Etrom: The Astral Essence

The Good
The premise of the story is great: you're an ex-guard who searches for answers in a futuristic sci-fi world. This setting allows the use of melee weapons like axes and ranged weapons like guns.

The Bad
First: I have no idea what the game's about. I watched the intro over and over, and it's nondescript to be at best. Something about finding an astral essence, and wanting answers. Answers to what? I want answers too, like what's my motivation. Even worse, once the game starts, and you check your quest log, you're still kept in the dark. The lines in the log are the same darn lines that are said in the intro movie: "I was a man, a soldier...Three weeks ago I was sent into the Dying Deserts...I went deep down into the abyss...And there, in the darkness, I saw the Astral Essence. She had to be mine. I grabbed her, and she filled my body...light, darkness, the whole, the nothingness...I fell. and my damnation began..." What does that mean? Who knows. Heck, I didn't even know your character's name is Etrom, at least not until I read the manual. Sure, I guess it could be said that the story is setup so that you learn more and more as you play. But it becomes hard to even try to play when there's literally nothing to go on. If I cannot even grasp why I should care about the character, why would I bother trying to learn the story?

Second: There is nothing new here. The game plays like every other RPG. You click to move. You click to attack. Only it's not pulled off as well as could be. You start the game and leave the room you're in, presumably to find an entrance to a temple. You're told that you can sneak behind enemies to avoid detection. I tried that, only the enemies spotted me from around a building, and attacked me. How do you sneak when the enemies can see from miles away?

The Bottom Line
A game that may have a great story to it, but which I failed to discover, because I could care less about trying to figure out my motivation for playing. If you're in the mood for a Sci-Fi RPG, try Fallout instead.