Publisher: Tri Synergy
Publisher 2: Cenega
Developer: BLACK ELEMENT
Category: Adventure
Release Dates
N Amer - 10/01/2004
Intl - 10/12/2004
Shade: Wrath of Angels Review
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It's been a while since we had a good Tomb Raider
style game come down the pipe that had both the excitement of exploration and
thrills of combat seamlessly meshed together. Well it appears that we will
need to wait a while longer. Shade: Wrath of Angels is a game that initially
seems like it may fill this gaming void, it eventually does not.
When I first loaded Shade in, I was treated to a
fairly ample training course, showing you what to expect the game to be and
how to maneuver through it, and truth be told I played the first 90 or so
minutes with a growing appreciation of the game as a whole. But as I
continued on I found that the game had peaked for me and the rest of the time
I spent playing was me basically going down the other side of the proverbial
mountain. Don't worry, there are some redeeming things in the game and I will
play fair and tell what I did and did not like about the game.
First off, like I said, the tutorial section of
the game did a nice job of laying out how the game works. It was part of the
opening sequence with the main character (an essentially nameless man) who
drifts in and out of sleep, each time he nods off another "learn how to..."
type sequence occurs. Once the sequence ends, the game starts and you find
yourself reading a letter that your brother "B" has sent to you from a
nameless Eastern European city, asking you to join him at an archeological dig
that will restore his good name in the scientific community. Having been
several years since you last spoke with your brother you hop aboard a train
and arrive in your city of destination.
OK, so, so far so good, the plot has been laid out
to you and the graphics and training sequence all seem to be pretty cool,
but then...
Once you get off the train you find yourself in an
abandoned older town (where the letter came from). So running around the town
which has a fairly decent amount of detail my first disappointment came. With
as lush as the town appears, and the fact you can run around and jump on some
objects, there was no real sense of exploration. I guess I was looking for
something the game designers weren't making in terms of game outline. For
example, if I arrived in a small town and found the whole place abandoned,
would I be able to walk into the cafe and look around, maybe see that
something sinister was afoot? Maybe look inside peoples homes and pick up
some useful items? But here, nothing, no real exploration right out of the
box.
Back to the game, I find myself arriving at the
hotel that I was told to go to in the letter. How did I know it was the
hotel? It was the only door in the entire town that would open. At the front
desk, a note for me instructing me to go up to a room and get an item. In
doing so I go to the third floor and have a couple of "visions" of the hotel
on fire and monsters wandering the halls. Once I reach the room the "item" I
was supposed to find turns out to be a handgun.
Alright, so pause and think about this for a
second, you arrive in a town you've never been at, see absolutely no one
anywhere, find a note on the hotel counter addressed to you, have a couple of
very strange visions involving flames AND monsters and find a .44 magnum on
the bed in a hotel room that's been left for me. The programmers so had me,
they could have pressed me over the edge, at that point I was just waiting
to be scared, some new clever way to make me jump. The ambiance had been laid
out, the situation certainly spooky, but no. And in looking back, this is
where Cenega (the game developers) could have sealed the deal with me as the
player. Needless to say, me being brought to the edge ended up being a pretty
big let down as there was no scare and no further tension ratcheting.
I don't need to tell you anymore about what the
game is about other then you do start getting involved with an ancient
prophecy and four angels. One of whom bestows a demon servant to help you
along with your quest to right the ethereal wrongs that have been committed
and save your brother by chasing ancient evil across various planes of
existence. Blah, blah, blah, we've all heard it and seen it before.
Combat was done fairly easy once I configured my
keyboard to my liking. There is both melee and ranged "real time" combat and
it took me a few trial and error battles to get it down right. You do receive
a magical sword that is good for hacking up monsters and will show you new
moves as you get better with it. But the cleverest note on the sword is that
when equipped, you can drive it into the ground when certain areas are found
and it will heal you. The camera angle is certainly not your friend in the
game at some points. Being it's a 3rd person view adventure game, when
walking into a smaller room or tight alleyway, the view jitters do occur and
that led to some frustration. You learn the "block" button in this game quite
quickly.
The game will have you hanging from ledges,
sliding down ropes, climbing ladders and doing all sorts of things that will
remind some of a certain female adventurer, but where Lara Croft has a certain
flair or panache, your character seems very dour and unlikable. Even when
face to face with an honest to goodness angel, he still seems like a jerk
rather then a hero who has no choice but to save his brother and the world. I
stated before that you end up having a demon in your bag of tricks.
Essentially, when needed, you activate the demon and he takes your place in
the game. There is a time gauge that starts decreasing, making your time as
the demon only finite. You can pick up bits of magic scattered throughout the
game and it increases the time gauge but since you only really need the demon
for short periods anyways, I'm not sure why the time gauge was even added to
the game. The demon it turns out, is a very strong fellow who can push and
pull very heavy items, like giant steel blocks. Because even though giant
steel blocks aren't found very often here in the States, they apparently must
fall from the sky over in Europe and need to be muscled around in order to
move forward in your quest.
Gameplay: 7.0
Not especially challenging, I beat up a Game Boy
game a while back for using the tired "move block" puzzle as a form of play
and here we are on a PC title that is doing the same. Sometimes the character
movements are clunky, but nothing I couldn't play with.
Graphics: 5.8
While the environments are done suitably, the
camera angle problems are just old, we've been having 3rd person camera
problems on games for years. Time to fix it folks, it won't go away.
Monsters were merely OK, not much in terms of
color, and originality. Zombies aren't scary if they are slow, or dressed up
in medieval armor.
Audio: 4.5
Wow, bad voice acting. The main character comes
off as a jerk even when he's saying things that would normally not be jerk-ish.
The background music needed to be either scarier or more gothic. The clang of
weapon on weapon was done alright, but then now I seem to be complimenting
remedial sound effects, how could they not have decent clang. I've got decent
clang on my Instant messenger.
Difficulty Medium/Low
I kicked the bucket several times from both my own
inability to jump onto a small ledge and by the monster. But I never found
that point where I was saying "I can't beat this" after two or three tries.
Concept: 6.4
It is a fairly borrowed idea were talking here.
Sure the whole "angel" thing gives it a new spin, but anyone whose played
their share of games won't find new and exciting ground to walk here. I liked
the man/demon switching, but that just happened in the game "The Suffering".
Overall: 5.6
There are many other games that are far better
that fall into this sort of genre. This one treads the line between
action/adventure and survival horror with not enough of either. You could
play Undying, Alice or Tomb Raider and have a better time with those titles,
and they are several years old. My recommendation is to not pick this one up.
Shade: Wrath of Angels Comments (0)
GameZone Review Detail
| Gameplay | 7 |
| Graphics | 5.8 |
| Sound | 4.5 |
| Difficulty | Med/Easy |
| Concept | 6.4 |
| Overall | 5.6 |
5.6
GZ Rating
Avg. Web Rating
4.4
ESRB Rating
