A review of The Last Oricru, more than a missed opportunity: a large-scale disaster

On paper, Son Oricru is nothing more than the perfect square between different art and level design trends that have impacted the design, development and realization of most of the productions that have entered the market in the last fifteen years. a certain kind of ambition.

Generally speaking, in fact, the first work of the Czech team Golden Knights The ideal meeting point between Mass Effect and Dark Souls can be described above all as an artistically recognizable interweaving of sci-fi elements such as futuristic-looking gadgets immersed in a pretty classic fantasy context between castles. , swords, shields and spells.

The game, on the other hand, is a scheme now quite familiar to fans of the genre, with the lesson taught by FromSoftware productions, with potentially deadly conflicts decided by sensible attacks and timely dodges, but in this case, it’s rejected. A fictional world far from cryptic, but willing to reveal and reveal itself in movies, dialogues with NPCs, multiple choices and alignment changes that will greatly affect the course of the story, leading to situations and situations. as a result, very different endings between them, closely linked to the decisions made by the player during the game.

Dark Souls that fully meets Mass Effect. An action-RPG where you decide which side to stand on and how to complete your mission. It couldn’t get any better than this, right? False. Why? Review by The Last Oricru Whichever way you look at it, it speaks of a failure, of a catastrophe that, for the wrong reasons, would of course yield more than uncontrollable laughter.

It is forbidden to take yourself seriously

Silver, the seemingly unlikely hero, is the abusive and irreverent forgetful of this story. Awakened from a cryogenic slumber on an alien planet, along with a few other humans on the surface of Wardenia, thanks to the futuristic arch surrounding her life, she’s basically negative. Sure, he may suffer the blows of opposing swords, but he will always come back to life near some brilliant mechanism no more and no less than the bonfires of The Last Oricru, where bottles will be refilled for life to heal. and level up, let those who try to oppose him try endless times to get better.

Enemies often change their faces, as in any episode of Game of Thrones, because as expected, it will be you. decide whose side you will be on and which side to support with significant changes in the progression itself, as some areas may eventually prove to be full of enemies or allies, and you may find yourself immediately having to clash swords with those you consider worthy. Friend.

This feature, despite encountering a paradox from time to time, works so well on paper and in practice that it manages to be a success in its own right. History not very interesting in itself, sometimes obvious, portrayed by a cast in which very few figures stand out from the others.

By simply analyzing narrative sector, in fact, problems can be seen at all levels. The power games for planetary control between Naboru and the Broken Army, marked by Ratkins’ fierce rebellion, featuring the ever-slave anthropomorphic rats, offer who knows what twists and aren’t open to specific thematic insights worth it. note .

Everything, even everything, is drawn to the not always bright irony of Silver, who, thanks to the immortality guaranteed by the belt, never misses the opportunity to angrily answer his interlocutors. Occasionally we laugh out loud at our insolence, but most of the time a sometimes childish scenario and spooky films, incomprehensible directorial choices, and glitches that ruin even the few dramatic moments the plot had intended to deliver to the audience. For example, we witness a complete mismatch between the image and the sound, not to mention the frequent mismatch between the facial expressions of the characters and the dubbing.

The feeling of being in front of an amateur product made with scarce resources and novice personnel is exacerbated, and now let’s talk about it for tooth extraction. graphics industry absolutely insufficient. Not only would The Last Oricru have a gaming look for the current console generation, it would risk disfiguring even on the PlayStation 3.

While there isn’t a lack of evocative panorama, you’ll often find yourself navigating between low-res textures and hilarious animated polygonal models, with poorly detailed settings with silly and slow motion that makes you doubt that everything is okay. wanted effect. Between buginterlacing between polygons and an absolutely dancing framerate, just so you don’t miss anything, everything is done so badly that it drastically affects the gameplay.

Slow motion Dark Souls

Yes, GameplayAnother aspect where Son Oricru doesn’t particularly shine is, to put it mildly.

Generally, as mentioned, it’s a matter of exploring various environments, eliminating enemies, possibly completing secondary quests, leveling up, talking to characters who want to do it, being ready for a possible multiple choice. Neither more nor less.

There character management, needless to say, follows Dark Souls almost perfectly. Almost every object contains bonuses and defects in various statistics; this is a feature that requires an extra moment of practice to equip yourself with dignity without negatively affecting the parameters necessary to use weapons and armor correctly, but other than that. The content and originality are partial momentum, the rest continues on known paths.

Returning to the above respawn points You can level up, deepen knowledge with recorded messages, activate certain skills. There is a weight limit for equipment worn, it’s important to model Silver with a build in mind to make it as efficient as possible, nearly all weapons have special attacks that require mana drain. From this perspective, if any important news is missing, at least GoldKnights can be considered for doing the homework well, thanks to the huge amount of salvageable loot on the battlefield that makes it interesting to look for the best combination. .

It is a pity that the efforts made have been largely in vain. Yes, because playing The Last Oricru is really little fun. Commenting on the technical sector of the game, we have already mentioned what the main flaws of the production are, but there are worse.

Super slow animations make it extremely easy to avoid enemy shots. control system you lose a few hits occasionally and it’s very woody. Between the instant saves that literally blocked the game for a few precious moments, and the dodge that sometimes simply didn’t activate, we definitely didn’t fix our bugs in some games.

Also, the game tends to be unnecessarily scattered. In case of duplicate settings and the absence of any maps or compass, it can wander around the scenario for tens of minutes as adequate and precise indications are not provided for the next step.

If nothing else, electoral system it really works. Although in some cases paradoxical situations are achieved by very sudden and drastic changes in alignment, the plot really takes significantly different directions depending on the decisions made and the success or failure of certain missions.

To put a patch on the experience, partnership, online and locally. The game doesn’t magically repair itself and the graphics don’t get any improvements either, but at least progress with a friend becomes more enjoyable thanks to some moves that can be specially activated with the cooperation of both players.