Adventures of Alundra
Developer - Psygnosis
Publisher - Psygnosis
Players - 1
Extras - Memory card
The bit on the box
"Plagued by strange visions, the
dreamwalker Alundra is summoned to a troubled village where great evil
lies in wait. Explore huge dungeons, find deadly weapons, solve challenging
puzzles and fight the cast of foul creatures out to stop you in your tracks.
This vast, enthralling adventure will keep you wide awake to the very end."
Graphics
While Alundra's graphics are overall better, more
detailed and sharper than Suikoden's graphics, on first sight you'd
swear it was the same game. There are no polygons to be seen, nor any CGI
movies and animations, it's all pretty basic to remain as functional as
possible. Everything is viewed in a bird's eye forced 3D perspective, which
is good for the most part but does lead to frustration at certain points
as it makes it very hard to judge jumps and distances. The animation of
the characters is nothing ground breaking, though the use of colour is
pretty good and stops the scenery from looking too retro. Luckily for this
game, cosmetics aren't the most important aspect, however there is a very
nice anime movie at the end should you finish the game.
Sounds
Sound effects and music are probably the weakest aspect
of this game, as they follow along the functionality idea behind the design.
Again emulating Suikoden the music compositions are monotonous affairs
that can grate at the nerves if stuck in one place for too long, which
happens often. The sound effects sound a little better than Suikoden
(dragons no longer sound like elephants for instance) but nothing to astound
the mind of the gameplayer. Alundra is definitely not one of those
titles that you get out when a friend comes over to show off the abilities
of the playstation, but graphics and sound aside, it is actually a rather
good game.
Gameplay
For the most part this is where Alundra shines.
This is also where any comparisons with Suikoden end, as that was
a turn based RPG, whereas this game is more of a glorified platform romp
with RPG elements thrown in (much like Legacy of Kain). Your character
fights in real time on the same screen that all the action takes place
in, and the fights are just one button slash affairs like the old C64 game
Gauntlet.
There are spells to be collected and cast, but these are best saved for
the various bosses that you will encounter along the way. Puzzles range
from easy to very hard, but work in a logical manner so as not to be obscure.
The save points are too few and far between however, and Alundra
would have been greatly improved with a "save at any time" feature like
in Tomb Raider 2.
I feel a verdict coming on
Though the above review may contain alot of criticisms,
I can say that I really enjoyed (frustrations aside) playing Alundra
and found myself playing it whenever I could get the time and opportunity.
The game is very very hard so novice and intermediate gameplayers may want
to avoid it, but experienced platform and RPGs players may get the same
level of enjoyment that I did. The storyline is well done even if it does
start off a little slowly, but it takes enough twists and turns in the
plot so as not to get stagnant. The ending anime movie is great to watch
but makes me pose the question, why were these types of movie animations
not spattered throughout the game? They would have greatly enhanced the
feel and enjoyment factor as would have added more personality to the characters
and creatures (there are scenes in the anime movie from battles that are
fought in the game, why were these not in the game at the time the battle
took place?). That aside, if you want a hard challenge and don't mind having
a retro look to contend with, Alundra should be kept open as an
option, as it is very addictive and offers over 40 hours of gameplay.
Review by D.R.T.Barrett
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