Over the last few years, Souls-like games have become more common. The challenging gameplay that only the gamers who seek true challenges normally go for. Then we had Lord of the Fallen that made the Soul-like mechanic a little bit easier and not so scary. Recently other games have found a happy medium to where it is challenging but not to the point of Dark Souls challenging. That’s the category you find yourself in with Shattered – Tale of the Forgotten King. I came across this indie game on Steam last week and loved the concept. Recently the game has just been fully released and this is my review covering my time playing this game.
The old world is gone and with it the disappearance of the King. You must reforge reality in this action RPG through skill-based combat, innovative open-world platforming and the testimonies of survivors to uncover the mysteries of this world. This indie title plays like Dark Souls and Bloodborne but is a lot more forgiving. You will come across difficult enemies but for the most part, you can find your feet and progress with little to no problems.
The game is easy to pick up and play and right from the get-go you get a little tutorial that gets you started on your journey. Though when you get to the combat section it starts to feel clunky and there is room for improvements. For example, the parry feature feels off as the timing is weird. Sometimes you can land a good parry and get in the fatal blows but other times it misses and then you get killed due to it feeling buggy and unfinished. I find myself just spamming the dodge button and then attack rather than using the parry feature as I’m worried it wouldn’t always work. You can craft and upgrade weapons and yourself at various location in the world and like Dark Souls killing the enemies grant you the resources you need to level up and progress. The different bosses are amazing and the skill-based combat is enjoyable at times.
I don’t mind open-world games but Shattered doesn’t give you a clear direction on where to go, you just feel yourself traversing the world trying to piece together what’s happened and whether you’re going the right way. I didn’t really like this and would have preferred a more linear missions’ objective system that tells me where to go rather than just wondering the game’s world.
The NPC are cool and offer dialogue, trading and crafting to aid you on your journey as well as giving you snippets of story. They help build the lore for the game and uncover the mystery of what has happened and who your character is.
Graphically the game looks good, the main character is awesome and the open-world elements are interesting. I like the platforming parts of the game but at times the camera angles do make it awkward to play and have even caused me to die during combat. There are several incidents where I have glitched through the map or have been flung from one location to another while performing certain attacks which is very frustrating to die out of the blue. I feel that the game could use a little polishing to help finish it off.
Shattered – Tale of the Forgotten King is over 30+ hours of gameplay, if you wanted to play multiple playthroughs then you could but once you have played through it once I think you will get the jest of the game and would only really play through it again if you enjoyed the game’s story and gameplay. Personally, it is one of those games that you enjoy playing through the first time but then will feel subpar the second time around.
Closing Statement
Redlock Studio has made an enjoyable gaming experience using a genre that appeals to quite a lot of gamers. Though it does come with its flaws like buggy gameplay, unpolished combat mechanics and Redlock Studio has made an enjoyable gaming experience using a genre that appeals to quite a lot of gamers. Though it does come with its flaws like buggy gameplay, unpolished combat mechanics and the feeling that you’re not progressing with the game. I have watch playthroughs on top of my own experience and found that people have done things in a different order than me, found items that I didn’t even know were there and just gone about things differently. That’s not all a bad thing but does make me wonder what else I might have missed while playing. The combat is fun and simple but buggy at times and the difficult for me is just right. It’s nice to see another original idea instead of a remaster or remake and this indie title is worth checking out if you are into souls-like games and RPGs. For these reasons I’m giving Shattered – Tale of the Forgotten King a 7 out of 10.
Shattered – Tale of the Forgotten King is available on PlayStation 4, PC, and Xbox One
This review is based on the PC version of the game which can be purchased here for £19.49
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