The Olympic gods, apparently, staged another competition among mortals to find out who would be best conveyed to the greatness and spirit of the Antiquity era in any affordable media format. And mortals try very hard. Over the past few years, they have shot a lot of thematic films (300, the remake of the Battle of Titans, Persia Jackson and the Lightning Chief) and released a bunch of games on legends and myths of ancient Greece, including Titan Quest , Rise of the Argonauts , Glory of Heracle on Nintendo DS and, of course, trilogy God of War. Czech Action/RPG Numen: Contest of Heroes Against this background, of course, does not look in the most outstanding way, but she also has something to surprise and please her Olympic patrons.
Olympic Games
By all external signs Numen: Contest of Heroes is a Titan Quest clone, and the latter, in turn, could be characterized as “Diablo in the antique setting”. That is, the main components of gameplay are a high -speed beating of crowds of monsters, shopping campaigns, accelerated and concise pumping of a character, as well as a cult of looting Chilli Reels Casino. Only all this disgrace does not happen in dirty caves and desecrated cathedrals, but on the flooding meadows of Hellas.
Accordingly, the plot in Numen does not differ in special delights: one of the Olympic gods wants to, with our help, find a certain stolen artifact and punish the thief. The role system is focused exclusively on hostilities. There are three classes of characters: a warrior, magician and archer, besides standard parameters, a set of unique skills is available. The archer, for example, can cause extensive bleeding in opponents, the warrior can apply circular blows, and the magician, of course, mosques lightning and skillfully brings enemies to a crispy fried crust.
All this is supplemented by complex relations with Olympus. Just as it was in Titan Quest and Loki , We can choose a patron god for ourselves, pray to Him, and in return to get the opportunity to learn some divine ability. Athena, Poseidon and Zeus offer a mortal follower completely different services. Zeus, among other things, will teach how to handle lightning and use special scrolls that temporarily increase health. Poseidon will tell you how to be treated, standing in the water. And Athena – how to disorient enemies and bring the evil eye on them and damage.
In a word, the essence of the game is familiar to everyone who at least once saw Titan Quest. All the way we have been wheeling in the cities and weights of ancient Greece, we are looking for traces of the kidnapper, fill the inventory with rubbish, simultaneously clean the locations from harpies and cyclops, periodically descend into the dungeons and fight with the bosses, in the role of well -known mythical creatures – for example, the country's country of Haron.
You are not alone!
But in fact, Numen is not just a clone, but a clone with claims. Firstly, the authors tried to show the development of the character in time. As if in some Fable , The early stages of the game paint the hero's childhood. For a while we are kept on the island, in our native village. The training stage of the game takes place here, but the young hero, in general, has the same possibilities as an adult: you can use onions, and sword, and magic. The game calculates what you have overcome enemies more often, and then, when the time comes to leave your native land, it determines the specialization of the hero. From this moment on, you can only sell the weapons and equipment of a different class.
Quests in Numen do not always come down to a simple "kill-bail". So, a certain witch can turn the hero into a spider and make in this form look for a way out of the cave, and the lighthouse caretaker will ask to substitute for a bite of a deserted worm so that he leaves his tooth in you. By the way, keep in mind that many quests, characters and enemies are available only at a certain time of the day.
Finally, the Czechs realized an interesting idea with competition between heroes. The fact is that our character is not the only one who is looking for the missing artifact of the gods. Other inhabitants of Olympus also chose one mortal protege for themselves. We will collide with them all the way. Having come to the place of execution of an important plot quest, you will definitely meet one of the other heroes. A competitor can be wounded, trapped or can try to make us some dirty trick. We, in turn, are free to offer an unlucky colleague help, put in a word for him or throw to their fate. You can even try to unite forces to complete some local task, but the gods do not like it.
By the way, the favor of the Olympic patron is expressed in the glasses of divine mercy: it is they who are spent on studying special skills. The right way to win the favor of the gods is to sacrifice some animal (the higher the level, the more expensive the victim is required) or call a competitor to a duel and defeat him in the arena. In the same place, in the arena, real tournaments are periodically held, where all the heroes surviving at the moment come on in the fights for the release.
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In a word, the authors tried to reconcile a typical Diablo concept with a more diverse and deep RPG. Usually in such cases it turns out something from the series "neither yours nor our". Indeed, Numen, on the one hand, is not a competitor to neither Titan Quest, or even more so Diablo: there is not enough drive, brutality, not many unique objects and sets, the interface is not perfect, there is no opportunity to improve objects. The game also does not reach the best epic RPG – there is no same directing and the same depth in the study of the world, characters, quests.
Nevertheless, playing Numen is interesting. The Czechs built a good balance, and therefore the pumping is fascinating: the game regularly delivers an indescribable feeling of satisfaction familiar to fans when you come to the previously invincible monsters and finally show them where the rossy hibernate, and at the same time centaurs and harpies. And the abundance of living details and the most unexpected opportunities (here you can still look for treasures and play bones) really diversifies military everyday life. Therefore, for everyone who is overcome by a painful Diablo Land, Numen can become a kind of analogue of methadone therapy.
TRANSLATION: The Russian version from Akella was made competently. Everything is diligently translated and voiced, including almost all dialogs. But the quality of the localization itself cannot be called perfect. In the description of objects there are pearls such as “Silk Epodes of the Wise Bear” (I would like to look at this miracle of nature!), and some actors on voice acting do not fall into the mood of the text at all.
Reigracy – Yes
Cool plot – No
Originality – Yes
Easy to master – Yes
Evidence of expectations: 70%
Gameplay: 6
Graphics: 7
Sound and music: 8
Interface and management: 6
Waited? Titan Quest in Conschik: not so peppy and accurate, but with sacrifices, battles on arenas and competition between heroes.
Mania rating: 6.0
"Above the average"
Localization rating: 1/3