PC: The Chosen: Well of Souls

Ratings

Graphics:7.25 [Bar of Width 72.5]
Sound:4.00 [Bar of Width 40]
Gameplay:7.00 [Bar of Width 70]
Replays:6.50 [Bar of Width 65]

Our Take

Polish developer Rebelmind sure seems to have an addiction to Diablo. The developer’s first title, Space Hack, was an interesting and enjoyable take on the classic gameplay style that thanks to its space themes was different enough to work. But for their second title, Rebelmind chose to do a pure Diablo clone set during the turn of the 19th century. The Chosen: Well of Souls is an admittedly more generic game thanks to its similar setting, and though it has also taken some steps back from Space Hack it isn’t all that bad of a game.

Although The Chosen is priced as a budget game (retailing for approximately $20), many of its gameplay aspects are far from budget. The first thing players will notice is that although the majority of the gameplay is pure hack and slash, there is a good variety between the types of weapons and armor. This title boasts over 200 different items, ranging from magic items to armor and spells. In addition to this, the developers made sure that each deteriorates with use so that players will not be able to rely on one set of equipment for an unlimited amount of time. Combat is controlled entirely with the mouse, and it works fairly well. Like in Space Hack, players are able to do a quick pause using the space bar, which can be quite useful at times. Also, The Chosen also boasts NPCs that will help players out from time to time and monsters that can be summoned to their aid. It may all be fairly generic, but Rebelmind has made sure that everything is well put together.

So far the game may be sounding decent, but there are some noticeable steps backwards in comparison to Space Hack. For one, the level designs are just way too generic. As the aforementioned title was science fiction themed the developers were able to be fairly innovative in their level design, but being locked into a traditional fantasy setting for The Chosen has resulted in some of the most generic areas ever. Players start off in a graveyard in a battle scarred town, and that in itself should tell them more than enough. Also, the sound work in The Chosen leaves a lot to be desired. There is very little background music, and what’s there is of the average fantasy variety. In addition to this, the voice acting in the game will send gamers scrambling for their volume knob. It honestly sounds as though some of the actors barely know English, and would’ve worked better to have just kept everything text based with no voices.

Graphically The Chosen: Well of Souls is surprisingly decent for a game with a budget price. Though it’s not the best looking action RPG on the PC by any means, Rebelmind did manage to pack in a good amount of detail into the game engine. In addition to this, the developers made it so that there are almost always a ton of monsters onscreen at once with no slowdown. There are also changing day and night cycles in each area, and though the night setting is a little too dark by default it still looks great.

I have to give Rebelmind some more credit on their well designed skill and character development options. There are quite a few statistics to take into consideration (such as Dexterity and Knowledge) and the skill tree is easy to navigate. However, there is one big flaw with The Chosen’s design. Though it boasts three characters to play, each one isn’t that different from the other and their stories are all more or less the same. It would’ve worked better if each one was drastically different, as this would’ve helped the replay value quite a bit.

Though there are a number of flaws that hold The Chosen: Well of Souls back, it’s ultimately not a bad choice for PC gamers that want a competent Diablo clone to play through. However, the voice acting needed some work and the overall design of the title is disappointingly generic when compared to Space Hack. In the end the budget price certainly helps out, but Rebelmind is going to have to put just a little more development time into their next project if they want it to be more memorable.

http://www.meridian4.com

Overall Rating: 6.50

Chris Dahlberg
October 15, 2007