phil
7th April 2003, 14:30
Well, I received this over the weekend and here are some thoughts on the game after a few hours of gaming:
Where has the cohesiveness of the hyrule world gone? From Ocarina we’re used to a free and convincing game world that encourages exploration, rewards and surprises the gamer – it’s all gone. It feels rushed, unfinished and nothing seems to really fit together like Ocarina. The whole game (so far) is very much on rails with no real opportunity to explore the world you can see, since it’s more often than not blocked by the dreaded invisible walls.
Draw distance is variable, but never exactly long and suffers a lot of pop up. Edges are evident everywhere and the cell-shading has jumps and stutters that break the illusion regularly. In general those who shunned the cell-shading were right – the zelda feel has gone, replaced by the wishy-washy looks somewhere in the quality of “wacky races” on the dreamcast.
The sound is pretty uninspiring and they’ve missed out on the opportunity to remix and update the classic tunes, favouring completely new and frankly dull tracks.
Controls are the classic layout, but Link is very slow and unresponsive – you never feel you have true control of the character.
Overall: Disappointing. And if you believe a single word of these impressions and don’t immediately buy or pre-order this absolutely stunning game you will be missing out on the prettiest, most absorbing and complete game you’ll play this year. Buy buy buy buy buy buy buy buy NOW.
Where has the cohesiveness of the hyrule world gone? From Ocarina we’re used to a free and convincing game world that encourages exploration, rewards and surprises the gamer – it’s all gone. It feels rushed, unfinished and nothing seems to really fit together like Ocarina. The whole game (so far) is very much on rails with no real opportunity to explore the world you can see, since it’s more often than not blocked by the dreaded invisible walls.
Draw distance is variable, but never exactly long and suffers a lot of pop up. Edges are evident everywhere and the cell-shading has jumps and stutters that break the illusion regularly. In general those who shunned the cell-shading were right – the zelda feel has gone, replaced by the wishy-washy looks somewhere in the quality of “wacky races” on the dreamcast.
The sound is pretty uninspiring and they’ve missed out on the opportunity to remix and update the classic tunes, favouring completely new and frankly dull tracks.
Controls are the classic layout, but Link is very slow and unresponsive – you never feel you have true control of the character.
Overall: Disappointing. And if you believe a single word of these impressions and don’t immediately buy or pre-order this absolutely stunning game you will be missing out on the prettiest, most absorbing and complete game you’ll play this year. Buy buy buy buy buy buy buy buy NOW.