“Perhaps you can answer that question after
I have ripped your heart out and shown it to you,
little man.”
–Locke, responding to a castle guard’s inquiry of how it
feels to be dead

Revenant is one of the more recent games to
emulate Blizzard’s Diablo. Sporting eerily beautiful graphics and an intuitive
combat system, Revenant had a good chance at becoming the best of the Diablo
clones. Unfortunately, it will never reach such lofty heights, but still it
is a good distraction …

As the name implies (the word “revenant”
means one brought back from the dead), Revenant is the story of a man,
Locke, brought back from the dead. Summoned by Tendrick’s (the King of Misthaven)
sorcerer Sardok, Locke is given a quest to rescue Tendrick’s daughter, Andria,
from a cult called The Children of the Change. The Children apparently took refuge
on Alkuilon (the island on which Misthaven is located) some time before Locke
was resurrected. They had started off as a few monks but quickly increased their
ranks by enslaving different creatures with control spells. Remembering nothing
of his past, Locke sets out on his quest to destroy the Children. As he goes about
slaughtering legions of monsters, Locke learns that the actions he took in his
past life have greatly influenced the world he inhabits now …

At
first glance, the plot of Revenant seems vastly superior to its competition.
And it is, but the story is presented quite awkwardly. From the opening scene,
Locke is briefed by Sardok and Tendrick of the past events. The beginning of the
game flows excellently–Locke slowly learns of the Children and his past by talking
to townspeople, a librarian, and a little short mystic. As he completes his first
few quests, he learns more. Then something happens–Locke enters an uber-dungeon
(the caves), and there is nothing but monster slaying–no character development,
no plot advancement–until the end of the dungeon, where a bunch of information
is dropped on him at once. The game continues in this fashion–apparently, Cinematix
put plot development at the bottom of their to-do list. However, the worst part
of the story is the ending. Apparently, the programmers were trying to outdo Diablo’s
depressing ending. And they succeeded. I obviously won’t tell you what happens
at the end of the game, but trust me, it is very unsatisfying. Because of these
squabbles, I give the story a C-.

Gameplay is incredibly stable.
Locke can be controlled with only a mouse, a keyboard, or a gamepad (though I
prefer a mouse/keyboard combination.) The four types of moves are controlled by
the A, S, D, and F keys (could it be … home row?), which signal a thrust, swing,
chop, or block, respectively. A left-click on an enemy will also serve the same
function, choosing an attack at random. A right-click (or arrow keys) will move
Locke around, and a left-click (or U) will talk to a character to use items. Needless
to say, control is quite intuitive. Numerous types of armors and weapons can be
used, and they each have their own image. Locke could dressed in gauntlets, ninja
pants, a dragon helm, Celtic body armor (complete with a blue stripe down the
chest!), and it would all show up on the model. Though not essential to gameplay,
it is a nice addition. My biggest squabble with the game is with difficulty and
length. Revenant has to be the shortest RPG I’ve ever played! I beat it
in six days of noncontinuous play, and I’m bad at action-RPGs. The ease is wrung
out of bad planning. I don’t know what happened at Cinematix, but Locke has the
ability to get powerful weapons from the armory in Misthaven before he finds them
on his quest. This may have been an oversight on the developers’ part, but gold
is very plentiful and numerous teleporter pads back to town throughout the game
make it easy to get advanced weapons. Though Revenant was an enjoyable
experience, it was too short and too easy. Thus, I give gameplay a B-.

By
far, the best part of Revenant is the graphics. They truly give the game
an eerie quality, beautifully rendered in 3D with exquisite lighting effects.
I was, needless to say, impressed by the graphics, but graphics alone do not make
a good game. Still, I give the graphics an A+.

Sound, however, is
a mixed bag. Though the music is wonderful and fits the mood of the section of
the game, voice-acting is mainly horrible. Aside from a few characters like Locke,
the voices sound very amateurish, as if they were done by the programming staff
and their families. It really doesn’t matter, though, since conversation is very
minimal, so I give the sound a C.

Overall, Revenant is a fine
product from Cinematix. It you want a beautiful and strangely addictive, albeit
short, action-RPG, Revenant should definitely be considered. However, if
you are looking for an immersing plot and a challenge, look elsewhere.

Revenant
final grade: C

System Requirements:
Pentium 233
Windows 95/98
32 MB RAM
400 MB uncompressed hard drive
space
100% DirectX 6.1+ compliant 8 MB PCI video card
100% DirectX 6.1+
compliant sound card
Keyboard and mouse