Before you read, I do apologize for the lack of pictures.
Genre: Action/RPG
The First Templar is a game made by Kalypso Media. The quality of the game… I’ll just say the website’s quality is better. However, it actually was quite a decent game, just felt a bit clunky in terms of combat and movement. I did like the story, however. Here are some of the games as of 10-13-2013 Kalypso Media has published so far:
- Dark (2013)
- Rise of Venice (2013)
- Alien Spidey (2013)
- Dollar Dash (2013)
- Omerta – City of Gangsters (2013)
- Anna (2012)
- Sine Mora (2012)
- Legends of Pegasus (2012)
- Hard Reset: Extended Edition (2012)
- Port Royale 3 (2012)
- Jurassic Park: The Game (2012)
- Jagged Alliance: Back In Action (2012)
These are games from the past year or so. Some of these games had moderate levels of polish and gleam, and some didn’t. You’d think a studio publisher would be publishing better games, but I guess they are giving indies a chance too? I haven’t done research into Kalypso, so I’m not sure. Kalypso also published the Tropico games, which are apparently above the new EA Simcity game in terms of quality, so there’s that. And it’s a popular franchise, I believe.
Anyway, onto the story of The First Templar!
The story is about a Templar named Celian and, when it first starts out, his seemingly best friend Roland. You travel together for awhile in search of the Grail. The game starts out with Celian and Roland going to visit the Templar Grand Master in a monastery way out in the middle of apparently bumfuck nowhere. Celian and Roland encounter some baddies inside the monastery, which is where you get your fighting tutorial. It’s not really much of a tutorial but what you learn there you will use the rest of the game. After the fight, Celian and Roland realize that the Grand Master isn’t there. They set out down the road to search for him.
At this point in the game you have probably noticed the minimap. The minimap has, if you are in the monastery near the back, a silver arrow on it, pointing to the edge of the map. This points to a chest, where you can get gear. Gear in this game is not gear as you would think, it’s pure visuals instead of stats. Your ‘stats’ seem to be determined by how far you are in the Skill Trees in the game for the characters throughout the game. Anyway, back to the map. Or, as I’m about to say, lack thereof of a map. That’s quite the flaw with this game as it’d be very helpful to know where you’ve been or where you’re going. You do have an objective indicator, but… I mean, come on. What game in this century doesn’t have maps? Or at least a rough idea of a map? Anyway, the silver arrows mean treasure. Usually it’s decorative gear, but sometimes it’s experience, or opens up bonus objectives to get chests throughout the stage.
I think that’s about it for gear and such, maybe more on it later.
Anyway, so you set off while you’re in the middle of again, bumfuck nowhere. You exit the building and there’s some more baddies, no problem.
The game is fairly linear in that it’s not an open world game, for sure. There are side routes you can take, and perhaps there may be treasure down those side routes, but that’s really it.
Anyway, you’re going down the path and you encounter some enemies. There’s more fighting tutorials here.
I’m just going to skip ahead to the next part that’s important.
Baddies
Baddies
Baddies
You end up in a small village that’s been raided by the bandits looking for the Grand Master. He turns out to be in the chapel in the village. Celian and Roland speak to him in a cutscene, telling him of the fact Celian and Roland are setting out for the grail, following a lead Celian has. He wishes them luck.
Also there’s a little bonus thing in here too, in the game there are scripture readings. Well not scripture, more like a guy telling a story or something. But either way there’s like 50 entries and you have to find them all one by one. There’s also a chest outside the chapel. I’m not going to go through every little bonus thing though, just the main story because I’m playing it right now as I type.
Anyway, you both run up a hill to another area where you’re introduced to archer enemies. These enemies will be there through the course of the game, just in different skins. They are supremely annoying and it’s best to take them out first in a fight if possible.
Anyway, this is where the game introduces you to bonus objectives. The game slaps a blue arrow on your map and you should go follow it because the game says so. So off you two go, down the road to another part of the village where apparently there’s a French envoy being held captive by bandits. You can hold SHIFT to sneak and kill most of them without any fighting, or much fighting anyway. There’s also some loot down there, apparently.
So back up you go on your way through the village.
On your way down the hill there’s a-
Fuck it I’m grabbing a plot synopsis because I don’t feel like playing through this game again.
———————————————————————————————————
From Wikipedia:
In the beginning of the 14th century, the Crusades are coming to an end. Acre, in Palestine, the last Christian city in the Holy Land is under siege and about to fall into Mamluk hands.
Celian and Roland, two Templar knights have just arrived in Cyprus in order to talk to the Templar Grandmaster seeking advice in their quest for the Holy Grail. Upon their arrival they find out that the island is being attacked by Muslim warriors and hurry the protect it. In doing so they encounter a kidnapped messenger from Guy d’Ibelin who says that her master’s daughter – Marie d’Ibelin – is being held prisoner by the Inquisition.
After consulting their Grandmaster the two of them go to an undetermined location in Europe where they discover that the Inquisition – led by a shadowy agent called Isaiah – is plotting something of monumental proportions. They release Marie but Roland is left behind during their escape, henceforth becoming Celian’s partner for most of the subsequent game.
Celian and Marie – believing Roland to have been killed – continue their quest for the Grail fighting a great deal of Muslim enemies in the process and helping those in need – even if the idea to help always come from Celian and is criticized by Marie who will remark that they are wasting time. At some point they discover that Guy d’Ibelin is also dead and that the Holy Land is lost for good. They finally find the Holy Grail Temple but learn that it was emptied long ago. In the temple however they find a dying Templar who mistakes Celian for the Grandmaster in a scene that seems very odd at the moment. Running out of options they decide to go to France in order to get some help and advice from the Grandmaster and the main body of the Order.
They arrive in France in 1307, the year when King Philip IV and Pope Clement V start their accusations against the Templar Order. Both the heroes fall into The Inquisition’s trap and just when they are about to be imprisoned they find Roland, who has not been killed but instead was tortured and then pledged his allegiance to the anti-Templar movement becoming its Black Knight.
Roland’s friendship to Celian though, turns out to be much stronger than his new-found allegiance so he helps his friend to reach an escape port through the woods where Celian is reunited with Marie. From that point on, Roland tells them they are on their own and so they depart for a fortified Templar stronghold where they intend to join forces with the Grandmaster to fight back the French king armies.
The Grandmaster reveals that Celian is in fact Hugues de Payens the founder of the Templar Order. His memory loss was a side effect due to an assassination attempt by the current Grandmaster himself on him because he had hidden the Grail, which was responsible for prolonging the lives of the nine founders of the Order far beyond the natural lifespan of a normal human being. After the deaths of three of the original nine – probably due to internal power struggles – Hugues realized that the Grail was dangerous and so took it and hid it. The Grandmaster – who is himself also one of the original nine – wanted the Grail back so he took advantage from Hugues memory loss and gave him the task of finding the cup in hopes that something inside him would lead him straight to it.
After the plot twist the player realizes that the true enemies are in fact the Templar Order – who become the main antagonist of the game from now on. By remembering his true identity, Celian – or Hugues – also concludes that his castle would be the place where he would hide something he didn’t want anyone to ever find.
In the end, the player defeats both the Grandmaster and Isaiah – from the Inquisition – and a choice is put before him. The result of the option only affects the final words of the narrator without any other consequences.
———————————————————————————————————
The story is about a Templar named Celian and, when it first starts out, his seemingly best friend Roland. You travel together for awhile in search of the Grail. The game starts out with Celian and Roland going to visit the Templar Grand Master in a monastery way out in the middle of apparently bumfuck nowhere. Celian and Roland encounter some baddies inside the monastery, which is where you get your fighting tutorial. It’s not really much of a tutorial but what you learn there you will use the rest of the game. After the fight, Celian and Roland realize that the Grand Master isn’t there. They set out down the road to search for him.
At this point in the game you have probably noticed the minimap. The minimap has, if you are in the monastery near the back, a silver arrow on it, pointing to the edge of the map. This points to a chest, where you can get gear. Gear in this game is not gear as you would think, it’s pure visuals instead of stats. Your ‘stats’ seem to be determined by how far you are in the Skill Trees in the game for the characters throughout the game. Anyway, back to the map. Or, as I’m about to say, lack thereof of a map. That’s quite the flaw with this game as it’d be very helpful to know where you’ve been or where you’re going. You do have an objective indicator, but… I mean, come on. What game in this century doesn’t have maps? Or at least a rough idea of a map? Anyway, the silver arrows mean treasure. Usually it’s decorative gear, but sometimes it’s experience, or opens up bonus objectives to get chests throughout the stage.
I think that’s about it for gear and such, maybe more on it later.
Anyway, so you set off while you’re in the middle of again, bumfuck nowhere. You exit the building and there’s some more baddies, no problem.
The game is fairly linear in that it’s not an open world game, for sure. There are side routes you can take, and perhaps there may be treasure down those side routes, but that’s really it.
Anyway, you’re going down the path and you encounter some enemies. There’s more fighting tutorials here.
I’m just going to skip ahead to the next part that’s important.
Baddies
Baddies
Baddies
You end up in a small village that’s been raided by the bandits looking for the Grand Master. He turns out to be in the chapel in the village. Celian and Roland speak to him in a cutscene, telling him of the fact Celian and Roland are setting out for the grail, following a lead Celian has. He wishes them luck.
Also there’s a little bonus thing in here too, in the game there are scripture readings. Well not scripture, more like a guy telling a story or something. But either way there’s like 50 entries and you have to find them all one by one. There’s also a chest outside the chapel. I’m not going to go through every little bonus thing though, just the main story because I’m playing it right now as I type.
Anyway, you both run up a hill to another area where you’re introduced to archer enemies. These enemies will be there through the course of the game, just in different skins. They are supremely annoying and it’s best to take them out first in a fight if possible.
Anyway, this is where the game introduces you to bonus objectives. The game slaps a blue arrow on your map and you should go follow it because the game says so. So off you two go, down the road to another part of the village where apparently there’s a French envoy being held captive by bandits. You can hold SHIFT to sneak and kill most of them without any fighting, or much fighting anyway. There’s also some loot down there, apparently.
So back up you go on your way through the village.
On your way down the hill there’s a-
Fuck it I’m grabbing a plot synopsis because I don’t feel like playing through this game again.
———————————————————————————————————
From Wikipedia:
In the beginning of the 14th century, the Crusades are coming to an end. Acre, in Palestine, the last Christian city in the Holy Land is under siege and about to fall into Mamluk hands.
Celian and Roland, two Templar knights have just arrived in Cyprus in order to talk to the Templar Grandmaster seeking advice in their quest for the Holy Grail. Upon their arrival they find out that the island is being attacked by Muslim warriors and hurry the protect it. In doing so they encounter a kidnapped messenger from Guy d’Ibelin who says that her master’s daughter – Marie d’Ibelin – is being held prisoner by the Inquisition.
After consulting their Grandmaster the two of them go to an undetermined location in Europe where they discover that the Inquisition – led by a shadowy agent called Isaiah – is plotting something of monumental proportions. They release Marie but Roland is left behind during their escape, henceforth becoming Celian’s partner for most of the subsequent game.
Celian and Marie – believing Roland to have been killed – continue their quest for the Grail fighting a great deal of Muslim enemies in the process and helping those in need – even if the idea to help always come from Celian and is criticized by Marie who will remark that they are wasting time. At some point they discover that Guy d’Ibelin is also dead and that the Holy Land is lost for good. They finally find the Holy Grail Temple but learn that it was emptied long ago. In the temple however they find a dying Templar who mistakes Celian for the Grandmaster in a scene that seems very odd at the moment. Running out of options they decide to go to France in order to get some help and advice from the Grandmaster and the main body of the Order.
They arrive in France in 1307, the year when King Philip IV and Pope Clement V start their accusations against the Templar Order. Both the heroes fall into The Inquisition’s trap and just when they are about to be imprisoned they find Roland, who has not been killed but instead was tortured and then pledged his allegiance to the anti-Templar movement becoming its Black Knight.
Roland’s friendship to Celian though, turns out to be much stronger than his new-found allegiance so he helps his friend to reach an escape port through the woods where Celian is reunited with Marie. From that point on, Roland tells them they are on their own and so they depart for a fortified Templar stronghold where they intend to join forces with the Grandmaster to fight back the French king armies.
The Grandmaster reveals that Celian is in fact Hugues de Payens the founder of the Templar Order. His memory loss was a side effect due to an assassination attempt by the current Grandmaster himself on him because he had hidden the Grail, which was responsible for prolonging the lives of the nine founders of the Order far beyond the natural lifespan of a normal human being. After the deaths of three of the original nine – probably due to internal power struggles – Hugues realized that the Grail was dangerous and so took it and hid it. The Grandmaster – who is himself also one of the original nine – wanted the Grail back so he took advantage from Hugues memory loss and gave him the task of finding the cup in hopes that something inside him would lead him straight to it.
After the plot twist the player realizes that the true enemies are in fact the Templar Order – who become the main antagonist of the game from now on. By remembering his true identity, Celian – or Hugues – also concludes that his castle would be the place where he would hide something he didn’t want anyone to ever find.
In the end, the player defeats both the Grandmaster and Isaiah – from the Inquisition – and a choice is put before him. The result of the option only affects the final words of the narrator without any other consequences.
———————————————————————————————————
This synopsis leaves out some parts… like the whole first half of the game, but you get it. Holy grail, yadda yadda. Needless to say the story was compelling, IMO, and I highly enjoyed it.
How The Game Looks
—————————-
Shitty. No, it’s not shitty, it’s just… average, I guess? The detail put into the armors for all of the characters you play as is pretty good though, definitely above average. But for everything else… ahh, no. The textures of the environment are not well polished in my opinion. But to get the game to run on a lot of machines, it’s a good design choice, kind of like World of Warcraft is with textures and the like.
How The Game Plays
—————————–
Well, the movement is a bit clunky and at moments the combat seems pretty fluid if you get the right combo off. But the movement is definitely clunky for sure, unfortunately. It’s a shame too, because if they would have worked on it a bit more I’m sure it would have been great in all aspects… of this aspect of the game. There isn’t too much to say about this aspect. It’s a hack and slash game using mouse clicks and WASD or whatever you want on the keyboard to move. The combat system uses a thing called Zeal, which is basically ‘energy’ you get upon hitting an enemy that you can use to further use slightly advanced mouse clicking techniques to do more damage to enemies, or to knock them over and do a Coup de Grace on them, which is just stabbing them while they’re on the ground so they’re instantly dead.
Most enemies have a Coup de Grace skill, and they WILL use it on you if they knock you down. You can roll left or right to avoid it, and then get up and whack away again. A bug with this is even if you’re against a wall, and you roll against the wall and the enemy swings for their Coup de Grace, it won’t hit you even though the visual goes through you. Odd stuff, but that’s a crap video game mechanic for you. Anyhoo, so you have Zeal, etc etc.
But yeah, so, Zeal and Coup de Grace are gonna be your main go-tos. I played Celian mostly because I liked the gameplay with the shield, so yeah. I don’t know about the gameplay with Roland or Marie, but the mechanics are basically the same. And honestly if you’re really being skillful, more than 75% of the fights you’re going to be knocking enemies down and using your Coup de Grace, and using your Zeal to knock them down. It’s not really a matter of skill, it’s about spamming goddamn buttons until you kill the enemies. Which kind of sucks but you can’t really put ‘skill in fighting’ into a game that has AI for enemies.
Skills And Leveling
——————————
I probably shouldn’t title that that way because there really isn’t any leveling. It’s more gaining experience and spending that experience in the skill tree. The skill tree is… huge. Unfortunately none of it really matters besides a few core things:
How The Game Looks
—————————-
Shitty. No, it’s not shitty, it’s just… average, I guess? The detail put into the armors for all of the characters you play as is pretty good though, definitely above average. But for everything else… ahh, no. The textures of the environment are not well polished in my opinion. But to get the game to run on a lot of machines, it’s a good design choice, kind of like World of Warcraft is with textures and the like.
How The Game Plays
—————————–
Well, the movement is a bit clunky and at moments the combat seems pretty fluid if you get the right combo off. But the movement is definitely clunky for sure, unfortunately. It’s a shame too, because if they would have worked on it a bit more I’m sure it would have been great in all aspects… of this aspect of the game. There isn’t too much to say about this aspect. It’s a hack and slash game using mouse clicks and WASD or whatever you want on the keyboard to move. The combat system uses a thing called Zeal, which is basically ‘energy’ you get upon hitting an enemy that you can use to further use slightly advanced mouse clicking techniques to do more damage to enemies, or to knock them over and do a Coup de Grace on them, which is just stabbing them while they’re on the ground so they’re instantly dead.
Most enemies have a Coup de Grace skill, and they WILL use it on you if they knock you down. You can roll left or right to avoid it, and then get up and whack away again. A bug with this is even if you’re against a wall, and you roll against the wall and the enemy swings for their Coup de Grace, it won’t hit you even though the visual goes through you. Odd stuff, but that’s a crap video game mechanic for you. Anyhoo, so you have Zeal, etc etc.
But yeah, so, Zeal and Coup de Grace are gonna be your main go-tos. I played Celian mostly because I liked the gameplay with the shield, so yeah. I don’t know about the gameplay with Roland or Marie, but the mechanics are basically the same. And honestly if you’re really being skillful, more than 75% of the fights you’re going to be knocking enemies down and using your Coup de Grace, and using your Zeal to knock them down. It’s not really a matter of skill, it’s about spamming goddamn buttons until you kill the enemies. Which kind of sucks but you can’t really put ‘skill in fighting’ into a game that has AI for enemies.
Skills And Leveling
——————————
I probably shouldn’t title that that way because there really isn’t any leveling. It’s more gaining experience and spending that experience in the skill tree. The skill tree is… huge. Unfortunately none of it really matters besides a few core things:
- Your Zeal regeneration
- Knockbacks
- Resistance to knockbacks
- HP orbs
- Zeal orbs
These are the only things that matter in terms of leveling up and fighting. It’s possible to max out all skill trees on all characters if you run through the game again after you beat it, but there’s really no point. The only point to running through the game again is to get the costumes to dress up all the characters and stuff.
Anyway, the skill trees are huge. Generally you could get through like… 75% of the game without really having to spend any experience on the characters. But make sure you grab more ‘talents’ of having more HP orbs and Zeal orbs, because it really helps out in the late-game. Early game not so much, but it probably does. I went through most of the game with the default orbs, only during the last 25% of the game did I really start expanding into that. Most of the game I was spreading into the sides, but having that extra Zeal and HP was really helpful in the late-game for sure… with all the goddamn trapped areas and shit, jesus christ fuck that. Mainly the reason I don’t wanna play through it again… it was just really annoying.
Anyway back on track, so you spend experience to get these skills that, some of them, unlock some more mouse click combinations. They aren’t very useful except for the Templar (Zealot? Not sure) Strike, which does a knockdown so you can, again, do your Coup de Grace and kill the enemy. However some enemies are resistant to knockback so you just have to hack and slash and defend until they’re dead. Mildly annoying but it’s better than just knocking everyone over and Coup de Gracing everyone, that’d make for a slightly more boring game.
———————————————————————————————————
All in all, making sure I haven’t missed anything… besides technical details of characters and stuff, stories etc, the game as a whole is a solid 7.5/10.
TL;DR:
7.5/10
Summary of points:
- Decent graphics on characters’ armor 10% of score
- Great story, 50% of score
- when you’re in combat and you fluidly move from one stance to another, or a swing to swing is great, 10% of score
- Skill/Experience spending system 40% of score
Negative stuff:
- Bad textures on environment
- Bad face modeling, needs lots of work besides moving a jaw to talk, in this day and age
- Skill system would be better as a level system to have some sort of feeling of achievement instead of filling out a large skill tree
- Movement feels very clunky, same with combat. Not smooth at all 99% of the time
Hope you enjoyed! Here’s the links to purchase the game if you’re interested. I’d wholeheartedly recommend this if you’re bored with your current games. The game is only available for Xbox 360 and PC, sorry PS3 users.
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