Once again I jumped into the fray, wielding my trusty sword as Joan of Arc, ready to inflict damage and liberate my fellow Frenchmen. First on the agenda was installing the software which went smoothly, but I still go through a period where I wonder if it will run properly, due to the recommended requirements. In this case the 1.5 MHZ surpassed my 1.1 MHZ system, which left me wondering if it would run slower. No need to worry though as everything ran smoothly.

Game play on the other hand is something else. What I was looking at was a blend of first person shooter, third person action, and real time simulation using a combination of keyboard and mouse controls. The user interface can be brought into action quite easily, enabling you to get information as needed. You, as Joan of Arc, must complete missions requiring you to either capture or defend French towns and forts. Along the way you pick up troops, food, money, and weapons as well as experience to level yourself and your generals.

Playability became something of a mixed blessing after awhile. The graphics were most excellent, with scenery that was reminiscent of the French countryside, towns and forts of that era. Character movement uses a combination of arrow keys with mouse control, or depending on your preferences use the keyboard completely. The period characters are well done and draw you into the screen action. The missions and story line are also well done. Charts and goals are retrievable as needed by use of the function keys, which brings up options to help with your game play. In first person mode you can shoot arrows at watch towers or ground targets, even using explosive arrows to knock down gates or reduce a fort.

You also receive enhancements in the form of gems or necklaces, and capturing weapons that are only useful to certain characters. On the other hand, playing the missions became frustrating after awhile. Mission completions and character combat required numerous saves and reloads. All of this was on the easy setting, which made me wonder what the hard setting would do for the game. Thankfully, I never found out since easy was difficult enough.

Beginning with the first mission I saw there was going to be trouble with movement control. For me the preferred method was using the arrow keys and mouse. When the fighting commences you'll have enough problems without having to worry about moving around as well. Even this combination became a study in patience, since you need to use the mouse to turn left and right, while controlling actual movement with the arrow keys. If you want the character to walk, you'll need to hold down the shift key as well, since the default is run mode. At the same time your mouse is also the camera angle view point which means looking at the sky or ground a lot, as you're unable to lock the view in one position.

Another problem cropped up, since Joan of Arc's default movement is running, you'll always end up having to wait for the rest of the army to catch up. At times I needed to back track and pick up infantry that strayed from her zone of control. Or, I would be soloing against the English army until the troops stumbled into view to help out. Troop pathing wasn't the best with individuals hanging up on the vegetation or running off to hunt down the stray foe. At one point in the game I had to reload a previous save because my soldiers would not leave a stairwell, preventing me from continuing on with the mission. Combat is a big sticking point until you get to mission five where you're finally allowed to use RTS mode. Until then, it's first person over the shoulder combat. For me this was the deciding factor on whether I intended to play this game long term. When in this mode, you have to use the mouse to also fight, since different combinations are clicked using the buttons. You can use the keyboard as well, but it becomes distracting when having a mix of combat and movement.

Combat is reminiscent of an arcade game that used combinations to give you different styles. After awhile I just mashed the left mouse button as the action would get so heavy at times that trying out different styles got confusing. This also extended to being on a horse, since it moved faster then the infantry I would sweep past requiring me to turn around. In most cases I got hung up on a piece of terrain and spent precious moments extracting myself. Eventually I decided to fight on foot as the maneuver problems on horseback had me pounding the table and uttering nasty statements. Add to this the camera control situation, and you have one big recipe for disaster.

As I played missions one through five, I came to the conclusion that Joan of Arc had to be a superwoman in this game, if not in real life. The first mission begins with you at level one with no troops and unable to purchase any until you start mission five. This realization set in midway through mission four when I only had two men at arms left, and needed to capture five well defended towns. I'm sure you've heard the saying, "save and save often." because you'll need it!

Compounding this problem of retaining your army for the first four missions was keeping health and energy at nominal levels for your generals and troops. This is provided by buying food which you have to divide amongst everyone. The funny part is that a loaf of bread would cost one hundred gold, or buying dried fish would be two hundred gold, etc. The food turned out to be one huge money sink with arrows coming in a close second. Believe me when I say you'll need lots of food to keep everyone healthy enough to get to mission five.

Problem two was stacking of what you bought. When buying your supplies from a vendor you'll notice that the food is stacked, but the same can't be said for your packs and the troop inventory. This caused problems with carrying essential items or booty dropped from the endless combat you'll experience.

I could go on and on, picking apart everything that I disliked, and would end up writing a couple of additional columns. Because of all these areas and more that should have been thought out better, it ended up leaving me cold to continue any further toward completion and therefore I never even experienced the RTS portion of the game. For all those looking for a challenge, good luck, and hope you have more staying power then I did. For me this will be another game that sits on a shelf gathering dust I'm sorry to say.