HARD TO BE A GOD (PC)
In Arkanar, a medieval kingdom that coexists with powerful gods, bearers of unknown technology, a cruel rebellion threatens to start. Live the events of the novel 'How difficult it is to be god', from the Strugatsky brothers, and discover the secrets hidden behind Arkanar and his gods, in this new role title.
Film, literature and video games are more than just the entertainment list of many of us. In recent years, they walk hand in hand, supporting each other, forming an alliance that seeks new arguments and original stories. What we present today is a novel turned into a game, Hard to be a God.
And from this fruitful artistic symbiosis, fostered by each of the parties with more or less success, we have had numerous examples of different qualities. This time it is the science fiction novel 'How difficult it is to be God', by the brothers Arkady and Boris Strugatsky, published in 1964, and adapted to the video game by Akella and Burut Entertainment.
The plot, which does not lack a dash of originality, is about a kingdom called Arkanar, which is located on a planet of the Noon universe. The inhabitants of this world are now in the Middle Ages, and are watched closely by entities much more technologically advanced, but they are not allowed to intervene in its history.
The protagonist of the novel will be involved in a series of events that will cause the rupture of this prohibition, due to his concerns for the welfare of the inhabitants of Arkanar. His knowledge, technology and skills, will lead him to compare his responsibilities with those of a god, and hence the title of the novel.
Of course, few genres would fit as well in this script as the role, and this has been chosen by the developers to bring the book of the Strugatsky brothers to the computer screen. We will embody a spy, whose mission is to observe and report all the details related to the political, social and military situation of the Arkanar kingdom.
It seems that a rebellion rises in these lands, and after graduating in the school of secret services, a phase that will serve as a tutorial of the game, we will receive the order to find and assassinate the main agitator of this revolt, the consul Arata. The skills we have learned during our training will be vital to this mission.
In case a mandate is not enough, the emperor himself will ask us to share all our information with a noble professor, named Rumata de Estor. This will attract to us several groups of enemies, which together with the dangers of the wild lands of Arkanar, will make our existence a coming and going of adventures and portentous feats.
Although this is the main plot line, there are secondary missions for which we will be rewarded. To achieve our goals successfully, we need to be well equipped, with good weapons and armor, and have the necessary skills to face all the challenges that arise during our long trips.
In fact, some of the missions may have more than one possible solution. For example, at a given moment we will give our bones in a prison for slaves, and our chances are to escape stealthily through a tunnel, or arm ourselves with a club and distribute firewood to the guards. However, these choices do not influence the argument.
In the end, our hero will understand that other more advanced civilizations, coming from Earth, watch over and act on Arkanar as if it were gods, but they are really flesh and blood, and we must discover the cause of the medieval period has spread for thousands of years on this planet, while on Earth it was barely centuries.
It will not be possible to access all of them from the beginning, but they will be revealed to us as we advance in the game's argument. To facilitate long journeys between very distant areas, upon reaching a signpost we will access a map screen, where it will be possible to choose the destination to which we want to go, even if it is not adjacent to ours.
Within each zone, the thing varies. We may find ourselves in a village, in a forest or combinations of inhabited and wild areas. Different enemies like bandits or wild creatures will be launched against us as soon as they see us appear in their field of vision, and we will have no choice but to fight or flee like cowards, but alive.
The territories are extensive, and the developers have been kind enough to provide us with a typical means of transport of the time. Getting a mount is not an easy task, due to its high cost, but we appreciate having one. In addition, it is possible to fight on the back of our steed, and the damage we receive will be shared with the horse.
On the other hand, Arkanar is full of social estates. Bandits, pirates, soldiers, noble professors, peasants ... all of them have characteristic clothes. Our ability to disguise ourselves will allow us to go unnoticed among these groups, so that if we wear the outfit of a bandit, we will not be the target of their assaults.
But of course, to achieve this effect, it is necessary to get a good variety of clothes and armor. In our inventory we can see what category they belong to, and as long as no one is watching us, we can change clothes to disguise ourselves. For this it is necessary to have at least five elements of the faction.
The combat is not as trivial as in other titles of the genre, since in addition to monitoring our health bar, it is necessary to measure our strength to not tire fighting the enemy. If this happens, we will remain immobile for a few seconds, turned into an easy target, while we resume our breath to return to the fight fresh.
We also have several types of weapons, whether one-handed, two-handed, double or batons. There are even weapons at a distance. Each of them will have different characteristics of damage and energy expenditure in combat. Weapons with one hand can be used alone or with a shield, which is the only element capable of protecting us from enemy projectiles.
Four will be the actions of the fight. The first is the normal attack, which causes moderate damage, is faster and spends less energy. The powerful blow is slower and more tiring, but it causes much more pain to the enemies. In addition, if these end down in the ground, we can finish them off with a final blow. Of course, we can protect ourselves.
It is possible to change weapons in the middle of the fray, and use elements like healing herbs or potions. The latter restore health or fatigue, according to their red or blue color respectively. There are also other objects that can be used to improve the characteristics of weapons and armor, such as improvement kits or poisons for projectiles.
Hard to be a God is a role title, and could not miss the experience points or the development of the character. There are not many skills to evolve during the level ups, which are reduced to hand-to-hand combat, distance combat, dexterity, medium, diplomacy and resistance. We will divide three points between them with each level.
The melee skills are divided into light weapon, medium weapon and heavy weapon, and it is not possible to assign more than one point between the three with each raise. When we reach a certain level in each one, we will learn a special blow in combat. If we comply with its restrictions, it will replace the powerful blow when we select it in the fight.
In this way, certain special blows require the use of some types of weapons in particular, for example, using a one-handed weapon without a shield, or using a cane-type weapon. If this is true, we can use the skill from the quick access bar, which we will explain later, and it will be necessary to wait a while before using it again.
It is not possible to use this type of shock when riding, but riding a horse has its own type of powerful attack, although it is not as effective as those learned through experience. There are no improvements of this kind for remote weapons, and it is a pity, because it would have been nice to have shots with special characteristics.
The interface of the game is simple, highly intuitive for all those who have played titles like Diablo or Sacred. At sight we will always have a bar of life, over another of fatigue, in addition to its numerical values. An area with 10 elements of quick access by means of the keys from 1 to 0, and a radar of the current position.
We have quick access keys to the inventory, character file and mission diary. The inventory itself is divided into 3 sub-inventories, one for weapons, armor, clothing and other objects, another for herbs, food and potions, and a last for books, scrolls and elements of the storyline. It is possible to order them automatically.
The heaviest thing is to buy or move a lot of objects, because you always have to drag them from the source inventory to the destination. While it is true that in the chests or trunks there is a button that allows us to collect all objects and money content, in the case of merchants there is no shortcut to facilitate the task.
In fact, our backpack will tend to fill with a lot of objects, especially clothes and armors, in order to possess a good variety of personalities to disguise. In this case, the organization of the same is not very good, and it can be tedious to look for the necessary elements to dress, for example, imperial guard.
In fact, our backpack will tend to fill with a lot of objects, especially clothes and armors, in order to possess a good variety of personalities to disguise. In this case, the organization of the same is not very good, and it can be tedious to look for the necessary elements to dress, for example, imperial guard.
However, on more than one occasion, we will suffer from the effects of poor management of the elements that block access, and we will find invisible walls, or horses unable to jump fences that even a child could. Even enemies will suffer from these encounters, getting stuck in their position without moving.
Without having ever been to Arkanar, the truth is that the graphic aspect of the environment is very successful. Dwellings in proportion to the inhabitants, trees, bushes, stones and rivers, all very well designed and with lots of details. The characterization of the characters is quite good, if not for the small variety of faces and differentiating elements.
The best is the variety of armor and clothing, which is the only feature that varies from time to time among the inhabitants of Arkanar. In the case of our protagonist, any change in the clothing will be appreciable in detail, although it is still necessary to take a look at the inventory to know that we are in disguise.
Therefore, the graphics are, in general, good, although they do not reach the exceptional level seen in other titles of the genre. The worst thing is the scant number of animations, especially at the combat level, which end up being those kinds of aspects that can give a title the repetitive word, almost without risk of making a mistake in opinion.
The sound is not another matter. A soundtrack not very varied, but not harmful to the ears. A decent amount of sound effects, but no great sound. The voices are not too bad, but they are limited to the main characters of the story, which are not the bulk of the population of the Arkanar kingdom, far from it.
Unfortunately, the voices will not be translated into our country, which will happen with the texts. It would have been a point in favor in a title with those shortcomings, but finally it has been chosen to follow the ugly tradition of not locating all the features to the destination country. In this case, the decision does much more harm than in other games that did the same.
In these cases two things can happen. The first is that the story and the game are so exciting that we leave aside the audiovisual impression to focus on fun. The second is that we end up so tired of the little variety, that we abandon the title in search of other more entertaining offers, especially in these aspects.
Hard to be a God has a bit of that 'I want and I can not' that so much abounds in the genre of the role. Many features fail to set a precedent in any rule, and some of them are easily implementable, and it is even possible to find them easily among the varied offer of role titles sold in the market.
Some of the promises have not been fulfilled, such as being able to observe non-player characters behaving in a real way. It is true that they do not stand still in the same position, but from there to behave in a credible way, there is still a long way to go. The combat system, another unfulfilled promise, leaves much to be desired.
We have come to hear that Hard to be a God would be a non-linear adventure, and that is not true either. There are secondary objectives, we can deviate more or less, but in the end they all follow the same course, pre-established before starting the game. In the end, a string of unfulfilled promises, or half-fulfilled promises that defraud the player.
Is that a bad game? Not at all. The title has some original features and very well achieved, such as costumes. Especially the fact of how the inhabitants of Arkanar behave as we wear one outfit or another. The problem is that we expected so much from this game, that in the end the deficiencies weigh much more than the virtues.
For all lovers of the Strugatsky brothers' novels, it will be a pleasure to see the novel transformed into three dimensions, to chat with its characters, to influence its history ... For the rest, we have a normal quality title, but with one of the most original arguments we have seen in recent years. Of course, how difficult it is to be God!
- Very original story.
- Variety of objects.
- Possibility of dressing up.
Conclusion
The best
- Very original story.
- Possibility of dressing up.
- Variety of objects.
Worst
- Errors in the handling.
- L ittle graphic variety.
- Unkept promises.
It is not the latest or the most original, it does not have the best execution, but it can be fun if you like the genre. Good, but improvable.