Game Review: El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron
Billy O'Keefe - Mclatchy -Tribune News Service
Aug 17, 2011
For: Playstation 3 and Xbox 360
From: UTV Ignition
ESRB Rating: Teen (animated blood, fantasy violence, mild suggestive themes)
Price: $60
During its opening moments, "El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron" sees fit to send you down a path where you not only must fail, but will face what initially resembles a "Game Over" screen.
It isn't. Rather, it's your first definitive clue that "Metatron," while a product of familiar influences, has designs to take those influences down some wonderfully unique new avenues.
Fundamentally, "Metatron" is an action game in the same ilk as "God of War" or "Bayonetta" - fixed camera angles, an agile mix of melee and ranged combat, and a control scheme that's overwhelmingly dependent on hitting the same attack button ad nauseam.
The difference here is that mashing those buttons won't get you as far as will tapping them rhythmically. There's no beat to follow, but keeping one in your head will result in attacks far more powerful than the stock maneuvers.
"Metatron" puts the combat (and the need to employ a similarly measured defense) to great effect by giving you fewer enemies to fight but making each one formidable. You also only carry one weapon at a time, which means that if you want to switch from melee to ranged combat, you have to disarm an enemy with the weapon you want and take it from him. It's a dangerous approach, but it's far more satisfying than simply swapping weapons like you can do in every other game.
"Metatron's" excellent treatment of stock enemies comes at no expense to its bosses. To the contrary, its treatment of the seven fallen angels whose reign of terror you must end - "Metatron" is a very creatively liberated interpretation of the Book of Enoch - is magnificent.
In contrast to the normal pattern of boss introductions, "Metatron" introduces you to all seven angels before sending you down swinging against one of them. From there, the fallen angels make frequent appearances in battles you can't completely win, fostering rivalries that culminate in boss fights that are significantly more satisfying to win after all that buildup. "Metatron" unfurls its story at a pace that's recognizable but unpredictable, and you'll face off against some angels multiple times over multiple chapters before getting your chance to put them away for good.
The confidence and fluidity with which "Metatron" plays with convention is apparent everywhere else - in the soundtrack, the narration (how does a guardian angel talking to God on a smartphone sound?), and the brilliant way the game sometimes abandons the third dimension and illustrates important story points as a fantastically fun sidescrolling platformer.
"Metatron's" 3D platforming sequences are no slouch, either, thanks in equal part to fluid controls and some ingeniously weird level designs that twist, elevate and sometimes form under your feet. Another gameplay shift - occurring exactly once in the middle of the story - is so starkly different and stupidly fun that even hinting at what it is would just be wrong.
But nowhere is "Metatron" more confident than with regard to its visual presentation, which emerges as the showpiece of a game that's full of them. Each level flaunts a dramatically different style - white skies and dynamic violet landscapes here, a living sheet of canvas there, the most electric worlds Kevin Flynn never created in between.
The visual variety makes an unpredictable game that much more surprising, but it's the insane skill with which "Metatron" brings them to life that makes it impossible for even screenshots to do the whole thing justice. Whether altering character states, swapping dimensions or continuously redrawing entire horizons as you race through them, "Metatron's" animation drops jaws with a relentless brilliance that has very few peers.
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Copyright 2011 by Mclatchy -Tribune News Service
