Medievil: Resurrection is a remake of the original Medievil title that was released on the PS1 in 1999. The title was Sony’s ode to the classic series, Ghosts and Goblins, but where the later was sharp and challenging, Medievil was quite clumsy. In reality, not much has changed.
Medievil: Resurrection rekindles the gamer’s relationship with Sir Dan Fortesque. A literal one-eyed skeleton wearing armour and sporting a goofy grin. The game starts by telling the story of how the evil sorcerer Zarok had terrorised the land by performing various experiements with the living and the dead, as well as creating an undead army. Apparently, Sir Dan had fought Zarok, beat him and become a hero. However, 100 years after this (and presently), Zarok has come back to terrorise the land. Sir Dan has been long dead but he is brought back to life in order to return and do the job properly this time. Properly? Well, in truth, Sir Dan was actually a coward who was killed long before he could get to Zarok. So he’s effectively been given a second chance to live up to his legend.
Welcome to far North Queensland
In general, the overall premise of the game doesn’t take itself too seriously. It is laced with sarcasm and dark humour but in a manner that is clever and avoids being tasteless. This is driven by the many lines of cleverly written dialogue and the large amount of voicing is paramount to an excellent delivery. While the story comes across in a standard manner, the humour is a least entertaining to anyone more accepting of clever British-style jokes.
Gameplay-wise, Medievil: Resurrection plays a very important role. While some issues are not up to par, the game represents (what is possibly) the most successful conversion of 3-D console adventure gaming on portable so far. However, while some of the errors can be negligible for some games, the errors in Medievil get to the point where forgiveness can be very difficult.
Though the game does have some solid foundations. Based off the 3-D roaming platformers that were quite popular on the PS1, Medievil sticks to the tried formula. While there isn’t that much jumping, there certainly is a lot of roaming. With the game divided into several levels, each level consists of rune/item collection and simple puzzle solving. Runes act like keys, while some items are required as keys or sometimes to solve a situation. It’s relatively standard stuff, but it can take a while to get through. For example, there may be two paths. You head down one to find that it’s locked, hence the other one holds the key.
Regardless of how standard or straightforward this may seem, the game delivers two huge flaws. The first is that it does a poor job of indicating where to go next or what you need to do. Often you’re thrown into a scenario with little idea of what to do. After seemingly endless wandering, you’ll eventually figure it out to be one of the simplest things imaginable. The second is that it’s way too easy to get to the end of a level and miss crucial items that need to be collected. The thing is, often it really isn’t the fault of the gamer but from archaic and faulty design. These kinds of problems are out of place in 2005.
Shooting giant effigies is generally not reccomended
Combat is crucial aspect of the game. Too bad that the ball was fumbled here. You’ve got a great mix of weapons, both melee and ranged. One-handed weapons that allow a shield to be equipped as well, to damaging two-handed swords and hammers, to bows and spears and even a couple of special ones. Basically, most are weapons that you’d expect from a medieval-themed game. Each weapon has a normal strike, a stronger strike and some have a dash. Holding down the corresponding button leads to a charge up. To add to that, all melee weapons have a small set of combos.
The issue here is that the combat on goes half-way. Combos and weapons are nice but they count for little if the overall mechanics aren’t up to scratch. While slow and single enemies are very easy to take on, once you get into situations with faster, numerous or ranged enemies, it becomes clear that things are as they should be. It even can get to a point where a tactical approach is not enough. On top of that, enemies are so damn stupid, that the only thing that they can resort to charging you head on.
This exposes a further two issues. It is notoriously difficult to time you swing or shots to hit an enemy on time. Often this results in consistent damage to the player. Though strangely, enemies will lose interest in you and back off after a bit of dodging. And despite the fact that you’ve probably heard it a million times before, the lock-on system here just doesn’t hold up to most situations. One-on-on and scenarios where the camera is fixed are absolutely fine. But add a few enemies, open areas and some sneaking up behind and you have clumsy heaven. Sometimes it holds up but there are too many occasions where you are desperately clicking the right shoulder-button just to lock-on to something. The fact that it is almost impossible to hit enemies at range, that aren’t standing perfectly still, underlies the problems.
You'd expect a maggot problem ... but this is ridiculous!
It’s a real shame because with a bit more effort, it could’ve been somewhat enjoyable. Instead, a player is forced to resort to a couple of dodgy and repetitive tactics just to stay alive. At least the one-on-one boss fights work reasonably well. By this we mean that if you’re good enough, you can make it through unscathed. However, it seems that they have a little too much health and most require a sit-back-and-wait-for-exposure tactic.
While the game is in full 3-D, you have the option of either using the d-pad or the analog nub. Though since the d-pad is about as effective as a fish on a bicycle, most will probably stick to the analog nub. It isn’t too bad either. It’s a little on the loose side but it works well enough. Except when you try and start completing some of the few platforming puzzles. Dan has a silly, floaty jump, along with over sensitive response to analog movements, that make it way too easy to miss the platform your jumping to. The camera is underdeveloped to say the least. While it will obediently stay behind you if you’re only going forward and it works best in rooms that have fixed angles. Generally the camera struggles in enclosed spaces that aren’t fixed, when you’re against a wall or attempting to stave off several enemies. If this weren’t a significant portion of the game, it would probably be fine. To top it off, there is no way to manually look around, something that would’ve helped if it had been implemented.
On a positive note, Medievil has over 70 mini-games that can be accessed throughout the game and a small but functional multiplayer. The mini-games are nothing really new, they consist of games like shooting targets, whacking pop-ups, defending things, gathering things and so forth. They’re surprisingly addictive and in the very least, playable. The multiplayer consists of a couple of races, nothing substantial but it works. The mini-games and multiplayer are entirely exclusive to the PSP. As far as a remake goes, the entire game is relatively intact (not quite the Resident Evil treatment) but there have been slight additions and changes throughout. They mainly go towards making a beefier experience.
One of over 70 mini-games
The highlight of the game is probably its visuals. They’re probably the closest to actual current PS2 graphics running off the PSP. It’s amazing the amount of details, textures and solid models have been crammed into this game. Not to mention the game has a fantastic sense of style, even if it is somewhat of an acquired taste. There are a great set of animations, with Sir Dan in the very least looking like he moves very well. Not to mention, most of the locales are quite varied. Despite most of the game being played in a dark setting, there’s still plenty to see and the CG cut-scenes are the best for the PSP so far. At times, some wall textures look a bit underdone but the bit hurter is the frame-rate. Rather than being erratic as some bad games are, it’s just constantly reduced. There aren’t many occasions that the rate is smooth, but on the flip-side, there aren’t many that bring gameplay to a halt. Is this the sacrifice for top graphics?
Sound-wise, the game features an excellent set of voice casting. The voicing is indeed the highlight of the game’s presentation. Not only are they well done and completely believable, but they do an excellent job on conveying the games light-heated nature. That and it’s all done with clever, cuss-free dialogue. Believe it or not, it can still be funny without swearing. Sound effects work and the music, while thematically it works, it simply isn’t brought forth in a grand enough scale to make as great an impact as the voices.
While substantial errors have been made during the course of the development of Medievil: Resurrection and there have been much better portable adventures (re: Zelda), there is enough here to suggest that 3-D adventures can and will be viable, if not successful on the PSP. It’s nothing new, but Medievil actually does a decent job of providing item hunting and evil smack-down on the go. The game has instant saves and very, very quick load times so it actually isn’t that bad a portable titles either. Regardless, as a game that you’d want to lay out a significant portion of this week’s earnings, errors and problems all of a sudden become much more serious.
Not even a mother would love this face
Medievil: Resurrection is a fantastic looking and sounding. It truly pushes the PSP’s power limits and actually comes off showing that you can have games that look like PS2 games on the go. However, the 3-D gameplay only manages to make it halfway. The movement, camera and combat simply aren’t up to scratch and some design elements are oddly ancient. Regardless, it is still possible to yield an enjoyable experience from a game that has enough going for it, especially for those who missed the initial outings. As a game, Medievil struggles. As a package, it still struggles but manages to be somewhat forgivable.
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