Welcome to Monday Update, where I would have put something witty here if I had anything. Nope, I got nothing.
El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron – Talk about a mouthfull with that title!
Vaguely and slightly based on the apocryphal book of Enoch (well, except for the Ethopian church, actually), El Shaddai presents you with a pretty basic set of combat options and a rather repetitive action/adventure style game in the vein of Devil May Cry. Fitting to the book itself, Enoch (whom you may know as the guy in the Genesis genealogy who didn’t die – he was taken up to Heaven) gets sent on a mission from God to retrieve the Watchers – angels who were tasked with following and observing mankind. Unfortunately for them, they decided to take human women and breed with them, producing malformed offspring known as the Nephilim. If this sounds similar to the Genesis narrative…well, it is. It’s more an extension of it. Enoch must find all seven of them, imprison their souls, and come back to Heaven. If Enoch fails (which I doubt he does), the flood will happen since Nephilim get rather testy when they’re hungry and start destroying everything in a grand apocalyptic display. Also, they start eating each other and angels. If Enoch does succeed, earth is fine and we’re all good.
So that’s a bizarre premise for a video game, any way you slice it. As for the game itself, it’s none-too-impressive. Don’t get me wrong, it’s competent enough in the combat department, it’s just not amazing. There’s three weapons representing three archetypes – ranged but weak (Gale), in-close but strong (Veil), and a balanced mix (Arch). They’ve got basic dial-a-combos and delayed attacks for breaking enemy guards, and strong attacks when you hold down the attack button. This also applies to aerial combat. Your sole defensive options (other than running around) comes to a block and a parry (timed blocks when attacks hit you). Nothing too amazing here, to be honest – it works well enough most of the time. The sole unique mechanic comes from the purify/stealing techniques. Stun an enemy, and steal his weapon – simple enough. But you can’t keep attacking enemies forever since your weapon will need to be purified (which has its own button, actually). Stealing a weapon purifies it instantly, so that helps. But you’ll only see three enemy types because of this system – meaning that fights become repetitive very quickly. You’ll find the most effective techniques very quickly, so normal fights become an exercise in tedium. Purification also becomes quite annoying when you realize you’re not doing any damage to an enemy at all when the weapon turns red, nor are they giving you clear aesthetic indicators as to how well you’re doing.
That, for me, becomes the real problem with the combat: boy, does this game look pretty, and boy does that art style really hamper the game at times. I know you need something cool and interesting to stand out, but I found that style actively hampering the combat. Sometimes, enemies have the exact same color scheme as the floor, making them impossible to see. At other times, the camera locks in a weird place and all the enemies aren’t even visible. It’s very weird and isn’t exactly helpful! The lack of a UI, though obviously done in an attempt for immersion, just frustrated me with its lack of helpful efficiency. I want to know how much life I have left, and I want to know what all these collectibles actually do. Should I be gathering them or what? Am I hitting this boss, or is he immune? A tiny yellow graphic appears, and that’s supposed to tell me? He doesn’t even look damaged! There’s a parry? Why didn’t the game teach me this? It uses tutorials to teach you the most basic things, but then leave out other important information. Like when the Watchers randomly attack you at points, and you have no idea whether you can win or not; the game just dumps you back where you came from after them no matter what happens, so why are these fights here? At least be consistent, game!
Not that it matters because you can’t REALLY die. The Recovery system makes you mash a few buttons to come back to life in nearly every situation. This is dumb. I’m sorry, but that’s the best way to put it. You die, mash buttons, live – it makes every fight a trivial exercise. You’re just going through the motions, and there’s no real tension. I know it works into the story (Enoch’s immortal anyway), but you CAN die in the mystical dark portal segments. The credits scroll by, and you have no idea why that one kills you and other doesn’t, and why this death shows me a giant inescapable cutscene. Confusing, to say the least!
Maybe it’s a result of the art design? It could be, because even though it varies, the game makes every environment interesting, beautiful, and wonderful to observe. The eclectic music creates immersion and a solid mood to the whole experience. It’s just a shame that you’ll be doing bizarre platforming segments in 2D through most of this stuff, or engaging in boring, repetitive combat. I honestly don’t get this either – again, you can fall as much as you like and you can’t die. So why have this in the first place? The design in this game drives me mad sometimes, seriously! Then you finish said segment, and you can see a giant empty platform that’s circular, and you JUST KNOW there’s a combat sequence there. Once you start predicting the game’s own structure, it gets really frustrating to play the exact same segments over and over again. Pretty sights can’t make up for a shallow game where you aren’t challenged, the recovery mechanic strips the game of difficulty, and you end up doing the same things over and over again (crazy Tron motorcycle sequence excepted).
Also, the story makes next to no sense most of the time, so there’s that! Compare it to the original book and it especially makes no sense at all. Who even knows what is happening; it’s quite cryptic.
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That’s it for this Monday Update. Some other things maybe coming up.
