Depeche Mike
Reviews
Auryn Quest (Windows)
It's a platform game?!
The Good
Well, if we're talking about what I like then I'd have to say that I enjoyed some of the level designs, especially Urwerk and Gaya's dungeon. Not so much for the game-play point of view but for the interesting designs they had come up with. There's some really great looking levels that would be fantastic in a better game. Maybe they can be ripped and modded into a FPS.
The Bad
What I didn't like about the game was first of all that it was a platform game. I was really surprised by this as I bought it thinking it would be an adventure game. It's based on The Neverending Story and is from Adventure Company. Read a bit more into it and there's an interesting story that you can look up for yourself. But I digress.
Platform games are great! I love many platform games but in order to be successful you need tight controls. Not jump buttons that randomly work or don't work or at least the ability to save anywhere. That would help as well. Or at least tell me that I'll have to do everything all over again if I exit right now. You know, simple things that make the game fun, not infuriating.
This game is also another prime example of why there aren't many first person platform games out there. Simple reason being it's hard to judge depth without depth! Yes I realize it's a three dimensional engine the game is working off of but I can't see how far that platform is without 3D glasses! I can't really judge the depth. At least move it in some way that'll indicate where it is. Often times I found myself making blind leaps of faith. Thankfully there's infinite lives otherwise I don't think I would've gotten as far as I did. That and hex editing a bit.
The Bottom Line
I would have to tell people that it's really disappointing. There's some great level designs but it's an extremely frustrating game to play through. The sound and music is mostly inappropriate loops from Rebirth or random techno beats. There was great opportunity for atmospheric sounds and music but instead you get techno and cheapo sound effects that generate randomly. A piss poor execution that is frustrating due to its great potential being based on a great book and having some really talented level designs. I hope some of those designers have moved onto greener pastures of FPS designing.
By Depeche Mike on August 6, 2010