El Shaddai: Ascension Of The Metatron PC review

El Shaddai: Ascension Of The Metatron review: style wrestles with substance

Information technology'southward pretty, but is it good?

Enoch brandishing his new Veil weapon in El Shaddai.

10 years afterwards it was offset released on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, El Shaddai: Ascent Of The Metatron has finally arrived on Steam as a PC port. Information technology's a strange re-emergence for a game that wasn't exactly a smash-hit back in the twenty-four hours, but hey, it had sugariness visuals. And I'm happy to say it however looks ridiculously good, fifty-fifty if information technology remains shallow beneath its glossy surface.

El Shaddai is a third-person action game that'south basically an anime fan-fic of the Book Of Enoch, an aboriginal Hebrew apocalyptic religious text. You play equally Enoch, a human being selected by sky to purify a bunch of fallen angels who've corrupted mankind. And by purify, I hateful shell the ever-loving crap out of them. This is a boss-rush game at its core, in a similar vein to something like Hyper Light Drifter, just with more fighting, platforming and puzzling sandwiched between these fights.

And this makes sense if we delve quickly into El Shaddai'southward slightly disruptive history. Information technology was directed by Sawaki Takeyasu, who was a graphic symbol designer on games including Devil May Weep and Okami. El Shaddai was originally fabricated at Ignition Studio, before Takeyasu's new studio, Crim, acquired the rights in 2013. Anyhow, the master takeaway here is that El Shaddai was formed in the fires of hack-n-slash.

Lucifel points to the sky in El Shaddai. — The story is compelling and is home to characters like Lucifel, a great bloke. Throughout the game you lot'll detect him informing the Lord of your progress on his mobile, and, when he's non manipulating space and time, he acts as a welcome save point.

At kickoff, El Shaddai's arena combat is a proper thrill. You slash, bash, or shoot enemies with three dissimilar weapons, each with their own movesets. The Curvation is a shiny saw that'due south quick and slashy, the Gale lets yous shoot enemies from distant, and the Veil is actually twin-fists that pack a boring, meaty punch. What'southward cool is that you don't accept these weapons on you at all times; you steal them from enemies mid-combat to switch things upwardly and proceeds the advantage.

Knock an enemy'southward wellness low plenty and they'll glow blue, letting you nab their weapon from them with a flourish. Non simply does it wait cool, information technology'due south a neat way of calculation a sense of prioritisation to El Shaddai'due south combat. You need to decide which enemy's weapon you'd similar to pilfer offset to help you deal with the second, and and so on. If all goes well, it creates a fluid chain of thievery.

It's a shame, then, that El Shaddai just reuses the aforementioned three enemies in its arena battles. And apart from the ability to enter a super-powered up mode later on, you lot don't get any new attacks or upgrades either. Honestly, I'd had information technology up to here with the same big round dude, the floaty dude, and the lanky dude well earlier the end. Many fights in the kickoff hour are identical to fights six hours in, and for such a combat-heavy game it genuinely wears you down.

Enoch dodges a huge bat boss in El Shaddai.

But El Shaddai is somewhat merciful even if y'all don't get on with its hacking and slashing. Enoch doesn't have a health bar - there's no HUD at all, for that affair - so y'all need to keep track of how much armour he's wearing. Take harm and information technology'll shatter off his body until he's left wearing only a pair of jeans. Become the denim knocked off you the screen starts going white, which is your cue to smash buttons to prevent death and secure a second, or 3rd, or fifty-fifty fourth chance at winning fights - without any repercussions. Yep, it takes more push-mashing each time you die, simply still, it's surprisingly forgiving.

These chances at everlasting life make El Shaddai's fights less engaging at the same fourth dimension, though. They eliminate whatever feeling of risk, a additive which could've spiced upwards these otherwise dry encounters. It'due south another shame like the repetitive boses, because in full flow, the combat is fluid and flashy with some fun ideas. But it only doesn't evolve plenty to go on things interesting later down the line.

Enoch swings his Arch blade at two enemies in El Shaddai. — This is a bones port with limited customisation options. You lot can switch between Japanese or English audio, which is prissy. Otherwise, the only graphics options you tin tinker with are screen resolution, V-Sync, and multisampling. Only Xbox controllers are supported, and don't even think about using a mouse and keyboard.

Thankfully, boss fights in El Shaddai are a different story. While y'all even so utilise the same combos and weapons, the game's large baddies bring some much-needed variety to this apocalyptic tale. You've got a existent mixture here, with some intimate fights against fallen angels that require quick reflexes, alongside bombastic battles against enormous, tentacled beings where patience is central. A existent standout for me was a fight against a gigantic Cheesetring that slowly flailed its podgy arms at me. I needed to time my jumps, or dash away at the final second to avoid being turned into paste.

There is actually another section that sees Enoch don a robo-suit, get a robo-cycle, and tear through a futuristic city. Information technology'south a blisteringly fast ride filled with mad mechasplosions and silly vehicle gainsay and proves to be an excellent switch-up. If only there were more weird bits like this! The platforming in El Shaddai is relatively simple, too, with basic moving bits you've got to spring to, or spikes y'all've got to avoid, either in 2d or 3D. The platforming does work well, and I especially enjoyed the 2D sections - information technology has gaps and puzzles that aren't that challenging, merely are spaced in ways that allow you build upward a satisfying momentum. Still, more than complication or variation would be prissy across the board.

Enoch jumps across crumbling platforms in El Shaddai.

Tell you lot what never lets-up though: El Shaddai'due south environments. This game is such a visual feast that at times it can feel similar you're playing through a bizarre advert for an exhibition of religious art. The game knows it likewise, as the camera switches to a 2d platforming perspective every bit y'all clamber up an celestial mural, or zooms out to help you accept in the enormity of a fallen city. Wispy ruins carved out of marshmallow; swirling multi-coloured portals straight out of TRON; towering statues; steps of glass. Cor, this game needs one of those tourist modes from Assassin's Creed, where you lot can merely platform around the world while learning nearly its history.

El Shaddai shines brightest when it matches the dazzler of its ever-changing environments with the same sort of variety in its boss battles, or platforming bits, or spectacular biking surprises. But all too often it stunts its ain momentum with a repetitive cycle of boring fights. If y'all're able to push past the tedium and relish the view, great! For the majority of players, though, these switch-ups are likely as well far and few between to hold their attention.