Heimdall
| Developer: The 8th Day | Graphics: |
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| Publisher: Core | Sound: |
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| Year: 1991 | Difficulty: |
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| Genre: Role-playing game | Lastability: |
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| Number of players: 1 | Rating: |
6/10 | |
You are Heimdall, the greatest Viking warrior. The gods have entrusted you with a mission of utmost importance: to recover the legendary weapons stolen by Loki, so as not to appear foolish on the day of Ragnarök. All that’s left is to assemble a crew and set off on your adventure…
After the stunning introduction, I was disappointed. My main gripe? The real time combat system, which lets you attack or block by clicking on icons. A good idea, poorly executed. Instead of offering a clean, functional interface with buttons conveniently placed close together—like in Black Crypt, for instance—you’re asked to click on a weapon first, then on the “attack” or “defend” button, which is often located halfway across the screen. Two clicks, and more often than not, the first one doesn’t register, making the second one useless. Meanwhile, of course, since no movement is possible, one gets walloped by the opponent.
To truly annoy us, they have also chosen to place the “flee” button just below the one used for parrying, as if to punish us if we clicked beside it. Apart from that, I quickly gloss over the sound effects that give the impression of smacking a beach ball, and the ridiculously small inventory. You must admit that all this is tedious in a game where you spend 90% of the time fighting and picking up items. So, what’s left? The puzzles, I suppose…
Heimdall had assets to showcase: a successful presentation, a pleasant atmosphere, but its deal-breaking flaws left me thoroughly discouraged.
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