Review written by Mike "Sponge" Rubits
Chillingo - The Premier Games Publisher
&b=POCKETGAMER">Buy The Green Myste from Clickgamer
Green Myste was an unexpected arrival, claiming a deep immersive story and RPG style gameplay that has been years in development. Its release was not hyped in advance, just slowly leaked into the rather small RPG scene. While the way it was handled shows what more developers should do; avoid hyping a game far before it's done, is it really worth the $25 price of admission?
Graphics
Your opinion on the graphics depends on what you're looking for in a game. Final Fantasy fanatics will probably hate it, but for those who were raised on games like Ultima Underworld, you'll feel right at home. Green Myste features an average 3D engine, similar in features to the already mentioned Ultima Underworld, or Wolfenstein 3D. However, one thing that surprised me was the weather effects. The sky will light up with lightning in bad conditions, and there is a real day and night system, in which the sky will grow brighter as the day goes on, and then become dark during the night. The lighting of the world reflects this too, so the effect does blend in well in all elements of the graphics. Obviously don't expect anything on the level of Anthelion or Gang Warfare, as it does appear to be a raycasting engine.
The 2D assets of the game are also good looking, with minor reservations. The interface is heralds back to the golden era of PC RPGs back in the DOS days. While some of the shops look a bit strange, I thought the blacksmith looks of different quality than the rest of the building, you won't be disappointed by all the wonderfully drawn 2D elements in the game. The sprites themselves are also professionally drawn. Although sprites in a 3D background usually look horrendous, Green Myste does a better job than most games at blending them in.
While the graphics, albeit simple, lend themselves to a somewhat immersive experience, the 3D engine suffers from a couple of glaring problems. The floor textures don't seem to be clamped to a specific point; they will shift around out of sync with the rest of the world. This is only noticeable if you turn on free turning. Sprite rendering is also a bit off, as going close up to objects will cause the object to completely disappear. While I haven't had this affect the gameplay yet, it nonetheless is a nuisance. Also, the actual game doesn't take up the entire 240 pixels, leaving you with a somewhat large black barrier that is simply annoying. Even if the rest of the space were taken up with a bigger minimap, or just more bricks, it would be better than the current situation. Higher framerates would have also been nice to have, but there's no real reason to complain about the current framerates.
Sound
Upon booting the game, I was surprised. A full introduction with voice acting. Sure, the quality is far from perfect, and it sounds like it was recorded in a basement at times, but compare this to other games (read: none) and the voices are pretty cool. They even bothered to lip-sync the spoken text with the character. In some parts your character will speak in certain parts of the game, however I couldn't really understand it. It's definitely a cool thing though.
Getting into the game, it's a mixed bag. While there are a variety of sounds, including all sorts of ambience noises, their low quality is noticeable even on the built in speakers. This is only negated by the fact there are just so many more sounds than most games, including all the ambience, monster sounds, and everything else one would hear in an RPG. The absence of music is also a big one as to detract from the mood of the game, but once you get into the sewers, things are a bit livelier with a few different sounds in the background. Sadly these sounds too suffer from the low quality issue too. A few music tracks that depended on where you were would be a great addition, and would break up the sometime tiring exploration parts of the game.
Gameplay
Green Myste manages a few twists on the traditional RPG formula. While the beginning of the game has you wandering around towns wondering what to do and who to talk to, you can build up your party and start adventuring in the sewers where things start to pick up. Perhaps it's my predisposition to FPSes that makes Green Myste particularly hard, or the fact I haven't successfully finished an RPG in 8 years, but I find Green Myste to be somewhat on the challenging side. For example, when I see a locked door, I assume it leads nowhere, or I haven't triggered something allowing me in there yet, when infact I just need a key (or a lockpick) and I spend hours wandering around finding out what to do. In cases like this, a hint system would be helpful, however since a strategy guide is being planned, there shouldn't be a need to worry.
Controls need a great amount of work. Thankfully, this game isn't exactly control-dependant, otherwise it would be a disaster. Turning is lagged by a significant amount. For those poor souls using Toshibas, I can't imagine what this game would be like for them, an exercise in frustration to say the least. Better hope you have comfortable hardware buttons, since the entire game is controlled from them. Not once is the pen used, which in my opinion is a huge oversight, as navigating through objects and selecting menu objects is torture.
Luckily, the rest of the game doesn't suffer from the nearly crippling problems of the control scheme. The combat is real-time, similar to the system in the later games in the Final Fantasy series, and keeps battles at a relatively quick pace. When encountering an enemy, you can either run away, which actually entails navigating your character, instead of the typical roll a die/random number generator to determine if you escape. If you choose to fight, a banner will appear on your screen, alerting you that the giant rat is definitely not on your side.
One unique part of the combat system is the damage model. Upon holding down the attack button, a bar at the bottom of the screen will appear, allowing you to sacrifice time for either accuracy, damage, or both. The longer you hold the button, the stronger they get. This really adds a sense of strategy to the battles, as without it, they would be much less complex, almost to the point of Diablo, where all you do is wait.
There's even an included instruction manual in PDF format, which explains everything you'll need to know, although I hope you have good eyes, as the font is irritating to read.
Pros:
-
Intriguing and extensive plot
-
Professional quality artwork
-
Deep combat system
Cons:
-
3D engine needs work
-
Sound is low quality
-
Controls are horrendous
Conclusion:
Green Myste is a great first release. The developer seems to be committed to making this game the best it can, with an upcoming strategy guide, Zodiac port, and more, and was always quick to respond to e-mails to boot. Despite it's downfalls, RPG fans should take notice of this game; it ranks up there in the higher echelon of PocketPC gaming, and will only get better. With its deep story, it's nearly one of a kind for games on the PocketPC, and while it's occasionally tough, this is a game that'll stay on my device for a while yet.
Score-by-score breakdown
Gameplay: 80%
Graphics: 60%
Sound: 80%
Overall: 70%
Please note that the overall score is more than simply an average of the individual ratings. Many thanks to Rusty Axe Games for providing our review copy.
You may wish to search for more reviews of games from Rusty Axe Games. Alternatively, you can view all the reviews written by Mike "Sponge" Rubits.
