Brevity
12-29-2005, 08:36 AM
Well last night I beat Kameo so I thought I might a small informal review of it.
I also thought I would review this one as opposed to others I have beat like COD2 since so many people are on the fence about buying this game and this might help them decide.
Story:
We all know the broad strokes of the story and I don't intend to destroy this review with spoilers. I will say that it was a good overall story that left room for a sequel. What game doesn't these days? I didn't find that the story particularly stood out above others but it was not bad. There were a few plot lines that were not truly delved into and I think with the game being as short as it was that it truly could have gone ahead and told the players who certain people were and why they were there.
I took my time and tried to find all the items I could in the game and still I finished it in a brisk 16 hours. I hear of people beating it far below 10 hours though. I didn't feel like the game rushed you along but it was truly linear in its main story and the side quests were all super short and meaningless.
Game Play:
The back of the box said something about an "epic" world to explore. Well I think that's one of our generations most over used words (at least in the gaming world). This world to explore offers little both in reasons to explore and in geography. The world is relatively small and I don't mean in comparison to an Elder Scrolls game. The world map or the in between stages world is fairly small and each of the other worlds were you get your elements of power are fairly small too.
Controls were nothing out of the normal but they did not differ much from creature to creature. (the things you turned into) I guess that's a good thing but overall I felt that it was far to simplistic. The L and R triggers did just about everything for you. I thought it would have helped to use some other buttons too help make things a bit more stream lined.
The upgrade system was good but their was very little reason to fully upgrade all your elemental. On some I did little to no upgrading due to certain ones not being all that useful. It seemed to me that there were a few elements that were heavily leaned on to get you through the game and others that didn't really help much at all. In saying this I want to point out that you upgrade your elementals though getting fruit to use as points to upgrade with. So what I also want to point out is that there was little need to go tracking down every last fruit meaning that there was little need to do many of the side quests that netted you some more fruit. In the end I think I got about half the fruit in the game, maybe a little more, but I didn't even use all those.
One thing the game did well was be fun and not really all that frustrating. If you have played COD2 on Vet you know what I mean by frustrating. The game auto saves after nearly everything you do. This is great since once you get to some part of the game that took you a while to get to... say a tall ridge that is tricky to even stay on top of due to dragons and trolls and such: once your up there your there to stay till you move on since if you die the game starts you back right there but with full health. At times I thought this was the baby steps way of nursing you through the game but I guess the days of games like Castlevania's old school save once per stage are gone and this truly did help to alleviate any frustration.
Never in the game did I find I didn't know where to go or what to do (I never even wondered how to defeat an enemy). This was due in large part to a talking book you have with you. If ever you need to know about something like where to go or what to do to further the plot you had only to ask and it would tell you. I thought this helped to speed the game up and stop any frustration, which is a good thing in some ways.
Graphics and Sound:
Well the world its self was beautiful and I truly thought it showed off the 360's in many ways. There were individual blades of grass/tree leafs/hear/particles in the air/and other stuff and lots of it. There were numerous enemies on screen at once all doing somewhat different things. There were a good variety in the types of places you visited. I really cant fault the game at all in how it looked. It seemed like the textures were crisp and detailed.
This game was my first with my new Logitech 5.1 5450's and I loved it. I cant say enough about how the atmosphere of this game sounded alive and vibrant. In messing with my speaker setting I turned up the center channel to find that Kameo's wings were making a little fluttery noise all their own, that could clearly be heard amid the battle going on all around her. The games sound seemed to be all there right down to a good background music.
Co-op:
This is the only multiplayer aspect of the game and it was so sad and lack luster they could have saved some time and simply left it out. Here is how it works you play an area in the solo campaign and it unlocks an area in the co-op. So there is not truly a way to go through the whole game in co-op because its segmented and redundant and stupid. I really just thought it was a waste.
Overall:
Overall I am glad that I got the game and it did keep me coming back for more till I beat it. I would like to say that if your playing it and don't notice that in the last page there are these four spots for something. Find out what those somethings are and then go find them. The game can be beat without them but its a lot easier with them.
8/10 This game is a lot of fun and well worth the cost of admission.
8 being -1 for lack of length, being totally linear, and not exploring all plot lines.
8 being -1 for not living up to its potential in that many things in the game didn't need to be done to beat the game, which would make the game even shorter. I wish the upgrade and each of the elementals were more needed and original. There are two fire elementals and two ice elemental and I really didn't think that was needed.
On a finnal note:
Several times the game reminded me of Fable. This is both good and bad.
I also thought I would review this one as opposed to others I have beat like COD2 since so many people are on the fence about buying this game and this might help them decide.
Story:
We all know the broad strokes of the story and I don't intend to destroy this review with spoilers. I will say that it was a good overall story that left room for a sequel. What game doesn't these days? I didn't find that the story particularly stood out above others but it was not bad. There were a few plot lines that were not truly delved into and I think with the game being as short as it was that it truly could have gone ahead and told the players who certain people were and why they were there.
I took my time and tried to find all the items I could in the game and still I finished it in a brisk 16 hours. I hear of people beating it far below 10 hours though. I didn't feel like the game rushed you along but it was truly linear in its main story and the side quests were all super short and meaningless.
Game Play:
The back of the box said something about an "epic" world to explore. Well I think that's one of our generations most over used words (at least in the gaming world). This world to explore offers little both in reasons to explore and in geography. The world is relatively small and I don't mean in comparison to an Elder Scrolls game. The world map or the in between stages world is fairly small and each of the other worlds were you get your elements of power are fairly small too.
Controls were nothing out of the normal but they did not differ much from creature to creature. (the things you turned into) I guess that's a good thing but overall I felt that it was far to simplistic. The L and R triggers did just about everything for you. I thought it would have helped to use some other buttons too help make things a bit more stream lined.
The upgrade system was good but their was very little reason to fully upgrade all your elemental. On some I did little to no upgrading due to certain ones not being all that useful. It seemed to me that there were a few elements that were heavily leaned on to get you through the game and others that didn't really help much at all. In saying this I want to point out that you upgrade your elementals though getting fruit to use as points to upgrade with. So what I also want to point out is that there was little need to go tracking down every last fruit meaning that there was little need to do many of the side quests that netted you some more fruit. In the end I think I got about half the fruit in the game, maybe a little more, but I didn't even use all those.
One thing the game did well was be fun and not really all that frustrating. If you have played COD2 on Vet you know what I mean by frustrating. The game auto saves after nearly everything you do. This is great since once you get to some part of the game that took you a while to get to... say a tall ridge that is tricky to even stay on top of due to dragons and trolls and such: once your up there your there to stay till you move on since if you die the game starts you back right there but with full health. At times I thought this was the baby steps way of nursing you through the game but I guess the days of games like Castlevania's old school save once per stage are gone and this truly did help to alleviate any frustration.
Never in the game did I find I didn't know where to go or what to do (I never even wondered how to defeat an enemy). This was due in large part to a talking book you have with you. If ever you need to know about something like where to go or what to do to further the plot you had only to ask and it would tell you. I thought this helped to speed the game up and stop any frustration, which is a good thing in some ways.
Graphics and Sound:
Well the world its self was beautiful and I truly thought it showed off the 360's in many ways. There were individual blades of grass/tree leafs/hear/particles in the air/and other stuff and lots of it. There were numerous enemies on screen at once all doing somewhat different things. There were a good variety in the types of places you visited. I really cant fault the game at all in how it looked. It seemed like the textures were crisp and detailed.
This game was my first with my new Logitech 5.1 5450's and I loved it. I cant say enough about how the atmosphere of this game sounded alive and vibrant. In messing with my speaker setting I turned up the center channel to find that Kameo's wings were making a little fluttery noise all their own, that could clearly be heard amid the battle going on all around her. The games sound seemed to be all there right down to a good background music.
Co-op:
This is the only multiplayer aspect of the game and it was so sad and lack luster they could have saved some time and simply left it out. Here is how it works you play an area in the solo campaign and it unlocks an area in the co-op. So there is not truly a way to go through the whole game in co-op because its segmented and redundant and stupid. I really just thought it was a waste.
Overall:
Overall I am glad that I got the game and it did keep me coming back for more till I beat it. I would like to say that if your playing it and don't notice that in the last page there are these four spots for something. Find out what those somethings are and then go find them. The game can be beat without them but its a lot easier with them.
8/10 This game is a lot of fun and well worth the cost of admission.
8 being -1 for lack of length, being totally linear, and not exploring all plot lines.
8 being -1 for not living up to its potential in that many things in the game didn't need to be done to beat the game, which would make the game even shorter. I wish the upgrade and each of the elementals were more needed and original. There are two fire elementals and two ice elemental and I really didn't think that was needed.
On a finnal note:
Several times the game reminded me of Fable. This is both good and bad.