarely later in the game when you pick up some nice weapons varying from a simple knife to a rocket launcher (explosions make for a happy time!).

The areas of the game, while well-rendered, seem to be too large. First of all, there is a lot of running around, which makes someone wonder why there isn't some sort of teleport system in place. Or maybe a map system. It wouldn't be all that bad, except that many of the rooms are just pointlessly redundant. Empty rooms are placed in front of you. They may have one item in them, but besides that, they're quite boring. One example that comes to mind is a hotel in which three floors are exactly the same, and yet only one of them has anything of importance.

The RPG elements of the game actually start occurring once you meet the Lord (of Light). It is at this point when you can make the choice to be a ghost (mage-like, can attack from distance with area-attack spells) or warrior (like you would think, better at close range attacking). From that decision, skills you pick are skills of that class. Unfortunately, there are no cross-class skills in this game. That would have added a lot, as being regimented to a single path can start to get old after a while. Nevertheless, the skills that you can you use are interesting.

There is voice acting in this game, although it is some of the most horrendous acting I have heard. Michael, recently dead, rubs his head and says "Oh, the pain." as if he was bored of it. Other characters are little better, but the main character seems to be the worst. The graphics of Michael seem to make him look like his head was dragged through a sewage drain, producing some sort of plastic-hair effect. Another problem is the characters' eyes. Obviously, some attention was paid to these, unfortunately, not very good attention. They seem to be separate from the rest of the head, just resting within holes in the head. Unlike the characters, though, the monsters of the game are creative and well made. Kind of makes you wonder if the two were worked on by the same group.

Generally, this is a linear RPG. The game is segmented into acts, and though you don't need to complete all the quests to go to the next act, you can get some experience when you do so. Often, these are quick little pointless quests involving killing evil creatures, finding an item, and returning said item. Little thought was put into the quests apparently, focusing more on the action. There are a few areas where you can actually do one quest before another, but besides that it's all one-way.

Archangel is like the ugly duckling. Deep within, there is a game of great caliber which is just waiting to get out. Too bad for us that that great game is covered with something entirely different. It is possible to play this game and enjoy it, it just depends whether or not you are willing to look beyond the stumbling blocks that seem to plague it.

Final Grade: C+