It’s time to choose; save the girl, destroy space and time, or sit down and read this review.
Developer: Spearhead Games
Price: $14.99
Platform: PC, PS4
MonsterVine was supplied with PC copy for review
Action role playing games (or ARPG’s) are primarily known for their frenetic combat, deep skill trees and only a fleeting interest in a little thing called “story.” However, Spearhead Games has endeavoured to flip that paradigm on its head and create a hack ‘n slash experience embedded within a romping tale of high flying action and adventure. With the power to choose your own destiny, the tale is yours to tell, and then retell once you realise that you made horrible, horrible, mistakes.
Narration and music that feels like it has been transplanted from the Trine series sets the magical and heroic tone. You play as Reynardo, a retired pirate fox, who inadvertently comes into possession of a book with mysterious powers. After his swift demise at the hands of an evil emperor however, he soon realises that, apart from not being dead, he has the ability to change the decisions he made along the way. Here lies the primary concept behind Stories: The Path Of Destinies (from now on referred to as Stories). Each time you play through the branching narrative you are able to take different paths through the linear story. Whether you save a friend or hunt down a mystical weapon, each has vastly different events and outcomes. Although, making the wrong decisions is necessary to unlock certain “truths” that will lead you to the best and final outcome.
These narrative paths are told through illustrated pages and dialogue spouted from your character as you rampage through levels. The combat is fast and acrobatic as Reynardo pounces from target to target swinging his sword and countering attacks, similar in feel to the recent Batman: Arkham games. Unfortunately underneath all the flash is just fizzle. Your dastardly proficient moves are made primarily by mashing the attack button and moving the left stick in the direction of an enemy. There is a small amount of depth added to this combat kiddie pool as you unlock new abilities, however the tried and true “mash attack button” strategy never failed me during my entire playthrough. Although there are no other weapons or gear available, you do pick up resources from chests hidden down alternate paths. These are put towards upgrading your sword and forging new ones with elemental properties (fire, ice and wind). While having associated combat abilities they also act as keys to doors scattered throughout the levels. Only later in the game once you have collected and crafted the relevant sword do you get access to the items and/or shortcut hidden behind.
There are about 10 different locations in total, however, as you replay the story paths you will be revisiting them a number of times. Their design is complex and makes great use of vertical space. Not only does this add more density to the levels linear paths, but the vistas below the floating islands or fleet of skyships is gorgeous to look at; something you don’t often see being used in games with an isometric view. While the cartoon style and anthropomorphic animals are cute and add to the sense of playing out a fairytale, there are only a few 3D rendered characters as most of the narrative takes place in the illustrated cutscenes.
The voice-acting and narration are adequate, although some accents and lines in particular seem a little forced and unnatural. The music, again, is completely in line with the adventurous tone and doesn’t disappoint. There is a large amount of narration as most of the game is narrated. It’s a constant deluge of story tidbits and smug one liners with some pop-culture references thrown in for good measure. While that’s not necessarily a bad thing, it brings me to the second half of this review, my concerns.
I really struggled to make up my mind as to whether I like this game or not. There is so much originality in its concept. Brilliant character depth and a branching narrative that involves playing the same character in multiple ways, to multiple ends. It is a truly unique experience and one that should be enjoyed if that sounds enticing to you. However, the notes I took while playing were almost all negative.
There is a huge disconnect between the mystical story paths you are exploring and the gameplay. All in all, you simply start by making a story choice, play through a level and then see what the next story development is. The narrative is always happening around what you are doing, while all you get to participate in is the boring bit of getting from A to B. There are no grand boss battles, you never have a real end point, you just constantly attack the emperor’s crow minions until you reach the end of the level. Then all the exciting stuff occurs in a single page illustration while a narrator tells you about all the action. There are massive battles that happen outside of the game but you never confront anything of any significance and it’s ultimately just underwhelming.
While the story may be repeating in new and exciting ways, that game itself isn’t.The levels are the same, with the same environmental hazards and psuedo-puzzles, all the while you are fighting the exact same enemies for the entire game. I counted, there are 6 types of enemies (and that’s counting the sentry guys that just hang around in hallways for you to kill). Yes, you are earning experience and unlocking new abilities, but as I mentioned it all comes back to mashing attack against the same enemies as you did 2 hours ago. There may have been more incentive to use all the trickery if Stories was more difficult, unfortunately it is mind numbingly easy. In the first hour and half of play I didn’t take one hit from an enemy. As the enemy density and variety increases (slightly) your passive abilities and unlocks only serve to make you overpowered so they pose no threat. For instance, at one point I had a gem that made shield enemies drop their shields when I attacked them (mashing attack again), time froze every time I counter attacked an enemy, and once I built up my combo multiplier enough (by mashing attack) everything dies in one hit. I cut through enemies like a hot lawnmower through butter.
The Final Word
There is a lot to love about Stories: The Path of Destinies; clever craftsmanship of the branching narrative; vertically intricate level design; and being able to see events unfold differently as characters relationships shift is a compelling and original experience. Unfortunately it is let down by, while not uninteresting, monotonous gameplay with no real substance or relation to the broader story.
– MonsterVine Rating: 3 out of 5 – Average
