While somewhat formulaic, Summoner is a slick-looking, engaging, and (mostly) well-constructed role-playing game (RPG) set in a medieval-style world. Though the game does have its problems, overall the negatives don't overshadow the intriguing gameplay.
You begin the game as Joseph, a knave bom with the mark of the Summoner, who is uniquely able to summon creatures to his aid in combat. As a lad, Joseph attempted to use the power to save his village from invaders by calling up a demon who promptly thrashed the town and wiped out the population (oops). Years later, Joseph (now in exile) learns that the evil emperor Murod Is out to get him. Joseph now must return to the summoning life he abandoned and fulfill his prophesied destiny: to vanquish Murod.
Combat is turn based, but you can lengthen your turn with chain attacks — these allow you to inflict extensive damage on your enemies by stringing together attacks, sometimes adding status effects like slow or blind Oimiting an opponent's speed or vision, respectively). After you gain enough experience points by defeating enemies or by completing quests, you can assign skill points to enhance specific attributes.
Magic includes the standard arsenal of fire, ice, and lightning attacks, plus the summon command. When you summon monsters, you can control them as you would a regular character (by manually selecting their attacks and movements), except that you also have the power to banish them anytime. Along the way, you have the option to participate in endlessly diverting side quests. Solo mode allows you to break off from the rest of your party and explore on your own, which is sometimes necessary for puzzle solving.
The visuals (especially during the act of summoning) are stunning, with artful backgrounds and fluid water effects. One exception: The characters look as if they've been exhumed Qoseph in particular — sheesh!). The camera (our view of the action) behaved itself for the most part, although it occasionally got stuck behind trees and walls, obscuring the action and interrupting the execution of chain attacks.
The AI (Artificial Intelligence) lacked responsiveness — enemies clearly within eyeshot stand around contemplating their navels while you slaughter their buddies. By the same token, if your own characters get stuck, you have to take control of them manually and guide them around obstacles.
Bugs in gameplay range from unintended powers, such as the ability to talk through walls (we once bypassed a whole section of the game just by shouting to someone on the other side of the wall), to outright crashes — usually when you've got the resolution or color depth set too high. One would expect that since it’s taken a year for the game to come to the Mac, developers would have smoothed out these problems by now, but no such luck. Even so, Summoner offers an engaging story and is definitely worthwhile if RPGs are your thing.
Yoon, Paul. (November 2001). Summoner. MacAddict. (pg. 63).
Volition
Games
out of 10 (1 vote)
71 / 
2015-01-12 / 
2022-12-10 / 
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