Lichdom: Battlemage

I had absolutely no idea this game had already been released on PC, in fact I knew nothing about Lichdom: Battlemage besides it having a pretty neat premise. The game is said to be a magic based first person shooter, where the main character will unleash powerful attacking spells against his enemies. As a fan of this genre whom have grown just a little weary of the military themed shooters. This was definitely something different and interesting. Unfortunately, Lichdom: Battlemage for the PS4 and X-Box One consoles is a severely broken game that isn't worth anyone's time or money.

It's a shame that this game was somehow released in such a miserable state, because it has a decent enough story with a main character that is right pissed off. The main character whose name I forgotten is bullied by the town's Count and Captain into selling a sword to him that had already been purchased and is awaiting pick up from another customer. The Count refuses to take "no" for an answer, and in response attacks the store owner having his wife killed in front of his eyes. The main character is next seen being tasked to go for his revenge by a magician whom teaches him to wield powerful elemental spells, and from here he goes after the count destroying his minions. It's a cool enough story that features vengeance against a power tripping dickhead and that's always cool, but I doubt many or anyone will be able to play through this mess of a game to even see how it concludes.

The main problem is the second rate unfinished visuals. This game looks far and away from next gen, and is just a shit-fest with muddy and choppy graphics. The frame rate is very low creating a near blinding and blurry visual experience, that makes simple things like turning around and moving forward torture on the eyes. There are several unnecessarily dark areas that are just terribly awful, and character movements are very stiff. The character designs are maybe PS2 quality and that's being very generous. Plus the load times are way too long. No joke, there are already videos out there going in depth on how bad this game is, and the XB-One has it far worse with screen tearing. When learning how to attack there is a tutorial present teaching the player how to get around; these segments have the best visuals and fluid movements as if its teasing you on that being the game you should actually be playing, which clearly adds salt to such a horrible wound.

I could not finish this game. I couldn't get too far because it is unplayable which is so, so, sad; the hit detection was pretty spot on and there are some nice destructive abilities going on. It was definitely a change of pace from the average first person shooters.

I am still in disbelief that this game even made it to store shelves in this state. I personally believe that Maximum Games was used by Sony and Microsoft to be their lab rat and see if a pathetic game like this was going to fly, and keep people waiting for patches to be added, in which to the best of my knowledge Maximum Games claims there will be no patches. It is very sad to see such a potential great game get the middle finger. I really do hope this game receives a re-master one day and we get the game that should be played. I highly advise to leave this thing on store shelves and not give these gaming companies the balls to continue screwing the fans like this.

Rating: 1

The Good: Potential to be a good game

The Bad: That potential is completely hidden under a broken mess