What I have played so far I really like. It plays similar to the old Prince of Persia.
Difficulty is pretty unforgiving and starting to get frustrating, but I'm not going to give up. It's pretty fun.
Regarding the Ryona I have only seen one or two different death-animations now (arm cut off, beheaded and the normal one). I hope there'll be more.
Okay, after now 6 hours with the game the frustration took over. At the moment I have very mixed feelings.
Good:
the setting,
the models,
the gameplay (for the most part. Like I said, it reminds me of old PoP),
branching paths.
Bad:
the difficulty, which includes several points,
unfinished controls in some parts.
Regarding the difficulty there are several points which makes this game very frustrating:
first of all, the enemies' level goes up with yours. In a game like Oblivion I can see why this might be necessary, but in this game it's just stupid. The world is (aside from aforementioned branching paths) completely linear. It would be completely okay to make the enemies' level rise with the stage. In that way, leveling up your character would actually make sense and things a bit easier. But as it is now, it just gets more difficult - if you go to stage 1 after playing stage 3 there won't be any difference... ensuring the enemies will always be a threat on par with you.
Heal items and extra lives are extremely rare and don't drop by chance. Often the outcome of your try to beat the stage is clear before you get to the boss. If you slipped up and fell and lost your only extra live you can reset right there. You don't even get extra lives when you start again, you start with 0. Which gets even worse if you consider how long the stages are. I've played the game for 6 hours now and haven't beaten stage 3 yet.
Next thing are the random instantkills. Even the normal minions can behead you with a lucky hit and instantly kill you even with half of your health left. The optional boss in stage 2 (mountain) is the prime example of this gone wrong. One shot of the laser and your dead. Chance to block? Nope. Chance to evade? Nope. It's all up to your luck.
In addition to that there are several deathtraps which you are sure to run into the first time you see them, because you can't identify them as such (black bar on the wall in a dark environment).
Now... I don't mind unforgiving difficulty. Blankblood had tons of it and I enjoyed it. The difference is the frustration. It's unfair and if you fail you get to play the last 15-30 minutes again. In Blankblood you died and lost some seconds to get your next chance, of which you had infinite. Here you'll want to punch the screen if you lost one of your two or three valuable lives to an unavoidable lucky shot.
And... the controls: For the most part I really like how this game plays, but in some instances it's just laggy and bad. I have lost count of the times my character ran straight into a death-pit even though I pressed up to jump over it. Also: if you want to execute certain moves you have to press both attack-buttons at the same time. 80% of the time it doesn't register your input and just executes a normal attack. Wouldn't be so bad if you didn't need these moves to kill some bosses.
Unless the difficulty gets patched this game is pretty much unplayable.
oh yes, the Ryona: haven't seen anything new besides the normal death-animations... so not worth it.
---------- Post added 12-11-2012 at 05:46 PM ---------- Previous post was 12-09-2012 at 08:16 PM ----------
So, first patch is out. Fixes some problems (difficulty with bosses) albeit not all.
Anybody know where the key in the jungle is and can give me advice? Have been looking for it forever. I ONLY WANT MY TENTACLES! WHERE ARE THE TENTACLES?
