Lionheart: Legacy of the Crusader

Lionheart: Legacy of the Crusader is a 2003 Action RPG by Interplay/Reflexive Entertainment set in Renaissance Europe with magic. Conflict ensues between the Inquisition and the Wielders, who disagree on magic and each other's control of the region. The player character, a newly-freed slave, sets out to ally with one of the factions and chart their own destiny, all against the looming backdrop of a massive war between Spain and England...

Uses the SPECIAL stat allocation system with an in-depth faction system, relatively open world, and plenty of stuff to slash, club, spear, shoot and zap.

Notable for an advanced case of Executive Meddling: for the first hour or two of gameplay, it's an entertaining RPG with branching plotlines, moral decisions, lots of factions to align with, interesting NPCs and altered history to explore. Then they ran out of time, and the rest of the game is just maps filled with monsters for you to slog through endlessly.

Is now available on Good Old Games here: http://www.gog.com/en/gamecard/lionheart_legacy_of_the_crusader


 * Anachronism Stew: The ages (and locations) of several historical figures were fudged to get them into the game.
 * Guide Dang It: Didn't talk to Nostradamus and listen to every conversation path midway through the game? No Golden Ending for you!
 * Harder Than Hard: The last third of the game for melee characters. Hordes of high-level enemies will swarm you all at once, and you'll die in seconds unless you take advantage of certain exploits (like luring one or two enemies from a pack and dispatching them far away or entering and exiting a floor to heal). Likewise, the final dungeon combines this and what can be described as "hell runs" where the player is forced to run through gauntlets of inaccessible assassins in elevated positions raining arrows down upon them alongside acid that instantly kills the player if touched.
 * The Hashshashin: They appear as villains.
 * The Magic Comes Back: About ten thousand years ago a spell was cast to eliminate all magic and fantastic beasts. Then, during the crusades of Richard the Lionhearted, a counterspell was cast after the execution of 3000 Arab prisoners, releasing all manner of nasties into the world.
 * Our Goblins Are Wickeder: Here they're cannibal samurai who take pride in terrible poetry.