The ARC Legacy
by Abstract Productions
A finished RPG! And it is a good one too!
| The Arc Legacy is an RPG set far into the future after a nuclear apocalypse which threw the world back into the middle ages. The plot centers around four main characters, known as "The Archaeologists" in their fight against an evil king who has discovered the powerful weapons of the ancients. | |
| A top down, tile based RPG. Is this a demo? No, it is an actual completed game. Made in QBasic. Yep, a completed QBasic RPG not made by DarkDread. And it is very very nice. The setting of the game is in the future, but because of a destructive war, the world is sent back into the Dark Ages.
An excuse for this game to use swords and such. You basically buy everything you need, just like in the original Final Fantasy. Weapons, armor, spells, items, and nights at the inn are all for a price. There is quite an assortment of items and spells in this game too. Lots of variety.
The world map is not that huge, but it is varied and it usually makes sense. Towns are trying to survive, and the water needs to be cleaned. Entire areas are destroyed or are in the process of being restored. Other times, caves are maze-like, which is obviously arbitrary since they were supposed to be cleared by government officials (of course, depending on where you live, this may or may not make sense). The battles are quite interesting too. There were various types of enemies, some of which are just funny and others are just out of place, like the Red Dragon. The enemy AI is not that complex, so it is just a matter of kill them before they kill you, but it is still fun. I did mention that this game is like Final Fantasy. This is evident in many ways. First of all, the battle system is just like it. If you tell your entire party to attack one enemy out of the group, they will all attempt to attack that single enemy. If the enemy is destroyed before someone can attack it, they do not just simply attack another enemy. They do nothing. It can be annoying, but it does make the game more strategic. Fortunately, if you cast a spell that affects the entire group, you don't have to wait for each one to be hit. All are affected at one time, making battles less tedious. I didn't like how things were kind of inconsistently dealt with. If you enter a shop, you have to move the arrow keys to select an item or leave. If you are trying to use/equip an item, it is like that too. But if you bring up the submenu, you have to press the number that corresponds with the item you want, like checking stats=1, using an item=2, etc. Battles are also like this, where you press 1 to fight, 2 to use magic, 3 to run, and 4 to use an item. It isn't even consistent with the submenu. I think that if the same selection process was used throughout it would make it less confusing. Overall, this game was well designed. I liked the comedy in the game and how it makes fun of itself for being an RPG based on other RPGs, like the cutscene with the airship. The ending outtakes were pretty good too. B-) I didn't like how the game save feature asks you to type in a name instead of selecting a save slot. Or how the game just stops if you lose a battle instead of taking you to a main meny. B-( |
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| The game itself has quite a few tilesets. I like the variety in the look of the different areas, as well as the animated backgrounds, like the water and candles. The characters themselves are not animated though, but the movement is almost fluid. There is quite a bit of flicker, but it doesn't seem to bother the eyes too much. The battles themselves are interesting, with so many different enemies. The battle backgrounds also match the areas you are in, although they could be more detailed. This game makes good use of the graphics to push the story along too. The cutscenes are some of the better parts of the game. They may not be too complex, but they are used well. I thought that the graphics were alright, but the people were kind of crude. Still, it was very nicely done, and rarely did you look at something and say, "What the heck is that?!" Sometimes it was just funny to see something like Eric from South Park attack your party. It made me laugh, but it did stand out. Most of the graphics are original looking, but some are straight out of other games. The battles also show something like blood when you defeat an enemy. Not really animated, but not too clean either. | |
| You move around with the arrow keys, and you access the menu with the ESC key. After that, it starts becoming inconsistent. If you enter a shop, you have to move the arrow keys to select an item or leave, but ESC wouldn't let you leave. If you are trying to use/equip an item, it is the same but you but you press ESC to leave the menu. But if you bring up the submenu, you have to press the number that corresponds with the item you want, like checking stats=1, using an item=2, etc. Battles are also like this, where you press 1 to fight, 2 to use magic, 3 to run, and 4 to use an item. It isn't even consistent with the submenu. I think that if the same selection process was used throughout it would make it less confusing. Talking to people was basically a matter of walking into them. Most things were pretty intuitive. If it wasn't for the menu systems (that is plural), this game would play much better. | |
| I did not hear any sound because of complications with my computer, but it should have some PC sound effects during the cutscenes. Otherwise, the game is silent. | |
| This game can be challenging since the variety of enemies and the number of them can be quite a series of battles. If you don't heal up and gain experience, the game becomes very difficult. Of course, if you continually gain experience and gold, then you can buy the best armor/weapons/spells and make the going a lot less tougher. The difficulty of the enemies increases as you go through the game. I like how the same area has different types of enemies depending on the situation and the progress of the game, but in other areas it is the same. They do make sense so sometimes it seems easy, but you still have to be careful. The different items and such will give you some help, but not using them can lead to your downfall. Eventually it can be really easy to gain quick gold and experience, so the best armor and weapons can be available for all the members of your party and you would still have gold left over. Potions are useful and cheap, especially Magic Potions. The complexity of the game is apparant as you go through and find that if you don't take advantage of certain situations, the opportunity to do so might be gone forever. | |
| Quality fun and entertainment! The story is pretty humorous and gripping, the variety of the items and enemies keeps the game interesting, and the gameplay, although it can be improved, is quite well done. I liked playing this game, and it could keep you playing for quite awhile. | |
| In general, this game was pretty cool. The detail was nice, with all of the variety, and the story has been done before(I actually felt like I was playing Planet of the Apes in the beginning!) but it is still done well. The game rarely makes you feel like you are doing something just because the game makers decided to place a challenge at some sections of the game. You are always on the same quest, so it doesn't ask you to do something like save someone's kitten from an orc king when you have to stop a crazed ruler with the power the nuke the world. Some improvements could be made, and hopefully the new project in the works, The ARC Network, can do better while retaining the humor and fun of the original. | |
| .zip file: 382KB download | |
| V Planet |