In Requital, the player can follow the story of Wolfhound, last member of the Venn clan. His family and other clan members have been slain by a murderous butcher and his horde when he was a child. Wolfhound, however, survived the massacre and was thrown into slavery, with just a memory of a man with a wolf tattooed on his hand killing his parents. When Wolfhound finally escapes slavery as a grown-up man, his mind is set on revenge and he starts the search for the mysterious butcher and the dark cult behind all this. Little does he know that this search shall span the whole continent and will finally see him face the dark goddess Morana, protectress of the cult, who was awoken by his enemies.
Requital is a classic role-playing game, set in a medieval world of sword and sorcery, with focus on exploration and battling. The full 3D engine offers third person gameplay that is freely zoom- and rotatable. The player character can’t be controlled directly, instead the player has to click on any target he wants to move to / attack / speak / collect. Once a battle has started, every combatant executes his moves automatically, with speed and strength depending on his statistics, until another command is given or one side goes down. Wolfhound can be accompanied by NPC’s who will, generally, imitate the player’s behavior. There can be allied troops, too, who will fight the enemy completely autonomous. This allows for some larger scale battles later in the game where dozens of fighters can be involved. The game can be paused at any time, including during all the cut scenes which are shown using the game’s engine, so there’s no rendered movies.
As Wolfhound is the only playable character of the game, there’s only very limited character generation. The player gets to choose between five levels of difficulty and, therefore, can spend 24 (very easy) down to 0 (very hard) points on the four basic attributes (see below). The further character customizing can be done in three different ways:
First is adjusting the four basic attributes of Wolfhound at level-up, namely strength, endurance, speed, and dexterity. This raises the derived statistics like hit points and carry weight, and gives access to better items. Second is using the three different battle skills offered (unarmed, melee, and distance combat) which not only makes Wolfhound hit harder and faster, but unlocks different special moves and character feats over time. As Wolfhound is not a spell caster, this moves and feats can be seen as a replacement for magic spells. Some enemies can cast real spells, though. The third and final way of character customizing is collecting all kinds of useful weaponry and items that can boost different statistics, either permanent or for a limited time during battle.
Last, but not least, Requital is probably the only game where the main character has a wounded bat on his shoulder all the time. This bat can even be healed as the story unfolds, and is flying above Wolfhound’s shoulder from this point forward till the end.
