Highlander: The Last of the MacLeods for the Atari Jaguar CD is not a good game: its controls are oftentimes unpredictable and clunky, its AI is dumber than a sack of rocks, and it lacks any sort of narrative. That being said, Highlander is a game that, if patience and perseverance are invested, will reward the player with a sense of accomplishment. Given that the game works against you in virtually every way, from bad controls to irritating AI, once a puzzle is solved or a group of enemies defeated while receiving zero or minimal damage, the player may feel that he has succeeded usurping the game's deliberate efforts to squander fun and progress.
Highlander is an action-adventure game in the vein of Alone in the Dark or Resident Evil. Movement requires choosing a direction with the D-pad, and then going straight in that direction by pressing up. The game's hero, Quentin MacLeod, can pick up items and interact with only select objects in his environment. Quentin begins the game with his bare hands, upon which it's immediately clear that hit detection is an issue as well as unresponsive commands when Quentin receives damage. Choosing any combat action requires the button to be held down until Quentin completes the action, leaving plenty of time for an enemy to slash away and deal damage.
The game sports an inventory system, but there's no way to manage the items other than going left and right or up and down. The player can use, drop, or keep items found on the adventure, and every time the player dies or loads a save, Quentin is equipped with no items, so your weapon of choice, bare hands, sword, or air blaster, must be equipped every time the game starts. When no weapon is equipped, Quentin can punch, kit, and jump. When the sword is equipped, Quentin can slash and jab in conjunction with the D-pad. The additional buttons on the Jaguar Pro Controller enable the player to back step, block, and turn left or right.
Although this game is based on the supremely lackluster Highlander animated series, sporting a number of cutscenes from the show so as to add a storytelling element, there is virtually no story or dialog in this game outside cutscenes. Aside from clips from the TV show, there are also pre-rendered, animated scenes when a puzzle is solved. The player will have no idea what's going on at any time while exploring campgrounds, canyons, sewers, and a high-tech underground facility are explored. At the outset, when the player receives a sword (a gratifying accomplishment), it is learned that Quentin is the "chosen one" who must rescue his clan from the evil forces of Kortan. And that's it. There is also very little sense of direction in the game, either on where to go or what item is needed to progress, other than to keep moving forward and trying not to die. Speaking of death, the player can save and load at any point in the game. There are no lives, so death means game over.
Like Alone in the Dark, the backgrounds in Highlander are pre-rendered and look decent and at times pretty good. In contrast, the character models are extremely ugly. Quentin is a terrifying, sometimes faceless, triangular creature when viewed up close. The aforementioned pre-rendered cutscenes are also fine, but the visual presentation of Highlander for the Jaguar CD is below average, which is a shame, because the Jaguar CD was able to output relatively good-looking games, like Battlemorph, around the same time.
In addition to an overall poor presentation, sound effects and enemy and player grunts are suitable, but the background music, which loops every 6 seconds, is wholly unremarkable.
So, there's very little good to say about Highlander, but, as mentioned previously, there is a sense of accomplishment progressing through this game, because it's so oppressively challenging and discouraging due to his poor construction. But it's playable and beatable. If one is considering picking this up, one will need to exercise patience, and get used to saving and loading constantly. GameFAQs offers a single FAQ on this game, which may come in handy during the game's most challenging sections. All in all, pick up Highlander to feel good about overcoming its plethora of issues. Accomplishment is the only thing this game can offer, but not everyone will be willing to fight for it.