Ok so I don't know how good of a "review" I can write for a game that took me 4 hours just to get past the 1st level, but here goes.
I read other reviews before I picked this up, claiming it to be a very difficult game and... well, thats all most of them really seemed to focus on. I consider myself a "skilled" gamer to a medium degree. The kinda guy that can pass games in a rental, sometimes even a day, or weekend.
So I put the game in, loaded it up and gave it my undivided attention for the next several hours.
The story is your generic "oh crap the world is doomed, we need a hero" variety. Apparently your good king type fellow has disturbed powers beyond mortal comprehension and awakened a great evil demon which engulfed the land in a colorless fog.. Come to find later, this event has happened before and destroyed half the world before. Anyways, they need a hero, so ta-da. for 59.99$ and a PS3 you too can be a hero!
The game is set in what I guess would be a fantasy medieval setting. The inclusion of big swords, plate armor, and magic casting kinda give it away. Oh right and the big dragon in the intro movie.
Character Creation: I kind of have a conundrum with this. It's a very powerful tool with all sorts of great ways to change your head shape/facial features/coloration. Then I choose my class and pick "Knight" and all I see at this point is a walking suit of plate armor.
Not sure exactly what to make of the fact that I spent time making my very own special super secret misshapen head just to slap a shiny helmet on so bad guys don't stab me in the face.
At this point I start my game and it puts me in to a tutorial level. I basically violated anyone that came my way. Mindless ghouls of sorts. Thinking to myself that the difficulty seemed over-hyped thus far.
You'll come to notice there are doorways that have fog that you cannot see through, and you have the option of passing through these with hitting the X button. Basically it asks you "are you sure you want to step thru here?"
Well... yeah? it's the only door that this tutorial is offering me at the moment that I haven't been through!
I step through and instantly realize. I. Am. So. Fucked.
There is a giant... thing, in front of me. It can only be described as a cross between a gremlin on steroids, and jabba the hutt with 3 glowy orbs instead of eyes, and some wannabe gargoyle wings.
Oh did I mention he's armed with a cleaver the size of my Hyundai?
I put my shield up in a meager attempt to stop the moving vehicle from splattering me against the brick wall. I was in the middle of frantic negotiations with the video game gods for the infusion of luck I needed to beat him, but then I found myself missing a head, thus, Death #1
Apparently he's beatable if you're insane, and by insane, meaning willing to sit through character creation and run the tutorial over and over for repeated attempts to kill him without getting hit even once. I looked on youtube and watched someone beat him, only to have the Dragon outside personally falcon punch him to death.
Reference
5:25 mark = my experience
= insane person.
So you're not supposed to live ok? No living allowed, you must die, the game insists on it for it's plot. You die and get sent to some hub called the nexus, a bunch of lost souls who need to get back to their bodies n whatnot.
what follows is "the real game"
Where everything wants to kill you, badly.
Of course I'm completely humbled by the fact that this game just violated my face with an axe the size of my car.
The entire premise of the 1st level apparently is to get inside the giant gate that's in front of you. Obviously you can't just walk in the front door. so you wind up clearing thru the towers to each side till you find the switch and get the door open to the 1st boss.
I died a few times, mostly to my own stupidity and lack of control mastery. Falling off the wall to my doom or blowing myself up by stabbing powder kegs (hey it was in my way, don't judge)
I died a few times to some "Indiana Jones meets a giant boulder but was wearing plate armor instead of a fedora" episodes. Actually, that would make a good movie. Ring me up hollywood.
Actually beat the 1st boss without any hassle, 1st boss could be summed up as "The Blob" meets "300" Basically a giant black slime covered in shields with giant spears that get all stabby on you.
Insert clever "This is SPARTAAAAA" reference here? nah.
this 30 minute level took me about 4 hours to clear due to my wonderful knack for getting lost and dying in far off sections of the level that I'd have to back track to to retrieve my precious souls
now i'm in level 1-2 and i've been ultra cautious thus far. Trying to avoid any sneak attacks.
Now in my mind, I'm thinking "oh hey, sneaky stealthy types are usually small and quiet right?"
hold that thought.
The multiplayer aspect of this game is always present, you're going to see blood stains on the ground that you can "touch" (srsly, who the hell would go and touch some strange random blood laying on the ground? who cares, its a game right?) this triggers a replay of the last few seconds of another players life leading to their death. You don't see what killed them, only them.
I see these, I touch them, most of them just seem like the person is really bad at this game and like to do stuff like stab power kegs and walk of ledges....
....
oh yeah.
anyways this particular replay shows some poor soul flying half way across the screen like he just got hit by a car. I start having flashbacks to my tutorial induced death at the hands of jabba the gremlihutt. But I don't see anything, no dudes, no gremlins, no giants.
I took a step forward.
No one expects the spanish inquisition.
No one expects a eleventy billion pound dragon to stomp them on the head either.
Death #9ish?
Yeah so I can't help but laugh really. Knowing someone is going to touch my blood and see me go flying across their screen and then they will also inch forward cautiously to their doom.
I took 3 attempts at the boss of 1-2 before I wrapped up my game session. He basically kills me in one hit, that's all I need to give it a rest.
I have this on a rental but it's clear to me I'm going to have to buy it to get anywhere of note.
I felt like writing about a game, not often that I do that. I thought it was a lot of hype and I was brainwashed in to believing that dying in a game would be fun, but it kinda is. I mean you'll be turning it off in frustration I'm sure but it'll have you thinking about how to overcome that challenge when you aren't playing it.
Another thing is that the level design is amazing. How many games have you played where you rush through the level with little to no resistance, and never see it again, or those open world games where you just go on forever. How well do you have them memorized? The upside of this game being hard and making you learn from your mistakes, is that while you'll be slightly annoyed at having to clear through the level again, you will remember it. Every little detail and art asset that the design team worked on will emblazon it's mark upon your memory. It's a testament to how well designed the levels are when you're on your umpteenth clear and you're not gouging your own eyes out. It makes beating it so much more satisfying too.
Having poked around a bit on youtube, it's clear to me that there is a major depth to this game for those willing to go there, and apparently after you beat it, some extra modes for the truly hardcore, that raises the difficulty each time you die.
I may just have to buy this game.