MediEvil(1998) Review

I played MediEvil Resurrection not too long ago and I always heard the original PS1 game was better and after playing the latter for the first time this year, I kind of agree but at the same time I disagree.

Anyways, with that out of the way what did I think of this game? It's a mess it really could've been a good game but it's held back by an awful camera and controls that aren't up to the task to what the game expects out of you.

I'll start with the good, the music, voice acting, and level design all oozes charm and has that whole cartoonish horror feeling, I'm not overly familar with Tim Burton but I can see the connections. Sir Dan and the characters around him are fun and endearing and the former has a lot of personality for someone who can't technically speak, his muffled voices and garbles gives him a lot of character an does a good job at selling the underdog motif that the game is going for. The story and premise still stands out today in that the game is esstentially a parody of the "chosen one" trope and how Fortesque for an action game protagonist especially is more of a incompetent goofball who has to prove himself rather than someone who is already capable at the start.

The level design oozes charm. The enviroments look distinct and are solid to navigate for the most part which is especially impressive considering the game has the PS1 short draw distance problems. I also like how the game combines two of my favorite types of level progression in games, you got the 90s FPS keycard hunts with the runes and you got the survival horror inventory puzzles. Combining both does give this game a unique feeling that even games from the late 90s didn't have and that era was already full of level design powerhouses. The game also takes inspiration from linear platformers in that there is an overworld screen where you can choose which level you want to go to and new levels get unlocked the further you get into the game. The game does have a unique style when it comes to level design that games today don't even have.

However what lets the game down is the platforming and controls. They are fine at first since the obstacles the player faces in the first half is pretty manageable. Nothing too outreageous just kill enemies, avoid traps, platforming and solve puzzles, the first three especially in the first half feels reasonable since nothing is too demanding from the limited movement controls the player is given which is walk and run and having tank controls in a fully 3D space with no camera control.

Then I get to the Pools of the Ancient Dead level and if you want everything bad about MediEvil's second half in one package, this level is it. You got enemies attack you from all sides, insta kill pits, awkward platforming with how floaty and imprecise the jump is, and tight and narrow walkways and if you try to move fast it could have you lose a lot of your continues and this level was annoying as shit even with save states. I would just accidentally fall to my death constantly since you have to move slowly, it means the level itself goes at a painfully slow rate. The lack of camera control makes level navigation disorienting at it's worse and at times a bit of a guessing game. The entire second half of MediEvil has varying degrees of this.

Another issue is the combat and like with the levels, the first half of it is fine. Fortesque is a tank and is pretty much meant to be taking hits, there is no dodge button and blocking feels limited to the point where I never used it. The combat is esstentially spam powerful attacks and take hits from enemies while running around and eventually kill them. The 2nd half of the games is where enemies get really spongey and it starts to get infuriating since Dan isn't given much in the way of combat options and he becomes more fragile later in the game.

Combine all this together and by the time I got to the Pirate Ship level, I wanted the game to just hurry up and end. That level is a massive difficulty spike and apparently there is an overpowered sword you get that makes short work of tougher enemies but I was so sick of collecting Chalices and wanted to get to the end. The Pirate Ship level has some awful platforming, tough enemies and a boss that will heavily drain your health. The Time Device level is when I cheated and just wanted to beat it already. But even with the infinite health cheat on the Duckstation emulator, you can still get game overs from pitfalls so it wasn't a mindless cakewalk then the final boss was mostly a pushover even with cheats. If the game just removed the Pirate Ship and Time Device levels altogether, I would've been more positive on it.

Overall, Medievil is a unique game if you can look past it's rough edges but at the same, the game slowly starts to loose it's charm the more it goes on. I'm glad I played it but I am not sure I would want ever want to play again unless its been 20 years and my memory on the game is really hazey.