Inquisition Preview

Not a cheerful topic you'll have to admit. "A turbulent century rocked by a war that was to last for 100 years, ravaged by the diabolical curse of the Black Plague, and tormented by the torturers of the Inquisition." Sounds serious and somewhat creepy too. If you remember the chilling atmosphere from Jean Jack Annaud's movie "The name of the Rose" (starring Sean Connery and Christian Slater), then you'll most certainly get the right picture about this game. The creators claim that their main inspiration also came from Jean Giono's "The Horseman on the Roof" and Walter Scott's "Ivanhoe." All in all, quite a good combination for a video game plot, wouldn't you agree?

"I'm French! Why do you think I have this outrageous accent you silly king!"

Dancing in the dark.

You are placed back in the 14th century (650 years in the past to be exact), during the ruthless reign of the Holy Inquisition. You are put in the shoes of a young thief called Mathew. As you start building your career as an unripe burglar, you're accidentally apprehended by the local authorities and put in the Châtelet prison (Paris). While incarcerated, you encounter a knight, who (as luck would have it) dies on the spot and leaves you some kind of seal that represents the first clue for finding the Treasure of the Templar Knights. Now you have a new goal and purpose in your miserable pick-pocketing life: escape from the prison and seek out the treasure, of course while avoiding the emissaries of the Inquisition, the "esoteric brothers," and many other ill-tempered medieval villains.

To be more precise, Inquisition is a third-person 3D real time action/adventure game. Well, that's the way it was revealed by the developers anyway. Throughout the game your actions are mostly going to be in the ole' cat-burglar style; you know sneaking across rooftops, picking locks to get your hands on valuable loots, etc. All through the game your task will be to discover information that's essential to your ultimate quest - finding the location of the Templar Treasure. Being a thief and sneaker, you can easily eavesdrop on the enemy to learn what you can about the treasure.

As you'd expect, since secrecy is crucial to your success as a thief, you are offered a choice of stealthy moves. Creeping through the shadows and tip-toeing behind the enemy's back is something you'll be doing quite often during your exciting treasure hunt. This allows you to use numerous objects and items located in the environment, and you will have access to various types of medieval weaponry. And just so you don't get bored, which is highly unlikely to occur, the game has multiple puzzles that need to be solved.

One of the screenshots shows that the game has a handy and well-designed inventory system, where you can easily access all of your items, weapons, and various spoils your inconsiderate thievish mitts grabbed along the way.

According to the developers, most of the attention and hard work throughout the designing process was devoted to the visual details. The architecture and the costumes were specifically outlined to correspond with those from the medieval age. The character models are dressed in order to realistically reflect 14th fashion (no Victoria Secret outfits and bath collections yet I'm afraid). In addition, while designing the levels of Inquisition the developers claim they've used authentic drawings and documents from that particular period. There will be fifteen genuine levels truthfully represented in a real-time 3D environment. Tasty!

We are still far from the game's release (either this fall or winter), but we hope to receive more details and media as the game development progresses. Currently, Inquisition is being created for PS2 and PC platforms, and from what we've seen of the available media the game looks sweet. Oh and the game's already rated, prohibiting anyone under 16 to catch a glimpse of the action, so that sounds promising anyways. Not that I encourage violence or anything, but I think that in the end it all boils down to realism and I'm afraid violence and bloodshed are a huge part of it. You take that out and you have a lame game on your hands. Still, that's another issue...