Night Watch
July 20,2006 - Truth be told, we've never seen the Russian film upon which Night Watch is based, nor did we read the book that inspired the film. However, the game has left us with a distinct impression that the movie's stunning popularity in Europe may be well-earned. The problem is that the game offers only a mild taste of something that is obviously much bigger. Night Watch starts well, offering a glmpse into a concept that they could have run with far and wide. It features interesting characters voiced by mediocre actors with bad accents and a cool game mechanic with an alternate-dimension called "The Gloom." After a few hours, though, Night Watch loses its steam and devolves into a simple, by-the-numbers tactical RPG that doesn't live up to a promising idea.

In Night Watch, there are two groups of supernatural detectives that keep each other in check: Day Watch and Night Watch. They are loosely equated to good and evil, the light ones keeping an eye on the dark ones by night, and the other way around. In addition, a group called The Inquisition keeps them both in check to ensure that no one is abusing his power as a metaphysical detective. This arrangement has worked for hundreds of years, but some mysterious circumstances threaten to throw the world into chaos and break the truce.

You begin with only Night Watch initiate Stas, but eventually add others into your party. There are three character types: Mage, Shapeshifter, and Enchanter, although the game will occasionally refer to the mage as a scorcerer, which is disconcerting. Mages use a variety of defensive and offensive spells, while enchanters abide by a steady diet of buffs, healing abilities, and damage-over-time spells. The shapeshifter is your primary melee class and plays the role of tank pretty well. You'll also accumulate a good variety of weapons and items, so even your enchanter can deal decent damage with a flashlight beam (you heard it right). It sounds cool, but after the first few intriguing chapters, the game structure falls into roteness.

The gameplay itself involves real-time exploration offset with turn-based battles. Rather than each character earning individual turns, each team alternates, and during your turn, you may choose any character in any order, as long he has available moves. Casting a spell not only uses up those points, but it also burns up energy, so you need to keep an eye on both, as well as your hit points. The original combat element is the use of a magical dimension called "The Gloom," which is also occasionally and confusingly referred to as "Twilight" (it seems that Night Watch's translators couldn't figure out what to call a number of things). Entering the gloom renders you invisible to those on the earthly plane, and increases the effectiveness of your magic skills. Dark enemies and inquisitors can also enter the gloom, and when you have shifted there, the map takes on an attractive, shimmery aura.

Once you're over the initial respect of this mechanic, you'll wish such innovation could have inspired everything else. When a character levels, you can choose new spells and abilities for him, but there is nothing so intriguing as a branching skill tree, sub-disciplines, or anything else to further personalize him. To improve skill effectiveness, you simply use it, and a bar on its icon shows you how close you are to the next spell level. You don't spend any kind of skill points on strength or agility or anything like that, so leveling up doesn't elicit the excitement an RPG normally offers.

The interface is also a problem. Characters have individual inventories where they store active combat items, but the rest of the inventory is shared. To bring up the full inventory, you only have to right click on a character's active bar, and then move items around, even going so far as to move the same weapon from character to character during your turn. It's an awkward setup, as is the inelegance of picking up dropped items from the ground. You hold the "alt" key to find loot, but you can barely see the item sitting on the ground, so its a good thing that the clunky text helps you identify it when holding the key down. In fact, it fits in nicely with the entire array of menus, which is never anything short of clumsy.

Night Watch's strategy roots are evident in the Silent Storm engine that powers it, not just because of how it looks, but because its maps are small and rectangular, and do not at all represent the kind of sweeping world you would expect in a role-playing game. It doesn't look all bad, thanks to destructible environments that you can use to your advantage in combat and some flashy spell effects that brighten up the more drab missions, but character models are blocky and stiffly animated. The sound design is downright embarrassing at times, due to the campy Russian accents that made us wonder if the game is actually meant as parody. It's too bad, because the script is often sharp and witty, and the soundtrack is inoffensive, if not exactly a standout.

Quirky games can be delightful, but they need to offer more than just nutty writing to make them worth playing. Night Watch has some nice ideas, but it's too simple at its core to remain interesting, and falls into a rut just a few hours after it starts. If you're looking for a decent tactical RPG, you'll want to reinstall Baldur's Gate 2 or Temple of Elemental Evil, and pick up the DVD of Night Watch instead. We have a feeling the flim is worth watching, but the game falls far short of blockbuster status.

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