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While triple-A games are constantly upping the ante with more and more and more content with every release, 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Kena: Bridge of Spirits went back to basics. It feels intrinsically like an adventure platformer of a bygone era, one that I’m upset to have seen crumble away. Stories are getting darker and more complex, while games themselves are obsessed with making more meaningless filler content so they can be sold as ‘the longest Assassi♈n’s Creed ever!&rsquܫo; Kena opts to go for a simple, linear, and calming narrative with various hubs that are either straightforward pathways or semi-open zones, giving the illusion of freedom. It’s an old approach, but it still che🌟cks out.
There’s an air of Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy about Kena while its art style harkens back to the more experimental days of Okami. The world is reminiscent of titles such as Ha🦩ven: Call of the King where everything feels interconnected despite its game-y formula, immersing you in the almost film-like journey. But it’s not film-like in the sense of Sony’s typical emotive triple-A blockbusters all desperately cloying to be taken seriously by the world of cinema. Like many PS2 games, it’s more akin to a Pixar movie that encapsulates you chiefly with its innocuous magic. Kena doesn’t take itself too seriously, but it’s also not a parody or overtly silly. It’s a heartfelt adventure that doesn’t try to be all that much more.
Balan Wonderworld 168🅷澳洲幸运5开奖网:tried to bottle the PS2 era’s magic, but the bottle ended up smashed on the pavement, that magic now washed down the drain. It failed because it also kept the archaic jank, obtuse camera, and shoddy movement. Even in the PS2 days, Wonderworld would’ve been a forgettable and mediocre experience, but doubly so now as it ignored years of streamlining and smoothing out. Kena isn’t like that at all. Kena feels like how you remember PS2 games being. The version of them that only exists in your rose-tinted memories. Your fond, nostalgic recollections of Jak 3 or 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Sly Raccoon likely won’t hold up if you dive back in. 🤪Games age. It doesn’t mak🍰e ‘em bad, but they’re not as crisp or as visually striking as we remember. Kena offers us a glimpse into that era as though we were reliving it for the first time.
Now more than ever, it’s great to have that familiarity, that bond to a game despite it being completely original from a brand new studio. Everything is charging ahead at full speed - the graphical potential is skyrocketing, open worlds are becoming overstuffed, and games are filled to the brim with content outside the main story. 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:I scroll through my libraries more now than ever because the blockbusters are becoming an i🌺nvesꦰtment of time and effort on an unprecedented scale.
It’s the Ubisoft effect, that leaky formula bleeding into games at large, because studios want to keep people playing their game week in and week out. That’s harder to do if it’s single-player. Not every developer can strike gold release after release as Bethesda did with Skyrim. But not every studio is plagued by that mindset, thankfully. Sometimes, a single-player experience is great because it has a quick expiry date. You can pick it up for the weekend and be done by Monday. Kena’s more the latter as it gives us one goal. There are no side missions, just the bulk of the story and all the collectibles. Sure, that might seem like less bang for your buck, but it’s exciting to have a singular focu👍s with a treasure hunt on top for once, just like the good ol’ days.
Combat isn’t too elaborate, either, and everything has distinct weightlessness to it, a floaty feel. It’s not cumbersome to move or punishing to run around. That can be fun - people, for whatever reason I don’t understand, enjoy dredging themselves through hours of pa🧔rcel deliver🐭y in the r🍌ain while watching Norman Reedus console a baby, but when every game st﷽arts to rush into that direction of clunky realism, it becomes arduous.
Indies are keeping the spirit of older games intact, but you’ll often find that they’re a little more retro, harkening to the ‘80s or ‘90s more than the charming yet bristling aesthetic of the noughties. Kena proves there’s still a space for it, though. 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Ra🎐tc♛het & Clank: Rift Apart came close, but even Insomniac has moved on from its heyday, elaborating on that old formula to do new things, innovative stride🐼s. Kena’s introspective look on the medium is what was needed as even the flagships have evolved - just look at Naughty Dog, go🍃ing from Crash and Jak to The Last of Us. This September, we got a quaint adventure that lets you breathe, and it was wonderful. I can’t wait to see what Ember Lab does next because they are scratching that 2000s itch and it’s long overdue.