Chronicles of the Sword - PlayStation

The video games industry is a mixed bag affair, and as Forest Gump once said, “Life is like a box o’ chocolates; ya never know what yer gonna git”. This can be considered an accurate metaphor in such a volatile field of entertainment. As time carries on, the productive quality of a video game remains the most important factor to the success of the industry. While there are a plethora of software masterpieces out there, there are an equal number of monstrosities, and unfortunately Chronicles of Sword fits under the latter.

Published under the Psygnosis name, you would expect Chronicles of the Sword (COTS) to be a quality title. But unfortunately the opposite is the case, right from the word ‘go’. After a poorly produced FMV sequence that doesn’t greatly explain the story of this role-playing game, you immediately take control of the knight, Gawain, in what turns out to be a point-and-click adventure. You begin the game wandering through a sparse medieval village looking for a wizard named Merlin. However, due to the slow, slow animation of your main character, getting from one pre rendered image to another is excruciatingly time-consuming and down right annoying.

COTS main area of gameplay revolves around puzzle solving; an attribute that is quickly established early in the game. Unfortunately, clues are rare, if not non-existent, and force the player to climb an unnecessarily steep learning curve. This challenge is something that can put off even the most persistent of players.

Chronicles of the Sword as a complete title is very, very disappointing. It’s frustrating, dull, and lacks the ability to keep the players attention. An unfortunate dent in Psygnosis’ portfolio.
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