Metascore
57 out of 100

Mixed or average reviews - based on 20 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 3 out of 20
  2. Negative: 5 out of 20
  1. A patch away from gaming excellence. Recommended for "Baldur’s Gate" and "Neverwinter Nights" fans, after a good patch, this title will have all the goods.
  2. Playing Lionheart could easily be a completely different experience every time. [Oct 2003, p.141]
  3. An excellent game for about 20 hours, with open-ended gameplay, a good balance between combat and quests, and an opportunity for real role-playing. But then the next 20 hours feature a long linear march of boring, repetitive and slow combat, culminating in one of the worst endings I've ever seen.
  4. Lacks the gameplay that would take it over the top and make it an incredible experience. This game is good, it is not great.
  5. It does let itself down in certain respects - the multiplayer is fairly buggy, and the graphics are not particularly amazing.
  6. 68
    The problem of deciding what kind of game it really wants to be, RPG or Diablo clone, is probably the most serious problem its got.
  7. It could've been way better, bearing in mind that the developers took the time to create a good story and brilliant setting for an RPG title (on top of using the Fallout SPECIAL system). Regrettably, the game suffers from several balancing issues.
  8. It's primarily a hack-and-slash game, but the combat tends to be unsatisfying, the production values seem dated, the difficulty is uneven and sometimes excessive, and the original alternate-history setting isn't enough to compensate.
  9. 65
    Is it a deep role-playing game with a plot-twisting storyline ... or is it a Diablo hack-and-slash clone? Ultimately, it tries to be both, but doesn't succeed at being either.
  10. Many games fail to deliver a coherent story, but shine in the gameplay department. Lionheart gets it in reverse. Reflexive delivers a concrete, polished story that serves as little more than a platform to bash, crack, wallop, belt, cripple and maim everything in sight.
  11. I wouldn't strongly recommend this game to vets, but I might give a half-hearted recommendation to first-timers. [Nov 2003, p.132]
  12. A mixed bag: a complex, intriguing story that progresses by means of an uninspired quest system.
  13. 60
    It has the makings of a role-playing classic, but it runs out of steam half-way through. The rest of the game is playable and occasionally fun, but it never comes close to the greatness of the first act.
  14. Provides a decent PC role-playing experience, but it is simply not as refined as the Fallout games that it is derived from.
  15. Lionheart is to RPGs what "Serious Sam" is to first-person shooters: It's a strict genre game that's stripped down to its essence and is pleasantly devoid of the all too common overarching that happens when too many disparate parts are crammed into the same code base for the sake of widening the target audience.
  16. So the pretty cool quests and diplomacy are sacked by sad combat that makes you frustrated and impatient. [Nov 2003, p.80]
  17. Quite possibly the most unpalatable role-playing game concocted in recent memory...A gooey mess of reflex-driven combat, muddled interface, cliched dungeon designs, and useless player decisions. [Nov 2003, p.95]
  18. Unbalanced, tedious, buggy, and lacking in imagination - and those are its good points. [Nov 2003, p.134]
  19. A big disappointment. Though it uses a decent RPG system, its poor balance, repetitive action and somewhat lame stab at rewriting history leads to a game no one should invest time or money in.
  20. 16
    The longer you play, the worse this RPG gets... After a few hours, the hate sets in. [Nov 2003, p.64]
User Score

Generally favorable reviews- based on 19 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 7 out of 9
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 9
  3. Negative: 2 out of 9
  1. Bjarki
    10
    Great game.
  2. JIMF.
    10
    Good game, very much like Arcanum and Fallout, good game for fans of Icewind, neverwinters and Divine Divinity.
  3. I don't understand these all 10/10. It means perfection, blahblahblah, and: this game isn't perfect. To be honest, it's extremely average. Maybe lore setting is interesting and story would be nice (I haven't finished it), but that doesn't matter, when we face terrible gameplay. Dull. Chaotic. Boring. I can't explain that, but everything here just fails: interface, fights, quests, locations. Full Review »