You know how with some games you can tell if they are good or not from a mile away? Or how you can sometimes play a game that is just about perfect on the surface, but there is something wrong with it deep down under it all? You can't point your finger at it, but it's there. Dawn of Magic is the exact opposite. At first glance it is a mediocre Diablo clone that would only interest the die-hard action RPG fans. But the more you play it, the more you realize that the authors managed to strike the nail on the head in terms of progression speed, game world character and unique features.

Being trapped in the body of a creepy looking baby is out of the question

It’s not often that a game has a good story, let alone a really good one. Dawn of Magic isn’t exactly a jewel in this department, but it’s got that certain something that will keep you going. From the moment the cinematic ends (which is extremely well done, though it could use a lower compression setting) you’ll be just psyched about saving the world. Who will you be fighting? Modo, an immortal being banned from the Absolute, destined to live his life as a mortal an ultimately perish. It comes as no surprise that Modo isn’t too thrilled about this and just like for any other ageless being with a fiery breath, being trapped in the body of a creepy looking baby is out of the question. What’s even worse, to prevent something similar from happening again Modo is set to destroy earth for good.

This is where you, a young student of magical arts step into the picture. As required for would be heroes your past is shrouded in a thick fog (actually, the game doesn’t really go into details about you). Surprisingly enough you do have an alignment though. Even more surprisingly, you choose your alignment when you create your character, your choices being good, neutral and evil. Being a pawn of good will take you through countless hordes, slaying bosses left and right with the ultimate goal of defeating Modo. Being a champion of evil will have you striving for the exact opposite, although the path you will take is fairly similar. Last but not least, being neutral is Dawn of Magic’s way of saying that you hate every powerful being in the world, making them your prime target.

The Awkward scholar, the Stout friar, the Weird gypsy and finally, the Baker’s wife

Right now you are probably picturing this muscular warrior as the lead hero, but you couldn’t be more off if you tried. Your choices are (and I’m not kidding here) limited to the Awkward scholar, the Stout friar, the Weird gypsy and finally, the Baker’s wife. Not exactly your standard repertoire, don’t you agree? The scholar is your typical would be Gandalf while the friar and the wife prefer to use brute force to destroy the enemies. The gypsy is kind of a mesh of all three, being proficient both at spellcasting and sword swinging.

Your initial choice is fairly important, but because of the game’s very robust skill/spell system you aren’t limited to a single path once you choose your hero. Each of the 4 “classes” has its own unique starting statistics, but you can mold them into any of the other classes with some smart skill point spending during your adventures. This approach has a negative side effect as the starting choices don’t really make much of a difference in the long run, but in the end it doesn’t really matter.

That is because the game gives the player a wide variety of magic schools to choose from. Out of the twelve schools available you select 3 at the start of the game, but again, that doesn’t really matter for the long haul. With 8 (or is it 10, I’ve lost count) spells per school available the amount of possible combinations is just staggering. My personal favorite was a fire oriented mage who was no stranger to axe swinging. To top it off, raising the dead and summoning monsters was the ace in the sleeve needed for those sticky situations where the foes just won’t back off.

Scorpion tails, demon heads and even more peculiar changes

Not counting the unique player classes most of this stuff has been seen elsewhere already (the recently released and reviewed Silverfall springs to mind). This can’t be said for the game’s morph feature though. While most RPGs struggle to keep you interested in your characters progression, giving you access to better looking weapons and armor, Dawn of Magic takes it one notch higher. You still get your fair share of great looking equipment, but you also change yourself. And I’m not talking about becoming more muscular or growing a beard. I’m talking about scorpion tails, demon heads and even more peculiar changes. Your deeds determine who you are can be taken literally here. Relying heavily on fire magic will make you grow a pair of nasty looking spikes from your hands while casting light spells isn’t something you should do if you hate angelic looking things on your body. There are eight regions of your body that can morph and each of the morphed parts of your body brings forth some nice stat bonuses. The great thing here is that if you change your play style the changes get replaced with newer ones, mimicking your new style of playing.

The authors did a fair job at designing the interface. I was a bit lost at first, as a lot of the design choices didn’t make much sense to me. I grew used to most of it in a short while, so they aren’t that bad in the grand scheme of things. The journal/ spellbook/ morph tracker/ tattoo tracker/ skill tracker isn’t the most intuitive piece of code I’ve come across, but it does a good job of notifying you of changes by flashing the appropriate icons until you acknowledge the change (by raising the skill for example).

The camera isn’t perfect either. Because of the game’s nature you’ll be constantly adjusting it, which isn’t ideal, especially considering that you’ll be spending most of the time fighting. The angle (regardless of what you set it to) of the camera also makes melee attacks (which are achieved by clicking on your foe) hard to perform, as you’ll be constantly clicking on the ground next to them. This will in turn make you move, dragging the camera along, which makes things even worse. Ranged attacks don’t suffer from this, as no camera movement occurs if you miss your opponent.

The place isn’t a ghost town either

Dawn of Magic is a treat for the senses. It’s not the graphically most advanced game of this year, but it does have huge environments that are just filled with NPCs and foes. I pride myself with never getting lost in games, but in DoM I wasn’t able to get my bearings quite a few times. It wasn’t the game’s fault either, as the handy on screen map provided all the necessary info (well, finding certain NPCs could have been handled better). It was just the scope of things. One of the cities you’ll enter early on in the game is easily the biggest human settlement I have seen in a game (well, not counting SimCity and the like). Running from one end to the other takes minutes. To top it off, the place isn’t a ghost town either. Merchants are all over the place, as are kind citizens who are always up for a quick chat.

The rest of the game’s locales aren’t much different either. Well, they are in terms of geography and looks. Deserts, jungles, underwater realms and hell are just some of the places you’ll visit. They all look great thanks to some very nice textures and some great atmospheric effects (weather, wisps, etc.). Spell effects are nicely done as well. Character models don’t look bad either, but I did miss facial animations (although to be fair, the camera is usually so far you can barely make out people’s features anyway). Overall the graphics are decent, which in itself doesn’t say much, but considering the great performance I experienced goes a long way, especially nowadays when optimization is a thing of the past. On the sound front things aren’t bad either. Voiceovers are so bad they are actually good and there are some very funny moments along the path that parody fantasy in general, as well as certain fantasy epics. The music is forgettable, but it does help you get in the mood for killing goblins and other fantasy fauna.

Conclusion

I may be a bit biased here, being a hardcore RPG player, but good action RPGs aren’t the most common breed of game. Even the few good examples of this genre are usually just generic Diablo clones that don’t even make an effort at being original. Dawn of Magic isn’t like that. Sure, it has a load of shortcomings, such as the lousy camera, confused interface and bad sound acting. But it also has that certain something that will keep you coming back for more. Personally, not even Diablo managed to keep me hooked for so long!

A full "Morph" Process

 

Gameplay	8/10	It’s fantasy and it’s full of action. Morphing your hero is one of the best features of the year!
Graphics	7/10	The game feels alive thanks to a plethora of environments and weather effects. Countless living beings everywhere help as well.
Sound	5/10	Terrible voice acting that will make you laugh and cry at the same time. The music will leave you cold though.
Value	7/10	You’ll grow tired of slaying fantasy creatures long before the game ends.
Preference	7/10	It’s Diablo all over again. Hardcore RPG fans beware, this isn’t the game for you!
Overall (not an average)	7.5/10	“Just another 10 minutes to see what my head morphs into” – 3 hours later: “Ooooh, look at my shiny new tail. I wonder if I casting this spell all the time will change my arms into something of matching color”