Many games have interesting settings - it's part of what's required to be a hit game But few are more intriguing than the one found in The First Templar. Appealing to every historical bone in our body, The First Templar is set during the late 13th Century during the famous Crusades, as corruption spreads throughout the Church, and the world becomes embroiled in an ever more bloody religious conflict. It's even got the Spanish Inquisition in it, too. Bet you didn't expect that, eh?
The story here centres around two Knights of the Templar, the noble Celian, and the ever battle ready Roland, who team up with the falsely imprisoned Marie d'Ibelin in an attempt to discover the Holy Grail, discovering corruption in the church, and a conspiracy as they go...
In all honesty, the story in the First Templar isn't really that much cop - and if anything, that's kind of sad. While the game certainly provides you with a good enough reason to trudge from ancient medieval city to city, and provides a steady stream of logical objectives for you to complete, it never really goes further than that, or involves you with the story. With the mysticism of the Templars providing an immense wealth of source material that the developers could have drawn from, it's somewhat of a disappointment that the game's so unaspirational. Still, it certainly has its charms, with the occasionally deadpan voice acting providing some unintentionally hilarious moments, and the plot certainly doing its job.
That guy's chin looks like it could be a weapon.
Playing as either Roland, Marie, or Celian, The First Templar is a co-op, third person action game, that's been designed from the outset with two people in mind. Should you find yourself playing on your own, you'll still have two characters on the screen, but you'll only be in charge of one of them at any one time. Using an intuitive control scheme on the D-pad, you can order your AI controlled partner around, getting them to activate switches, stand their ground, or go on ahead, which can be useful when you're running low on health. It's a bit disappointing that there's no real incentive to switch between the characters, though - there's no LEGO style special moves and/or abilities here, which only serves to make the second character seem somewhat redundant when you're playing on your own. In co-op, however, it's a different story altogether.
At any time, another player can pop by, press the Start button, and drop into your game, with only the smallest of loading times. With one of the best split-screen co-op setups we've seen, the game gives you both identically sized squares in the centre of the screen, whilst displaying the inventory icons and health bars below, giving you a large playing area, free of clutter. It's an intelligent design, and one that we'd like to see other games copy.
Whether you're playing alone, or with a friend, the gameplay in the First Templar is divided between exploration and combat, with a fair bent towards the latter. Considering you're playing as two heavily armed, and heavily armoured medieval nights, it'd be surprising if there wasn't any swordplay in the game, so the First Templar doesn't disappoint.
Throughout each level, you'll often find yourself coming to fisticuffs (or should that be swordicuffs) with a wide variety of enemies, from standard foot soldiers, to enemies that come baring shields, or later in the game, the Hashishin, which is Arabic for assassin, that'll slice at you with little daggers if you don't block their attacks with your shield. Each enemy requires a different approach, and the combat's one of the highlights of the game. While standard attacks are reached by pressing the X or A buttons, and you can perform different combos by pressing different combinations of each, as you fight, as you land hits on your enemies, and as you take damage, you'll gain "Zeal", which lets perform certain special moves. Get attacked by an enemy with a shield while you've got a full circle of Zeal, and you'll be able to perform a strong attack that breaks its shield - if not, you'll have to block his attacks with your shield by using the right trigger, try and reverse his moves by pressing Y, or just distract him while your co-op partner runs round behind him and attacks his weak spot for massive damage. On weaker enemies, performing a strong attack will knock them down, too, which lets you swoop in to perform a Coupe de Grace, which basically involves stabbing them with your sword. Each character has their own set of zeal moves, with Celian able to charge with his shield, and knock enemies down, while Marie can chuck her dagger at enemies from a distance. But they're not all available for you to use at once.
With a second player tagging along, The First Templar comes into its own.
The First Templar works kind of like a light role-playing game, in that as you complete quests, defeat enemies, and even open treasure chests, you'll be accruing XP, which you can then spend to unlock new abilities on a levelling grid. Letting you upgrade everything, from your health, to the amount of zeal you can accrue, to new combos and special moves, each character has their own grid, and can be levelled accordingly, although you'll have to save up if you want to access the fanciest moves.
There's a huge amount of variety in the levels, too, with puzzles to be solved, ancient cities to explore, and lots of collectibles to find. In each level, you're given several bonus objectives which push you to move away from the beaten path, and explore the levels fully, while numerous treasure chests are waiting to be found, hidden amongst the ruins of each city. Press RB, and your character will gently rotate from left to right, which seems to be some sort of Templar Vision, and highlights any nearby objects of interests - or, if you're lucky, will reveal a trail you can follow, that'll lead you to an item of treasure.
The missions you'll undertake are almost as varied as the settings, too. Whether you're protecting an innocent man as you go through a town under siege, rescuing prisoners who've been trapped inside burning buildings; defending a camp from attack by manning a trebuchet and taking pot shots at the attacking troops; or carefully negotiating your way through a vast underground dungeon, with all sorts of Indiana Jones-esque traps waiting to be triggered should you put your foot in the wrong place, you'll certainly never get bored.
Whether you're playing on your own, or with a friend, there's certainly plenty to like about the First Templar - and actually not a whole lot wrong with it (despite how annoying it is that both profiles don't unlock achievements when playing in co-op). While it may not have the same amount of polish as other games, and it doesn't have as good a storyline as we'd hoped, with its hugely varied levels, interesting levelling system, and solid co-op gameplay, there's plenty to keep you coming back.
Format Reviewed: Xbox 360
