Porting games is a tricky task to take on for some developers. There are some ways to make ports of titles better than they were on the original, or there are some ports of games that are left alone and transferred to a different system. The second gets the job done, however there are always room for improvements. When going from one system to another, developers could look at what the new system has to offer, and have the option to make the game feel like it belonged on the system it is being ported too. If they don’t make the game feel like its home should be on the new system the game is coming out on, then what is the point? It would be better off bought on its original system.
While Supebrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP is a good game, it misses out on some massive improvements the game could have because it is available on PC. The ability of having more ways to control combat and characters ( mouse and keyboard) should give the developer more tools than that of just having a touch screen to work with. There are more options and tools available that are not available on IOS system, and it seems they missed out on an opportunity to improve the game in this area.
Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP has a very unique art design, and it should appeal to a lot of retro gamers. It harks back to a retro look of what games looked like in the old days. The thing is that since technology has evolved so much since the old days, they have made the place look very amazing just using basic graphic techniques. This might cause someone who grew up with the old school games to have a warm fuzzy feeling, but if you hand this to someone who has been playing more modern games they might not be as impressed. They took a gamble with the visuals in this game and for the most part it works, but they probably alienated some people because of it.
The story revolves around a traveler who is on a quest to gather items and perform the adventurers “woeful errand.” Starting out, not much is known about the traveler or the objects you are collecting. The game is broken up into 4 different sessions. Each one develops the story and reveals a bit more of what is going on as the tale unravels. The text dialogue throughout the game is hilarious and makes fun of a lot of common clichés in adventure games.
The sound track to the game is pretty cool. Each track sets the stage for what is going on in your adventure. The only sound though, comes from animals and the soundtrack. Which is not a bad thing at all, sometimes not having voiceovers is better. This is one scenario I was glad that nobody talked and I could make up in my head my own voices for the characters. This game does well to just let the reader of the dialogue make their own decisions of the characters instead of using voiceovers. The problems really start though when the game reminds you that it’s an IOS game instead of a PC game.
Sword & Sworcery EP is a great IOS game, so much to the point that it can’t escape the feel of being an IOS game. The controls in the game are pretty simplistic because of its origins, but the problem I have is that I feel the game needs to grow up and try to be a game for the PC. The movement controls are fine with clicking away at where you want to go, like an old school point and click, but combat could had been fixed a little bit.
The combat involves clicking on two giant symbols for your sword and shield. That is pretty much all there is to it. I would almost rather have reaction commands…Oh wait…in some fights, the way you have to press the sword and shield, it might as well be reaction command bosses. There isn’t much combat in the game, but combat is rather boring, unresponsive, and the game is actually most fun when you’re not in combat. Luckily, the game shines when it comes to the puzzles.
The puzzles in the game can be either really simple or really complex. A lot of the answers or hints to the puzzles can be found in a book that you get in the first session of the game. Sometimes though, it’s hard to figure out exactly what you’re supposed to do. There were times where I just clicked on things in the area till it lit up. Then from there I figured out some of the puzzles.
Sword & Sworcery EP is also extremely short. Steam clocked me in at six hours played and a couple of those hours, I had the game on while looking for a problem I had with my graphics card and the game (see Note at end of review). The game is meant to be played in breaks and some of the sessions can’t be finished unless certain criteria are met. To finish the game for this review, I had to cheat the system and the funny thing is that the game knew about it and gave me the “Cheating Cheater” achievement. I thought it was kind of amusing that they thought ahead for people that go around the system but didn’t really care all that much if I was cheating.
The guys behind Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery Ep obviously love adventure games and it shows. They have made a great IOS game, but when compared to other PC adventures, it’s average. The main problem I have is that this does not feel like PC game and wondered why even bother bringing it over to PC when there are a ton of good PC adventure games to play—a question that kept popping in my head when I would sit down and play Sword & Sworcery. I kept wondering what about this game stands out enough to make me want to play it more than I would any other adventure game that is available for PC, and unfortunately I could not come up with a good answer during my play through.
If you don’t have and IOS system then I can understand wanting to play this game, but if you do you’re better off getting it for the IOS. The PC port of this game is at best, pretty average. The game is a good game, but it could have been improved or tweaked. Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP is a respectable adventure game but it’s sad to see a game that could have become more than a great IOS game become a mediocre PC game.
Note: Amd Radeon graphics card should turn off the Catalyst AI to play this game. Googled for 2 hours to find out that it was messing up my graphics. Users should turn off the Catalyst AI when playing this game to be able to see all the graphics.
