Not as good as we expected: MediEvil review (Topic)

MediEvil, as announced, is the colorful successor to the original 1998 game. The remake is as adorable as the hack and slash it was based on. However, with all the merits, old mistakes migrated into the game, which in 1998 were perceived as a necessary measure, but in 2019 this is a real rude tone towards the players. What exactly is wrong with the remake will be revealed in our MediEvil review.

The Fallen Is Not a Hero

What the Other Ocean developers have managed to keep is the enchanting story of Daniel Fortescue, a cowardly loser knight who fell on the battlefield. A hundred years ago, Fortescue was forced to go in the front lines of the attack and was the first to die before the troops converged, having caught an arrow in the eye. However, the king singled out the fallen hero and Daniel went down in history as a brave knight who gave hope. And now, several centuries have passed, our hero was accidentally resurrected by a necromancer hungry for power. Now Fortescue had a second chance to live up to his reputation. Admittedly, these are pretty good motives. All characters and situations, of course, hint at how stupidly he died, which further increases the desire to make the legend of a glorious feat true.

The Nightmare Before Christmas

Puzzle, platforming and combat are the three main components of MediEvil, with which you will be busy throughout the passage. The game design has not changed since 1998, almost literally repeating the levels. But I would like to highlight the updated and supplemented visual design of the environment. Gallowmere lands look frozen in the state of Halloween and with each level they only become darker and weirder, but at the same time more charming. You can compare them with the scenery of the cartoon "The Nightmare Before Christmas", where everything also looked aesthetically gloomy, but at the same time grotesque and not decadent. Each location, be it a cemetery or a pumpkin patch, delights with its appearance.

The combat in the game is implemented with an emphasis on hardcore, because at first you are hopelessly weak, and one of your two attacks is so slow that you can easily be killed if you do not timing. However, things get better as you move forward as you find more powerful weapons that do more damage. You can get it by killing enemies, after a certain number of them are defeated, you can enter the Hall of Heroes - an intermediate level, where characters from Daniel's past will give you new equipment.

But already in the battle itself, you feel the disadvantages of the game, namely that it does not want to develop in terms of gameplay. Wanting to fully convey the spirit of the original, the developers transferred all the problems of the first MediEvil into a remake, considering them features.

So, the battle has migrated into it, when it is difficult for you to concentrate on a specific target, you hit the air, trying to hit the enemy, and constantly receive damage, not really understanding who and how caused it to you.

Enemies are quite varied and the smartest way to fight is to build a sane arsenal as you progress, but while you have primary and secondary attacks, alternate weapon modes and a few special abilities, capturing enemies is all tainted by poor focus on opponents ... The surest way not to die is to use ranged attacks, but even that is not the best option, since a limited number of ammunition will force you to go close to the enemy.

Boss battles have also remained rather boring, when you either have to call the enemy, or wait for him to slowly and languidly attack to attack him from behind. Or a platform fight where you need to dodge enemy fireballs and from time to time reflect them back. Overall, they leave a lot to be desired.

However, the second significant disadvantage is the camera. Being in an open area, the third-person camera behaves, albeit unnaturally, can be operated with relative ease, only occasionally crashing into the geometry of the world. But as soon as you enter a cave or building, it becomes fixed, which is very annoying and interfering during the battle. These fixed angles feel awkward. The result in this situation may be that you accidentally fall off a cliff without having time to orient yourself.

Save my soul

However, the main thing that pissed off the players was the lack of level saves. If a crooked combat system and boring bosses will not discourage you from playing, then the lack of checkpoints at the level is so sure. I would say that if you are a person who is used to appreciating every minute of your time, then you should not approach MediEvil at all. A classic situation in the game, when you spent an hour to clear the level, and at the end you died, and you need to start from the very beginning, losing all your progress in parallel.

And it is this moment that unpleasantly surprises, because it is completely incomprehensible why such an element of the gameplay was considered appropriate to leave. If, for example, the same unfinished battle can be attributed to the fact that it was perceived as a game feature, then not entering checkpoints is exactly the rude tone that I talked about in the introduction. But even if you're persistent enough not to throw your gamepad on the TV after you've died and started over, you won't be able to avoid research problems.

I mean, MediEvil's world is very beautiful and rich enough to explore the nooks and crannies of its locations, but when I thought to go looking for artifacts, I was constantly stopped by my health bar. I was afraid that during the search I would die and it was not worth it.

So were we able to become a hero?

The results of the MediEvil remake review are as follows. The weird combat system, the crooked camera, boring bosses and the lack of saves as such in 2019 feel very painful, as if the game was simply not finished yet. On the other hand, this is a great remake that fully pays homage to the once cult game ahead of its time. MediEvil 2019 has a nostalgic charm that will make loyal fans grit their teeth replay the level for the third or fourth time if they die.

However, its disadvantages and non-compliance with modern standards belittle all its advantages. And although the game was created from scratch, it makes mistakes that are more typical of remasters with tweaked graphics, because the remake should not only make the game visually better, but also fix all the jambs of the original, and not transfer them into the game, calling it a feature or hiding behind hardcore. The game is definitely noteworthy, but rest assured, it will challenge you, and if you are not the person who played it before, you will have to find the strength to continue.

The Topic of Article: Not as good as we expected: MediEvil review.
Author: Jake Pinkman