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Death Jr - Devil May Crawl

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Something to Slice With: Check

Two Guns to Shoot With: Check

Orbs from fallen enemies: Check

Honestly tho its not too horrible so far. In terms of story and objectives it has that Spyro feel to it. Im still not used to PSP Analog control. The nubs a bit sensitive and im so used to the PS2 analog. Plus im still playing my PS2 these days so switching back and forth makes it harder.

The guns auto aim which is THANK GOD FOR THAT since I cant aim for shit with my poor analog skills. His Scythe attacks have a huge radius so when I use em I dont have to worry about aiming so much.

The voice work is good in the cutscenes which makes me mad that they didnt use it in game. Instead i get blocks of text that obscure my view. CANT SEE SHIIT! Enemies are sorta meh so far too. Tho fighting giant gorillas in the suburbs does have a strange appeal.
 
The visuals are nice, but it sorta feels like the art coulda been used better. Im getting used to the combat now. Can pull off some tricks. The only thing that bothers me is I cant seem to turn around fast. I can center the camera, but turning around fast. hrm. Might have to resort to the instruction book. Its good clean platforming fun, and a nice alternative to the same medevil ive played twice before.
 
I knew this game would be one to ignore from the first moment I saw it. The scores aren't bad, but the hype leading up to the release ("HOLY CRAP AN ORIGINAL PLATFORMER ON PSP THANK YOU SONY GODS FOR MAKING THIS ULTIMATE PORTABLE PLATFORM OF WONDERMENT") virtually guarenteed a final product that wouldn't live up to the promise.

6.5 from Gamespot.
6.0 from 1up.
7.0 from IGN.

2.5 from Gamepro.



When Gamepro doesn't give a generic mascot platformer a glowing review, you know the game isn't worth your time.
 
The whole Sleepy Hollow motif REALLY doesn't do it for me. Shit like Medievil, Ghosts 'n' Goblins, Castlevania, and the like have to be really fucking good for me to even care about their existence. Regardless of genre, I just find the art atrociously redundant and uninteresting.

When I first saw Death Jr. last year, I was convinced I'd never want to own a PSP, just because that was the game everyone was pointing to as awesome. It seriously looked like a crappy N64 port. Still does.

Hope it flops so badly that game developers don't associate its failure with being a new IP, but rather it's lameness.
 
Its not bad. After getting through the first 4 levels ive become used to the controls for jumping and the various tricks you can do with the Scythe. The combat IS pretty fast paced and can get pretty intense for periods of time. The game is also fairly generous with health powerups. Havnt been in a big pinch from health level yet.

The combat controls are umm, sorta sloppyish. Luckily the auto aim for your guns is pretty big, but still lining up shots is a pain since you cant tell when things are in range and the auto aim will lock. Also running around with guns is an exercise in argh camera. My usually approach these days is I charge the enemy head on with guns to soften them up then unleash teh scythe. I DID get a shotgun which rocks.

Like I was saying in IRC, the combat is like Devil May Cry minus any sense of control. The scythe swipes have such a radius you turn into a living weed wacker the instant the button is pressed so mashing with the analog stick towards your opponent is a good bet. It really just comes down to knowing when to attack, not so much how you attack.

Also with enough widgets you can buy scythe moves and crap like that. Again, very devil may cryish. Its like a childrens devil may cry + spyro's collecting shit and storytelling.

Also I have NO FUCKING CLUE why they couldnt have used VA for the in game meetings. The text windows are just lazy.

From what it looks like, yes, a mediocre/average title. However, compared to your other options on PSP right now, its your best bet for some fairly solid platform/action. Even IF its a little tired.

Edit: Also, I want to mention the color pallete could have been better, its hard to tell things apart in certain areas just cause the game lends itself to the GOTH RAINBOW of colors.
 
MrAngryFace said:
GOTH RAINBOW of colors.

Not the most eloquent expression I've ever heard, but it does accurately describe exactly what I hate about "goth games." It's like they're refusing to dig themselves out of the ugly muddy, indistinguishable graphics of the N64 days.
 
Juice said:
Not the most eloquent expression I've ever heard, but it does accurately describe exactly what I hate about "goth games." It's like they're refusing to dig themselves out of the ugly muddy, indistinguishable graphics of the N64 days.
:O
 
I'm almost at the end of the game and i'm still hovering around a 6.5 to 7 on the game. It's at least worth a rental. I actually love the art, I guess it's a personal thing of if you are a fan of Tim Burton/Gothic art or not. I can do without VA if it means lower loading or disc accessing and really these are portable games and should be designed around that thought first. I think the biggest flaw of the game has to be the camera/locking and randomness of button activity.

Your enjoyment of the overall game can drop alot when you are standing on a moving platform over lava with bats all over attacking you and you cannot face them to lock on and the time it takes to manually aim you will be tore apart by them. So you are trying to shoot and recharge your shield but unfortunatley your shield button is also mapped to your dodge button so you end up rolling into the lava and dying. Or you try jumping so the goddamn lock feature can actually lock on to the bats but instead of jumping straight up he decides to jump face first in the lava. Or you are trying to right face yourself but for some reason he just won't decide to turn around and instead walks straight backwards, yes, into the lava.

I only run into these frustrating moments maybe twice in a play session but getting to the end here where the enemies are powerful and I can run through all of my continues in one of these areas is overtly frustrating. The really aggraviting part for me is I think they knew this problem and instead of trying to fix it they just peppered health icons all through the levels. You can literally count on a health icon around every corner, it's just trying to get off the one damn platform to get to it thats the bitch. Oh and the goddamn enemies that shot lazer beams that can see you and hit you through platforms over your head but you can't see them. And the lock on won't work unless the enemy is directly in front of you, so now you have to switch to manual aim. And lining up and aiming takes forever so you will probably die. So overall if they would have fixed the camera and locking problems this game more then likely would not have been panned as much as it has and would have been a rather enjoyable game. Instead everytime I put it down now it's usually from being frustrated or disgusted from one of these aforementioned scenarios.
 
Yeah the camera is for certain the worst of it. Im having problems with the camera I usually have in games with pre-rendered environments which I find deliciously hilarious since its free roaming.
 
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