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Demo: Faery: Legends of Avalon

Flying around as a faery has its perks. Try Faery: Legends of Avalon as a demo before you buy.

King Oberon, ruler of Avalon, calls upon your newly awakened hero to save the faery world from vanishing into disbelief. Your main task is to find and recruit a companion, and a quick trip down to the beach will usher in pesky goblins and another faery named Aziel. In exchange for your help exploring a small cave near the shoreline, Aziel will join your quest to heal the portals dividing the faery and human worlds. In the cave, the two adventurers encounter small crabs, more goblins, and a guardian of rare dragon eggs.

Load times in Legends of Avalon are immediately atrocious in between actual gameplay, but the character designs translate crisply and colorfully onto the screen. The opening narrative and some of the in-game dialogue contain a few glaring spelling errors, a considerable blunder for any finished product.

Interacting with other, non-playable characters means choosing from slim pickings of questions and answers in a dialogue wheel. A small percentage are coded in blue or red, indicating that the person you’re holding the conversation with will either react favorably or unfavorably. This stark social perspective leaves little room for moral ambiguity; dialogue straddles the line between dry and interesting, although conversing with Aziel gives the tutorial portion of the demo a much more natural feel.

The controls are fairly easy to learn. Combat is turn-based in nature, relying on action points instead of mana and allowing players to either execute a string of regular attacks or a few stronger moves. Your party will automatically heal after every battle, so for seasoned RPG players expecting an innovative experience, Legends of Avalon might not be the best choice.

One feature Legends of Avalon has incorporated quite nicely is its menu system. The game facilitates menu navigation, prompting players with the option of viewing the appropriate window whenever they open a treasure chest or gain a skill point. The more your character levels up, the more sporting he or she will look. They’ll even start showing a little tattoo ink, each bearing a special ability.

With such convenience and simplicity, one has to wonder whether Legends of Avalon lacks any deeper substance. From the screenshots made available, it looks like the game’s most appealing asset is its gorgeously rendered locations and bizarre, often jumbo-sized monsters. The demo’s boss fight with the Giant Crab verged on falling into a lifeless, back-and-forth routine of attacks and dodges, but the game’s potential emerged with one creative catch. The Giant Crab, standing a poor chance against Aziel’s lightning attacks, fortified itself behind a front line of smaller crabs and goblins.

This game is also available for the Xbox 360 and PC.

Have you tried Faery: Legends of Avalon? Let me know what you think in the comments below.

Tags: Demos, Faery: Legends of Avalon, Focus Home Interactive, PC, PlayStation 3, Spiders Studio, Xbox 360
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Demo: Majin and the Forsaken Kingdom

Game Republic’s new action-adventure title arrives in stores on the 23rd, but based on demo impressions, you might want to do a little digging before you make the purchase.

Usually when a game catches my eye, taking the time to investigate some details about it can spare me a headache in the future—and sixty bucks. Majin and the Forsaken Kingdom (PlayStation 3, Xbox 360) is one such game.

The premise involves a thief who recruits the ancient powers of the mythical Majin, a bumbling giant with a small grassy patch growing on his backside. Players enlist the creature’s help in restoring order and light to a kingdom overrun by inky monsters and evil guardians. Through commands, Majin can interact with the environment and charge enemies, but to execute a winning blow in battle, the two heroes must cooperate through special combination moves.

The concept sounds good on paper, and a combat system rooted in friendship seems to promise quality attention to both gameplay and story elements. With such a tempting offer, it’s easy to overlook what will perhaps become the game’s biggest, most fundamental flaw. The Majin isn’t an intelligent being, and he speaks with the eloquence of a caveman.

This grievous mistake knocks Majin and the Forsaken Kingdom straight off my Christmas wishlist, but more painful than watching two dumbed down characters interact is the number of ways the game stumbles in the demo: my first means of understanding the game.

Due to his large size, Majin bumps into your character frequently, disrupting whatever attack the player was on the verge of unleashing. But the most aggravating part of the demo occurs when Tepeu, without Majin’s assistance, must sneak around the upper level of a room, temporarily incapacitating the guards that stand between him and a certain lever. Enemy eyes glow purple when they’re oblivious, yellow when they suspect Tepeu is near, and red when they spot the thief. More than once this mechanic glitched on me because the situation was so contextually sensitive. When the game instructed me to stay “out of sight” by crouching, I did so, only to discover that what counted as “out of sight” was a matter of opinion. Most of my time was spent either in wait or in a trial-and-error struggle for permissible hiding spots. The swirling black shadows hovering over set areas suggested that maybe these were the so-called “out of sight” locations I should be seeking, but when that idea backfired, I was once again left to my best guess.

Majin and the Forsaken Kingdom has potential in terms of personality: Majin actually crashes to the ground when he falls, kicking up dust, and tiny animals such as mice scamper around and offer up advice—they just do it in the most annoying voices imaginable. By the end of the demo, I was groaning at the childish dance Majin and Tepeu engaged in after defeating a more formidable opponent. The verdict? Disappointing in almost every respect.

Tags: Demos, Game Republic, Majin and the Forsaken Kingdom, PlayStation 3
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Demos: Bayonetta & Dante’s Inferno

There’s a slew of exciting games waiting for us in 2010, and Bayonetta and Dante’s Inferno are two of them. Demos are up for grabs, but which action hack n’ slash will combo its way to victory? Either way, the competition is just beautiful.

Bayonetta

It’s nearly time to Open the Eyes of the World. Sega and Platinum Games are dusting off the organ music, castles, and demons who phase through the ground only to shatter into a million pieces. This time around, they’re glamoring up the bloodshed. The early January slated Bayonetta mirrors Castlevania—or more precisely, Devil May Cry, if the inclusion of DMC and Viewtifiul Joe creator Hideki Kamiya is any indication—in almost every fundamental way. And before you start whipping out your quadruple set of guns, keep in mind that a revamp of a decomposing mold can be a good thing. From the music to the gameplay style of “hey, here’s a special relic, let me tell you its history” and swapping fancy weapons to your heart’s content, Bayonetta is reminiscent of the ye ol’ Castlevania (or the newer DMC) series.

Of course, there’s more than meets the eye, though the developers make sure the visuals hold a heavy presence. The demo gives us an introduction to the game’s story, which is as cheesy as those naughty secretary glasses and that pinned-up schoolmaster hair. If that isn’t enough innuendo, Bayonetta lathers on the sex appeal with a demo innocently titled, “First Climax.” Our little Miss Bayonetta apparently carries the shame of impure blood, but that doesn’t stop her (or her mysterious overseer) from acting on destiny.

Bayonetta can’t keep its guns in its holsters, if you catch my drift. The demo offers gamers a rich slice of the pie, from a tutorial mode to various speed-driven monster fights and even a witch throw-down that invites the player to walk, jump, and kick ass on the walls and ceiling. To start, there are two attack modes and a few powerful (and therefore short-lived) weapons to steal from defeated foes. The gold rings they surrender with their demise refuels Bayonetta’s health in the heat of battle. Stringing combos together by using the two main attack buttons (triangle and circle on the PS3) or opening fire on a circle of enemies will do the trick, allowing you to execute a heavier offensive like “Torture” or the scandalous “Climax”—in which a monster appears through a portal and devours the big baddie at hand. Cue the blood by the sparkling gallons. The demo offers three fight sequences to test the waters: a swarm of archangels, their colossus friend with a jeweled weak spot, and a wall-climbing, bridge-breaking menace.

The game’s unique and kinky cinematic sequences along with its slow-motion “Witch Time” mechanics, dance club soundtrack, and special moves achievable at the height of the player’s combo powers all prove wonderfully addicting and rewarding. Fighting off waves of enemies doesn’t feel dry or repetitive by any means—probably contributed to the game’s smooth pace and the ease of linking together attacks. Chances are that come January 9, the developing team will have a red-hot winner on their hands.

Dante’s Inferno

There’s only one way a developer could tell the gaming masses to go to hell and scrape by without repercussions. Electronic Arts and Visceral Games aren’t far behind with their epic reproduction of the 14th-century Dante’s Inferno, which is set for an early February release. While the stylish Bayonetta embraces a Castlevania-type lineage, Dante’s Inferno clearly hails from a God of War inspired origin. The demo isn’t afraid to show gamers the riveting proportions of its cut-scenes, which creatively blend next-gen graphics with 2D animation akin to Zack Snyder’s Tales of the Black Freighter. Not a bad move, especially with the limited comic series being published by Wildstorm now.

Oddly enough, the demo takes awhile to heat up and unleash its potential in terms of gameplay. The initial sequence pushes you into the midst of a horde, forcing you to repeat combinations you can only guess at until a burning ship wrecks into the cliff platform and allows you to progress. Even the fight with Death could have been more satisfying if you weren’t plunged so blindly into his skeletal arms. The battles are grueling at first, but when the second half of the demo begins, the hellfire carves out the game’s infamous name. Prepare to head onwards and down into hell.

A generous introduction to Dante’s ensuing plight to redeem himself and save his beloved Beatrice courses through the remainder of the demo. For the most part, the game produces standard God of War fare … only set in, you know, hell. Combo chains are essential to success in the depths of damnation, as are counters that allow for hefty damage to your surrounding opponents. Attack combinations, magic (mana) or special relics, and even purchasable upgrades are soon at your disposal, and the gears grind harder to create a more fluid experience. The demo also introduces the opportunity to punish or save condemned souls. You’ll even steer a fire-breathing beast in the final moments.

The gameplay might not be terribly different from what comes to mind regarding the mythical God of War—not to mention the lewd appeal of topless women—but Dante’s Inferno promises a dark and detail-rich adventure. I did encounter one glitch, which nicks the zero-problem score accompanying Bayonetta: When fighting the aforementioned monster at the end, I found myself stuck in a groove near the wall. The bug will most likely be worked out by the game’s release on February 9, however.

Did you enjoy the angels and demons-flavored demos? Which struck your fancy more?

Tags: Bayonetta, Dante's Inferno, Demos, Electronic Arts, Platinum Games, Sega, Visceral Games
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Bomb up!

For $10 you can purchase Bomberman Ultra (published and developed by Hudson Soft) on the PlayStation Network. I downloaded the demo to start and sat down with a few other players for a local game, and judging by the three hours we spent chugging away at the same Zombie stage over and over again while laughing our asses off like crazy people … ten bucks goes a long way.

The demo only allows you to switch between the Normal and Zombie modes and customize your bombers a little, but the experience of facing off against another player quickly amps up the fun meter. (Yeah, I just wrote “fun meter” without shame.) The full game, on the other hand, allows up to four local or eight online players to go head-to-head in fourteen arenas and mix and match between around fifty different costumes.

I decked out my bomber as a Roman pirate—an eye patch- and Centurian helmet-wearing, one-legged maniac! All he needed was a green parrot on his shoulder, although all those flames might have made its feathers fly …

Tags: Bomberman Ultra, Demos, Hudson Soft, PSN
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