ARAGAMI 2: REVIEW Purebred stealth action games remain a rarity these days. Splinter Cell has long been dead, there may be no new Metal Gea...
ARAGAMI 2: REVIEW
Purebred stealth action games remain a rarity these days. Splinter Cell has long been dead, there may be no new Metal Gear Solid, and Assassin's Creed is evolving in a different direction. Independent developers do not like this genre either, but not all - five years after the release of Aragami, the Barcelona team Lince Works released a sequel. However, there is a feeling that it was not very interesting for them to create this game themselves. pin up kz
Secretive Savior
To understand the plot of Aragami 2, you do not need to go through the first part. We control an Aragi warrior who, after a short introduction, meets the leader of the Kurotsuba clan. The chapter arranges a tour of a small village and talks about the rival Akatsuchi clan - these scoundrels destroy and destroy everything in their path and can reach the village at any time. In addition, a curse has been imposed on the area, due to which the inhabitants almost lost their human nature, and it is advisable for us to find a remedy for it. pinup
The plot is as simple as two pennies, but the developers devote a lot of time to it. There are five dozen missions in total, and after almost each, the hero returns to the village and has to talk to two or three people. The characters remain boring dummies, the new characters are indistinguishable from the old ones, nothing is voiced, there are a lot of replicas - after half an hour it is not interesting to read it. It is clear that it is necessary to explain why the hero constantly goes somewhere and does something, but it would be better if the story was at least a little bit original.
Although the plot is far from the main problem of the game: it is generally very boring and unremarkable, even if there are bright moments in it. The main skill of the protagonist is a shadow jump. Aiming at the roof of a building or some kind of fence, the player quickly teleports to the specified location and clings or sits on the selected object. This is necessary both for overcoming obstacles (for example, you need to jump over a pond, but the usual double jump is not enough), and for reprisals against the guards walking everywhere.
The Pluses Are Hidden
Aragami 2 does not limit the possibilities and from the very beginning offers everything you would expect from a stealth action. You can hide in tall grass, jump on enemies from above and press the quick kill button in flight, throw opponents off cliffs and observation towers if you are hanging on the wall, and can reach them with your hand. Even the "shadow gaze" is available right away - press the button and see the silhouettes of all neighboring enemies, and even the scattered gold is highlighted.
Perhaps that is why interest in the game is quickly fading away - from the first minutes, there are so many options available that completing missions does not cause any problems. Covertly eliminating targets is too easy, and you can only fail stealth if you are in a hurry. And if the enemies notice, it is not difficult to teleport to the roof and sit there for a couple of seconds. Opponents quickly surrender, the red triangles above their heads are replaced by orange ones, which means that you can jump on their heads from the same roof.
Missions are very commonplace and monotonous. Kill the target, find three important items for the clan, and destroy the supplies. Although the tasks seem to be different, you seem to be doing the same thing. Therefore, there is no desire to return to the past levels in order to improve the results. Occasionally, missions launch videos on the engine, but it would be better if they were not - everything is shown from two angles, there is no facial animation, and there are even more meaningless dialogues.
Well, the design of the locations would have stood out in some way, but even then it's a mistake - there are no interesting situations in Aragami 2. The feeling that most missions were created with the help of random generation - from time to time you will be returned to the already cleared areas, only their enemies will again come from somewhere, and the tasks will change. There will be more opponents, but you will be eliminating them using familiar methods: again teleportation, jumping, and waiting in the tall grass.
This is largely due to boring opponents, the types of which are not so many. Some walk from corner to corner, not turning a centimeter out of the way, others stand rooted to the spot (even if they suspect something, they cannot leave the post), others are located at a height and in which case they throw firebombs. Artificial intelligence is too bad for this kind of game: enemies quickly forget about you, see poorly and hear even worse.
Because of this, pumping the character turns out to be not very useful, although the abilities in it are interesting - in a good game they would probably significantly change the gameplay. The ability to attract and stun the enemy, summon a spawn of shadows or a shadow to double, double kills, invisibility ... Of course, all this can also come in handy here, only the game is easy to pass even without buying skills - the character is already strong and dexterous, and the enemies are stupid.
Aragami has only one weakness - health is not enough. If the enemy notices you, you can not run away, but try to fight him back. An attack is carried out with one button, and a block is placed with the other, and if you block exactly before an enemy strike, then you will make a parry. A very primitive system, but it doesn't work so badly. Better to fight with only one opponent - together or three of them will not leave a chance to win. Fortunately, within one mission, the Aragami have two lives - if you die, you just return to the beginning of the location.
It is a pity that it happened and the developers were chasing the number of missions, not quality. Aragami 2 could receive a short but fun stealth-action, the benefit of the successful gameplay elements it contains. When you jump from one roof to another, look for dilapidated columns and cling to them, overcome large areas, remaining unnoticed - at such moments you want to praise the game at least a little bit. It's not rubbish like Shadwen, but it doesn't get a high rating either.
Pros: Stealthily eliminating enemies and jumping on top of them can be fun; using shadow jump does not get bored.
Cons: boring plot, which is too much; monotonous tasks; uninteresting design of locations and the need to return to them; stupid artificial intelligence; pumping is not very necessary, since the game is already simple.
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