A unique crafting experience in a typical RPG setting proves for a good experience
When playing the pre-release version of Cornerstone: The Song of Tyrim I get the feeling that I’m 10 years old again, frankly this isn’t a good thing because I was the freakiest 10 year old that you could ever met (ever seen The Shining with those twins?!). It really is your typical platform RPG adventure game which I absolutely love with a few twists thrown into the equation. The website markets this game as inspired by The Legend of Zelda and frankly it’s pretty apparent right from the beginning. It’s compared to Zelda’s Wind-Waker with a hint of Dark Souls. Personally I don’t quite see the Dark Souls side of this game but there is a very heavy emphasis on Wind-Waker (which I loved by the way) where almost all aspects of it are either related or directly taken from the game.
The game is set in Viking times and follows a young lad by the name of Tyrim. He’s a simple kid (much like myself when I was that age) who wants nothing more than to laze around in his hometown, collecting mushrooms and building things. It’s pretty apparent that he wants nothing to do with typical Viking culture and has no intentions of leaving the town to go and marauder and pillage. The story kicks off when Tyrim is woken up from his slumber by his best friend (sounding familiar?). After a brief tutorial you find out that the Viking men of the village set sail and have yet to return. The town is worried and so is Tyrim as his father is among them, so after a few quests and a bit of story development you’re on your way to explore the current island and the many different islands surrounding it.
One of the unique features about this game is the simple and yet effective crafting system. When exploring you will come across new resources and when questing you will pick up new schematics to make things. You use these different items to create new armor, new weapons and new tools to help you progress with the story of the game. The example that I’ll use is relatively early on in the story, you pick up a quest to fight a skeleton in the basement, so you go to the top of a hill to learn how to fight, then craft your sword and shield using wood and go fight the skeleton. Once you finish fighting, you receive the schematic for a torch which can then be used to pick up another quest which see’s you burn a spider’s web, to receive a schematic for a hang glider which is then used to clear a chimney. The crafting system is pretty self explanatory. Collect resources and schematics to create new things, and frankly it’s not particularly challenging because the resources for this are everywhere.
It’s a system that is apparent in most games nowadays but it’s not something that games tend to use as their main way of story progression. It’s certainly not a bad thing and some times you’re required to use your head in order to figure out the best way to proceed with the rest of the quest. It adds a puzzle element to it, frankly the majority of the quests aren’t too difficult so they should pose no threat but still some of them can be a tad lengthy and tedious. Furthermore, it adds the ability to think outside the box when approaching combat, crafting the necessary tools to do the job. In some instances you will want to be a bit more agile and in order to do that you use different weapons and traps to accomplish your goal.
As I mentioned numerous time’s in this review, the game is heavily influenced by Wind-Waker and the graphics are representative of this. The game is somewhat cartoony, with the water being almost neon, the ability to see the wind, the grass being in short clumps and even a duck trophy which has a link hat on it. The developers (Overflow Games) have done a good job in creating the scenery and all of the assets of the game, there are lots of unique objects to play around with, pick up and throw and destroy. When you are creating a piece like this as well you have to ensure that your objects are Viking orientated and this is apparent from the beginning of the game.
The sound is pretty charming and the sound effects and background music are all relevant of their appropriate time period. The score is original and adds a nice atmosphere to the entire game. All in all there’s not too much to say about the music other than it fits well, adds to the game and is appropriate which is really all that is required with a game like this.
Although the game is still in development there are some definite things that can be improved upon. The battle system, whilst entertaining can be somewhat jumpy and whilst the controls are relatively simple, it can be tricky to get a hang of. It’s more or less taken from Zelda, but with a few additions including a stealthy approach, the ability to make suitable weapons and armors and to make your own traps.
Furthermore the questing system can be horrendous at times. You have access to a map which shows the area and when you pick up quests you can go and view your objective but there’s no real way to actually see where you’re supposed to go, leaving a blank page for the player to fill out. This can be interpreted in one of two ways, it can be a good thing as it allows the player to make their own story and to find their own routes. Personally, I don’t feel it’s a good thing. Whilst a game should ultimately let you play it in the way that you want to play it, it should still offer some guidelines and directions as where to go. I’m not saying to make a game easy and pinpoint the exact location, but allowing some kind of waypoint or guide would certainly help.
To conclude, the game certainly won’t be winning any game of the year awards. That being said it’s not a bad game, but it’s a game which has (in a sense) already been released. It tries too hard to be Zelda and frankly it’s a little depressing that developers who have created something which has real potential haven’t tried to be as unique as they could be, especially when they have the skill to create something as good as they have. Keeping in mind what I’ve said above, the unique aspects of this game are really what makes it so special and the developers have done a fantastic job making a simple and effective crafting system which is not only fun to use but also interesting to see how it’s used in the first place.
The game offers much to it’s general audience, a lovely soundtrack, some nice puzzles, a great open world experience and a unique crafting system which is really one of most liked things about it. I’d recommend a demo version to people who are fans of the adventure RPG genre as it’s a game which is frankly hit or miss. For me it did the trick, but there are certainly improvements that could be made to make this game into a truly amazing experience.
Cornerstone: The Song of Tyrim is currently due out for release on 26th April 2016.
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