Hard to be a God - Review @ HookedGamers

HookedGamers has posted a lengthy review of Burut's and Akella's action-focused RPG Hard to be a God, rating it on the low end with a score of 4/10. They have no problems with the graphical package, but are less than impressed with the contents:

Hard to be a God has an impressive title and it raises your expectations about what the game has to offer. The expectations get even higher when you take a look at some of the hype that has been surrounding it. The only thing that the marketing materials seem to be confused about is the actual genre that this game represents. You see it marked down as Hack'n'Slash in one brochure and RPG in another, while other descriptions focus on the action adventure perspective with 'RPG features'. Despite the confusion, it is clear that the game tries to cater to RPG players – but does it really?…
If I had not played some excellent RPGs in the past, Hard to be a God would definitely be an entertaining game. But now, having been spoiled by many games, gamers have learned to expect more from new RPGs and there Hard to be a God simply doesn't deliver…

As it is, the game is based on a book that sounds like it might be worth a read, but the game itself is merely a nice little action adventure with RPG qualities that would probably have struck gold if it had been made a decade or so earlier. Now, it is just a mediocre game with some good qualities and many disappointments.

More information.

After reading the whole review I wonder what games the reviewer call "excellent RPGs" and I can tell he didn't play the whole game after reading this line: "I can only assume that some forks in the storyline are available later in the game".

And some of the complaints match NWN 1 and 2, The Witcher and pretty much all the "RPGs" made since 1999. Examples: Fence blocking path, linear quests, "regular" medieval settings, monotonous voice acting.

I have seen a lot of bad reviews for this game and from what I remember of the demo, it wasn't that bad. But reading this I see that it's more of a "It's not ABCDE" thing.

Replace ABCDE by a popular mainstream game released in the last 2-3 years.

The reviewer's angle is indeed puzzling. And his "it's so 90's"-remarks are pure nonsense.

But his complaints are very true, and not that far from my own opinion of the game. It has a number of flaws that'll keep most people from enjoying it, it's very unpolished/shoddily localized. But hell, I'm not going to rave on that here. The GB review should be up within a week.

Sure you can criticize it from the "it's not Oblivion" angle if you want, and some reviewers will. But even if you don't take that angle, it's still not an outstanding game.

Also, I can tell from a remark he makes that he did finish the game.

It is obvious that he didn't finish the game since several times in the review he made remarks that made that obvious. It really seems like he was trying to compare it with Oblivion and he also never tried any other way to finish the quest except the most obvious when there usually are more then one.

Originally Posted by guenthar
It is obvious that he didn't finish the game since several times in the review he made remarks that made that obvious.

He states something you don't know until the end of the game. Unless he found that out from someone else, he finished it.

Originally Posted by guenthar
It really seems like he was trying to compare it with Oblivion and he also never tried any other way to finish the quest except the most obvious when there usually are more then one.

The game is extremely linear in the main questline. But yes, there are some options on how to finish for side-quests and some main quests.

This review is pretty much spot-on, IMO. Hard to be a God is not a dreadful game by any means, but it's really not good enough to be worth bothering with either.

I am looking forward to your GB review of Hard to be a God Brother None!