Sorcerian

The Good
First of all - Sorcerian had the best music of any game I ever played from the 80's on the PC, period. And the graphics were excellent at the time, and will still hold, because of the unique high-res EGA look. The ability to play your characters over their entire life was another romantic approach at roleplaying and getting to become attached to your players. It was an absolutely beautiful game for its time.

The Bad
Trying to enchant stuff into items was quite confusing, and painstaking, as well as the fact that your party was essentially just a walking howitzer wandering around the countryside in a line once you had some enchanted artifacts. There was a lot to be improved in gameplay because of the two dimensional platform-like way that the game was played. And I never did finish the last mission, it was just too hard.

The Bottom Line
Sorcerian stands out as a very unique RPG for the PC, and is definitely worth taking a look at. I just get so sentimental thinking about it.....

The Good
The one aspect I truly enjoy about this game was the fact that your characters can age as the game progresses, their character portraits going grey as the characters get older. Age is a factor most games don't factor in (since many don't take place over any extreme amount of time) but this addition gives Sorcerian an epic feeling.

Although incredibly simplied, the interface serves its purposes and the game is fairly easy to play.

The Bad
I could sum up my dislikes of this game in the simple terms of: console port.

I have never been a big fan of console RPGs. The mentalities of your standard Japanese console RPGs and Americna PC RPGs are vastly different. Console RPGs don't even try to hide their powergaming, number emphasis nature behind pretty interfaces or fancy stories. Your goal is to go out, do whatever you were required to do, collect whatever else you can find along the way, and go back to town. Aside from the stories provided in the manual, there's little to no storytelling. If you believe Darkstone or Diablo are shallow RPGs, avoid Sorcerian.

There's also a goofy arcade element. Your party moves along in a side scroller fashion (similar to the second Zelda game, or an old NES game) and combat occurs in this mode. Your party all moves and jumps at the same time, jumping over fireballs and dodging bats. It looks silly and makes the game for action oriented than some RPG fans may wish.

The Bottom Line
Not without a few merits, at Sorcerian's center is a console RPG and one must be wary of such. Fans of the old Final Fantasy games for the NES may enjoy themselves here, but anyone seeking a Bard's Tale or Ultima should steer clear.

The Good
What I like most about this game is that it has a great atmosphere. The music is great and the graphics create an interesting game world to explore. Every scenario has its own feel and it helps to make the game interesting to explore. For it's time, the hi-res EGA make the game look sharp. Also, very few RPGs actually age their characters, and it adds an interesting dimension to the gameplay.

The Bad
The scenarios can quickly become an exercise in frustration by making you trace your steps through several doors and areas that look almost identical. I've never gotten the enchantment system to work right, which is a shame because in the manual there are tons of spells and effects available to the player. I've only been able to get basic fireball spells to work. Some of the dialog does not make a whole lot of sense.

The Bottom Line
A nice side-scrolling action RPG that has a lot of potential, but can become frustrating quickly.