Kameo:Elements of Power

[Brats]

The combat doesn't quite come together as nicely as I was hoping. Linking moves and characters together isn't intuitive enough, especially as the enemies tend to just start flying upwards meaning you can only really use Chilla's spear attack to get more points.

Experiment a bit. I use Flex's grab technique to grab floating enemies then slam them to the floor. Or you can use Rubble's rock strike that flies high into the air.

[Jebus]

I stumbled on this bit at first too.

->Open Spoiler<-

Look at the map near where you first came into the area and you'll see a little gap where the wall is. You enter here inside the fallen tree and the path takes you up inside, then across the level to the part you can't reach.

I feel rather stupid hehe, will have a good go tomorrow night.

Does the game get better, if so, how much?

[PeteJ]

It's a solid game throughout. I wouldn't say it gets particularly better, though it does grow in scale. Some of the badlands battles get pretty epic towards the end, though I don't want to get your hopes up for some LOTR's style encounters (essentially you know you can easily win each battle).

Stick with it though, if you are feeling like giving up.

[Jebus]

It's a solid game throughout. I wouldn't say it gets particularly better, though it does grow in scale. Some of the badlands battles get pretty epic towards the end, though I don't want to get your hopes up for some LOTR's style encounters (essentially you know you can easily win each battle).

Stick with it though, if you are feeling like giving up.

It's just not clicked with me at all at the moment, every time I play it I can see the wow factor but gameplay wise it's just not thrilling me.

I get the same feeling from PD0 as well to be honest...

[Kotatsu Neko]

I finished this last night. It was something of a mixed bag I'd say. Some bits really gave me that 'next-gen' feeling and showed off the potential of the 360 pretty nicely. Sometimes those sections were also the prettiest in the game, but sometimes not. The epic troll battles for example were pointless and ugly, but some of the more imaginative, fairy tale type sections looked lovely.

That was the game at it's best, but at it's worst it was somewhat frustrating, damaged by clunky controls and repetetive gameplay. The elementals were I think, poorly thought out by and large. They all have radically different control systems and it's easy to forget how to control one in the heat of battle. Why can some of them move while shooting, but others are rooted to the spot? Why can some aim with an FPS dual stick system, but others move and aim on just one stick? Stuff like that (and there are plenty of other design disasters) really hurt the experience. I think there were also too many elementals, with some being used for just a couple of small part of the game.

One part of Kameo that was consistent was the characer design, which I thought was terrible from start to finish. I've never really liked Rare's designs - Banjo for example is such a generic, bland, utterly uninspired design. In Kameo they're more original but also plain ugly by and large. Clearly there is some anime inspiration in there but it just doesn't work. The human characters are also rather light on the polygon count, and so look a bit chunky and as if they belong on an Xbox 1.

The music deserves a mention as the strongest aspect of the game. Sometimes a little over blown but generally very good. Again at it's best in the calmer, more magical fairy tale environents.

Another thing which is clear throughout the game is just how inspired it was by Lord of the Rings. The influence is everywhere. Now I'm a fan of LOTR, but I'd sooner game developers created their own style rather than just ripped off WETA's designs.


So overall, an enjoyable if flawed game which shows some of what the 360 will bring us. 7/10.

[Pirotic]

I enjoyed the game which surprised me. I didn't like the character design at all, the 'creatures' are interesting and some even likeable, but the humanoids and NPC's are the bastard love-child of Disney and Anime and should never had made it into the final game. They had clearly gone for that low polygon 'Hercules' look in a previous incarnation of the game and didn't bother recreating them to fit into the xbox360 visuals. Kameo looking that dorky would be unforgiveable, but having seen what they did to Jo Dark it could of been worse!.

I also felt the voice acting was a big let down. normally i'd let that pass but seeing as they've boasted about how they have the professional voice talent working on the 360 games, both this and PDZ have sounded worse than a lot of in-house stuff you see coming from other developers.

Anyway, on to the good stuff. The gameplay is solid and enjoyable, it's straight from the N64 era but seeing as i haven't played a good old generic platformer for a while i enjoyed it. the creatures work well but they could have removed a few of them and passed the abilitys onto others which would of balanced things out. Some creatures are usefull for a couple of puzzles and then never need to be selected again. Have to admit, i did think a few of the 'Baby' versions you rescue looked pretty damn cute

The combat is solid, the different controls between the monsters can make it a little confusing ,but if you spend your time to learn each character then it's got a much deeper combat system than most other platformers. some of the larger creatures feel a bit too clunky but again, that might have been a design decision to stop them being overpowered for combat (Ash for instance). But none of the characters seem to be able to 'roll' an object very well, a proper 'pusher' character wouldn't have gone amiss.

Normally i'd have given it an 8/10, but when you consider this game has been in development for 5 years you really can't forgive some of the more obvious flaws - so a 7/10 it is.

[Kotatsu Neko]

I forgot to talk about the voice acting. It was mostly terrible I'd agree. Why was Kameo an American? Felt out of place and wrong, and was poorly acted too.

Rare could learn a lot from what Big Blue Box did with Fable. They managed to create a unique visual style which wasn't just half stolen from anime and Disney, it was their own and it looked fine. They then populated their clearly English world with English voice actors. Not all were great but most did a perfectly fine job and added character to the game. I seem to recall the game did pretty well in terms of sales too, so not pandering to the perceived demands of US or Japanese audiences did them no harm at all. I remember Rare trying to justify using US voice actors recently, trying to say they hadn't sold out. Sorry Rare, but I disagree.

[Brats]

Clearly there is some anime inspiration in there but it just doesn't work.

This gets mentioned a lot, but as a fan of all animation I don't see anything in Kameo that hasn't featured in Western cartoons for at least half a century. Big eyes does not equal anime influenced.

Another thing which is clear throughout the game is just how inspired it was by Lord of the Rings. The influence is everywhere. Now I'm a fan of LOTR, but I'd sooner game developers created their own style rather than just ripped off WETA's designs.

WETA's designs were not original, they just plumbed the depths of the fantasy world that started with Tolkien and has been established for the last forty years. Kameo is simply another game that takes from that mythos.

The only thing directly infulenced by the LOTR films is the scale.

[Simmy]

Free new Kameo theme on market place evidently

http://www.majornelson.com/2005/12/1...now-available/

[Dezm0nd]

done this over the weeekend and it's really turned around since the xbox days. really enjoyed it even though it was a bit too easy. gonna try the high scores i think, i got 99 of 100 fruits argh!!

good game, more enjoyable than I anticipated.

[Junko]

Just picked it up today On the intro screen it judders around quite a bit , is this normal or is there a problem ?

[Melon_bread]

Just picked it up today On the intro screen it judders around quite a bit , is this normal or is there a problem ?

Mine does the same, fine during the in game cut scenes but judders during what I gather is pre-rendered FMV.

[Space Monkey]

It only does that if you`ve got your xbox video output set to 50hz.

[Junko]

It only does that if you`ve got your xbox video output set to 50hz.

Cheers meesta , problem solved

[Keith]

How do you change your video output? If I'm using a VGA cable will it be set automatically?