Al-Qadim: The Genie's Curse

The Good
Al Qadim is good in quite a few ways. The graphics were excellent for its time. The thing that stands out for me is the sword slash graphic. I also thought the story was excellent. It fit the AD&D mythos quite well. I also liked the abundance of side quests. I felt the action intensive feel of the game made it stand out. However, don't expect Diablo.

The Bad
There are two major flaws in the game. One is the fact that you can't upgrade your sword or your armor. One of the main reasons RPG's are fun is because you can customize your character. This is not an issue in this game, thus destroying pretty much all replay value the game could have had. The other major flaw is that in towns, it is hard to figure out where everything is. All the buildings look exactly the same, so it's very hard to navigate. This made the quests rather hard when they involved going from house to house. Also, this game is too short. It can be finished very quickly

The Bottom Line
A fun action RPG, but lacking depth due to the inability to customize your character.

The Good
The game has very good graphics, and the sound and music are also nice. Another positive note is that there isn't (as far as I can recall) a need to upgrade armor and or weapons. So you don't need to constantly scavenge for money just to buy that super powerful sword/armor. Combat is easy: you can attack with either a ranged weapon or a melee weapon. The ranged weapon includes spells, or a magic sling. The melee weapon is your sword (scimitar if you prefer), and you have 3 style with which to attack by. These depend on how long you hold down your attack key. The first is a simple vertical slash, the second is a horizontal slash, and the third is a spinning slash. In either case, you have to increase in level before attaining these new techniques.

The Bad
For hard-core RPGers, the simple fact that the game did -not- have armor and weapons to buy makes it less fun. Sure, it's less to worry about, but it's also disappointing. Switching weapons/managing an inventory is what makes RPGs (IMHO) fun. Not having this did not make the game less fun, but gave it a pretty low replay value. After all, once you beat it, you beat it. No need to search for a super-secret-powerful weapon. While we're at it, I beat the game in a week (constant playing, super-easy mode), so it doesn't last very long.

The Bottom Line
An RPG that is similar to Zelda. It's more action oriented than the traditional RPG, and thus there is less to worry about in terms of inventory management and character statistics. Also, the most annoying level is the one with the automatons that blow whistles. You can't see off of the screen, and consequently you might walk into one of them, and have to start all over.