The First Templar Reviews

While it remains unclear how justified the “RPG” label is for the title and while no big publication seemingly has reviewed it yet, the first batch of reviews for Kalypso Media’s The First Templar has surfaced the net and the only apt descriptor for the tone of the reviews published so far I can find is “semi-positive”.

Softpedia, 7.5

The First Templar delivers a mainly cooperative-oriented experience, so Celian always has a companion by his side. Players can freely jump between the two whenever they feel like it, in order to combine their unique features and take down difficult enemies.

Sadly, if you don’t play with another buddy or even a stranger, thanks to the pretty good drop-in drop-out mechanic, you’ll be disappointed by the AI-controlled companions, as they get hurt very easily, meaning you need to keep an eye not just on your own life gauge, but also their own. If you’re injured, seeing as how there isn’t any sort of regenerative health, you need to retreat from battle and go back to the nearest bush of fruits or vase of water, which replenishes your life force. If a companion falls, you need to go by his side and, if you have enough zeal, you can get them back on their feet by restoring some of their health.

You can upgrade your abilities through a special talent and skill distribution screen, shaped like the cross of the Templars, which goes in four different directions, one for increasing your vigor, aka health, one for upgrading your toughness, while the other two focus on various types of attacks.

The Joypads, 6/10

Overall The First Templar relies on the plot to carry the game, which is mainly one of the reasons to continue playing. Enjoyable game to play but with hardly any new innovation for the genre, you will have seen it all before, and it will be a toss up whether or not to give it ago or not. If you are achievement hunter then you will have a field day with this game, as achievements come thick and fast with hardly breaking a sweat. Good ideas but wasn’t executed properly which gave me a rather mixed bag of thoughts about this game, even though I said it is enjoyable to play.

The Gamer Buzz, 7.5

The First Templar is a co-op hack ‘˜n slash adventure platformer. If you’ve ever played Final Fantasy X then you will fall in love with the RPG inspired character development; each character has their own skills and skill paths, which the player can develop as they complete missions and explore.

The learning curve for The First Templar is decent. It’s not too advanced for the average gamer, and if you have played Assassin’s Creed then the combat will flow right off of your thumbs. The AI takes over your partner if you’re doing this solo and does a good job of staying alive, but not a great job of watching your back. Two player adventure games are something that there needs to be more of. Knights trained hard to protect with their lives, and apparently your female counterpart in the game is no stranger to swordplay. Fighting ogre-like creatures as a Templar knight never gets boring. Leaping and impaling them on the ground is a fun way to pass time.

The Sun awards it a 3.5/5 with a short piece.

A well-made game, justifying the revised release date.

Meanwhile Geek of the Day chimes in noting the lack of reviews of the title and calls it a “poor cousin of a poor knight to the Assassin’s Creed series”.

While playing through the varying different levels of towns, keeps, crypts, tunnels, swamps, burning forests, and castles (some burning, some not), I was disappointed with the bushes, rocks, fences, and every other part of the environment restricting my movements; there were ladders that could not be climbed, rivers that could not be forged, doorways that could not be passed through, and areas that could not be accessed, blocked by invisible forces. Alas, there were several texture errors, where it seems that you could see through stone walls, or you character would be floating above the ground of some stone ramp, and while not a perfectionist myself, I would expect that programmers would better field-test these issues, as it is an instant mood-killer.

I also felt more like I was being corralled, guided along a specific path. In today’s game world, gamers want to feel like they’ve made the decision to go in a specific direction, not herded along like third-person cattle. While there were some vast landscapes, and diverse environmental settings, I still had restricted paths, and only in a few situations could I flank the opponents.

Thanks, RPGWatch.