Pryzm Chapter One: The Dark Unicorn

"A fairly decent game."

I saw this game on the 20 dollar rack at Wal-Mart, and figured I'd give it a try. Here's what I thought.

Story(5/10)- You play as the troll/unicorn team Karrock and Pryzm. You two were sent out by the Unicorn Council to save the world. I think it's the world, anyway. Could just be their little corner of the universe. Along the way, you have to learn to use your wits, magic, and to work together. No, seriously, that's about it. While not the most original story, it sure works for a lot of other rpg/adventure games.

Control/Gameplay(9/10) - Absolutely wonderful controls! Everything responded smoothly, and all the button did exactly what they were supposed to do. It helps that there's a tutorial. My only complaint is backing up. You can't just push the analog stick backwards. You have to press another button with it. Remembering which stick is for what could get confusing, but not too much. One button does one thing, and there's only a couple of 'combos' - like the backing up.

Graphics (9/10) - These were some lovely graphics. In a lot of games I've seen, human faces often don't look very good, or realistic. Not so here. In the FMV scenes, the humanoid I saw had a real-looking face! In actual gameplay, Pryzm ran like a horse. The monsters were properly ugly, like possessed demon-spawn or whatever should be, but ugly in a good-graphics kind of way. Karrock could use some work rounding off his shoulders, but that's really rather minor. Have I mentioned colors? They were nice. The Unicorns are done in well-rendered bright or soft shades. The predominant color for foes/vegetation/everything else is green. That's kind of weird, but you don't really notice until you actually start thinking about it.

Sound(5/10) - Ok...the music isn't so great. It's properly dramatic at the beginning, during the prologue, but that's about it. Karrock and Pryzm talk to each other, which gets mildly annoying, but they have pretty decent voices. The other female unicorns don't though. They have whiney voices. So, don't get too excited about more PS2 voice-acting. It's really just mediocre, along with the music.

Replayability(n/a) - I'm still trying to puzzle my way through the first time, so this category is nullified.

To buy or to rent? - Eh. If you happen to see it for 10-20 bucks, I'd say buy it.

Conclusion: It's not bad. It's got a lot of promise. The story and sound was really mediocre, but not to the point that good gameplay/controls and graphics couldn't make up for that. That said, I look forward to progressing more into the game.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 12/01/02, Updated 12/01/02