Game Play 4 out 5
Replayablity 2 out 5
Graphics 4 out 5
Sound 3 out 5
Details 3 out 5
Fun Factor 4 out 5

Revenant was just something I picked out of the bargin bin. It turned out to be one of the more enjoyable games I've seen in a while.

The game is set in Ur, a fairly typical but quite dark fantasy world. Long, long ago, the gods left Ur, after a bitter war that ravaged the world. Ruled now by fueding syndicates, houses, powerful wizards and various cults, Ur is still a war torn and ravaged world. One particularly dark bit that has some bearing on the game is that gods of Ur setup a typical heaven and hell before they left. All those that where less then perfect when to hell for time to atone for their sins. Unfortunatly, when the gods left there was nobody to let souls out of hell, condeming the vast majority to burn forever.

In the game, you Locke, a revenant, a dead thing. Summoned back from hell by the wizard Sardok to fight a cult, you have no choice but to do his bidding. You also have no memories of your former life, having been in hell so long that you have forgotten everything.

The area of Ur where the game takes place is the island of Ahkuilon. Only a small house exists here, as the island is far from the centers of civilization. Still, the ancient ruins here hold many secrets and this has brought the Children of the Change to Akhuilon. The cult has been kidnapping the locals and using magic to brainwash them into the cult.

Your quest against the cult will take you across much of Akhuilon, under parts of it and to even less pleasent places in the end. The plot is quite simple really, but does manage to keep you interested up until the end.

All of Akhuilon is quite attractive, from the city where you start to ancient ruins far across the island, everything is well drawn, with the ocassional piece of special artwork thrown in.

On of the key attractions of this game is Locke himself. Very well crafted, with many different weapons and suits of armor that are carried by his in game form, just watching Locke move and fight is itself interesting. Locke is also well voiced, with a wonderfully mean and violent nature.

One of the things I liked about this game, and which made it very different from other games of this type is that it takes far more skill to master combat then other games of this type. Make no mistake, Revenant is as much a huge arcade game as an RPG. As Locke you have 3 different basic swings, various combo moves, dodge manuvers and blocking at your disposale in hand to hand combat. And you will have to master them to win, simply swinging constantly will simply get you killed in this game.

You also have a wide range of useful spells you can cast. And if you wanted you could play this game more as a spell caster then a fighter.

The game engine itself is more or less a 2.5D engine. Locke and the monsters are 3 dimensional beings that are projected into a scrolling background. In theory this is more primitive then the true 3D engines used in games today, but in practice this game usually looks far better. The only time the engine falls down is the occasional lighting oddity.

This is not the most stable of games though, and getting the last patches required a bit of digging. I had to disable the advanced sound features before the game would run effectivly, and even then it crashed every now and then.

The manual for this game ends up being funny in how inaccurate it is. Sections of the manual almost read like they where for another game, such as keys for rotating the camera that don't make sense with this type of game engine. If you read the Readme file it will explain what you really can and can't do.

The end result was an extremly enjoyable game, particularly at the $10 dollar price I picked it up for. I would recommend this game to anybody that enjoys arcade style games.

Jay