DEVELOPER: Cinematix PUBLISHER: Eidos SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS: Pentium 233 Processor or equivalent (PII 300 or Equivalent recommended) Win 95 or 98 32 MB RAM (64 MB recommended) 400 MB of uncompressed HD space Direct X 6.1 or higher 8x CD-Rom (24x recommended) 100% DirectX 6.1 or higher 8 MB PCI Video Card (100% DirectX 6.1 3d Accelerator Card recommended) 100% DirectX 6.1 or higher compliant sound card Keyboard and Mouse (100% DirectX 6.1 or higher compatible gamepad/joystick recommended) RATING: Teen: Animated blood, violence, and suggestive themes INSTALLATION: Requires 400 MB of uncompressed hard drive space. The game is shipped with 3 CDs. One is for the installation of the game, one that is used while playing the game (this CD has the music and cinematics), and the other has demos of other games from EIDOS. INTRO: Have you ever played a game that you had to force yourself to stop playing it because it was getting late, or you had other things that had to be accomplished? This is exactly what this game did for me. I found it a little slow at the beginning, but once you start moving it is non-stop action. If you enjoy RPGs such as Diablo or Baulder's Gate, this venture is for you. Revenant is an action packed adventure that has a unique story line that offers over 55 weapons; 50 3D animated spells; over 30 NPCs (non-playable character) with full voice acting; 30 levels of advancement; over 150 individual pieces of armor; hundreds of animations and interactive combat moves; over 50 different classes of enemies, including four unique bosses. GAMEPLAY: Revenant is similar to other games in its genre in the way it is played and how things are explored. One thing that makes this game different from the others is how your character evolves. When your character advances to the next level, he does not automatically learn new skills he has to be trained in his combat skills. For instance, You start at level one with basic skills. When you advance to level two, your combat skills stay the same until you go back to Misthaven (the town where you get your supplies and get valuable information for your quest) and get trained for the new level of experience. You could probably go through the whole game without the combat training, but your character would be limited to combat maneuvers. Although there's no chance to actually create a unique character for the game, there is enough character development and flexibility that Revenant truly deserves to be called a role-playing game. As the game progresses, you will have the opportunity to increase your character's attributes and skills. In terms of attribute increases, you merely designate which two of your six attributes to improve. Every time you gain a level, each of these attributes is raised two points. This is true until each of your attributes reach fifteen, then you can only raise one attribute for each level of development. You can even switch which attributes you are working on in the middle of leveling. But it's the skills that really drive character growth. Each successful use of a skill (killing an enemy, casting a spell, and picking a lock) adds to the development points for that skill. Once enough points have been accumulated, the skill raises one level. For instance, if you spend the majority of your time using magic to conquer your foes, then your character will become a better magician than fighter. If, on the other hand, you play your character by slaying enemies with weapons, your skills will reflect that. The magic system is fairly inventive. It falls back on the idea of combining different talismans to create spells. Some of the 50 spells in the game require only one talisman; Nourish, for instance, requires only the Life talisman. Other spells, like Warrior Born, require four separate talismans. And you can't just mix them together any old way. They have to be combined in the right order. Special scrolls that you may find will reveal a few of the combinations to you. Once the single player game is finished, you may feel the urge to compete in the multiplayer version of Revenant. Multiplayer supports up to four characters against one another in any of several new game maps. Best of all, you can play as characters other than the character you play in the single player game. They feature in the single player game, but you never really get a chance to know that much about them. CONTROLS: Control can be handled with the mouse and keyboard, but this game was made to be played with a gamepad. I tried the keyboard option, but it does not compare to the gamepad play. Even with the gamepad you'll still need to rely on the mouse-keyboard combination to manage your inventory. GRAPHICS: The graphics in Revenant are astounding for an RPG game. The maps have awesome detail and coloring. The monsters have incredible movement and textures. And last but not least, the spells have wicked effects while you conjure them. The use of 3dfx to capture these qualities is what puts this game on a different plateau from other RPGs. SOUND: The over all sound was great. The background music really set the mood. However, I did experience one problem. I use an SBLive! - xgamer sound card and there are known issues with Revenant's sound system and the SBLive! 3.0 drivers that may cause the game to crash. Guess what……the game was crashing on me……..I had to download the patch. You can download the patch by simply starting the game and click on the check for updates line. Unfortunately you will not have the true sound effects intended for the game because all the patch does is disable EAX sound support for the game. CONCLUSION: It is not too often when I come across a game that grabs me like Revenant did. Like I said in my intro to this review, "I had to force myself to stop playing this game". I am positive if RPG games are your "bag"; you're going to love this game. Revenant is a very addictive game with non-stop action. One could only hope for a sequel to this venture. I give Revenant 4 joysticks. It was an enjoyable adventure that was well worth playing. Revenant was reviewed by GameBoyz reader, A.K.A. on his : AMD K6III 450 MHz 128 MB PC100 RAM 3dfx Voodoo3 3000 AGP Video Card 19" ViewSonic Monitor Sound Blaster Live! X-Gamer Altec Lansing Surround Sound and Sub-woofer speakers