Australian Gamer Review :: Medievil: Resurrection

CELEBRATING GAMES AND BINGE DRINKING

Medievil: Resurrection

Reviewed on: Playstation Portable
Available on: Playstation Portable

Medievil is so old that fossilized copies of it have been found embedded in coal. I want to get that out of the way right from the start ...

Players: 1
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Release: TBA

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Medievil is so old that fossilized copies of it have been found embedded in coal. I want to get that out of the way right from the start. This is a remake of a game on the Playstation 1. Hey, who said the PSP would be just full of ports of PS2 games?

Actually, it's a remake of both the first and second Medievil games.

You may (depending on your age) remember Medievil. Medievil and Medievil 2 were quite forgettable games for the original Playstation, and this new "Resurrection" of those titles admirably continues that theme of profound adequacy.

Ironically, considering the slender frame of the game's protagonist, there's a fair amount of meat to Medievil: Resurrection. It's not a particularly short game, at least not noticeably so, and it therefore has a fair bit more bang for your buck than a lot of action/platformer games provide.

The setting of Medievil is relatively simple, the Kingdom of Gallowmere. Gallowmere is quite reminiscent of Duloc, the land Shrek lives in, but without the literary references. It's a place of magics, both good and evil, and of a certain cartoony, storybook charm. Gallowmere was once home to a dark sorcerer called Zaroc, an advisor to the king. Zaroc got bored with his main occupation of making Balloon Animals (seriously) and took up raising the dead as a hobby. The king got rid of him, and he was banished. He returned years later with legions of the dead at his command and laid waste to Gallowmere. Rather miffed at this, Gallowmere fought back, with its own army taking the field under the charge of Sir Daniel Forteque, The Hero of Gallowmere. Just as all seemed lost, Sir Dan and his closest companions fought through to Zaroc and slew him, ending the battle. Sir Dan died in the encounter, felled by an arrow, but his legend lives on.

Medievil's hero is the aforementioned Sir Daniel Fortesque. The 100 year old fleshless skeleton of the great Hero of Gallowmere. Unfortunately what only you and a few others (including Zaroc) know is that Dan is no hero, but was actually looking for somewhere to hide when taken out by a stray array to the eyeball. Now, thanks to the return of Zaroc and his dark magic, you're back to? well? not life. But undeath. And you have a chance to redeem yourself for your embarrassingly ineffectual death.

Medievil leads into things slowly, spoon feeding you the first mini-level ("Dan's Crypt.The best place to go to find a dead Dan." One of the few really good lines.). Your early weapons are crud, combining no range with no power. You spend a few levels at this initial wussiness, and I was concerned that things would stay that way, as the whole thing felt very uninspired and boring from a combat point of view.

My initial concerns passed eventually, as more and more weapons were unlocked. This gives a lot more variety to the gameplay, and a sense of improvement to the character. Though there can't be a lot of "character development" to a guy who's basically just teeth and an eyeball.

The accessing of weapons is an important point. New weapons are gained in the "Hall of Heroes". The hall is the only brightly lit area in the game, and has nice blue and gold and white textures. It's actually pretty cool, and it would have been nice to see some levels with a similar feel, if just for a break from the greys and greens and browns. In the Hall, you meet heroes from a past age, who basically all seem to know Sir Dan for some reason. Unfortunately they all know the truth about Sir Dan's Hero status, and give you a lot of lip. However, after the lip they also usually give you a weapon. These weapons can really change the game, amping up your damage or your range, or just generally making things more fun.

Access to the Hall of Heroes, however, is not open to everyone. Each level contains a hidden Chalice, though early on they're not hidden very well. The chalice also has to be full when you finish the level. The chalice is filled with the departed souls of the enemies you kill. Fortunately you don't have to find the chalice first. It fills up whether you have it or not.

There's any number of flaws in Medievil: Resurrection. The control system is quite clumsy, meaning basic movement can be something of a chore. The fighting mechanics are simplistic, meaning pretty much all combat just consists of either "chop chop chop" or holding down chop and spinning around repeatedly. There are combos possible, but they just don't work as well as these more simple techniques, and aren't really very impressive anyway. Weapon choice provides the only real variety, and even then it doesn't actually make all that much difference considering the Long Sword is just so powerful. You can pretty much play the whole game with just that.

The camera, always a big factor in games, is adequate here, but inconsistent. It shifts on its own to be behind you, but often either too slowly, leaving you blind for a while, or too quickly, taking you away from what you were trying to look at.

One of Medievil's biggest features is its sense of humour. Unfortunately this is also kind of hit and miss. Rarely is anything actually funny, though a few things are mildly amusing. The overall tone is light, and fun; even when it's clearly supposed to be brooding and menacing, it's brooding and menacing and silly.

There was one thing that managed to consistently annoy me. There are "gargoyles" scattered through the games. These gargoyles mostly spend their time mocking you and progressing story elements, but there are also "shop gargoyles" that you can buy health, ranged weapon ammo, etc, from. The problem is that to activate these gargoyles you have to hit them, which is hardly convenient if you're carrying a crossbow. You have to use up your ammo in order to talk to the guy. So you have to change to a melee weapon just to talk to him. Not only that, but some of the weapons, particularly the longer swords make it very difficult to hit him. Attempting to hit him means you just hit the wall behind him. Moving back far enough to not hit the wall means the gargoyle isn't actually triggered. It can be quite frustrating.

It's a little hard to explain, but while there's nothing much too terribly wrong with Medievil, there's actually not a great deal to recommend it on its own merits either. It's a more or less adequate game, with some quite glaring flaws, that nevertheless manages to entertain quite well, though not for all that long.

Ultimately the greatest recommendation for Medievil for the PSP is the platform. As a launch title there's very little to compete with it until better games start coming out. GTA: Liberty City Stories is due out soon, and as a single player action adventure, there really isn't any comparison.

One of the things that speaks out the most about this new PSP incarnation of the Medievil series is that this is a port of a Playstation One game. See? It did come back to that, of course. It seems unfortunate on a system capable of PS2 level games that one of the more average PS1 titles should be chosen for a new life. Final Fantasy 7 on PSP would rock. Hell, there's a list as long as my arm of games that would have rocked exceptionally on the PSP from the PS1 days, and choosing Medievil of all things seems kind of? odd.

Ultimately, purchasing of Medievil is your own decision, but one I'd recommend against. If you're really craving a PSP single player action game, it might be worth a look, but it's not a keeper, and it's not gaming history in the making. You'll probably enjoy it. But it will take a while to get into it, and you won't enjoy it for all that long.

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Final Verdict

An almost adequate game, Medievil succeeds in areas, and fails in others. The only real seller for it is a lack of competition on the platform, but that won't continue for all that long.

Pros
mildly fun, occasionally humourous, minigames are quite fun
Cons
uninspiring, bland graphics, barely adequate fighting mechanics