A Gothic Tale Straight from the Grave.
One hundred years ago, the Battle of Gallowmere took place. Sir Daniel Fortesque led Gallowmere's army against the demon army of Zarok the sorcerer. A cocky Dan ran ahead, and was shot in his left eye with an arrow - a clean kill. He was the first to fall. Zarok's army was defeated, but Zarok fled and went into hiding. There, he concieved a new plan to take over Gallowmere.
One hundred years have passed. Zarok creates a new army by raising the dead all over Gallowmere.
That includes Sir Daniel Fortesque.
Now, in 1363, Sir Dan has been given a second chance to defeat Zarok and to redeem himself for his fatal mistake.
That storyline actually seems more original than some other things I've seen. You're trying to save a kingdom from a sorcerer, but you are undead! That's a new twist, and personally, I love it.
In the game, you can find and use a wide variety of weapons such as a Broad Sword, Warhammer, Axe, and even Chicken Drumsticks to fight through countless zombies and obscure bosses such as stain-glass demons or giant pumpkins. This game gives a humorous take on being dead, and another humorous take on what you face. You might not find yourself laughing out loud from it all, but anyone who plays through this has a good chance of cracking a smile out of it. Killing zombies with all sorts of weapons provides hours of fun.
Graphically, this game rocked. Now, it may be from 1998, but the cutscenes are in beautiful FMV that look especially stunning. It's a bit awkward to see Sir Dan walk in these cutscenes, but then again, he is dead, after all.
Even if there is a wide variety of different spooky creatures to kill, the zombies in the beginning really don't look all that different from each other. There's like, three different zombies for the first number of levels. Fortunately, as you progress, things start to look better. The levels themselves are uniquely made, sometimes providing simplistic puzzles to get through something. A lot of the time it is finding a Rune (pretty much the keys in the game) and placing it in the color-coordinated hand to proceed. Don't worry, there's other types of puzzles to get around. Sir Dan in motion looks really awesome. He sure can move, even though he doesn't have any muscles on him. It's amazing how Zarok's spell makes Sir Dan awesome, isn't it?
All of the music in the game is remarkable! It sounds completely orchestrated! You probably won't find yourself humming any tune from it, because it's so complex, but the music is just wonderful. Audio takes a hit regardless, because you're going to be hearing a lot of zombie moans, swords against rotting flesh, and the occasionall "D'oh!" and "Oof!" when Dan takes a hit.
The game's fun is simply killing zombies left and right with a huge variety of weapons, both melee and ranging weapons. The game itself takes about 8 hours to beat, but if you really want to find all of the game's secrets, make that 13 to 14 hours. Not to mention the hours you'll be spending while killing zombies left and right just for fun.
Controlling Dan is easy, but you might feel a little rushed when running. The left analog stick makes Dan run (and thanks to that stick, it's super-easy to turn and screw up in harder-platforming-type levels such as Pools of the Ancient Dead) If you're not careful, you could end up running into zombies a lot, or even falling into water. Dan can't swim, so put two and two together. A bit into the game, Dan can learn the Daring Dash, which at least puts your shield out if you want to run around like a madman.
This game, in my opinion, was an overlooked gem nearing the PlayStation's end.