A successful upgrade
I was hesitant about playing Golden Axe: Beast Rider. Sega does not have a good reputation these days. Still, armed with a free rental and a recommendation from a trusted source, I went down to my local video-gameria and took a copy home to play.
I was blown away.
This game is far better than I was expecting, indeed, than I hoped. My previous fears that it would be unfinished, or a rehash of the sticky, uncomfortable '80's incarnations were needless waffling. GA:BR is a crisp, beautiful game with above average controls, excellent visuals, and a story that is exactly the right level of depth for a proper scion of the Golden Axe name. The game is downright gorgeous, and understands its audience perfectly. If you came to the game expecting Golden Axe, you'll get it, souped up for 7th-generation home consoles with full, fluid controls and new complexity to enrich the gameplay. If you're a fan of the Conan-style sword-and-sorcery, you'll get it. It's powerfully tempting to spoil what's coming, but I cherish my integrity as a reviewer and say only that those looking for action games, Golden Axe games, and games with good graphics will all be pleased. The game is well-animated, the beast-riding mechanic is fairly well-handled, the enemies are scary and intimidating without being too hard -- the game is great, very immersive and a joy to play and defeat.
Now that I've finished gushing, I need to bring up the bad parts, for there are a few. First and foremost, the learning curve for this game is STEEP. The tutorial level is present, but it fails to educate you in the nuances of the block-and-evade defenses, and those you must discover on your own. Once you master them, though, you'll do fine. It is my intense recommendation that you practice, and make use of the replaying levels option to hone your skills, because some of the fights, as well as the arena mode, are punishingly unforgiving of failure. In some fights, there is an extra enemy that is simple to defeat, but perilously hard to spot coming: the camera. You will occasionally have to wrangle the camera over to the action, as you almost definitely need to SEE enemy attacks to know how defend yourself.
During the course of renting this game, I came around from being afraid of it to wanting to own it. While it's not my typical cup of tea, Golden Axe is a solid entry into the hack-and-slash action genre, and belongs next to Heavenly Sword, the God of War series, and the Force Unleashed on the shelf.
People Who Will Like This Game: Golden Axe fans, Hordes Miniatures players, Conan: the Barbarian fans, action fans, fans of girl power, fans of dinosaurs, readers of Heavy Metal magazine.
People Who Will Not Like This Game: People who frustrate easily, fans of throwing spells around like they were free, people who hate good graphics, people who do not like Conan: the Barbarian, people who hate beating on gnomes for prizes, people who hate replay value.Read full review
