A Dungeon Crawl at Full Sprint

Playing Nox is like dashing through an obstacle course coated in the best of high fantasy trappings. You'll test your mettle against devious traps, exploding fireballs, hordes of wizards and skeletons galore in this isometric action game. Its strongest feature is the solid mouse and hotkey gameplay that still holds up 10 years after Nox's retail release. While Nox may be light on story and tease you with its RPG-like appearance, a fast-paced momentum and filled with fun gameplay will propel you to the end of the game's three unique campaigns.

For the longest time Nox has been mislabeled as a Diablo clone. However, it's core design is completely different than Blizzard's hack and slash title. The Diablo series' mainstay has always been: character progression, randomized dungeons and the constant search for better loot. Nox takes a much different approach. Its dungeons are hand-crafted, finely tuned levels filled with devious traps. As you weave Jack through spinning spike pillars the game even becomes more reminiscent of a platformer minus the verticality. And while Nox might appear to have loot, these items function similarly to snagging some proximity grenades in Bioshock 2 or grabbing an armor pack in Doom 3. You're not worried about stat distribution so much as having a tool to get the job done. The three character classes (Warrior, Conjurer, and Wizard) have their own unique abilities but you won't be spending experience points or studying skill trees. Each spell and ability is handed out or available for purchase at predetermined points in the game similar to a title like Darksiders although they'll be strictly used as implements of combat and not for puzzle solving.

Each of the three classes has its own unique campaign, so while Jack might begin his warrior adventure running the gauntlet at lava-riddled Dun Mir. Were Jack to choose the Conjurer campaign he'd first start in a series of wilderness caverns until he came upon the village of Brin. While each class has a few unique stages, the gameplay designers were able to smartly recycle some of their level content by introducing the maps in different story contexts, with vastly different enemy placement, and simply by the strength and uniqueness of each characters' skill set. For instance, as a Conjurer fighting your way up the Tower of Illusion you'll test your wits against devilish fire imps that have invaded each floor. While in the Warrior's story the Wizards still inhabit the tower and have laid numerous traps and have no qualms about fleeing to regroup or simply teleporting away.

I had the most fun with the Conjurer class who can summon beasts to his aide simply because I felt I had more options thanks to his numerous spells and bow and arrow. The Warrior plays like your more typical click-fest but has fun abilities such as a harpoon that can drag a necromancer closer for a melee stab. It is extremely satisfying to smash a Wizard to instant death with his battle charge, however, if you miss you'll be stunned when you smack the wall. I watched my girlfriend play as the Wizard (an RPG class that I typically loathe) as she laid lightning traps and ran from undead warriors, halting on occasion to fire the quick fireball. The Wizard class definitely will test your shooter skills as you won't be able to stand toe-to-toe with any of the game's stronger enemies.

Nox revels in its linearity, constantly pushing you forward down the next cave or through the next crypt. In fact the game, really loses its way when it attempts some typical rpg fetch quests like in Baldur's Gate. You'll be wandering around unsure of where the jail is actually located or where to find the mayor to progress the game forward. Luckily these moments are sparse but they do stand out. Typically in Nox you'll always be moving forward. If you're backtracking to town to sell stuff, you're playing the game wrong. From my experience, Nox's adventure is finely tuned to keep the player pushing forward to her next objective, kill, or new ability. While sometimes I felt my resources to be strained I felt extremely satisfied to have completed a stage with all of my armor destroyed and be left in my t-shirt and jeans.

Action games aren't celebrated for their storylines but Nox's serviceable tale features an unlikely hero who must battle a rising evil that can't be bested even the strongest of the land's heroes. As Jack, you'll see wizards and warriors slain by Hecubah and her necromancers and on more than one occasion she'll oddly let you survive and walk away with no explanation. But who cares, the game is about fun fantasy action and the story's backdrop works just fine even if it isn't Planescape: Torment. Its character and level art are on par with the Infinity Engine games and better in some spots. The spiders have great death animations and there's nothing better than seeing your character get zapped out of existence by a purple death beam. The gameworld features numerous objects that scatter the ground such as rocks, benches, apples, and barrels that can all be pushed and jostled about by your character's movements or even the splash damage of a fireball. These small details add a real weight to the world and your interactions in it.

Nox is a special action title that unfortunately was overlooked by many. Once you're in its world its hard not to yearn to smash open walls for hidden caves or want to push onwards through the next set of dungeon traps. Its action is fast and responsive and you'll never feel cheated by any of the gameplay mechanics. While in some sections you might be dying quite often, you'll just be challenged to approach the encounter with a different tactic to find success. Its a testament to the game's overall design that it is still as playable today in 2010 as it was when first released. Unlike games like Fallout 2 which have since aged horribly with clunky interfaces and gameplay. I would highly recommend Nox to anyone that wants to jolt through bear caves, ogre huts, and even wander into the lair of the weirdling. Just watch out for those traps and fire imps. Oh, and you won't be needing your twenty-sided die. It'll just get in the way.