Zelda Clone, Or Makes You Groan?

I have to agree with the other 'average' reviews for this game! I stepped into it thinking of the game case with the '10/10 Brilliant!' label emblazened on it, so was REALLY hyped to finally play this.

However when I ACTUALLY began playing, I felt extremely disappointed. The graphics are pretty much as good as a good PS2 game. However, being one to judge a game for playability, and not looks, I continued onwards.

Storyline-wise, it takes 2 playthroughs to truly 'get it', it's slightly confusing and the feel is that they tried to hard to surprise you and keep it going. The ending was the only bit that truly took me in and made me crave the eventual sequel DESPITE not being THAT into this particular outing.

The soundtrack is pretty awesome, I won't lie. In particular, the voicework is very believable. When I heard The Watcher speak for the first time, I thought 'wow, he sounds like Batman's Joker...' only to find out in the credit reel that he was in fact voiced by the legendary Mark 'Luke Skywalker' Hamill, who voiced Joker. Was a nice little surprise for a massive nerd like myself.

Moving onto gameplay, to sum it up simply, I'd say repetitive and wound out. They've put stupid things into your inventory like a horn that you only use 3 times over the whole game, serves no other real purpose, and could EASILY have achieved the same effect without it. It'salso one of these game where you have to memorise 100 different combos just to survive in the later levels.

I like the challenge of a non-regenerative health bar (well, unless you undertake a side quest to get a set of armour that halves the damage you take, heals you with every strike against an enemy AND rewards you with an achievement/trophy! But you can only complete this quest when you've pretty much finished your first playthrough, but makes the hardest difficulty playthrough a cake walk!)

There are a LOT of Zelda references in the reviews, and I can say that I thought about that at times, like:

* You get a horse, which is FUN!

* You acquire a hookshot-like item.

* The game is open world.

* You gain currency by breaking objects as well as enemies.

* You carry just one sword, until an upgrade at the end of the game.

But despite these slight similarities, this game (and I state this as a lifelong and devoted gamer) has nothing on the likes of Zelda!

I think the thing that irriatated me the most with this game though, was the tutorial distribution. They feel the need to treat you like an idiot by giving you 'how to's on the BLATANTLY obvious stuff (Press X to attack... y'mean the thing I've been doing for 5 minutes?) but then with other things that matter more, you have to discover on your own. For example, I nearly completed the game before I realised that killing the crows in levels gives you health!

I feel like being generous, due to the voice work of Mr Hamill, and giving it a 7/10, but today I'm going to be realistic and go with a slightly-above-average 6/10. Could have been so much better,with a little more time and effort put in!