Black Stone: Magic and Steel
Score: 60% ESRB: Teen Publisher: Xicat Developer: Idea Factory Media: DVD/1 Players: 1 - 4 Genre: Action
Graphics & Sound: Black Stone: Magic and Steel comes off as a game that really doesn't know where it wants to go in terms of style. After looking at the box, you expect an anime/Phantasy Star -styled game. Once you delve into the game, you're presented with a completely different art style that is more in tune with Bioware's Dungeons and Dragons games. Personally, I didn't have much of a problem with this, but there are a few gamers out there who will pick this game up simply because of what the art-style on the box presents. Consider yourself warned. The in-game graphics do their job, but offer little else. There is little in the way in terms of cinematics, giving players a written presentation of what is going on in the world set on top of a static background. Player models are sparsely detailed and animated rather stiffly. If I'm playing as a Thief or Archer, I want him to move quickly and jump around like a little monkey with a bow. Instead I was given a character that moved with the grace of a linebacker in one of those steel-rod back support things. The variety in both characters and environments is sparse at best. There are a few attempts at eye-candy during spells and special attacks, but these are minimal at best. The music is nothing less than dreadful. Again, this is an area where the game doesn't seem to be able to find itself since it fuses traditional RPG style music with bass-thumpin' techno. It's a mix that never works and becomes annoying. Since the music really doesn't have much to do with the game's overall presence (the game is just a dungeon hack after all), I personally would have liked it if the developers had used the custom soundtrack option. This is an often-overlooked aspect of the Xbox that few developers outside the racing genre have put to use. Trust me guys, it's something people want and it adds to the experience. The sound effects are equally bad, and they may have you regretting your purchase of a sound system.
Gameplay: A long time ago, in a Godfather's far, far away I was introduced to an arcade game that introduced a whole new aspect of multi-player gaming - Gauntlet. Since then, I have always thought that it would be really hard to screw up the Gauntlet formula. Of course, I said that about Tetris and was then introduced to Tetris Worlds, but anyway I'm getting off the subject. Black Stone: Magic and Steel is a complete throwback to Gauntlet's four-player dungeon crawl, only not as much fun. Black Stone's set up is about as deep as a rain drop and has all the twists and turns of a pool stick. The U.B.G. (Ultimate Bad Guy) is trying to recover the missing Black Stones in order to conquer the world. As the hero, it's your job to stop him. Players begin the game by choosing a character type: Archer, Pirate, Thief, Warlock or Warrior. Each of these characters has their own strengths and weakness. For example, the Pirate class isn't good at magic, but makes up for it with a high strength and his ability to steal gold from his teammates. I never understood why the latter of the two abilities was needed, but I guess if you want to piss off your friends, it's useful. Each of the classes also has access to magic, although there is very little, if any, variety in their spells. For the most part, the rest of the game is spent doing the same old Gauntlet-type things you would expect such as fighting hordes of enemies, finding keys and opening chests. Black Stone does offer the ability to ride on creatures, which is a completely new idea in this genre, but the ability isn't used nearly as well as it could have been.
Difficulty: The AI of Black Stone: Magic and Steel's denizens are mindless at best. Instead of having groups of smart enemies, the game makes things difficult simply by throwing countless hordes of enemies at once. This is okay, but honestly it's a trait that has been done to death, and something that really needs to be looked at by designers. Early in the game, the hordes are easy to dispatch, however as you delve deeper into the game, this becomes nearly impossible in a single player game. This is a problem that is compounded when you throw in the game's sluggish controls. The level designs are good, but nothing mind blowing. Again, the formula offers nothing new, and comes off as a cheap carbon copy. Even switching to a Golden Axe-type side-scroller doesn't do much to improve the game.
Game Mechanics: The controls are an awkward and unresponsive mix of the styles found in both Gauntlet and Golden Axe. Each of the buttons on the controller is mapped to a different combat action. Two of the buttons are attacks, while the other two are magic and your special move. Combat is very slow, which makes dispatching enemies a tough job. Because of this, there are very few combos in the game and there's a slight delay while trying to switch between attacks. There's also a slight problem in the game's auto aiming since it will usually attack the closest enemy, even when you're trying to kill a completely different enemy. Character movement is very slow, and only seems to respond when you're to the point of snapping off the analog stick on the controller. One of the few saving graces of the game is that you can play it with four people. However, even this is hampered by the game's terrible camera system. When you're playing alone, it's not much of a problem, however when you throw in two or more players, it gives you the feeling that it doesn't quite know who it wants to follow. This causes the camera to dictate where characters go. I can see where the Black Stone's developers were trying to go with the game - a fun dungeon hack that is a little deeper and more complex than Gauntlet. In some aspects they succeeded, yet in others they failed. Despite the small changes, for the most part this is just another in a long line of Gauntlet clones. What blows my mind is that there are lots of improvements that could be made to the genre, but few are willing to look at them. The inclusion of RPG-style character creation/leveling systems, as well as the ability to buy new weapons and armor would go a long way. At least give me something worthwhile to spend my money on other that a power-up that won't last that long. With the advent of Xbox Live, I could only imagine the possibilities a game like this would have for both replay value and dungeon creation. Black Stone is good for people who regularly play games with large groups of friends, especially if you're looking for something that's like Gauntlet, but not Gauntlet.
-Starscream, GameVortex Communications AKA Ricky Tucker
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