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So I've switched. No, that's not about butter. It's about a french game. I'm a francophone, I play french games. French games have a hard time getting published. American games are a lot more regular. So I've tried to get from the french In Nomine to the american In Nomine. At least I tried. I didn't.

If there's one thing worth the time reading in SJ games' version, it's the intro story,A Bright/Dark dream. Good pace, good story, a Hell of an intro. But I'll have to say it kinds of stops getting better.

As a whole, the system and the description of the setting are good enough. God VS Satan, Angels VS Demons, Classical music VS HardCore. Everywhere nested in the game's setting is the idea of harmony, of symphony, in which a good game master could sink his players to make them feel "an important part of the universe". A good idea, cleverly supported by the system (itself inspired by the french book, but correcting a lot of inconsistencies).

Playing an important member of the Cast in In Nomine is similar to those Sim games: you get to feel the effect of your actions, but still have the power to DO them, to stick that Hospital in the middle of that darned commercial zone. At that, a nice overview is provided, making sure both the players and the GM will feel at ease playing with forces supposed to be out of their comprehension.

The sin is in the "spicyness". My main problem with the game is one of blandness. Characters could be seen as "generic angels" and "typical demons", with little difference made between them system-wise. Almost generic Songs (powers), types of angels/demons a little too similar. It lacks the punch of social interactions between Angels/Demons and their superiors, of ideological shock in the midst of God's armies. In short, it could just as much be a card game.

Very appealing graphics, in a interesting style happily setting apart from usual "gothic" representations of the genre. A nicely bound book, too.

I doubt the long-term interest in such a game, mostly because of its lack of personality, but due in part too to some indecision of the creator not to get involved in one part of the game over any other. You get a really uniformly mixed-up melange.