Medieval Moves: Deadmund’s Quest is the brand new action adventure PlayStation 3 exclusive from San Diego Studio and Zindagi Games. Published by Sony, Medieval Moves has been developed for the PlayStation Move and is commonly thought of as a sequel to one of the original Move titles, Sports Champions. Will Deadmund’s Quest be an enjoyable motion control adventure or will it be an journey no-one wants to finish?
Let’s find out and kick off the HOTS and NOTS.
HOT
Simplicity
The game has been well designed for a younger audience. The game is set on rails much like the original arcade Resident Evil games which means players only have to think about using the different weapons and tools to get through the levels. While so players will dislike the concept of a rail game as you can control movement this feature allows Medieval Moves to be accessible to a large audience. The gameplay never gets to complicated and players are stepped through new content without them getting the feeling that the game is holding their hand.
Solid gameplay
The gameplay mainly revolves around the player using multiple weapons to defeat various enemies. With different enemies constantly being introduced the gameplay is always kept fresh as each new enemy is easiest to beat with a different weapon this results in the player having to use their full arsenal of weapons rather than just using their preferred weapon.
For those who have played other Move titles the weapons all have a similar feeling to those from Medieval Moves predecessor, Sports Champions. Fortunately since the Sports Champions has been released there have been noticeable improvements to all of the weapons, especially when it comes to archery. Players can now easily pull an arrow from the characters quiver which makes the gameplay a lot less frustrating.
Use of the Move
The Move is what truly makes Medieval Moves stand out from the crowd. Without it the swordplay, archery and maybe even the ninja stars wouldn’t be half as entertaining. Zindagi Games has done an amazing job with all of the different weapons especially the sword movement. The movement is controlled 1:1 by the player movements of the PlayStation Move. This enables gamers to intuitively know how to play the game; which makes the possible user base much larger and the game much more accessible to a variety of players.
Presentation
The games visuals are a nice treat for gamers. Seen almost through the main characters eyes the games camera is located almost at the back of the characters head. Whilst this does sound like a weird concept, it provides a decent overall view point; as well as enabling the player to see the full stretch of the different weapons. The game has a nice graphical style to it, which is kept throughout the entire title over the different themed levels.
The game does manage to make the world believable with brilliantly chosen sounds for the world, weapons and characters. Thuds and metallic chinks can be heard when arrows hit shields and the players sword slices armour respectively. Both the games enemies and the conversations with the main character Prince Edmund, soon to be Deadmund, are all well voiced providing the right dialog styles for the unique roles
NOT
Dull storyline
The story is just about there and it does provide a reason for the quest and link between levels but this is about all it does. After players are “transformed” from Prince Edmund to Deadmund the story had some promise but it didn’t ever take off and the quest to gain items soon became insignificant. Fortunately for the game the gameplay is solid and entertaining otherwise with such a dull storyline the game would quickly become boring.
Verdict
Medieval Moves: Deadmund’s Quest offers some solid gameplay. The gameplay mechanics are taken from Sports Champions however a decent level of improvement has been made. Players can easily use all the various weapons and tools that Deadmund has but if solid gameplay isn’t enough for you Medieval Moves unfortunately offers little else. The game is presented nicely nevertheless there is no getting away from the fact that the storyline was a tremendous let down.
[Editor’s Note: Medieval Moves: Deadmund’s Quest was reviewed on the PlayStation 3. The game was provided to us by the publisher for review purposes.]