The train of nostalgia continues to run undeterred in this particular phase of our videogame life, with the seats of the first carriages that one after the other were occupied by sacred monsters returned in great fanfare with remake or remastered (such as Residen Evil 2 , or the Crash Bandicoot and Spyro trilogies to name a few). To deal with the resurrection of ours Sir Daniel Fortesque this time it was Other Ocean Emeryville, which with this remake of MediEvil can stamp your ticket like never before. It has been known for quite a while that we will not be dealing with a new game, and that the features of this new edition will be almost the same as the original 1998 title. nostalgia factor to give that added value to production, a value that, despite everything, has neither shape nor price. Waiting for the title to hit the shelves on October 25th exclusively for PlayStation 4, here is our review!
Welcome back to Gallowmere
The ancient nightmare of the realm of Gallowmers is back. Zarok, the ruthless sorcerer who lived in the city, envious of the happiness and kindness of the population, armed himself with a huge army of demons to conquer the entire kingdom. Legends say that the King's champion, Sir Daniel Fortesque, was able to clear away the demons and eventually save the realm by defeating Zarok. However, it will take very little to understand how legends have blunted the truth and how events have been misrepresented. However, a hundred years after these events, the era of peace that has come to an end, with the sorcerer proving capable of bringing ancient corpses back to life from the underground, while the world of the living is corrupted by his evil power. But even Sir Fortesque ends up being brought back to life by this immense power, and is now more than ever ready to take his revenge and become the true hero whose deeds are told. Our adventure, which you most likely know well, will therefore start from crypt of the champion, who slowly begins to equip himself and improve his skills, embarking on a journey that will lead him to the hiding place of his enemy and the inevitable final confrontation.
In playful terms, we are in front of the classic third-person action with predefined levels that we will be able to play even more than once (perhaps to get objects that we were unable to win at the first run). Even if at a quick initial glance the experience seems to rest on a classic "corridor" structure, some levels offer "pleasant" more open areas, which will have to be explored to obtain certain objects, all without ever leading even remotely into a open world. In almost all levels it will be possible to obtain a cup which, filled with the souls of fallen enemies, we will be able to bring to the Hall of Heroes in order to obtain weapons and useful objects from the statues of our old comrades in arms. But be careful, getting it will never be a walk and it will not be enough just to kill the enemies, because often to reach it we will have to solve environmental puzzles or the like. Always appreciable the fights, with even the simplest monsters to reflect a concrete threat, And the boss battle each time different where you will play everything for everything ... penalty, start the level from the beginning.
Remember that if you download and play the demo of the title (available for free on the PlayStation Store), you will get an object in game: it is theDaniel's helmet, which if equipped will make you play the title by enhancing the enemies, which will become even more tough and lethal!
Dan's point of view
Even if on a playful level the production has remained anchored to the general experience already seen in the past, the modern technical sector manages to bridge the fine line between fantasy and imagination that we lived on PlayStation 1, showing us with today's eyes what we already saw ( or rather, which we thought we saw) at the time. The changes were in fact made above all in the management of images and the HUD, refining the inventory box and the health and shield indicators. Clearly the graphics sector, at today's level, offered many more possibilities than one could ever have imagined, and the adjustment made by Other Ocean did justice to the brand name with the support for 4K.
However, it was something else that made us turn up our noses: keeping the title faithful is certainly a good move if the audience is made up of only nostalgics, but we can say that the generational change was only half successful. Some of the flaws from which the game was plagued on PS1 have inevitably been transposed, without however refreshing the technical side sufficiently (now with fewer limits). An example is linked to the movement of Sir Daniel, not always accurate to the thousandth and that on more than one occasion he will see us stuck in some narrow space (maybe even just hitting an edge) for no apparent reason. Furthermore, the management of the camera has proved to be the real “skeleton's heel” in some maps, perhaps disorienting us in moments that are, to say the least, crucial. Icing on the cake, failure to insert the target lock, which would have actualized a production of this gerere to say the least.
The difficulty of the title has remained almost unchanged, resulting only slightly more affordable than we remembered (or maybe we just grew up ed.). What made us curse was instead the management of checkpoints (practically non-existent) which in recent years have earned the nickname “soulslike ante litteram” for this title; Fortunately, however, to streamline the experience there is the feature linked to the auto-save, totally automatic every time we finish a level.
The audio sector turns out to be one of the best things, with one soundtrack really important registered again from scratch by the Prague Symphony Orchestra flanked by a dubbing team worthy of great occasions. The original audio sees Jason wilson reprise his role as Sir Dan e Lani Minella as a narrator. Clearly the title, given its importance and wide demand, has also been localized completely in Spanish (including dubbing), which further increases its appeal. Gem after gem, with sound effects taken up by foot (and cleaned up for the occasion), MediEvil net of its limits is confirmed as a title suitable for all players, as long as you come to terms with some curse and some smudging.
