Feeling a bit disappointed with this. I suppose I set it up to be more than it could have been, but I feel that it WOULD be as good as I had hoped with a bit more polish. Framerate is crap, game is too segmented to feel like a journey, and it generally feels a bit rough around the edges. Quite a shame, I must admit. That said, after adjusting expectations, I've begun to enjoy it a bit more. It's certainly a strange kind of game and feels wholly different from anything else I've played recently. It may share some basic ideas with God of War but this is no God of War clone.
What is most remarkable is how often they mix it up. There is a ton of variety here both in terms of locales and gameplay elements. You are doing something different nearly every 5 minutes or so. The first chapter, for instance, has you fighting off wolves, engaging in a high speed horse battle, exploring a bog, solving puzzles (both real puzzles and traversal puzzles), platforming/traversing across huge chasms, and fighting something out of Shadow of the Colossus. This takes place all within a rainy village, a bog, a beautiful forest, and an icy lake and that's just the first chapter! It's pretty epic, if you think about it.
The second chapter has, thus far, kept the pace in regards to variation.
There's just enough jank here to somewhat spoil the fun, however. It could have used some more time in the oven or at least a PC version.
GrumpyAlien said:
Just picked up a PS3 copy a minute ago from Gamestop. Also picked up a used Castlevania Curse of Darkness, which I haven't played before.
LOL at the instruction manual. Essentially 3 pages in b&w. :lol
Ohhh, Curse of Darkness was not great back in 2005 and it sure as hell isn't good now. I just tried it again the other day and was quite surprised at just how awful it looked and felt. It's a very dated game. I still can't figure out why, despite the simple ass geometry, they have N64-like fog in front of you throughout the game. At least it's 60 fps.