Remember the “good ol’ days” of gaming when purchasing a
new game was akin to ripping open a box of Cracker Jacks? One never knew what
surprises awaited: a cloth map, a pewter ankh, a piece of fluffy lint. Well, those
days are back, sort of, when you open the box of Bethesda Softwork’s newest release,
The Elder Scrolls Adventures: Redguard. The enclosed map is on folded paper,
not cloth like the Ultima maps, but in a wonderful touch of realism, it
has been charred black around its edges. The 94-page instruction booklet is a
throwback to the glory days before the creation of strategy guides–the bastardization
of the industry. It is a thick, magnificent opus detailing the history and genealogy
of the Empire and Hammerfall, the setting for the game. A comic book rendering
of the prequel to the storyline and, of course, an explanation of the game controls
round off this thick presentation. Some store copies of Redguard even have
a free limited edition pewter figurine attached to the front of the box. All said,
the figurine, booklet and map are a stellar introduction to a game that attempts
to recapture the halcyon era of adventuring.

Bethesda has been marketing
Redguard, in its magazine advertisements and on the box hyperbole, as if
it is a new movie release. It is in fact the newest entry in the fledgling action/adventure
field and a sequel of sorts to the RPGs Arena and Daggerfall. Any
doubts regarding the action aspects of Redguard are swiftly allayed. Traditional
adventure games begin with a puzzle to solve; this new genre of action/adventure
hybrid begins with the fury of an Indiana Jones flick as you find yourself
facing off against not one but two saber-wielding scalawags. How did you arrive
at such a predicament, and what is your inspiration to press forward? Let us sheath
our swords in peace for a fortnight as we take a closer look at the world of The
Elder Scrolls.

You play as Cyrus, a Redguard mercenary (Redguards are
renowned as fierce fighters). Upon learning of the disappearance of your sister,
Iszara, you hasten to your hometown of Hammerfall to search for her whereabouts.
There are, though, two flies in the ointment. Your hometown is now under martial
law and you have not seen your sister in ten years since you accidentally killed
your brother-in-law during a drunken brawl. Yet to relate the plot so simply would
be like insinuating that Romeo and Juliet is about nothing more than doomed
young lovers. There are conspiracies afoot and political intrigue aplenty. There
are mini-quests that enrich the story, but have no real bearing on the final outcome,
and they do not have to be completed in order to finish the saga. Yet for all
the plot convolutions, there is never any real sense of danger, no unexpected
twist or turns. There is nothing here that has not been explored in countless
other adventure and role-playing games. If this were literature, it would be dismissed
as pulp; if it were a movie, it would be the “B” feature. Since it is
a game, though, our expectations are supposed to be lowered and we are spoon-fed
another hackneyed story full of clichés that is all too common in the adventure
field. Redguard plot: C+.

As dictated by the term action/adventure,
the puzzles are, and should be, of the cerebral and the physical variety. The
majority of the new action/adventure releases seem to have overlooked this minor
factor and seem to think that the action should consist of nothing more than fighting
sequences. Thankfully, the combat system in Redguard is a step above some
other recent releases such as Redjack and Mask of Eternity. There
are occasional problems with character control and angles, but for the most part
the action sequences and puzzles utilize a keyboard or gamepad combination that
makes it very easy to swim, swing, jump and duel. Bethesda is to be commended
for taking the genre a step further by incorporating action into some of the puzzles.
Thus, what in other games may be viewed as a cut scene, in Redguard must
be accomplished via the player’s participation. You must jump across that rotting
bridge, skim along that ledge or push that crate into an advantageous position.
Having accomplished these dexterous feats, you must then still deal with the traditional
adventure game puzzle. Bethesda has struck a fine balance in the puzzle category.
My only complaint would be that the game is often too nonlinear and you may find
yourself wandering for hours wondering what to do next. There is an inherent danger
in allowing the player too much freedom in a real time 3D world. Your long-range
objective, finding your sister, is always in sight, but often the building blocks
to your goal are obscured. Redguard puzzles: B.

The graphical
quality of Redguard is extremely inconsistent. The cut scenes are simply
magnificent. They serve to propel the story to new avenues and would be worthy
of any animated movie. The atmospheric background visuals and animation are the
best I have ever encountered. Clouds are not stationary but roll overhead. Dolphins
leap and twist from the ocean, enormous mythical statues tower over the city and
the citizens’ body language alters according to your status (you will, through
necessity, end up an escaped criminal) at the time. There is a wonderful moment
on the Isle of N’gasta that brought back memories of a favorite scene from Jason
and the Argonauts. As you pass through the Tower Gate and approach the lair
of N’gasta, sword-wielding skeletons spring from the graveyard dirt and attack
with wild abandon. Yet all the deliciousness of the graphics are offset by the
close-ups of the characters that populate the gameworld. They are blocky and stiff
and look totally out of place when juxtaposed against the gorgeous backgrounds.
Their mouths do not move when you engage them in conversation, which you must
do often in this game. They bring what could have been an immersive experience
crashing back to reality. There are no facial movements during speech, only an
awkward nodding of the head, and thus, in what becomes a major incongruity, they
are not life-like in this real-time world. Redguard graphics: B.

Redguard’s
music and sound effects are excellent–mood-setting and appropriate to the
situation. Weather-worn boards creak, waves slosh against ships and sounds in
the distance grow louder as you approach their source. The music is a reinforcement
of the sprightliness we have come to expect from pirate tunes. It is the voice
acting in Redguard that is unoriginal. The spectrum of accents and voice
inflections is well-done, but it is uninspired and stereotypical. The fat, corpulent
governor sounds appropriately slimy, the call-girls brash and uneducated and the
lighthouse keeper sounds, of course, weather-beaten. Worst of all is Cyrus, the
main character. Whereas at least the stereotypical characters have varying accents,
Cyrus has none. His deep voice is reminiscent of that John Wayne/Clint Eastwood
white-bread, middle American sameness. In a world that is rich with brogues and
different tongues, this strikes me as odd, especially since Cyrus is originally
from this island and appears to be black. Is this a conscious attempt by the software
company to not alienate the majority of their buying public (white males)? This
effort to appeal to the widest possible fan base by ignoring the ethnicity of
the main character greatly detracts from the authenticity of the game. So while
the voices are well done, they are also, especially when combined with their blocky
characters, imbued with a sense of deceit. Redguard music, sound effects
and voice acting: B-.

Redguard comes on two CDs–one for installation
and one for gameplay. It will occupy at least 300 MB on your hard drive. There
have been rumblings from some gamers experiencing configuration problems attempting
to run the game, but it would be unfair of me to comment on this as I personally
did not encounter them. (There is in fact one reviewer on the Internet who gave
Redguard a lower grade because he had heard others were having configuration
problems–how ludicrous!)

Some may feel that I have been too harsh in my
critique of Redguard, but this is a game that is attempting to reach new
heights, so while I extend praise for its aggressiveness, I also feel that its
shortcomings are more pronounced due to a commitment to quality. This is a solid
game-playing experience, though it may be difficult for novices, but the time
has come to quit judging games by what has gone before and to begin judging them
for what they can be. Well-written games like Grim Fandango and Dark
Side of the Moon have raised the standard by which we now judge our entertainment.
While Bethesda seems to have found the almost perfect balance between action and
adventure, a willingness to take more chances with the plot and with the main
character’s voice would have gone a long way toward making this a classic experience.

Final
Grade: B-.

System Requirements:
Windows 95 or 98
32 MB RAM
Pentium 166
350 MB of hard drive space

SVGA, VESA 2.0 compliant video card
16-bit sound card
Supports Voodoo,
Voodoo Rush, Voodoo 2