Review: X-Blades (360)
X-Blades
Developer: Gaijin Entertainment
Publisher: SouthPeak Interactive
Format Reviewed: Xbox 360
Other Released Formats: PC, PS3
Number of Players: 1
Online Features: Downloadable Content (DLC)
ESRB Rating: M for Blood, Suggestive Themes, Violence
Genre: Action, 3D Brawler
Release Date: 2009-02-10
Gaijin and SouthPeak bring us the tale of Ayumi, a scantily-clad treasure-hunter who, while looking for a certain artifact, becomes afflicted with powers. Wielding dual blades, and hacking and slashing just about everything that gets in her way, you control Ayumi through over 40 levels of increasingly difficult waves of monsters and bosses. You use the blades in combo-style hack and slash game play, and upgrade your powers, which you have many of (over 20).
I’ll stop you right here if you’re looking for an RPG, or even a game to play with the kids. This one’s got an M rating for a reason. It’s all about the combos and onslaught of foes. The RPG-style elements really pertain to the upgrading of your abilities and special attacks. The focus of the game is the up-close and personal dispatch of the waves of enemies that come at you relentlessly. Sometimes, overwhelmingly. This can be a fault of the game, they are aiming for the hardcore gamer, and are sticking with that. I played the same battles over and over again until I was able to just squeak through, they can be real tough.
The gameplay is simple; you have your blades, and upgrades similar to magic that you can add to your shoulder buttons and the 2 face buttons that you don’t use for jumping or slashing. While it’s not a complicated system, the choices you make for the abilities you map to those buttons do make a difference. One you never want to remove would be the “gun” feature of the blades. One of the tough things that the developers implemented in the game is the size of the enemies. You will sometimes have to use the gun to shoot the enemies that are too small to get with your blades, forcing you to back up a bit and fire at them. Some enemies need to have fire or ice against them to do harm, while others are easily dispatched with the other abilities (earthquake being the most versatile). This may detract from the game for some people, but I found the need to pick and choose your abilities (and upgrades) added to the complexity of the game, instead of just blindly mashing hoards of enemies into a pulp with my blades. You do need a couple of baddies around while you’re battling to raise your “rage meter” so you can do your special moves, which is why I guess they added them to the boss battles. Don’t forget that you are a treasure hunter, and you can break open a lot of items on each level and grab artifacts, some of which are necessary to your power-ups.
Ayumi is not Lara Croft. She’s ballsy, has a bit of valley girl in her, and doesn’t feel the need for anything more than her g-string for undergarments. I found her banter a bit annoying during battles; I’m assuming the developer wanted to make sure we know that she’s cocky all the time. The control is pretty precise, and that’s useful, since the action is seemingly never-ending. You can unlock a ton of moves and upgrades for her, all of which are helpful in some part of the game. The gun is indispensible, as mentioned before, you absolutely need it for the smaller foes. My only beef with the game is that while you have all this cool stuff, you wind up mostly using your blades because there are SO many foes on the screen that close in on you in a group, and you can’t target your magic at them. When you get to a boss, you wind up spending too much time on other foes around, and wind up having to play over and over again until luck and skill merge together to pull you through.
The Visuals on this game are just simply amazing. Even when the game fills up the screen with 20 or so enemies at a time, the game kept running smooth. The cut scenes are something worth seeing, and what kept me playing, even as I was getting frustrated with the bosses. The story, on the other hand, while there isn’t exactly anything groundbreaking. The detail in the levels is great, almost photorealistic, though there’s a lot of rocky places, and they start looking the same after a while. There are shadows done right everywhere, and the lighting works like I would expect if I was really in a dark place lit by torches or ambient light. Beautiful. I also found that the audio in the game was a great fit, though, as I said before, Ayumi’s valley-girl “I don’t care” attitude gets a bit old. The music is rockin’ and is a welcome break from the usual pan-flute of most fantasy games.
Gaijin had a great idea and implemented it pretty good. Just not good enough to make this the great game that it could have been. They gave it great visuals, and solid control, but the difficulty is out of balance, and hinders the gameplay. The game is geared for DLC (on the 360 at least), maybe they’ll be able to smooth a bit of that out when new content is available. This is one of those games that could have ended up on the top of the list this year, but it wound up a bit unbalanced. I did enjoy the game, no question, but there was more than one point where I had to step away and come back later because of frustration. I can’t recommend to everyone on this one, but if you’re a hardcore gamer who likes games like Devil May Cry, you will probably get a lot of X-Blades. I think this one could have been great with a bit more balance, and I look forward to the next iteration.
I didn’t review this one with the boys. While I don’t think it was too gory, or even too much violence, its M rated for a reason, and I stick with that.
Rating 4.0 of 5
Pros: Great graphics, solid control, a lot of game. Fun music. Awesome cut scenes.
Cons: Some boss battles are just *too* difficult. Unbalanced enemy vs. player battles.