![]() The story, though, works against the title. This battle, and especially its preceding sequence in the prior chapter, contains some of Asura's Wrath's few elements of comedy. As in the demo, one of the game's episodes is set on (or at least begins on) the moon, with a battle framed by Dvorak's From the New World symphony. Music is sometimes sparse, but when it's there, it's the best part of the experience. The game also sounds good, with earth-shaking impacts and the protests of grinding metal during demigod-on-demigod battles. ![]() These little hiccups are particularly noticeable since everything in the game is so hectic, with combat on a scale that would give the characters of Dragon Ball Z pause. Nothing kills the mood of an epic feat of god-level strength like a choppy framerate. In the end, though, this is the Unreal Engine at work, and cracks sometimes show through the design in muddy environmental textures and occasional slowdown. The Gohma, in contrast, are violently organic, their designs animal-based, with red lines coursing across their black skin, pulsing with a disturbing rhythm. Though this is a tale of gods set over millennia, it is rife with elements of science fiction that somehow manage to work, from the armies of high-flying cruisers the deities employ to the mechanical guts that spill out when they are wounded. The art direction is superb, with character designs that evoke the game's Buddhist inspiration and a wood-like grain that lines the skin of the title's demigods, separating them from the regular people of Gaea. ![]() Visually, Asura's Wrath is usually stunning. In the end, the game stands as a prime example of what goes wrong when story and "the rule of cool" are allowed to override the core action of a game. The difference being that Dragon's Lair and its ilk were generally fun the first time through, whereas Asura's Wrath becomes a tiresome slog by the third or fourth hour. Asura's Wrath bills itself as "a truly unique blend of breathtaking action and story." If that's the case, I suppose we're just ignoring Don Bluth's laserdisc games and the semi-interactive, reaction-based genre they spawned.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |