Knights of the Temple 2 – XB – Preview

“Centuries of violence and corruption have sown their bitter harvest across the
world.”

A knight
sits in a monastery and contemplates what was, when he sealed a gate that lead
to hell and incurred the wrath of what lay beyond the gate. His love has been
possessed, her soul ripped from her body and her body used as a vessel for a
demon. He has searched for answers, and now – at last, they lay within his
grasp. He needs three artifacts from the time before “our Lord,” to destroy and
seal away forever that which should never have been unsealed.

“The
time has come; the battle for our world is about to begin.”

TDK
Meditative, Cauldron and PlayLogic are the driving forces behind Knights of the
Temple 2, an Xbox title. A firm shipping date for the title has not been
released but GameZone.com was able to see a preview build of this fully
three-dimensional action adventure tale, and this looks to be a title that any
self-respecting fan of medieval mayhem, of fierce crusades against a demonic
army bent on overrunning the 13^th-century world, would want to play.

The game is
told from the third-person perspective and follows Paul de Raque, Grand Master
of the Order of the Temple. The first title in this series keyed on a young
Paul. Almost 20 years have passed since the first tale, and Paul is besieged by
visions of the dark forces, as well as tormented by what happened to his lady
love. And thus, he dons his plate mail and begins the trek again to bear arms
against the forces of hell.

The game
begins in the harbor of Sirium. Because of the state of the build, the storyline
was not very cohesive and so the game was more of a level-by-level adventure
than a building and evolving tale. Sirmium is a city cursed by dark magic, and
it is there that the hunt for the first artifact, the Eye, begins. As he moves
through the levels, Paul is given visions – some nightmarish, but most hold
clues to the course he must take. And while the path through the levels feels
somewhat linear – as in there is only one way to actually get to the end of the
level – the game still has a variety of other avenues to explore.

Of course, as
you move through the world, new items and abilities come into play and most of
these can be tied to the D-pad for easy access. It was very easy to switch
between the sword and the crossbow, and you can lock onto targets.

There were a
few minor crash issues, and some load times but expect the former to be cleared
up by the time the game releases.

Knights of
the Temple 2 sports three difficulty levels – squire, knight and grandmaster.
The controls have bright areas and not so bright areas. With no manual it was
hit-or-miss on how to open chests containing items Paul may be able to use (like
healing salves). And blocking during the fights was not overly easy. Each time
Paul attacked, he was wide open for reprisal before the game recognized the
command to shield block and activated it.

Graphically
this game is a real treat. The texturing, the lighting and shadows combine to
bring the world to wonderful life. The ocean waves, beating against the harbor
docks of the first level, were amazing and the fires on the pier were vivid and
alive. There are some problems with the follow camera getting locked in an
awkward spot, like it is hung up on something in the environment, but R3 usually
drops it back into follow mode. The movement is also very good and the
animations are smooth and realistic, for the most part.

And the
audio goes hand-in-hand with the video to provide a rich atmosphere to the game.

Knights of
the Temple 2 is shaping up to be a stellar adventure for the Xbox, capitalizing
on the power of the home console unit, and provide plenty of action with a
decent storyline.