MediEvil: Resurrection Review

I played this game because it was avaliable on the Classics section PS Premium and I never played Medievil before, and I heard bad things about this particular version of the game and from what I can only say judging from this game, I can say I enjoyed game to varying degrees but not without a good amount groans and frustrations along the way. There was a level late game so frustrating that I had to use a cheat to beat and it almost made me quit the game

I'll start with what I liked, the level design is great and is the best thing about the game from a gameplay standpoint, the level design is the good old fashion constant backtracking and exploration based level design that I love so much. When I was getting "runes" which were like the keycards in Doom 1993 or any 90s boomer shooter, I was enjoying the interconnected feel of the level where I would go forward, then hit a roadblock, then go left or right and try to slowly but surely figure out all the steps to getting to the end of the level. There's decent variety and gimmicks to the levels too. There are forests, graveyards, swamps and an abandoned farm where you also have to various objectives in those levels to progress so it isn't just finding keys to open doors.

You will find level progressing items, destroy certain amount of x to progress or collect and so on. The levels also look nice and have very imaginative imagery and designs. The music is also very athmospheric and fits the wacky majestic journey you are going on very well.

The story and particular the characters and voice acting are all expressive and memorable especially the Grim Reaper and Zarok. Sir Dan is also a surprsingly endearing and enjoyable underdog character especially in a game genre like action games. His backstory makes him easy to get behind and is a unique protagonist when it comes to action games since in this genre I am used to characters being "badasses" the moment you press start but Sir Dan was basically a character who is loser when you boot up the game. He is also fun to watch with how interacts and expresses himself with the other characters and the fact that he at the very least speaks in mumbles and garbles puts him over many dull and boring silent protagonists since he actually shows character rather than being a boring avatar.

Now the bad or the stuff I wasn't big on, the combat isn't very good, it isn't "bad" and it generally gets the job done but I can't say this is a combat system that can't do without some noticeable improvements. The camera is really bad and you can't even move it and the camera itself doesn't do a good job at framing the action well.

That and combat is basically a game of hold the swing attack button with your long sword and hope the hit detection can registers can enough with the quick charge attacks that it kills the enemy. I know the original game came out in a time where 3D action brawler gameplay wasn't refined and this reimagining came out back when devs were learning how to work with PSP but at the same time I still think some things could've been handled better even without hindsight like why is there two melee attack buttons in a game where you can't chain combos? It's a weird oversight when that second melee attack button could've been used for letting Sir Dan use his ranged attacks like his various bows and throwing knives using a button press.

There is a camera for exploration which can also ruin the moment to moment level exploration and considering how the level design is the best part, this can make them a hinderance to explore since you can't turn the camera around with ease, that means anything that requires you to find a level progressing item can be obscured since the camera used without turning gives you a satisfactory angle on where to look at best.

Two examples of this is where in the Pirate Ship level I was supposed to find 7 powder kegs to blow up a barrier to get to the boss, one powder keg towards the end of the level was on the other side of the trampoline area but since I can't turn the camera and in game camera giving you a sub par angle overall, I can never spot that penultimate powder keg to progress. Later in the game, I had to jump on some broken steps on a castle to progress through it but the camera and also by extension the texturing didn't look like I could interact with thos broken castle steps.

What just got me so annoyed on the game that made me lukewarm on the overall despite me having varying degrees of enjoyment was the boss with Fazgul before you fight Zarok. Either the PS5 version of this boss is bugged or this part was never properly playtested since it's borderline luck based if even that, I would just pour health to my soldiers constantly and the enemies would not die. I was stuck here for hours until I used an invinciblity cheat code and finally lucked out. This really soured my experience with the game and was the point where the game really hit the valley.

Overall, okay game and with every moment where I was enjoying it there was something that annoyed me. It's a super hard game for me to picture myself playing again or even trying the original or the PS4 remake.