FIVE: Guardians of David

After several hours of play and reaching Act 3 I can safely recommend this game to any ARPG Fans.
The game seemed a bit rough around the edges starting out, but after getting to Act 3 where you have access to the "World Map" and access to the Market where you can go and donate items and other things, the game has grown on me and I think I may be addicted somewhat.
Do not pay attention to other reviewers stating that enemies do not drop loot, because they most certrainly do, and lots of it. The problem is the game starts you out facing enemies that do not drop loot. It seems in Five the enemies that drop loot most of the time are what you might call "Elites". These are enemies that have at least 1 Star under their health bar. Some enemies will have more than one star indicating they are higher rank and they will drop more and better loot.
Honestly Five has more in common with Marvel Heroes Online than any thing else I can think of. Five is more about skills much like MHO. Also some have complained that they don't get to put points into their individual stats on level up, which is true, but Five is more about farming loot that has the stat bonuses you want and fine tuning your character that way, which honestly has more impact than dropping 5 points into various stats each level up.
I highly encourage others to play through to Act 3 and possibly a little further before posting your review. Once you have access to Zion things get much more interesting, plus you can use the map to go back and play previous chapters and even farm bosses.
In fact I just finished replaying the chapter where you fight Goliath and got myself a brand spankin' new Goliath Spear that has different stats than the first one I got, plus the stats are better as in Five when loot drops it drops around your level, enemies also seem to get buffed when you go back through area's as well, which keeps things a little more challenging.
I have really enjoyed the comic book cut scenes and voice overs as well. Very good and informative stuff.
All the Biblical and Historical information the game gives you along the way comes in handy when you get access to Zion as there is a Quiz Podeum thing where it tests your knowledge through the different chapters of the game and then you are granted loot based on how well you did. It is not a new thing, but it is nice to see it in the game.
Also if there are features you want to see added be sure to post in the forums as Chris will usually respond and pass suggestions on to the Dev Team.
All in all, after several hours of play I would give Five a solid 7.5/10. It's a good ARPG for the money and is better than some of the other Diablo clones on Steam. There are still some improvements and features that could be added and I hope the Dev's will listen to fans and add those features in the future.

Yes, Yes this is an ARPG based on the Bible. I say "based" as its clear when they invent a character or place. It doesn't preach, and doesn't require you to know the bible to enjoy this.
But Bible aside this game doesn't suffer for its Bible trappings. I'm a sucker for games that use any source material well and moreso when they enrich your own knowlage or lack thereof the materal in the game. Crusader Kings II has their wikipedia links when they use actual people and Five Guardians of David does as well by having Caches hidden throught the level to collect and with it comes a bit of directors commentary as to where you are sits in the bible or where they chose to embellish, even has the passage they took it from.
So now that I have said that the Bible setting of the game doesn't interfere with the game by being "preachy" I have slain that 500 pound gorrila and can move on to the game itself.
Its an action rpg with the standards of a action bar that fills as you level up and a equipment that you earn to increase your stats with. Being paired up with other controlable npcs allows for you to have choices in how you want to fight such as be melee or ranged. It also helps the story along as your charcter doesnt talk alound to himself for exposition. This is the Bible so yes there is plenty of bossfights and they come with decent set pieces and a solid challenge. David can get stumped by Goliath.
Productionwise the game's artists and programmers must be commended for making a setting aproprate to the era. Good sound design and suprising voice work helps move a simple story. The music sets the mood and the games cinematics do a good job of setting the plot and location well.
My only complaints so far is the "comic book cutscenes" could be handled better and be a better resolution. And AI partners love to ignore a beating you are taking if its more than 5 feet away, There is a few crashes when I mess with the shadow settings as well.
Overall if you want a fun arpg, moreso one thats set in the Bible, this stands alone but it stands strong.

Pros:
Story - Journey of King David’s mighty men and their many feats is action-packed and intriguing.
Comic cut scenes - Worth the price of the game alone. I looked forward to these as they brought much life to the story.
Voice overs - Will read all the text to you. Added character and personality to the cut scenes.
Information Caches - Shed light on where the developers took creative license in writing the story but also give the Biblical references used for the story.
End of Act quizzes in Zion - These come available after Act 2 and provide some good loot if you get all the questions right.
Boss fights - Varied and required some thought/strategy to overcome.
Game world - I found it beautiful and fun to explore.
Cons:
Targeting - I often lost track of where the pointer was on screen as it blends in easily. This made controlling the attacking functions awkward as the pointer location is how/where you direct attacks and movement. This could be improved if a higher visibility pointer was added. Even better would be a targeting system like pressing “Tab” to select the nearest enemy. I ended up preferring to spam Area of Effect attacks and avoided many of the precision attack abilities because of the inaccuracy of trying to find and hover the mouse pointer over targets before it was too late.
Pathing - I found myself often trying to get the characters around or unstuck in many areas. A workaround I learned that made this bearable was switching between characters until I found one that could get around the stuck area.
Neutral:
Gameplay ended up being rather easy and I really wasn’t challenged to come up with much of a strategy other than hit the auto equip offensive loot in inventory and spam AoE attacks. I managed to receive all Steam achievements just by completing the game.
Other thoughts:
If you pick this game up I recommend pressing on through at least Act 3 which is when you get to Zion your home base. Much more of the game opens up from here. Such as being able to give donations to unlock perks like added inventory slots for loot, ability to replay/farm previous missions, receive blessing’s that give stat boosts.
Also I played this game with my Steam controller and I was pretty happy with the experience. I have uploaded my configuration “Favorite Five: Guardians of David config” and recommend using it if you have a Steam controller.
Edited: Added line breaks and bold formatting to list items also added another item to Pros list.

In the Biblical Sense!
Take away the Biblical backstory and you have a solid, isometric ARPG from first-time developer, Kingdom Games, that is both engaging and provides innovative mechanics to a familiar genre. Then put the Biblical stuff back in and you’re given something else, something more—historicity and a brave exploration in meshing religion with gaming.
It’s not that story-driven video games lack religion, just not real-world ones. Taking an existing religion and making a game based on one of its more iconic heroes (in this case David, of “David & Goliath” fame), is begging the overly-critical gaming community to rip your game apart.
However, the game is solid. The level design and backgrounds are lush and gorgeous. The pacing is consistent. The loot and risk-reward system are passable. The music is excellent. If a gamer, unfamiliar with any modern religion, was handed a copy of Grim Dawn and Five Guardians, she would be hard-pressed to select the better game since both have excellent features and limited flaws.
Beyond the objective view, the game should be praised for the way it does handle religion, not in spite of it. There’s never a moment where it feels preachy. It’s educational. The outfits, weapons, and landscapes are historical. Where magic is used in fantasy games, Five Guardians uses miracles. Heroism is portrayed by selfless sacrifice rather than a common rags-to-riches motif. All actual Bible verses are confined to caches, like developer’s notes, scattered throughout the game, but remain separate from the story and gameplay. In other words, the game lets the player choose how much religion they’re exposed to.
The bottom line is, the game is fun. It’s well worth the price point and no one is trying to convert you. Except me…because I think you should play it.

It's really good to see an action RPG that doesn't just fall back to the usual fantasy story tropes. Even the 'steampunk' stories love to throw the old magic and weird creatures into it. Yeah that stuff is fine, but it's also a cliche and I've long thought how cool it would be to have an action RPG where you're just normal guys fighting normal enemies. So yeah I'm sure there are others out there, but this one does a good job and I'm glad I found it.
Is it a religious story? Yeah, but if you already play games with ancient magical greek gods and creatures, you could treat this the same and probably get away without being converted. It's the story of the Jewish King David, told from the viewpoint of his five 'mighty' men who were like the 'agents of SHIELD' of the Bible I guess? David got a whole lot written about him, but these guys just get a few mentions for some pretty badass things they did. Like David killed goliath, here's a whole chapter, oh and by the way, here's line about how this other dude killed 2 giants by himself. So yeah I'm sure they're glad 4000 years later that they're finally getting the recognition they deserve.
People will compare it to Diablo, but putting into perspective the size of the team and the budget, this was pretty well done. I know for a lot of people the religious aspect will either penalize or inflate their opinion of the game but putting that aside and judging it as a game it is still a decent little action RPG. The voice acting is also good and the loot system has a few interesting twists.
I enjoyed playing the game, and I wish there could be more RPGs with historical settings.

Coming from a relatively non religious background, I was expecting a rather to the script retelling of the bible. Instead, I have been pleasantly surprised by the depth and scope of the story provided. Not only has it kept me interested, but by sprinkling in excerpts from the Bible, the game provides background to the story unfolding before you.
Gameplay wise it plays very much like Diablo/PoE. FIVE changes this up a bit however by providing you with a choice of characters that stay grouped with you, allowing the player to switch between them at will. This lets you change your playstyle up to suit the situation, whether it be ranged or close quarter combat.
Lastly, chapters are punctuated with some fantastic artwork in a comic book style that moves the story along at a great pace.
Highlight so far:
-The battle between David and Goliath.
-Art Work
-Plays Smoothly, very few dramas with bugs so far.
Negatives:
-Lack of mob variety early on, wolves, wolves and more wolves.
-Pacing of abilities gained
-The voice acting is a mixed bag, some is great it but can be quite jarring to hear a thick accent in conversation with an american one.
Verdict: Will continue playing, enjoying the story and the familiar gameplay as a Diablo fan. Good value for money buy if you're looking for a game thats easy to get into and you enjoy the hack/slash genre.

Great Hack n Slash game, had a few issues they should have already resolved such as some pathfinding and so forth. Game is not overbearing, interesting settings (yes i'ts a iblican historical setting but there is no indoctrinization or actual anti-anything or offensive sermonizing as one has come to expect form the religious stuff these days. it's just the setting and a bit of historical application, nothing more). Game is smooth and graphically nice and I notcied no bugs of any relevance so far, gameplay is the typical diabloe style and should be fun if you are into that genre. Certainly not a bad addition to your library. Having bought their arena style offshoot Cannan a while back and enjoyed it, this too ihas been fun and certainly not a bad buy.