Knights of the Temple 2 Preview

“Centuries of violence and corruption have sown their bitter harvest across the world.”

A knight sits in a monastery and contemplates what was, when he sealed a gate that lead to hell and incurred the wrath of what lay beyond the gate. His love has been possessed, her soul ripped from her body and her body used as a vessel for a demon. He has searched for answers, and now – at last, they lay within his grasp. He needs three artifacts from the time before “our Lord,” to destroy and seal away forever that which should never have been unsealed.

“The time has come; the battle for our world is about to begin.”

TDK Meditative, Cauldron and PlayLogic are the driving forces behind Knights of the Temple 2, an Xbox title. A firm shipping date for the title has not been released but GameZone.com was able to see a preview build of this fully three-dimensional action adventure tale, and this looks to be a title that any self-respecting fan of medieval mayhem, of fierce crusades against a demonic army bent on overrunning the 13^th-century world, would want to play.

The game is told from the third-person perspective and follows Paul de Raque, Grand Master of the Order of the Temple. The first title in this series keyed on a young Paul. Almost 20 years have passed since the first tale, and Paul is besieged by visions of the dark forces, as well as tormented by what happened to his lady love. And thus, he dons his plate mail and begins the trek again to bear arms against the forces of hell.

The game begins in the harbor of Sirium. Because of the state of the build, the storyline was not very cohesive and so the game was more of a level-by-level adventure than a building and evolving tale. Sirmium is a city cursed by dark magic, and it is there that the hunt for the first artifact, the Eye, begins. As he moves through the levels, Paul is given visions – some nightmarish, but most hold clues to the course he must take. And while the path through the levels feels somewhat linear – as in there is only one way to actually get to the end of the level – the game still has a variety of other avenues to explore.

Of course, as you move through the world, new items and abilities come into play and most of these can be tied to the D-pad for easy access. It was very easy to switch between the sword and the crossbow, and you can lock onto targets.

There were a few minor crash issues, and some load times but expect the former to be cleared up by the time the game releases.

Knights of the Temple 2 sports three difficulty levels – squire, knight and grandmaster. The controls have bright areas and not so bright areas. With no manual it was hit-or-miss on how to open chests containing items Paul may be able to use (like healing salves). And blocking during the fights was not overly easy. Each time Paul attacked, he was wide open for reprisal before the game recognized the command to shield block and activated it.

Graphically this game is a real treat. The texturing, the lighting and shadows combine to bring the world to wonderful life. The ocean waves, beating against the harbor docks of the first level, were amazing and the fires on the pier were vivid and alive. There are some problems with the follow camera getting locked in an awkward spot, like it is hung up on something in the environment, but R3 usually drops it back into follow mode. The movement is also very good and the animations are smooth and realistic, for the most part.

And the audio goes hand-in-hand with the video to provide a rich atmosphere to the game.

Knights of the Temple 2 is shaping up to be a stellar adventure for the Xbox, capitalizing on the power of the home console unit, and provide plenty of action with a decent storyline.