Articles
By Diresim
Published: Mar. 4, 2007 11:06 AM
The main quest itself will only take you ten hours or so, and will not provide an overly taxing challenge. Although enjoyable in and of itself, it is a shame it doesn’t last a bit longer. The game world offers so many possibilities, but they're just not capitalized on. However, once you've completed the main Kameo storyline, there is plenty left to do. To be awarded with all available achievements, you must find all of the fruit, elixirs and eyes. Some of these are awarded for completing puzzles and subquests, and some through exploration. Although this will take you some time, the game world is so well created that it hardly reaches the tedium you'd expect of such a task, and I personally found it extremely rewarding.
In addition, although the main quest (especially the boss battles) are quite easy for even the least seasoned of gamers, achieving enough points to earn A rankings for each of the levels in Score Attack mode is ridiculously tough. Basically, the combat system revolves around multipliers, just like your typical SSX or Tony Hawk game. Brutals are earned by simply taking out any enemy, carnages for doing so in one hit, and frenzies for taking out enemies within five seconds of despatching another. So if you can work your way through the missions, building your multipliers as you go, when you get towards the end of the level, your kills are going to earn you a heap of points.
Adding to the mayhem is a little feature Rare have named focus mode, which is activated when you start killing trolls in quick succession. When in focus mode, time slows for all around you, allowing you to despatch enemies with ease. The only thing is, depending on how many multipliers you have, focus mode will also spawn a certain number of Doom Trolls, little critters that aren't affected by focus mode. Every doom troll you despatch after the first one (upon entering focus) will give you one of each multiplier. Therefore, if you can rack up enough multipliers, hit up focus mode, then tear the crap out of some Doom trolls, and you'll be well on the way to scoring points in the hundreds of millions.
Two things complicate matters, and are likely to have you spitting the dummy regularly while chasing your A rankings. Firstly, there are only a limited number of doom troll spawns you can get each level, so you have to make sure you both maximise your multiplers before entering focus, and that you use it at the right time. Secondly, you lose your multipliers every time you are hit, fall off the level, die, or catch on fire. Although this makes things hand crampingly tough, boy is the challenge worthwhile. This is mainly because of the balance Rare has installed in each characters' abilities. All of the special moves are vital in different situations you'll find yourself in, and you'll be switching often to maximise your killing efficiency. I found that I didn't really care that much for any particular warriors until I started chasing A-rankings, but rapidly developed a soft spot for certain ones as my skills increased. All of your score attempts are cumulated too, unlocking numerous goodies, such as alternate costumes for your warriors or 'making of' videos.
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