Soulbringer

Release Date: July 1, 2000

RPG, TPP, fantasy, classic RPG, singleplayer

73%

Steam

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An RPG developed by Infogrames together with Gremlin Entertainment and published by Interplay. Soulbringer is set in a fantasy world called Rathenna which is at war with demonic forces. The player assumes the role of a young adventurer who is quickly embroiled in a dark scheme and becomes the only hope of saving the land. Soulbringer offers an interesting magic system based on playing rock-paper-scissors.

Plot
Mechanics
Technical aspects

Soulbringer is an RPG for PC developed by Gremlin Interactive, the creators of the well-received Litil Divil.

Plot

The action of Soulbringer takes place in a fantasy world. Thousands of years before the events of the game, the entire land was ruled by six demon kings, known as the Revenants — by taking over bodies of their mortal vassals, they were able to live eternally. They were eventually confronted by an invincible hero, a wizard called Harbinger, who managed to overcome their immortality and imprison them in the Well of Souls. Ages have passed, and the world recovered. The dark creatures were not annihilated for good, though, so the threat of their return is real. To make things worse, the land became a battlefield for warring empires.

The player assumes the role of a youngster who embarks on a journey after his father’s death to find his uncle. Matters become complicated when he is embroiled in a dark scheme of unpredictable scope and importance — fate puts him on the path set by the legendary Harbinger, and as an incarnation of the fearless conqueror of Revenants, he has to face the forces of evil to send it into oblivion once and for all. With our progress, the plot becomes enriched with new storylines and numerous twists. We learn about subsequent events primarily by having conversations with non-player characters and the film cutscenes created in the game’s engine.

Mechanics

Exploration of the game world is one of the gameplay pillars of Soulbringer for PC. The adventure takes the player through the city of Madrigal, the ruined kingdoms of Horath, the ancient empire of Thardolin, to the lost city of Talendrah. The fantasy land is varied, while the story leads us through both sandy deserts and icy wastelands. Apart from performing main and side quests, character development and combat remain at the gameplay’s core.

Combat bases on the extensive combat system that can be adjusted to our liking. Every weapon can be assigned a predefined list of attacks and combos, while new ones are learned by putting the points we acquire into an adequate skill. What’s interesting, the game takes the profile of a given attack into account — for example: to defeat a spider, we have to perform low attacks, while high opponents can be knocked down only by “high” blows. Moreover, the said production features a rich arsenal of magic spells. The magic system, called Seculorum, lets us use 60 spells based on elements. It somewhat resembles playing rock-paper-scissors since an individual school (air, earth, soul, water, or fire) can counter one of the remaining ones and, at the same time, be especially weak against another. The key to success is therefore to specialize in one or two fields.