The moment I started this game I knew that I hated it. I felt such dismay that I doubted that I should even continue watching the opening cinematic. I recognised the art from The Last Guardian, a game that I have nightmares of to this day.
If you owned a PS2 console, this is kind of a holy grail, and I’ve heard from people that Bluepoint did a really great job in their restoration. However I’ve been here before, playing old games that people have intimate feelings for and me not understanding a squat.
When I try to step out of my bad experience with The Last Guardian and focus on this game, I find that it is not too bad. It’s a typical boss rush game, where bosses is all there is. These are puzzle bosses where you need to figure out their weak spots and trick them into exposing it. That is all well. I like that part of this game.
What I don’t like is the aesthetics which is exactly the same as The Last Guardian. Maybe they’re going for this is the same world, but it all seems lazy to me. Another thing it has in common with The Last Guardian is the horrible controls, where your input is merely suggestions to the player character. He will do mostly what he wants ignoring your controls. Climbing, holding on, jumping all feels like throwing a rag doll around. It is horrible.
I hate the horseback riding, and combining horseback riding with bow and arrow is just horrible gameplay. You wish you had a few more hands in order to do everything on the controller at the same time.
The graphics is another thing that has impressed others, but its just a lot of empty space. It is nowhere near what this console generation can do. Instead it both looks and feels like a PS2 game with enhanced textures. I think the music and the empty space is supposed to make the world seem melancholic. I don’t think it works very well.
I hated the story. It was obvious from the get go that you were the one doing evil deeds for the voice in the sky. There were no surprises, no twists or anything. The story was just executing on its base premise. That is just bad or lazy writing.
I am very much coloured by my hate for The Last Guardian and I believe that if I played this game first, I would feel a lot different about both games. I would’ve liked this game more, and that would’ve eased me into all the bad parts of TLG. Maybe I would even have liked that game, who knows.
One thing is for certain. I will avoid this game studio/director in the future.
I rate this game as OKAY.
Replay 