GAME- Drakengard (ps2)
Reviewed by OneEye
Well if Pneumonia won't kill ya the shock of expecting one thing and getting another might. I was given this game for christmas by my best friend who did the usual, "Mike Theme Shopping" of,
"hmmm, lessee... dragons... war... dead people... perfect."
from looking at the cover i glanced and thought, "this is a 'susan game'" not meant in a derogatory way but ok, well.. maybe.
ok fine, shut up. i was expecting it to be another version of Spyro.
it just doesn't scream "mind boggling gruesome" something the aforementioned friend tends to forget as a MAJOR factor. so this game sat unopened for a few months as i finished up my backlog of destruction. Until i got hit with Pneumonia and Strep at the same time. In that wonderful, restless, home alone, bored, insanity we all know too well. you know the kind where nothing sounds good and only the strange and unexplored is even appetizing. usually when i get a craving for pickled okra and a vanilla shake. some think i'm pregnant. but they don't know the glory.
i decided i should take a look at the game, so i put it in.
the opening sequence showed summoned malicious fairies, elemental fire and water swirling in intense passion and a 50 ft high stone golem stomping through an entire army of iron clad soldiers. crushing the ranks with a swelling soundtrack as a dragon swoops down from the heavens. there's that breath of a hush slightly before it makes its explosive landing, raking through ranks and ranks of soldiers with its claws before you character dismounts in the berserker swordwielding rage i love so much. sweeping and cutting down soldiers like i do every other saturday with my grasshog weed eater in my cambodian jungle, the camera zooms in on the characters face and his maniacal grin. the music swells as a flaming head engulfed in dragonfire melts and the "evil chorale voices" all explode as the logo appears. and falls to silence.
ramen was hanging off my chin as i stared unable to move.
i was hooked by the goddamn CGI movie again. crap. well, no turning back now.
as i dove into the game itself i discovered its points:
1)This style of gameplay i like to call bloodlust. like when you get bored of a FPS like doom, put it on god mode and scream holy hell as you shed everything in your path. doom was laughed at. when i did this with grand theft auto 3, my wife threatened to leave me as i was trying to snipe hookers in china town. this game is fitted as if in god mode. once you learn the classic "strike repeatedly while circling the idiot" 3rd person style move, you don't need godmode. of course if you do get surrounded like a 3rd grader with the last chocolate milk, just hit select and you will miraculously jump 60 feet in the air to land of your dragons back.
2)every NPC in the game fears your bloodlust. even the dragon who constantly chides you for being insane and evil. every 5 minutes of so one of your "allies" comes in with, "let's sit down and have a crumpet. no matter this senseless killing."
3)there is a serious twisted factor here. as a person makes a pact with a creature they lose something in return. the main character lost his voice, no matter. but some lose thier eyes, ears and whatever. an elven woman who becomes your ally is insane with the murders of her children that she starts murdering children herself. in her pact she loses her womb.
4) i like the way the weapons level up due to useage. and once you learn that every weapon has a running area effect attack this can be exploited by going to earlier levels and spending an hour or 2 massacreing as many people as possible with the "Squad Bowling Technique"
5) LOTS of story. every other level theres a nice length of storyline, and the occasional CGI which is well done in that dark legacy of kain styled "there's no hope in the world" abaddon.
things i didn't like off the bat:
1) he swings the same 3 ways all the stinking time. it would be nice to have a bit of combos thrown in, the occasional kick, hell even flipping the guy off to taunt would be a nice change. because of this the battles DRAG ON FOREVER.
2) same goes for the dragon. "i fly, and shoot a ball of fire, after that i'm all outta ideas."
3) some of the voices drive me up a wall. seriously i feel like disemboweling at points.
4) the speed which weapons develop is slow. so be prepared to storm the castle 100 times in the life of this game.
All in all it scored a B+,
Great dark story with twisted details, great CGI and breaks to tie it in but the overall gameplay was awesome for the first hour then dwindled to just trying to get to the next cutscene.
Well if Pneumonia won't kill ya the shock of expecting one thing and getting another might. I was given this game for christmas by my best friend who did the usual, "Mike Theme Shopping" of,
"hmmm, lessee... dragons... war... dead people... perfect."
from looking at the cover i glanced and thought, "this is a 'susan game'" not meant in a derogatory way but ok, well.. maybe.
ok fine, shut up. i was expecting it to be another version of Spyro.
it just doesn't scream "mind boggling gruesome" something the aforementioned friend tends to forget as a MAJOR factor. so this game sat unopened for a few months as i finished up my backlog of destruction. Until i got hit with Pneumonia and Strep at the same time. In that wonderful, restless, home alone, bored, insanity we all know too well. you know the kind where nothing sounds good and only the strange and unexplored is even appetizing. usually when i get a craving for pickled okra and a vanilla shake. some think i'm pregnant. but they don't know the glory.
i decided i should take a look at the game, so i put it in.
the opening sequence showed summoned malicious fairies, elemental fire and water swirling in intense passion and a 50 ft high stone golem stomping through an entire army of iron clad soldiers. crushing the ranks with a swelling soundtrack as a dragon swoops down from the heavens. there's that breath of a hush slightly before it makes its explosive landing, raking through ranks and ranks of soldiers with its claws before you character dismounts in the berserker swordwielding rage i love so much. sweeping and cutting down soldiers like i do every other saturday with my grasshog weed eater in my cambodian jungle, the camera zooms in on the characters face and his maniacal grin. the music swells as a flaming head engulfed in dragonfire melts and the "evil chorale voices" all explode as the logo appears. and falls to silence.
ramen was hanging off my chin as i stared unable to move.
i was hooked by the goddamn CGI movie again. crap. well, no turning back now.
as i dove into the game itself i discovered its points:
1)This style of gameplay i like to call bloodlust. like when you get bored of a FPS like doom, put it on god mode and scream holy hell as you shed everything in your path. doom was laughed at. when i did this with grand theft auto 3, my wife threatened to leave me as i was trying to snipe hookers in china town. this game is fitted as if in god mode. once you learn the classic "strike repeatedly while circling the idiot" 3rd person style move, you don't need godmode. of course if you do get surrounded like a 3rd grader with the last chocolate milk, just hit select and you will miraculously jump 60 feet in the air to land of your dragons back.
2)every NPC in the game fears your bloodlust. even the dragon who constantly chides you for being insane and evil. every 5 minutes of so one of your "allies" comes in with, "let's sit down and have a crumpet. no matter this senseless killing."
3)there is a serious twisted factor here. as a person makes a pact with a creature they lose something in return. the main character lost his voice, no matter. but some lose thier eyes, ears and whatever. an elven woman who becomes your ally is insane with the murders of her children that she starts murdering children herself. in her pact she loses her womb.
4) i like the way the weapons level up due to useage. and once you learn that every weapon has a running area effect attack this can be exploited by going to earlier levels and spending an hour or 2 massacreing as many people as possible with the "Squad Bowling Technique"
5) LOTS of story. every other level theres a nice length of storyline, and the occasional CGI which is well done in that dark legacy of kain styled "there's no hope in the world" abaddon.
things i didn't like off the bat:
1) he swings the same 3 ways all the stinking time. it would be nice to have a bit of combos thrown in, the occasional kick, hell even flipping the guy off to taunt would be a nice change. because of this the battles DRAG ON FOREVER.
2) same goes for the dragon. "i fly, and shoot a ball of fire, after that i'm all outta ideas."
3) some of the voices drive me up a wall. seriously i feel like disemboweling at points.
4) the speed which weapons develop is slow. so be prepared to storm the castle 100 times in the life of this game.
All in all it scored a B+,
Great dark story with twisted details, great CGI and breaks to tie it in but the overall gameplay was awesome for the first hour then dwindled to just trying to get to the next cutscene.