She was a leader and an inspiration to many that followed her. A valiant young woman who believed strongly that her command to save France came from God and thus led many successful campaigns against the English. She is none other than the legendary Saint Joan of Arc and the central character in Enlight Software’s upcoming action/RTS title Wars and Warriors: Joan of Arc (JOA). Based on the extensive press build that I played through, Enlight Software has created an impressive game with many remarkable features: exciting gameplay through an intriguing combo system, great visuals, an excellent musical score and much more.

You control Joan of Arc in the year 1429 across many different regions of medieval Europe in her quest to save France. I have to admit to having a huge fascination with this period in history and was very eager to play as the mighty warrior Joan of Arc all dressed in battle armor and ready to take part in her crusades. You will fight in many of the same historic battles that Joan fought in medieval Europe, from one in Orleans, the castle siege at Compiegne and many others. All together there should be about eight different areas that chronicle Joan of Arc’s crusade.

The game uses an impressive 3D engine to depict these famous historical battles. It does a commendable job in helping immerse the player in this historical period and beautifully depicting all the characters and locations you play through. In one area you see clouds moving gracefully overhead in what seems a very bright day but as you move forward the weather gets more intense, it begins to rain and darken and then lightning can be seen flashing across the sky. As you venture forth to complete your assigned task you will see the swaying of grass in the fields, a waterfall cascading down the side of a mountain and then you realize that Enlight Software understands that setting the right mood and atmosphere in a game is very important. This all happens along with a very impressive musical score that changes based on the situation. When you are in battle the music changes to indicate this or lowers to a more peaceful tune when you are just traveling through an area. It is the little details such as these that show what a beautiful game, Wars and Warriors: Joan of Arc is and how very capable the 3D engine is in providing these stunning visuals. I was also impressed by how smooth the game seemed to play at this stage of the games development.

They did not disappoint in the gameplay department either. You control Joan of Arc and can be assisted by other characters as well. In one scenario she is assisted by Jean de Metz as she attempts to reach and enter the city of Orleans. The interface is also very simple and easy to understand. There is an area at the bottom left of the screen that shows some vital information about Joan of Arc in the form of three important bars. There is a red bar that shows her health, a blue bar that indicates energy points to perform powerful combo moves and a green one that shows the amount of experience you have gained before you level up. Health and energy points will regenerate over time as well. I am delighted that the interface only takes up a small area of the screen at the bottom as some games have these huge and very atrocious interface screens that take up a significant portion of the playing area.

As you may have realized there are many intriguing RPG elements in JOA. For one, the characters level up as they gain enough experience in battle. Each time you level up you are given a few points to increase certain areas such as Strength, Defense, Dexterity and Leadership. You can tailor Joan of Arc as you see fit but make sure that you are wise where you distribute your points because distributing to many points in one area will leave you vulnerable in another. There is also an inventory screen which easily organizes many of the weapons and health items you find along the way. Defeated enemies will often leave money or health items behind. Sometimes you will find some of these items hidden in crates along the way. You can also equip enhancers for some weapons, which are items that make them even more powerful than they were before.

Playing the campaign could not be any simpler. When you begin an area, a mission objectives menu appears that details the current situation, what your main objective and side objectives will be for the current area. You can also access a map here that shows where your objectives are located. While you are playing there will also be a handy map to the top right of the screen that helps you figure out where the key points are as you venture forth in your mission. You will use many different types of weapons from swords to ranged weapons such as bows and arrows. It becomes even more interesting when you unleash powerful combos with these weapons. The left mouse button will unleash light attacks while the right mouse button unleashes heavy attacks.

When you click on these buttons in a certain combination you will unleash powerful combos against your enemies. Pressing the light attack button three times followed by the heavy attack button once will make Joan of Arc unleash one of these impressive combo moves. You have to be careful when you do this because you will waste valuable energy points (the blue bar mentioned above) when you use combo moves. If you run out of energy points you will need to wait for them to regenerate before you can use a combo move again. You will also be able to learn new combos as well as strengthen the ones you already have by allocating experience points to the areas you choose.

As I played through the press build I found myself having lots of fun through unleashing powerful combos against my enemies or watching how everything was created in such detail like the armor Joan of Arc is wearing to the way the terrain has been created to give you the feeling of playing in a unique and special world. Thanks in large part to the games designer, Trevor Chan, who is also the founder of Enlight Software and well-known for other games such as Capitalism, Seven Kingdoms, Hotel Giant and others. But there is still more to this game such as the impressive war machines that you can use in battle, from catapults and battering rams that you can use to destroy castle walls and deal mighty blows against your enemy. Joan of Arc will also be able to ride horses and attack her enemies while on one. I did notice a few things that will most likely be fixed in the final release of the game. There needs to be some fine tuning of the character and enemy AI in the game and I do hope that voice, more sound effects as well as some impressive cutscenes are added into the game. Knowing Enlight Software, they will give the game the polish that it deserves before it is released.

Enlight Software is prepared to deliver an enchanting experience with Wars and Warriors: Joan of Arc when it is released in 1st quarter 2004. Action, RTS as well as RPG elements are successfully combined to produce what should be one of the memorable games of 2004. With a powerful graphics engine producing impressive visuals, a great musical score, exciting gameplay, and an impressive combo system, Wars and Warriors: Joan of Arc will be one of the games you will definitely want to buy when it is released!

Official Wars and Warriors: Joan of Arc Website

System Requirements:

• Windows 98, 2000, ME or XP (Windows 95 and NT not supported)
• 800 MHz Pentium III or equivalent
• 128 MB RAM
• 4X CD-ROM/DVD-ROM drive
• 700 MB hard drive space
• NVIDIA GeForce 2, ATI Radeon or equivalent 3D card
• Direct X 8 compatible sound card
• keyboard
• mouse
• monitor capable of 1024x768 resolution