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The War in Heaven

Score: 50%
ESRB: Teen
Publisher: THQ
Developer: ValuSoft
Media: CD/1
Players: 1
Genre: Action

Graphics & Sound:

Compared to many other 3D-action games out there, The War in Heaven is very humdrum. There are a lot of games out there that are much better and there are lots of games out there that are a lot worse. About the only thing that is not blocky about the graphics is the sky. Depending on the path you take, the Divine Angel Path or the Fallen Angel path, your enemies all look the same for the most part with only a few variations. The music is very electronic and not very memorable.

Gameplay:

Have you ever played one of those games that all you do is walk around and kill things? This game does not vary from that theme. If you choose the Divine Angel path, you walk along the halls and gardens of Heaven with a sword in your hand, whacking at the angels that have chosen the fallen path. At various places there are new weapons to pick up and body armor to put on. One weapon is a rock sling, although it is not very accurate, or at least I wasn’t very accurate. If you choose the Fallen Angel path, you walk around the catacombs of Hell whacking at the angels on the divine path with your clawed stick. I do have a couple of questions. If I choose the Divine Path and become a good angel, why do I kill the bad angels? If I were in Heaven, wouldn’t the bad angels be in hell? If I choose the Fallen Path and play the bad angel in Hell, why are there good angels to fight? Must not be very good angels if they’re in Hell, eh?

Difficulty:

Not much difficulty to The War in Heaven. Like I said, you walk around, whack at things until you kill all your enemies, find all the stuff to pick up, and hope you stumble on the end of the level. A drawback is that there is no joystick control; you use a combination of your mouse and keyboard. Takes a little getting used to for people like me who prefer a joystick.

Game Mechanics:

As a Christian, I opened the box to this game with anticipation and excitement, only to be disappointed with a game that delivers little. In this day and age, our expectations of video games are so high. We are increasingly expecting more and more realism. I applaud the makers of The War in Heaven on trying to teach that our choices have eternal consequences. I applaud them on their attempt to give Christians an alternative to video games that are getting more and more violent and graphic. I am afraid though that in this day and age of higher expectations, this game will be lost in the shuffle. I do encourage the makers of the game to continue to work at it so that in the future they bring us a game that will teach us the eternal truths in an entertaining way. A good start would be a storyline, have characters that interact with each other, objectives to follow, conflicts to overcome. These are the things that make a good game. And also remember what Christ said, “Those who live by the sword shall die by the sword.”

-Wickserv, GameVortex Communications
AKA Eric Wickwire

Minimum System Requirements:



Windows 95/98, Pentium or faster, 16 MB ram, 120MB HD, CD-ROM drive, DirectX compatible sound card
 

Test System:



GX-450xl running Windows 98, 256 RAM, Creative Sound Blaster 64CPCI with Boston Acoustic Digital Media Theatre, STB Velocity 4400 with RIVA TNT chip, 32 Mb RAM, 6X/24X DVD-ROM

Windows Star Trek: ConQuest Online Windows Star Trek Voyager: Elite Force

 
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