Post by Bytor on Feb 7, 2012 15:23:29 GMT -5
-Visuals- 9.4/10
The game is a stunning ephemeral feast. Everything has a flowing feel to it and it certainly has plenty of eye candy. Now not everyone will like or appreciate the look and feel of the game, and I admit that occasionally I felt that the desire to esthetic beauty certainly took a back seat to some of the gameplay and mechanics of the game, however, I still feel it is simply a gorgeous masterpiece of a game to look at and interact with. The character models, especially the enemies are nicely done, although there are only a few models and the other NPC's you meet look nice as well, although they are certainly rendered in a very "spiritual" graphical style. The true shining star in the visuals is the backgrounds and the backgrounds of the background. The game does a great job of not only being 3D representative but even gives you a feel that things are overlaid over each other, not actually connecting physically but visually able to be perceived, almost as if different dimensions are occupying the same area and you are able to perceive them without actually being able to interact with them, a very visceral appearance if you will.. Now the very thing that makes the game so nice to look at also cause some inhibitions in gameplay. Simply put often it is hard to judge distances and placement in objects in relation to each other. It makes some of the platforming much more difficult than it need be. Still, overall it is a gorgeous game.
-Sound- 8.8/10
The voice acting is really well done. Just the right hint of reverence with plenty of familiarity, and why not after all we are dealing with immortal being here. regardless of their sanctimony or evil after a millennium or two they have to become very familiar with each other, lol. The musical score is where the game truly shines though. The music is majestic and sweeping and manages to sound like religious tomes without coming across as to choral or anthem like. But as good as it is what is even more important is that it fits the look, feel and ambiance of the game pretty much perfectly, simply very, very well done!
-Gameplay- 7.5/10
Repetitive and frustrating has to be the two words which best describe the gameplay. The battle system is unique in a certain way and somewhat entertaining but it certainly gets a tad repetitious, to say the least and honestly it gets a tad annoying as I felt that often normal battles were for whatever reason much, much harder than they needed to be. Simple story, the game is in essence a hack-n-slash but it does add a twist. Weaken the enemy and you can steal it's weapon, and certain weapons work better against certain enemies than others. Unfortunately often while attempting to accomplish this relatively easy task you will find yourself getting the shit kicked out of you, which is, to say the least, somewhat annoying. Once you get the right weapon the battle is, however, typically a cake walk. The boss battles are similar to many games in the same genre, figure out the weakness and it's really not too difficult. I actually found the boss battles to seriously be relatively easier than some of the normal battles, once again discover the weakness (which is actually represented by a color ring) and the battle is simply a dodge and attack when possible type of battle, in other words not really that difficult, somewhat challenging yes, but not that hard. The other aspect of the gameplay is the platforming. this ranges from silly and annoying to really unique. I will opt, slightly, for the unique. While it can be, due to the angles and camera views, EXTREMELY frustrating, it is still in my opinion for the most part very unique and a whole lot of, for the most part, simplistic, yet intriguing fun. Unfortunately the camera angles will often drive you freaking crazy, the good thing is you pretty much can try and try and try gain, lol. It's a shame, this could have been a really innovative system to a really unique story but it's feels as f for the most part this aspect of the game was simply ignored and utilized in the most boring and unobtrusive way possible.
-Story- 7.4/10
Hmmm, let's see....and I admit, I cheated, I had to look up some of this info, and frankly, that is a huge problem, but more on that in a bit. The story is loosely based on an old Jewish text entitled the Book of Enoch. The story is based on the fall of the Watchers (who were angels at one point in time). God decides to eliminate the Watchers by causing the flood. But in order to not have mankind destroyed along with the Watchers Enoch is sent to destroy them and save mankind. The story is certainly a high brow intellectual conceptual story full of to be honest a lot of confusion, lol. I think I would have absolutely loved the story if it wasn't so freaking vague. I simply seldom knew exactly what was going on and I somewhat feel the game assumes you know the story...which I knew vaguely at best before playing the game, and to be honest my knowledge concerning Enoch isn't that much more now than before I started playing the game, a shame as I love theological stories.
-Overall- 8.0/10
It simply fails...assuming you go into it expecting what it should be, an epic game. It has all the ingredients, great back backdrop for an epic story, awesome idea for a battle system that is seriously under utilized and worst of all uneven gameplay....as I am so fond of saying...a shame. having said all of that it IS a fairly short game (10 hrs or so) so ya won't waste too much time, and while I am upset as to what it could have been it's still not horrible.