Sorcery. Finally. Where we get to flick our wrists to unleash balls of fury or icy bolts, as we take you through a review. We’ve been made to wait quite a bit for the game considering we first saw it a couple of years ago at E3. And when Sony ultimately launched its own motion gaming controller, the PS Move, there were few titles that fully encapsulated its functionality. There were fewer still that had the mettle to get gamers on the console really excited about the Move. Casual sports were not meant to satiate a core audience. And while Socom 4 gave PS3 owners a taste of what was to come, if only partially, Ape Escape and PlayStation Move Heroes weren’t quite up to the mark.
Developed by The Workshop and Sony’s Santa Monica Studio exclusively for the PS3, the Move title puts players in the driving seat as a sorcerer’s apprentice, Finn, who’s just discovering his place in the realm of magic and the extent of his abilities. As he battles the dark forces set afoot by Lady Everfair, help comes in the strangest of forms, including a portly, over-Russianized alchemist. The game takes players on a journey into the mysterious Faerie dimensions and transforms a simple farm boy clutching a twisted twig into a powerful spell-wielding mini-wizard.
The game throws in elements of action-adventure titles and shakes everything up with a dose of Move functionality. Exploration is crucial if you are to bump up your arsenal quickly. And with the amount of upgrades available, you better keep a hawk eye out for the many treasure chests and other ‘gold mines.’ Several upgrades are purely cosmetic though, like turning the teenaged protagonist into a pumpkin or encasing him in a block of ice. Gameplay consists mainly of exploring environments and dueling with the game’s numerous minions apart from more than a few challenging ‘bosses.’
One of the bases Sony seems to have covered perfectly is the periodic dulling prevalent in many titles. Just when certain gameplay mechanisms start to feel old and rickety, Sony delivers a thunderbolt or two and Finn receives a combat upgrade or the ability to turn into a rat of all things. The descent into a downward spiral is staved off just that much longer.
Gameplay is a bit limited when compared with other titles, but the developers try to infuse several dynamic elements into the game, extending Sorcery’s fun quotient. Not only does the peripheral require you gain command over creating potions, it also allows you to attack different targets with varying types of sweeping motions. Bending bolts around obstacles to get to targets is strangely pleasing. And while creating potions is fun at first, in time, and with over 50 potions to brew, the visual mechanic gets monotonous. A quick brew feature would have helped considerably.
Consuming a Polymorph potion, gives Finn the ability to escape along cliff-like corridors and scurry up ropes, reaching places that would otherwise be inaccessible. As you gather potion ingredients and upgrades in the form of spell nexus, the game gets more interesting, with more variations possible in battle. You travel into realms previously unheard-of, all along facing new types of enemies – bogies, spiders, shamans, sylphs – and each must be met with a different spell or a combination of arcane mastery.
The manner in which certain game elements are brought out through gameplay lacks depth, and at this time it seems that Move functionality actually hampers storytelling. You’d think that the game’s story would go a little deeper, what with the theme and the game being in development that long. There are no shockers, no plot twists. Nothing much that has you on edge in terms of story.
Environments in the game are alright. They are vast and although their fabric has been intertwined with certain puzzle elements, there’s nothing too LOTR to talk about. A lot of it is inaccessible and can’t be destroyed. A major part of the game’s environ is simply there for aesthetic effect. In that respect, Sorcery is not that unlike Ratchet & Clank: A Crack in Time, but dare we say the Insomniac Engine v4.0 seems to have done a better job.
The musical score, not making its way into gameplay to much effect, fills the game’s menus and loading screens. It can be visualized as Prince of Persia meets The Departed meets Kung Fu Panda. Part mystical. And part modern? We think so. The voice work seems misplaced and the years very visibly leak through the adolescent voices.
You can’t really have another go at the game and expect anything to take you by surprise. So in terms of replayability you are left wanting. Everything about Sorcery is extremely linear; the environments, the story, the pot calling the kettle African American. Everything! When you’ve maxed out a few of Finn’s spells and defeated all that the game throws your way, coming back won’t seem like the best option. Although another playthrough at a higher difficulty setting should force you to mix appropriate attacking and defensive tactics, or perish.
Now what of an online component? It would be breathtaking to have all those sorcerers conjuring up all sorts of arcane chaos. It would be anarchy! Sadly there isn’t such a mode. And for now you’ll have to make do with a rather annoying little cat for a companion.
The Final Word: In Sorcery, PS3 gamers finally have a Move-enabled titled worthy of the motion-control gaming peripheral. On the other hand, complete integration means inescapable gameplay limitations. A very linear delivery pulls it down a few pegs and the storytelling doesn’t really live up to what we’ve come to expect of the fantasy theme. But the game still manages to capture audiences and immerse the player in a world between worlds.
Gameplay: 7.5/10
Graphics: 8/10
Story: 6.5/10
Environments: 7.5/10
Game Sounds: 7/10
Overall (not an average): 7.5/10