El Shaddai Review

DustyDrB

Made of ticky tacky
Jan 19, 2010
8,365
3
43
Oh my god, awesome art direction! I've not heard of this game until now. I'll have to check it out.
 

Soviet Heavy

New member
Jan 22, 2010
12,218
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0
DustyDrB said:
Oh my god, awesome art direction! I've not heard of this game until now. I'll have to check it out.
Really? I guess you haven't noticed the metric ton of ads on the site without PubClub memberships. Hell, I can pretty much repeat the whole trailer I've seen it so many times.

Tempted by mankind, the corrupted angels fled from the heavens to create their own utopia on Earth. Now, a mortal returns to reclaim the souls of the fallen!

Eh, it looks pretty, but I'm not interested at the moment. And Greg, you sounded sorta zoned out during the video supplement.
 

Scrustle

New member
Apr 30, 2011
2,031
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Good review, this game looks great. I've been keeping an eye on it for a while and I think I've finally decided to get this game, but not right away. I think the game's price will drop quickly because the game won't sell because of it's unusual themes and aesthetics.

Seeing all the different reviews out there for this game is quite amusing. The first review I saw was the one by IGN, who totally panned the game. After reading that I was disappointed and it turned me off the game a bit, but every other review has praised it to no end. As time goes on I'm starting to value IGN's review opinions less and less, although they usually are still the best place for news, and sometimes previews.

I played the demo to this game and good God the visuals are amazing! Really, every video of it doesn't do it justice. If you haven't tried it already you should really download the demo and see it yourself, it's totally astounding. As for the gameplay, from the little I got from the demo it seems okay but not amazing. The platforming was good but the combat wasn't that brilliant. It seemed a bit limited in what you could do, and the combos weren't particularly varied. Perhaps that's just because you don't have access to much in the demo. It wasn't broken and was still relatively fun, but wasn't the most engaging or original system out there. Maybe that would be different on higher difficulties, but again the demo doesn't give you that option.

Either way, I think I'll get it, but I'm going to wait. There's other games coming up soon that I want more.

And yeah, seriously, download the demo just to see how the game looks. It looks like nothing else out right now, and it's completely mind-boggling.
 

Rad Party God

Party like it's 2010!
Feb 23, 2010
3,560
0
0
Holy... crap... This (along with many other non PC, console exclusives) is a serious excuse to get a console... NOW!
 

FinalDream

[Insert Witty Remark Here]
Apr 6, 2010
1,402
0
0
I played the Xbox demo and although the game was enjoyable and the art style really good, combat was repetitive. Maybe it's the demo, maybe not, but that was enough for me to decide not to pay full price for the game.

Also regarding IGN, I'd rather take advice from my evil twin out to kill me than take any review by IGN seriously.
 

Random Argument Man

New member
May 21, 2008
6,011
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Though the games looks great... I seriously hope I'll never see an add campaign like it ever again...

Every time an El Shaddai add popped up, my web browser jammed. Tried it on several computers and still fucked up. I'm just glad it's out so I can comeback on the Escapist again...
 

Rack

New member
Jan 18, 2008
1,379
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Based on the demo this is overrated by at least 4 stars. I know reviewing games based on demos doesn't really work but some acknowledgement of how awful it is at the start would add credence to this viewpoint. As it stands I can't believe this is worth the perseverance.
 

Hungry Donner

Henchman
Mar 19, 2009
1,369
0
0
I'll admit to me the graphics look really busy, but maybe within the game itself it works better.

Soviet Heavy said:
DustyDrB said:
Oh my god, awesome art direction! I've not heard of this game until now. I'll have to check it out.
Really? I guess you haven't noticed the metric ton of ads on the site without PubClub memberships. Hell, I can pretty much repeat the whole trailer I've seen it so many times.

Tempted by mankind, the corrupted angels fled from the heavens to create their own utopia on Earth. Now, a mortal returns to reclaim the souls of the fallen!

Eh, it looks pretty, but I'm not interested at the moment. And Greg, you sounded sorta zoned out during the video supplement.
I had to watch that several times before I had any idea what they were talking about. I didn't think angels had souls, and other lines confused me as well. For better or worse I did get the opportunity to watch it many many many times.
 

Briney-

New member
Jul 13, 2011
49
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0
Really? I guess you haven't noticed the metric ton of ads on the site without PubClub memberships. Hell, I can pretty much repeat the whole trailer I've seen it so many times.

Tempted by mankind, the corrupted angels fled from the heavens to create their own utopia on Earth. Now, a mortal returns to reclaim the souls of the fallen!

Eh, it looks pretty, but I'm not interested at the moment. And Greg, you sounded sorta zoned out during the video supplement.
I feel exactly the same way: El Shaddai marketing fatigue.
 

feeqmatic

New member
Jun 19, 2009
125
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0
I couldnt get over the combat. Just too uninteresting. Beutiful game but the gameplay is just meh...
 

Elementlmage

New member
Aug 14, 2009
316
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Gammaj4 said:
The lack of a PC port makes me cry.
What makes me cry is that a figure who can be pretty much be assumed to be Arab has been bleached, been given blond wig and made to wear blue contacts. -.-
 

tzimize

New member
Mar 1, 2010
2,391
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Elementlmage said:
Gammaj4 said:
The lack of a PC port makes me cry.
What makes me cry is that a figure who can be pretty much be assumed to be Arab has been bleached, been given blond wig and made to wear blue contacts. -.-
Yeah. In a game where you're running around on rainbows etc...thats pretty unrealistic. Its called artistic freedom.

The implications can be a bit ugly, if you care to interpret it that way. But I dont.
 

00slash00

New member
Dec 29, 2009
2,321
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i played the ps3 demo and if i wanted to quit playing the demo because i was so bored, i cant imagine playing the full game. this to me was an example of putting all focus into visuals and then making gameplay an afterthought. the combat was sooooooo boring
 

Thespian

New member
Sep 11, 2010
1,407
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I'm surprised everyone likes the art direction. It seems like an interesting idea to me, but horribly shallow. There seems to be no depth or detail to the environments. Now, I like things being minimalist and not cluttered, but El Shaddai actually looks unfinished to me in places. Funny, because I love impressionist paintings and total abstractions, but I'm not sure this nails it.

Plus, I can't get on board with that kind of gameplay. It looked like they found something that was solid, fairly original... And then just spammed it for the entire game. I can't see much depth in the fighting system either.

Bleh.
 

CezarIgnat

New member
Jul 5, 2009
142
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Thespian said:
I'm surprised everyone likes the art direction. It seems like an interesting idea to me, but horribly shallow. There seems to be no depth or detail to the environments. Now, I like things being minimalist and not cluttered, but El Shaddai actually looks unfinished to me in places. Funny, because I love impressionist paintings and total abstractions, but I'm not sure this nails it.

Plus, I can't get on board with that kind of gameplay. It looked like they found something that was solid, fairly original... And then just spammed it for the entire game. I can't see much depth in the fighting system either.

Bleh.
I agree to the gentleman above...the art style doesn't really appeal to me either (and neither the gameplay).
 

vxicepickxv

Slayer of Bothan Spies
Sep 28, 2008
3,126
0
0
Briney- said:
Really? I guess you haven't noticed the metric ton of ads on the site without PubClub memberships. Hell, I can pretty much repeat the whole trailer I've seen it so many times.

Tempted by mankind, the corrupted angels fled from the heavens to create their own utopia on Earth. Now, a mortal returns to reclaim the souls of the fallen!

Eh, it looks pretty, but I'm not interested at the moment. And Greg, you sounded sorta zoned out during the video supplement.
I feel exactly the same way: El Shaddai marketing fatigue.
Don't watch Checkpoint anytime soon then. They're STILL running adds for it.

I'll see if I can't get even further off topic and start talking about Evangelion and how much of a holy shit that's really in the bible I got from it.



I think the concept of the game is right, but the marketing barrage was so terrible I don't want to play it out of spite. If they had more than one add for the game, I probably would have thought about it. They only ever had one add for it. I'm also not really a fan of the concept of the game, so I'll pass.
 

Kiereek

New member
Nov 18, 2008
99
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An abundance of advertising, and now the most one-sided review in Escapist history. Anyone else feel that maybe the makers of El Shaddai threw a little money The Escapist's way, if you know what I mean?