Arcatera: The Dark Brotherhood Review

It's not often that an anonymous company launches class ideas in the RPG market, and it certainly wasn't the case with the German Westka Entertainment, and their rather crude adventure, entitled Arcatera: The Dark Brotherhood. This game features both RPG elements and the adventure-like exploration. Unfortunately, it failed to meet some basic standards of the market, and it's a shame that a good RPG system came up short of quality because of bad coding and design. The developers made an obvious attempt to create a completely open-ended gameworld, where freedom of movement, and a vast range of possibilities would attract potential fans. In that respect, the game offers an ounce of the atmosphere it was supposed to.

There are four main characters available in the game: Adventurer, Thief, Magician, and Monk. Character class can be generated through nine categories by rolling the virtual dice: strength, luck, charisma, physical resistance, intelligence... All attributes are linked to the characters' abilities to attack and parry. Also, the Magician and Monk classes choose two basic spells. The characters increase their statistics through levels and gaining experience through in-game action.

Each character has a different motivation for exploring Arcatera. The Adventurer and his family are workers, and he is seeking a better life for himself. He is also looking for the woman of his dreams. (Aren't we all? - Ed.) The Thief and The Magician are looking for the men that killed their fathers. They wish to take their revenge on a mysterious man with green skin, and a knight in a black suit of armor. The Monk has amnesia, and remembers only the fire in the monastery, a monster that caused him to fall unconscious, and his expulsion from the Order by the Head Priest. Each character begins the story identical. They stand in font of the city gate of Senora, being briefed by a strange wizard that disappears with the promise to return in the near future. The game, so far, sounds attractive, but the rest of it was, I'm afraid, poorly done. The main character, regardless of his class, faces a whole bunch of, albeit, identhical mysteries... The mission received from the wizard concerns two separate sources of evil, which will attempt to conquer the world. They intend to begin their brutal campaign right here in Senora. The first source of evil is a clandestine cult called Black Sun. The rumor has it that this organization intends to overthrow the local prince, and usurp power, introducing full dictatorship. The second force to be reckoned with is called Rog Gwenuar, a barbarian big in size and dangerous by reputation. Luckily, the barbarian has been caught, and his execution is being prepared. The problem arises when Black Sun decides to join forces with the Barbarian. The hero's goal is to uncover the mystery that surrounds these two forces, and end their brutality.

As I said, the game begins at the gates of Senora. From there, the players can roam to wherever they wish. Midtown is the section of Senora the player enters first, and it's a lot less dangerous than the rest of the city. This is the part of the city that is home to nobility and the middle class. To begin with, to enter the walls surrounding Midtown, you have to solve a riddle. As opposed to Midtown, Eastwarts is a slum occupied by the poor, and the entrance is free. The buildings in this part of the town are mostly bars, warehouses, stores, and domiciles. If you decide to leave the city walls however, you'll get the chance to enjoy, and explore the local wildlife --- the swamps, caves, a canyon, and the forest of Kandt...Moving between areas is simple. It boils down to finding the right course (the cursor turns into an arrow), and clicking away. If you manage to get your character in trouble, and you certainly will, the best thing to do is double-click, and start running. Controlling the party is easy (a few of the NPC's can be recruited). Members of the party follow the character that the player promotes into a leader. As usual in P&C adventures, the cursor pulsates over an entity of interests, or offers options for a certain action or conversation. Other elements of the interface feature pop-up menus that appear in the bottom part of the screen. By the way, this is a badly designed option, because during the game, menus overlap with the direction of general motion. The menu features the option to speed up the passing of time in the game, which is useful when traveling from region to region. There are options of feeding the character or making him fall asleep. You can also view, fairly detailed character stats, pick any of the characters within your party, and view their inventory. Instead of using the popular limitation by weight, the size of the inventory is presented through slots. Their number depends on the strength of the character. The transfer of objects between characters, and trade in general is done through a confusing menu, which offers the value of objects in gold and silver coins. As for the rest of the object manipulation, there is a possibility of interacting with several other objects that come in handy when you have to break a crate or open it with a crowbar to find a secret passage. Putting too much emphasis on the object manipulation, really takes away from the game dynamics, and, frankly, gets a bit tedious after a while.