“The First Templar” is a video game that, along with many others, I once snatched up on sale on Steam, after which I happily forgot about it. Considering the circumstances of objective reality, and the fact that games for Russians can no longer be purchased legally in digital distribution services, I am increasingly turning to the archives that I managed to collect over the years of prosperity. The turn of this work has come.
Actually, even at the time of purchase I understood that I was purchasing a second or even third tier product, and I shouldn’t expect much here. Something like this was ingenuously reported by screenshots on the game page, and by the slasher genre itself for PC, which no one had ever heard of. But The First Templar is still loved by audiences to this day, with a solid 74% positive review on Steam, which is a bit too high in my opinion, I’d give the game a fair 60 out of 100. But, having completed “The First Templar” to the end, not without pleasure, I understand why the game can be loved, and why it is even worth playing for those who until now did not know about its existence at all, which is what I want to share.
As you can see, I am not inclined towards an impartial analysis of the game, but towards such an everyday, even emotional presentation of my impressions and reactions. In this case, I think this is justified, simply because “The First Templar” looked mediocre even at the time of its release, and by modern standards the game is simply no good, and in this context there is nothing to say here – there are a thousand examples more worthy of attention than this. But this is to be objective, break down the game according to criteria, make comparisons, etc. I don’t want to be objective, because I like the game, despite the obvious problems, it has its own charm of a small, budget, but cozy work, very straightforward in what it can offer its viewer.
“The First Templar” is an obvious indie, also released in 2011, but there were practically no technical problems with it. Except that the graphic settings had to be left at medium positions, otherwise the game would start to break a little and twitch. There are still no graphic delights to be found here – in “The First Templar” there are good and even pleasant-looking landscapes, the interior design is sparse, but it will also do for the Middle Ages, but the people and everything connected with them are made in the range from acceptable to wretched. Nothing that cannot be forgiven, but, let’s say, it would be better if there were no finishing animations in the game at all than they are in this form – it looks as if a rag doll representing the enemy is being hit not even with a sword, but with an iron stick, which is why it flies ponderously somewhere to the side.
Sometimes the protagonist completely forgets that he is in a relatively authentic setting, after which he decides to grab the enemy in a jump and rush with him in a tailspin until both collapse to the ground. Other finishing moves are executed similarly ridiculously.
With the exception of funny finishing blows, stingy cutscenes with gestures, and the fact that most of the levers, of which there are about a hundred in the game, are activated by the non-contact touch technique, and the weapons in the hands of the heroes disappear and appear instantly, without any animation for getting them out, there are no more complaints about the visualization of the gameplay. On average, the game looks unsightly, but not repulsive, on the contrary, it’s nice.
Characters, enemy units, also look good in the frame. The game most of the time adheres to a realistic display of the world, thanks to which some types of opponents, such as knights and European infantrymen, look quite alive and textured, and wield a sword with the strength and dexterity characteristic of a living person. The Saracens turned out worse, much more plastic, the effect of which is only enhanced by the bright colors in their design, and too clumsy, wooden movements.
Knights, Saracens – I didn’t mention it, but the game takes us to the end of the 13th century, to the Holy Land as a warrior of the Templar Order, who, no less, is looking for the Holy Grail. What’s more, he’s been looking for it all his life, but he only managed to get closer to his goal now. Frankly speaking, I understood only half of the story told here, since the game categorically refused to recognize the localization, and my own knowledge of English is at the level of insults from schoolchildren in Dota 2. But I managed to understand something.
The outline of the plot is such that during the events of the First Crusade, nine knights founded the Order of the Templars, they also happened to find the cup of Christ, the Holy Grail, in the Holy Land, which endowed them with the gift of immortality and, possibly, other strength and power – the characters themselves speak of their kinship with the gods. Over time, it became obvious to one of the nine Grand Masters of the Templars that the power granted by the Grail was too much for his brothers, corrupting them and leading them away from their previous oaths, so he stole the Grail from the order and hid it. He, like his brothers, was immortal, but for some reason he forgot about who he was, becoming an ordinary Templar – the main character of the game. I must say, not the worst culmination for a plot, half of which is devoted to some completely unnecessary things, like the defense of the city of Acre, which will still be conquered by the Saracens.
The rest of the game’s plot we fight with the evil Inquisition, then unexpectedly with the French king, and then with the warriors of our own order, because the current Grand Master of the Templars wants to return the Grail, and the main character, gradually restoring the truth, decides not to let this happen. The protagonist has two companions, alternating as he progresses – Roland and Maria – the first is kidnapped by inquisitors, tortured and forced to break his oaths, and the second is called a witch and also, it is not entirely clear why the plot needs. It seems like she shows the hero an ancient manuscript, which the protagonist himself once wrote, but forgot not only the fact of that, but also the code that he used then. But this is not certain, again, my English is bad, unlike the local Arabs who only speak it.
Even though I didn’t understand many https://betcasinoonline.uk/ details, like who Maria is and why the inquisitors are terrorizing the peasants here and there, but structurally the plot is simple and straightforward, which is actually not bad at all. The script allows the hero to visit new and varied locations with the next chapter, initiates regular communication between the characters, which draws a little into the story, gives it life, and sets a clear and important goal for the protagonist, so that the story told here meets the necessary cultural minimum, it is foolish to expect more from it.
The local plot can be characterized in the same way as the game as a whole – it is simple, silly, a little vague and cozy. Actually, the last circumstance probably allowed me to complete “The First Templar”, spending 12 hours on it. While playing, I even remembered the film “A Knight’s Tale” with Heath Ledger, which evoked similar emotions – it was also damn superficial in terms of working with the setting, it was also imbued with Hollywood motifs and influences, and it also told a simple and simple story without pretensions, which was pleasant to listen to and which does not burden its viewer with unnecessary stylistic and dramatic elements.
The gameplay of “The First Templar” is exactly the same. I completed it on medium difficulty, almost without interruption. It was moderately easy and energetic, so it was captivating. The combat system here is similar to the same “Batman: Arkham Asylum”, except that the hero does not stick to the attacked enemy and the impact of blows is almost not felt here. In general, it copes with its task – you swing a sword in a crowd of enemies, either fixating on one target, or distributing it to everyone in turn, as a result of which the enemies enter stun-lock, or not, but then they warn of a crushing attack from their side, which can be blocked, you can counterattack, or you can simply dodge.
It’s simple, convenient and comfortable to play. The player is difficult to kill, and the enemies, although they don’t die in three hits, are generally predictable, sluggish and simply vulnerable to careful actions. This could be boring, and for some it certainly will be, but, as in the Batman Arkham series, the player here is not so much playing, overcoming obstacles, as admiring himself, making aggressive and swift moves, scattering enemies as effectively as his dexterity and the studied move sheet of the character allows.
Again, I’m not talking so much about the game mechanics side of the process, because in many other games the Batman Arkham mechanics are handled much more skillfully than here. I’m talking from the perspective of this extremely casual pastime, when you want to play a simple but energetic game where there is some challenge, but you as a player are in a position of safety and should not, as we say in Dota, sweat.
This is how I would describe the gameplay in “The First Templar”. Yes, on “normal” the player may well be killed, but there are so many mechanisms screwed in to prevent this – when you somersault, you are almost invulnerable; blocking with a shield is guaranteed to block any damage except from a couple of specific opponents; in the event of the death of a hero, you can take control of a second squad member and resurrect yourself; on the way there are regularly jugs of water, which are responsible for restoring health; and, finally, the protagonist himself will learn to heal himself and his ally, however, by the second half of the game. And if you do die, then the game has very generous checkpoints and you won’t lose your progress.
From the outside it looks like it, but in reality, The First Templar’s gameplay has problems, and it’s not just funny finishing off enemies. I would call one of the problems of the game “imitation of the combat system”. It lies in the fact that, in the manner of “Sleeping Dogs”, here they also added a combo system to the mechanics from that very game about Batman. And this combo system doesn’t make any sense. That is, you hit three times in a row with a sword, or twice with a sword and once with a shield, or twice with a shield – you don’t see any difference, and you can’t understand which is stronger, which is weaker, what and when it is preferable to use. All these combinations do, with minor differences, the same thing. Therefore, using something other than left-clicking only makes sense for decorative purposes.
Another problem is with the counterattack mechanics. If blocking with a shield works flawlessly, then the hero counterattacks God knows how. In one case it works, in another case it doesn’t and you suffer damage where you could have easily defended yourself from an attack. Maybe it depends on the position of the attacker’s hand, on the swing of the weapon, but why then does a huge symbol light up above him indicating that this attack can be repulsed, and the game doesn’t look like a rhythmic slasher with timings. Frankly speaking, this is not a slasher at all, as stated, but a bit-map, which again does not mean anything bad, but for understanding the game this clarification will be appropriate.
The protagonist has a shield, and therefore has a shield strike, which is on the right mouse button. It’s not really different from swinging a sword, except that it pushes the enemy back a little, but the main problem with it is that for some reason this button isn’t always pressed either. You want to hit one with a shield, but it doesn’t hit, and it’s unclear what to do.
I just stated that “The First Templar” is comfortable to complete and does not require much effort, it is meditative and enjoyable. This is all true, but somewhere in the middle the game starts to really stifle. And she strangles with the help of knights with shields. The peculiarity of knights with shields is that they ignore any damage until you knock out their shield with a strong attack. And there is a problem with a strong attack, it is very inconvenient to use it. It requires holding down the left mouse button, and for some reason it doesn’t always seem to work, maybe due to timings, I don’t know. These same shield bearers also don’t want to expect a strong attack from the hero and hit him ahead of the curve, knocking down this strongest attack. And a strong attack also requires a local equivalent of mana, which will be a lot or a little depending on how you develop the hero. Not only do you have to punch through these guys, and you don’t always succeed, but the enemies also know how to knock you to the floor, and then shut you up there. Again, not fatal, but again, annoying.
Shield bearers are suffocating with their numbers, but they are also not a lethal barrier, and one after another they are eliminated relatively deftly. But with their appearance, the fragile fun curve in “The First Templar” begins to break a little, because the game already has a poor way of dealing with enemies, but as long as you are mobile, you have fun, and with these knights, each battle becomes absolutely sketchy – you see a shield bearer, get close, block the attack, hold down the attack button, break the shield, repeat ten times. Further, the game seems to realize that this was unnecessary, and the number of fighters with shields is sharply reduced in favor of much more convenient spearmen, but an episode with their predominance risks being tedious and somewhat discouraging from the game. Because, again, in The First Templar we are not overcoming the challenge of the game – the gameplay here is not suitable for this – we are having fun by methodically eliminating enemy units as quickly as possible, and then the game decides to break all the dynamics and at the same time the fun.
“The First Templar”, wanting to diversify the energetic but similar fights, periodically creates different game situations. In some places they are successful, like a mini-game with a trebuchet and fights with “bosses”, and in others they are not very successful, like being forced to stealth and protect allies. These sections don’t last long, but they also leave a residue. In general, “The First Templar” has the funniest bottle stealth I’ve ever seen in a game. The bottles are already in a strictly defined place, the player, so to speak, activates them, as a result of which the bottle flies to a point strictly specified by the script, and the enemies, without any reaction of surprise, simply stupidly go to stand at the point marked by the bottle. It’s almost impossible to do anything stupider, but at least it’s not difficult.
Regarding the development of the hero, the game draws such a huge tree of skills, and although among other things there are very useful things there, there are so many skills, and they are all so situational in the spirit of “you will restore some health if you raise your dead ally”, that at some point I just stopped delving into it, learning something at random.
In general, there are three heroes in “The First Templar” – the protagonist, the trickster Maria and the Templar Roland. The game allows you to permanently be with only two, bringing and separating the main character from his partners according to the will of the plot. And although each of them is armed differently – from a two-handed sword to daggers – there is practically no difference in gameplay between the characters. That the protagonist absorbs all damage with a shield, that Maria does the same with her ladies’ knives. They differ only in some abilities, and in how the talent tree of each of them is structured, which rather confuses the player. That’s why I always controlled strictly as a protagonist, it’s more convenient.
“The First Templar”, by the way, suggested a cooperative playthrough, but that was a long time ago and not true, today all the servers are dead. However, the computer companion, surprisingly, copes quite well, even too well for such a game. Most of the time, the partner does not die, blocking attacks on himself, and is even capable of killing weak opponents, and once he was honored to knock out a knight’s shield, although only once. The ally is so good that he even bypasses most of the traps without any help or errors.
Riddles and traps. It’s time to talk about them too. About a third of the gameplay in The First Templar involves us not running and fighting, but rather scouring basements and ancient crypts, avoiding traps. Another ten percent of the game we are looking for chests with bonuses and sometimes outfits for heroes, but this is so, by the way.
There are three jokes in the whole game that can really be called riddles, and only on one of them, with asymmetrically lowering platforms, did I think a little, most likely because I did not immediately understand the concept. Otherwise, this is the apotheosis of the logical equations of the ancient Templar architects, consisting of such examples as “put one hero on a slab with a picture, then, with the help of another hero, press the lever with this picture,” or “step by step press the levers and move forward, opening the gates to each other.”. What touches me most is that in this game the levers that open the doors are always located outside these very doors, so that you definitely enter our secret Templar caches. But there are two of these levers and they need to be activated simultaneously – well, you didn’t expect this, wanderer, yes?
The game, as I said, adheres to a good representation of the Middle Ages, but in everything that concerns dungeons and traps, it is complete fantasy. The sewer system near Acre is architecturally and in area several times larger than the city itself, and even modern subways are not built like that. And there are also a lot of traps from Prince of Persia – all these pillars with blades rotating on a horizontal axis and logs with spikes moving back and forth. And this is the situation with the traps in The First Templar – they are stupid, very stupid, but they piss me off.
What’s the idea – you press a special button and the hero begins to see which of the pressure plates will shoot spikes at him. Squints his eyes, so to speak. Fire traps, according to the traditions of the genre, sometimes spit fire, sometimes they don’t, and the logs, accordingly, roll and crush. In theory, avoiding all this is simple, and it’s really simple, because these traps are purely attention-based.
I didn’t have any problems with them until the final stage of the game. Yes, it’s stupid fun to change the tone of the gameplay and allow you to take a break from endless battles, and wandering through these huge catacombs is interesting, because the interiors in the game are made very well. But towards the end of the trap I was openly strangled. There are too many of them, everything is covered with them. Every two meters, press the “squint” button to make sure that you are not about to stand on a tile with spikes, constantly wait, wait and wait until this fire goes out, and constantly get stunned if you do run into or burn yourself on something – it’s not difficult, but it’s so exhausting. Fortunately, these traps don’t kill, although sometimes they do, because you start to be thrown from the spiked logs to the fire and back, and the character just screams helplessly at this. These sections don’t last that long, but they are non-stop and very intense, and by the end I was frankly tired of these traps. In contrast to the combat system, traps are a completely uninteresting part of the game – you either count down the seconds like an autist to step over a spiked pit, or you are thrown from side to side, as if in a minibus on a section of the road being repaired. I also caught the only bug in the game in the most stuffy room with traps, where you stand in the middle of a narrow room and flames surround you from all sides, but there is no way out, because there should be a destructible wall there, but it doesn’t collapse. Fortunately, although I didn’t suffer for long, loading to the checkpoint solved the problem. Again, like everything else in the game, it’s not difficult, but you, that is, I, absolutely don’t want to bother with these bastard traps. I ran through some of them stupidly if I could. The flames are frying me, but I don’t care, just to get past this ugly stage as soon as possible. I didn’t think something so simple could make me so angry.