Paladin
Creator: Sean Poling
Paladin is an RPG made in Click and Create, and has you playing a chap out to rescue the kingdom of Camelot from the clutches of the evil Shadow Knight and his Brotherhood. The game uses a top-down perspective, and your man is free to move around and fight in real time. The scrolling used is unusual - you walk across the screen until you get near the edges, at which point the play area scrolls a screenful before becoming still again. This means that you can't see where you're moving to, and how many baddies are waiting for you there. The game is mainly designed well, though; it's easy to get into and simple enough not to repel those of us who don't like using their brains. To talk to people, for example, you just walk into them. There's no moving your hands from the movement keys or bothering to pick the right response.
During the game, you may learn new spells and pick up new weapons, but unfortunately you'll probably find them of little use. Most of the time you'll spend getting lost, beaten up by the supposedly easy bad guys and getting really frustrated at all the general protection faults the game causes. The save game feature, which must be used very often, doesn't quite save everything. The graphics aren't particularly good, and you won't get much chance to use your spells or any menu features as the baddies are always chasing you. They'll even smell you out and force their way through the walls to spill your blood. Your character moves too slowly to outrun the baddies, yet this is what you'll have to do in order to stay alive. The game does come with a help file, though, and the MIDI music is very good; if the author were to fix Paladin's most obvious faults for the sequel, he would have a good game.
Graphics: 5/10
Sound: 6/10
Presentation: 7/10
Playability: 3/10
My rating: 5/10
Return to old reviews list