Knights of the Temple put you in the role of Paul, a noble Templar Knight who discovers his best friend dying in the woods. His friend has some kind of plague, and mentions some crazy talk about “holy man is… devil”. This leads Paul off on his own crusade to fight the wicked Bishop and rescue the beautiful Adelle, a woman who’s holy powers are going to be used against all humanity as the Bishop seeks to unite his monastery and hell.

The first thing that struck me is the graphics and artwork. They are very nicely designed. They may not be as ground breaking as Halo for example, but they’re very well executed, giving a strong sense of time and place. You get sucked into the world of the infernal crusade. Cut scenes are done in both an enhanced version of the game engine, as well as presented in an epic style fantasy painted stills. They reminded me of the illustrated Dragon Lance book I loved when I was younger.

Another thing to strike me was the camera. It’s not in third or first person as I suspected on first hearing about this game, but rather fixed in what is commonly called the “fourth wall”. This is an old performance device, and describes where the three walls of the set of a play on a stage are seen, and you are looking into the scene through the forth wall. This has best been done in the Resident Evil series of games, but not something I’ve seen too much of on the Xbox. It gives a very cinematic feel to the whole experience, and is a refreshing change from the usual third or first person view. It is a little disconcerting at first, as it can obscure your view, but I suspect that’s precisely what it’s meant to do, giving a claustrophobic feel to the insides of the monastery and other locations you battle through.

It can sometimes be a frustrating experience, getting in the way of the action, especially as Paul goes through doors, as unseen enemies can attack him. However, at the same time can also enhance the action. For example, I was fighting a guard, and kept getting pushed past the camera change location, and it felt like dramatic cuts in an action film, feeling as though I was immersed in an old Robin Hood film. Also, it forces you to be rather cautious when running through doors, and I found that walking slowly by holding the joystick gently, and then holding block whilst the camera changed, was often the wisest move.

The fighting system is quite easy to get a hang of – there is block (blue button), attack (green button) and heavy attack (red button), and these can be strung together into simple combos. As the game progresses you learn new combos such as the dual swing combo and windmill combo. These are performed by stringing together the attack and heavy attack buttons. Some of the moves look awesome; especially when you knock someone down and jam the sword through their skull, then use your foot to remove it.

Furthermore there are special attacks, which are granted to you throughout the course of the game, which are performed by holding the left trigger and pressing one of the 4 face buttons. These are very powerful attacks, and can break through enemy blocks and shields.
Paul also finds better weapons as he moves through the various levels of the game. He has a choice of 4 – the mace, the axe, the sword and the bow – and these are selected by the D pad.

Using the Bow moves into a first person perspective, but it really is only useful against enemy archers, as the levels rarely give you an opportunity to shoot at someone off in the distance due to their cramped nature. The other weapons are all useful against enemies, but not none more so than the other, which is a pity. There are also prayers that Paul learns from Adelle’s astral self, and holding the right trigger and pressing the face buttons can access these. There’s healing, attack boost, quake and fireball prayers, and the effects look pretty cool. However, you do have a limited amount of pray power available, and it’s best to use them wisely.

However the whole game fighting mechanics can be reduced to the enemy attacks while you block, then when its move has completed you use a special move and then combo, and then block again, until they’re dispatched. In fact, I found one combo / block arrangement that allowed me to beat nearly every enemy in the game at an early level, and made the fighting dynamic seem not so dynamic. However, having said that, the game is still lots of fun… mindless fun, but fun nonetheless. There’s also a few puzzle type things, mainly “get this, put that there”, and a few rotate the stones to match the pattern to unlock the door type things… pretty easy things to figure out.

Sound wise the game features the standard steel on steel sounds one would expect. The howling of the insane monks and the growls of the demons are all pretty standard fare, and Paul grunts and groans as he his hit, and says a few throw away lines when he finds keys and puzzles. The score is much better, being medieval in nature that changes per the location. For example, when you get to Jerusalem the score gets a decidedly more Middle Eastern bent to it, and enhances to the great sense of time and place captured by the graphics.

The Xbox Live! functionality of the game comes in the form of downloadable survival maps, and survival scoreboards. The survival game pits Paul against an endless stream of enemies, and this is timed. The longer you survive, and gain the greatest number of kills, the better your ranking on the scoreboard. It’s a fun little exercise, and a nice addition to the main game, but other than that there’s no multiplayer.

Conclusion:
Knights of the Temple is a fun game, but it does have limited appeal. If the idea of hacking and slashing your way through a variety of well designed locations from the Middle Ages takes your fancy, then the game is for you. However, hardcore gamers will feel a little let down by the simplistic battle system that does get rather repetitive rather quickly, and sometimes the frustrating camera detracts from the overall experience of the game. The Live! scoreboard will add a little extra to those with a competitive nature, but doesn’t enhance the game all that much.

Pros:
+ Immersive locations
+ Fun battle system that’s easy to master
+ Great soundtrack
+ Cool looking moves

Cons
– Camera can become very annoying
– Gameplay can seem rather repetitive, especially once you find the killer combo.
– the Bow is all but useless.

78/100