Do not let the somewhat childish style of Kena: Bridge of Spirits and the fact that this game is not distributed by one of the largest companies in the market (nor is it marketed in stores in Israel) fool you.
This is one of the quality games, fun and believe it or not - the hard ones that have landed with us in recent months, and it is impossible not to highly recommend it to anyone who misses the arcade and innocent action-adventure games of the PlayStation 2 days.
Lamented me kindly
If we were asked to describe Kena: Bridge of Spirits in one sentence, we would define it as "Good of War, but cuter, more colorful, shorter and for the whole family, with the effects of Ratchet & Klank and even a little Uncharted and Zelda" .
True, this is a somewhat bold definition, because Good of War games are known as quite violent, bloody and sometimes even blatant works, while the last thing one can say about Kena is that it is blatant, but there is no denying that the styles are similar.
Lamentation is a brave and determined girl who needs to save a kingdom from a spreading decay.
There's nothing to do, it's happening to all of us.
Equipped with short-range weapons (a kind of enchanted staff) and long-range (archery which is undoubtedly the most effective weapon in the game, as well as some bombs), it must fight armies of slime-monsters, ghosts, bee mutations (or whatever they are) and the like. , And at the end of each world she has to deal with a big, cruel and sometimes tough and insanely frustrating boss until he learns his trick.
The elimination of a boss, which may take five light minutes or five tough hours of trial and error, will give her access to a new ability or weapon.
The battles, at least the most important of them, take place in a closed and confined arena, which opens only after all the enemies have been neutralized.
Lamentation can jump, roll, perform combos (a combination of several attacks), use special blows that accumulate according to its performance, and in short - everything that Kratos, Ratchet & Co. do in their games.
A climbing piece
Between the battlefields, which are undoubtedly the main thing in the game, you will also be asked to climb mountains and buildings in a style almost identical to Good of War and even Uncerted (the grip points are marked in a prominent color and you have to jump from one to the other);
Maintain balance in relatively challenging platform segments (but there is nothing to worry about, if you fall into the abyss, you will not die but will just take a few leaps back);
And solve a single-digit amount of puzzles involving moving stones in the right order, shooting crystals in the right order, and doing all sorts of other things in the right order.
Kena: Bridge of Spirits,
In most cases the solutions to these puzzles are quite easy and will not require you more than a few minutes of thought, however there are some more difficult puzzles to crack, which will arrange for you some equal but not necessary bonuses to complete the game, such as upgrading your power learning.
Bottom line: No, Kena does not break originality records, but we have no problem with that.
Because when it comes to control, graphics and this elusive magic element, which makes it difficult for you to put down the joystick even after five consecutive hours of play because the business is just addictive - we have no complaints.
Almost Pixar
A few words about the graphics, which can not be ignored.
Kena is the debut game for consoles from Ember Lab, the anonymous company in the gaming world.
It started as a computer animation studio and digital content, and has so far worked mainly on various advertising campaigns such as an advertisement for Coca-Cola in China, and projects for the KFC restaurant chain and the North American baseball league.
Her work on these projects is certainly impressive, but considering that Kena is a kind of track recalculation for this small company, it is impossible not to take her hat off and marvel at the quality of this spectacular title, whose graphic quality does not fall short of what is seen in leading animated films today.
It is true that we would not oppose a little more diversity in the stages themselves (most of them occur in forests and a few of them in caves), but presumably the lack of diversity is due to budget constraints, rather than lack of talent or caring.
Because what you see on the screen looks - and moves - amazing.
Kena: Bridge of Spirits,
Still, not everything is perfect in this game.
The lack of graphic diversity between the stages often caused us to get lost, because many of the roads and paths just look the same, and the map is not so efficient for navigation.
Another major drawback is the omission of the possibility to localize on a particular enemy, a necessary element that exists in almost every similar game.
When monsters surround you from all directions and you wave your magic wand in the air like a psychic and miss out on the millimeter because the monster just came out of the frame and the camera did not follow it, it is not a great pleasure.
This problem, hopefully, will be addressed in the long-awaited sequel game.
Why a hat?
And one last and controversial minus: the lovable black creatures that accompany Lamentation are called Rot.
They may be rotten, but that's part of their magic, and they'll help Lament fight the evil rot (long story short, we will not get into that).
However, in some cases a lament can send these rods to perform special tasks, such as crumbling barriers and lifting objects.
When the control shifts to the root, it is not pleasant to say, it is just bad, and together with the problematic camera it becomes horrible, since one has to control the root, the lament and the camera at the same time, and it just does not work properly.
For example, we found ourselves spending ten full minutes trying to move an object from place to place.
We circled, got nervous, the camera movements made us nauseous and we had to take a break and return to the game after we calmed down.
That's not supposed to happen, and Ember Lab would do well to release an update that would resolve Brut's camera and control issues.
Another petty complaint about Roth?
Please: During the game collect coins.
legitimate.
With these coins you can buy cute hats and let Roth wear them.
and that's it.
That is, the coins have no real meaning in the game.
You can not buy ammunition (because the lament has an infinity of arrows anyway) or other useful objects, but only hats that are nothing more than negligible and tiny cosmetic items that you can barely see.
Strange, unnecessary, but forgiven for the lament and its rotten friends, who gave us ten particularly enjoyable and successful days in front of the PlayStation.
Since the last Ratchet, we have not enjoyed it that way.
8/10
Tested version: PlayStation 5. Also available for PlayStation 4 and PC.
* The copy of the review was provided by the company.
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