It's hard to be a god.
A kind of continuation of the work of the Strugatsky brothers was the release of the role-playing game of the same name "It is difficult to be God." Let's see how the Russian studio "Burut" managed to embody all the game ideas and reproduce exactly the world that the fans of the works of the famous Russian writer liked so much. After all, if you remember, we were promised a lot: an exciting plot, and an advanced combat system, and the nonlinearity of the game, and a lot of everything else.
Well, let's start with the history of Arkanar. The plot, as it were, repeats the main motives of the work, but, according to the authors themselves, it is a "continuation" of the novel. The events of the game begin after one of the Dons, or rather Don Rumata Estorsky, having lost his mind due to the murder of his beloved woman by monks, commits the murder of Don Rabu, who came to power with the help of cunningly intertwined intrigues. Several years have passed since that time. Power in the city of Arkanar, where the events of the original book took place, is controlled by the former rebel Aratus. This is where we see the first differences. Indeed, if we recall the novel, then this unfortunate young man is presented as a crippled man who received not only a hump as a result of beating with steel rods, but also lost his right eye as a result of a blow to the head with a heavy mace. In play, we see a completely different Aratus - healthy, vigorous and active. Well, come on, let's move on! The path for the protagonist begins at the imperial intelligence school. After going through a series of trainings and tests, we have the honor to kill the unwanted Arata and find out what happened to the missing Don Rumata Ester ... Anticipating a pleasant and intriguing hunt, we hit the road. But after a while, the first outbursts of indignation appear. And the point here is not in the modest, to say the least, graphics, and not in the fact that the characters look, faded and "cartoonish". The rich developmental system that everyone expected is represented by just four main characteristics: health, endurance, diplomacy and medicine. The hero also possesses several combat skills, strange considering that he is both a warrior and a scout. Weapons are categorized as heavy (two-handed swords and hammers), medium (spears and pikes), light (swords and sabers), and remote (crossbows and bows). Armor is divided according to approximately the same principle. The system for gaining experience was also incomprehensible. So, after spending another meat grinder in the forest and destroying a couple of dozen wolves and a dozen bandits on the road, we get a very modest amount of points, while for completing even a minor "quest" you can get a decent amount of experience points. The only thing that pleases in this case is that you can earn some money on the murders and get valuable trophies. "Quests" and tasks, especially minor ones, are not original and boil down to actions - kill, bring, find ... Running back and forth is sometimes very tiring, since the locations are huge, and while you clear the way from enemies, you can forget the main tasks. .. In general, the plot does not give sharp game moments and branching of events, it is linear, and some moments can be predicted ... No, I'm sorry. The characters and companions of the protagonist themselves sometimes create these "poignant" moments. It is not clear why, but after saving the next character, he, having thanked him, tries to stab him in the back. Strange, maybe the hero didn't come out face? Their "civilians" also behave in a rather strange way - they can be completely self-willed and not obey orders. Why then such a team on the way? Let's fire everyone. Of course, nice features are also present.For example, the lively and vivid dialogues really pleased. The noble don Tameo suffering from multiple sclerosis and demanding a bottle of worthy wine, the always drunk father of the Kabani, the stern monks who do their deeds in the name of the Lord, and even the peculiar vocabulary used in the original book are left here in its original form. A striking innovation and the most successful of the spy arsenal is the wearing and changing of clothes. Putting on a thief's costume or the don's luxurious accessories, you can win the trust of the bandits or find a common language with the capricious aristocrats, respectively. There are significantly more disadvantages. How much time and effort it takes to upgrade a character so that he can use special firearms and body armor ... Surprisingly, a character on foot cannot jump over even the smallest obstacle. At the same time, it is interesting, of course, to ride horses, and riding on horseback gives great advantages when traveling, but certainly not in battle. Needless to say, the promised combat system remained only in the bold plans of the developers. In fact, there are several combined blows, but no "severed limbs that can even cripple the character" were noticed. There are also purely technical flaws. This includes the long loading of the next location, shooting through stone walls and pits with a moat, accidentally falling into which, the character cannot get out. The developers simply did not foresee this. You can name the pros and cons for a long time, but the conclusion from this will hardly change: a good plot idea, a rich game world, but a weak implementation of the gameplay.
