Tyris herself looks fine, as do most of the main and auxiliary characters, but their interactions with one another are laughable and inconsistent. While the game may look acceptable in screenshots, once this medieval world starts moving things fall apart fast. Using them in combat is ill-advised as you’ll be easily knocked off and attacked with them often, making this more Beast Avoider than Beast Rider. While there’s a good variety of them to hop onboard, none are particularly useful as they die quickly. The game’s namesake – the beasties – are also the second largest disappointment (after the curious lack of any multiplayer), as they control like dump trucks and are less fun to control. Rather than destroying enemies and viscerally blowing them away, your primary use of magic here will be to light torches and solve ridiculous puzzles – offering almost as much excitement and thrill of flipping on a light switch. None of that made its way to Beast Rider’s spells, which barely register onscreen and are nearly unmanageable. When magic was cast in the original games, a mini-cinema took over the screen to show just how effective the spells were (in the case of Revenge of Death Adder, some pretty gnarly face-peeling, plague-inducing nastiness). Its times like this when a few well-placed knocks on the noggin and flinging a few bodies into the abyss is sorely missed, and I’m sure these scraps will please absolutely no one, apart from sadists looking for a cheap thrill. So it’s back to mindless hacking and slashing, and given the poor enemy-collision and reaction animations proves nearly as frustrating. Having no lock-on system to help dish out barbarian justice makes matters worse, but its par for the course in a game so disinterested in making gameplay enjoyable. Defensive attacks are color-coded to make them easier to react to, but often you’ll be so overwhelmed by enemy attackers – who’ll attack with both colors – the results are practically useless.
The attempt to create a working combo system fails, with unusable parries and even less reliable evasive maneuvers.
Golden axe beast rider magic spells series#
Replacing the original’s straightforward mechanics is a series of complicated, poorly implemented button presses that erode the simple elegance of the original and replaces it with a spasm of confusion. The more you try wiping it away, the worse it gets – its best to just look around it and hope you can get home safely.Īny good hack ‘n slash adventure lives and dies by its gameplay, and its here that Beast Rider does a good job at creating an entirely frustrating experience. Its too bad that lazy cinemas and sloppy pacing help drive the narrative forward with all the nuance of bird droppings on a freshly washed car window. Replacing the multi-character story arc drama of the original is the solo-quest of Tyris Flare, the Amazonian warrior babe who returns after receiving one heck of a makeover and must quest to rid the world of the evil and insidious Death Adder. Much of what made the original series so enjoyable has been surgically removed from Beast Rider, as vital gameplay elements – simple gameplay and multiplayer – have been castrated from this edition completely, leaving a frustrating mess that never fails to disappoint. Given this developer was also partially responsible for wrecking havoc on another side-scrolling classic (Final Fight) should have set off a few red flags. Now before any of you start thinking these are just the thoughts of a disappointed fanboy, sad that the newest chapter in the franchise isn’t the game he expected (partly true), keep in mind that I’m open minded enough to accept a lesser game of Golden Axe that God of War-type adventures are all the rage these days, and as long as developer Secret Level kept things to the spirit of the original adventures that we’d be in for a good time. Rather than build on this enviable history and reintroduce the series to a new generation of potential fans, it’s likely that Golden Axe: Beast Rider will send them running for the hills – damning any goodwill from the original and probably dooming any chance of getting a new game for another 20 years.
To do so would require I put aside the innovations and achievements of a franchise that two decades on has come to typify the pinnacle of hack ‘slash perfection and was a fundamental pillar in helping transition the company from mere arcade provider to home console competitor. To borrow a well-used phrase from the current US presidential election, I will not begin any discussion about Sega’s return to the Golden Axe franchise without preconditions.
0 kommentar(er)
