Albion

Game review

The story of Albion begins on a huge spaceship that belongs to a company focused on mining. This ship is heading to the planet where the company wants to start mining. The planet is, of course, arid, uninhabited and covered with sand, so there will be no environmental damage. All these facts are to be overseen by the Imperial Controller. As a player, you get the opportunity to control a pilot whose task is to transport an explorer to the planet. But until he announces this order, you have time to look around the ship. It is processed in some detail, you can even take various small items in the inventory or just chat with the ship's staff, or read messages from information displays. Over time, the pilot discovers that the Imperial inspector died under mysterious circumstances and that the company has no purely intentions. When he announces his order to leave with a reconnaissance vessel, he embarks on a journey that will change his entire life so far ... Even when viewed from the vessel, it seems that it will definitely not be an arid planet and, moreover, the onboard instruments begin to collapse. The pilot, together with the explorer, eventually manages to land with difficulty, but the ship explodes immediately after landing. Fortunately, you are saved by the friendly race Iška and you find that the whole planet is inhabited by various primitive races. And your company is going to destroy this planet ...

The whole world of Albion is divided into several islands, each inhabited by a different race with different customs and rules. The story will gradually take you through each of them until you end up back on the spaceship. You move around most places and dungeons (of which there are really a lot, by the way) from the point of view of controlled characters, ie in 3D. On the contrary, you move around the entire space outside the city (jungle, desert) and the interiors of buildings in cities using an isometric (2D) view. During the game, several characters with different abilities will join you. You can train in new abilities, buy new weapons or magical ingredients. There is a hill of shops in the cities where you can buy various weapons or mgic ingredients and you can even steal, but it doesn't always pass. Albion is a classic old school dungeon RPG, but great emphasis is placed on tactics in combat. You'll really spend a lot of time in the dungeons themselves, but that's not the main focus of the game. So you spend the same time outdoors as in musty mazes.

For 1996, Albion offered truly amazing audiovisual processing. Each island is drawn in great detail and the workmanship or architecture of the places still impress with its appearance. Especially the first city, which is made of living material - various trees and plants is breathtaking and it is a pleasure to walk around. Although the authors processed in 3D the entire vast world outside the city (as offered by Ishar), they again made up for the huge size of the individual islands. You can easily forget your way back and get lost, because the map can only be used in cities and dungeons. However, the space outside the places is a very wild and dangerous place, so you need to either remember the path well or make your own drawings. In terms of sound, the game is also well mastered. Different types of landscape have different sounds. The sound is different in the jungle and differently in a spaceship or underground. And the sounds of weapons and spells during duels are also mixed well. Today, someone might be sorry for the absence of dubbing, but for 1996 it was still a very complicated problem in the games.

It takes about 150-180 hours of clean time to complete Albion. It depends on the type of player. In any case, I recommend the game not only to any hardcore player, but also to everyone else who is interested in playing one of the jewels of the RPG genre 12 years ago. 

Reviewed by Anonym – 1. april 2014