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Kya: Dark Lineage

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    Kya: Dark Lineage

    I didn't think this was supposed to be out in the UK untill next year, but one of my local independant games retailers had a copy in, so being the fan of platform games that I am, I decided to give it a try.


    The basics:
    Format - PS2, and I havent heard any plans of an Xbox or GC version.
    Widescreen - yes.
    Surround sound - yes (DPL2)
    60hz mode - no. Though the PAL display is pretty decent. There are some extremely small borders top and bottom, but everything seems to play at the right speed and the FMV contails no 'PAL judder'.


    Presentation/Graphics/Sound:
    Pretty good for the most part. Loading is kept to a minimum and generally disguised wherever possible with transitional animations. The voice-actiong is a bit pants, not as bad as Deep Fear, or the original Resi, but its a bit unengaging and none of the cast sound particularly interested in their roles. Its not terrible, but its well below the likes of Jak 2 or R&C 2.
    Graphically the game is quite impressive, with enormous levels streatching off into the distance which, in the outside sections, really seems to emphasise the 'floating windswept islands' theme of the game.
    The framerate seems to behave itself pretty much throughout, there is the odd hint of slowdown, and even some screen-tearing if you look hard enough, but nothing you'll notice during gameplay.
    There do seem to be a couple bugs here and there though, the camera can sometimes get jammed inside a solid rock for no good reason, and it also has a tendancy to swing wildly arround to a new 'helpfull' perspective when you least expect it. (though in fareness the camera is probably one of the best I've come across in a 3D platformer, I barely ever found myself having to adjust it manually).
    Also, there are a couple problems with the audio. Lines of dialogue sometimes get cut short during the cut-scenes, and sometimes a sound efect will fail to play in a section where you swear there should be one.
    However, these problems dont tend to affect gameplay at all, they just remove some of the games polish.


    Gameplay:
    Its a 3D platformer so you should know roughly what to expect. Lots of climbing, jumping, boomerang-throwing (yes, thats Kya's main weapon and its very easy and intuitive to use, with just the right ammount of auto-aiming) air-current-riding, 'snowboarding' and football.
    Yes, Football... well, sort of. There are a number of sections throughout the game where you will have to dribble and kick a ticking time-bomb arround some obsticles to its target, or do the same with a squishy little creature that can then be used as a springboard. Its a nice little feature that I havent seen in a platformer before, and lends a new dynamic to the usual fetch-and-carry routine.

    The air-current-riding, 'snowboarding' and freefall sections dont play as big a part in the game as the preview videos you may have seen suggest, with most of your time being spent in more farmiliar 'run-jump-fight' platforming terretory. What is there is generally done well, though some of the later freefall and snowboarding sections can become frustratingly long and tricky. Fortunately the game has a very generous attitude towards energy, lives and restarting. If you screw up one of these sections the game just removes a small ammount of energy from your life bar and plonks you back at the start of the section (which often has an energy-replenishing crystal near it anyway). Should you loose all of your energy, the game takes you back to the last save point. The same rules apply if you fall off of one of the floating islands during the regular run-jump-fight sections as well, although for a game set on small islands suspended in a sea of clouds, plummeting into the abyss isn't as frequent an ocurrance as you might think.

    The games level design is nicely varied. There are the usual ice, desert and lava levels, each of which contain a vriety of snowboarding, freefaling and stealth (yes, stealth - it seems like you cant move for bloody stealth gameplay nowardays) sections. The whole package is given its own unique twist by blasting parts of the level with strong gusts of wind (which in turn, provides some more unique gaming ideas), and also providing cannons to propel Kya across large expanses of terrain mich like in Sonic Adventure.

    I'll briefly mention the hand-to-hand combat that Kya automatically switches to whenever she gets close to one of the Wolfen (the games main badguys). Again, its done well. Blows seem to land solidly when they do connect, moving arround and pulling off kicks,punches and grabs feels perfectly natural. However, there is a slight glitch in the game whereby, if you knock a wolfen off into the abyss (which happens quite frequently), the music that always kicks in to accompany the combat will keep playing until you either exit that level or throw Kya into the abyss as well. Also, because you are supposed to be 'exorcising' the wolfen (who are actually peacfull villagers turned nasty), you have to try like hell NOT to knock them off a cliff edge.

    Overall:
    If you havent played Jak 2, go and buy that.
    If you have played it, go and Buy Ratchet & Clank 2.
    If You've played both of them go and buy BG+E
    Finally, If You've played all of the above and still want more platform-gaming action, give this a whirl. Its a bit buggy/glitchy in parts and does contain a few annoying sections, but its unique spin on the platform gaming genre has been enough to keep me hooked so far (I'm 10 hours in - I'm guessing its a 15 hour game judjing by how many worlds I still have to explore). The characters arn't all that interesting, but the well designed levels make up for it. If i had to give it a score out of 100 I guess I'd go for something arround the high 70's or low 80's.

    82 then. I'm in a good mood.
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