Resurrection

The Good
Resurrection is Spain's first foray into the world of medieval 3D action/adventure games, trying to carve itself a niche in the popular subgenre that has delivered us such enjoyable games as Heretic 2, Rune, Dark Vengeance and Blade/Severance. Unfortunately for Resurrection while it definetively got the medieval motif down it failed to take notice of just what made those games such hits and crashed and burned without any fanfare.

There's about zero things right with Resurrection, but I guess the addition of a one-on-one fighting mode is something that could have extended the shelf-life if properly done. If I want to be nice I guess Domenico was an interesting character and could have been further developed into a game of it's own. There are also some interesting character designs in here...

The Bad
I'm really sorry to have jumped here so quickly but as I tried to order my thoughts so as to write this I came to the conclusion that there wasn't really anything that good to write on the "good" part. Those few cool touches that appeared every now and then could be found better developed in hundreds of other titles besides the ones mentioned, so I have no choice but to dive right and beat the game senseless:

The gameplay just plain stinks. It all boils down to killing everyone, and when you are not killing things you are on keyhunting quests to progress to the next level. Simple and sterile, but some games have built exceptional experiences over those simple concepts, right? Not Resurrection I'm afraid. Killing enemies is a frustrating, dull affair since the action is sluggish and unconfortable as the game has poor controls that delay your inputs quite noticeably. On top of that the collision detection is exceptionally poor so it becomes quite a challenge to hit anything and the main gameplay tactic becomes to just lunge yourself towards the enemy until you are face to face and then smash the mouse buttons hoping to mow down your enemy quickly. Sure, there are some combos and special moves but the shitty controls make executing them so much of a chore that you will hardly use them at all. As for the pixel hunts and the exploration, the game rewards you with boring treks around lifeless, boring levels taking the red key in order to open the red door, et al. and mowing down whatever crosses your path...Oh, and did I mention that you can't jump? Cool, uh?

The multi-character aproach is as cliché as you could think of, with the big-ass warrior being the ultimate asskicker, the babe the "versatile" paladin who is weaker yet can shoot energy bolts and stuff, and the dark moody guy as the sneaky assassin...gee-whiz. Each character is supposed to play differently and you do have different skills for each one but I'll be damned if they give the gameplay any depth, specially since they all rely on an energy bar that depletes almost instantly. Daiko (the babe) plays just like the warrior, except she shoots weak fireballs that take an eternity to recharge. Domenico is supposed to bring a sneaking angle to the game, but sneaking is next to impossible and doesn't offer any advantages over plain fights except for looking cooler, so there go the multiple characters. To make matters even more agravating, you can't choose which character to control (except in a couple of levels) and there's nothing in the way of character development or exposition that might make us care for who they are or what the heck they are doing.

Just what they are doing brings me to the clichéd plot that deals with an evil sorcerer who wants to resurrect the dreaded Black Dragon and bla,bla,bla... Translation? Go kill all baddies until you get to Gonzo the bad guy who awaits you in his cozy dungeon for you to kick his ass... Yay... so you get crappy gameplay AND crappy storyline!

Technically the game also takes a nose dive. While the graphic detail fits a game of this kind the animations are sluggish and un-natural, special effects (such as the weapon traces) are cheap and unimpressive, and the sound in general is muffled and of poor quality. The engine also has noticeable glitches and clipping problems not to mention perspective distortions and other niceties.

Oh, and the one-on-one fighting mode only allows you to use the 3 main characters (with their limited arsenal of moves), has no two-player support, nor any tournament or alternate story to uncover.... I ask you then why would you want to play it? Then again, I should ask myself why would anyone want to play Resurrection as a whole...

The Bottom Line
No matter how you look at it, Resurrection is a failure. Spanish action games are not exactly a dime a dozen and considering the state of the non-US/Japanese game industries I was more than willing to give Resurrection all my support. I forced a smile on my face for quite a while and desperately tried to find something to hold on so as to say "Yeah, the game is crap, but at least it's got....uh....er...." Nothing. Resurrection has nothing, and the less said about it the better.