Pryzm Chapter One: The Dark Unicorn

"This ain't My Little Pony"

This is a pretty sophisticated game that offers a pretty good experience, on the whole. The story is about a mysterious plague that has overcome the realms where elves, nymphs, gnomes, and trolls once prospered. The plague has magically twisted them into evil creatures. Some of them fled to the land of the unicorns, which was unaffected by the plague. A white unicorn (Pryzm) and a cranky troll (Karrok) set out to use their magic to turn back the plague and restore the four realms to their former glory. Karrok rides on Pryzm's back, and both of them wield magical healing powers that they use to convert plagued creatures they encounter back to their former peaceful selves.

Much of the designers' work apparently went into the scenery and intricate level designs. The scenery is amazing, and there are a lot of details thrown in to make the environments more realistic. Every tree is different, as is every house. No two caves are alike. Broken fences, barrels, boxes, carts, wooden walkways, bridges, and working machinery round out the other details that come to mind. All of this brings the world of Pryzm to life, and it all looks realistic. There are farm animals present in some of the levels, as well as wolves and polar bears. The hills are properly rounded, and textured with rocks, twigs, grass, and flowers.

There are a lot of extra areas in the various realms that you don't have to visit in order to complete the game. This gives it a more realistic feeling, like the realms were designed to be functional to their denizens, instead of just having been designed for the purpose of the player traversing the game. All of this adds atmosphere to the game, giving the impression that you're really in this fantasy world. It's vivid and full of life.

The elves, nymphs, gnomes, and trolls all look appropriately realistic, both in plagued form and when they're converted back to normal. This isn't a cartoon.

Much of the game-play revolves around finding and converting evil plague flowers into peaceful flowers. Pryzm and Karrok have to use their healing magic to attack and convert the flower's guardians, then they can attack and convert the flower. Basically, the entire game is about using healing magic to heal people from an evil affliction, instead of the usual "hack-n-slash the monsters to pieces". You prevail against evil by healing it of its twisted nature. I like this. It's different.

After you've converted all of the flowers in a realm, you get to face off with a boss to finish off the last of the plague in that realm.

This game is pretty challenging, on the whole. Some parts are too easy while others are extremely difficult. I kept coming back to try again, though, because this game is so absorbing. You get unlimited lives, and the last flower you converted is your safe-spot/restart-point if you get defeated in battle.

The controls are easy to use, and you get to use the right analog stick to direct Karrok's melee staff attack. I don't have any difficulty with it. There's also a vibration function that's really nice. From the soft vibration when you convert a flower, to the menacing vibration of rising lava, it all adds atmosphere to the experience. The rising lava vibration in particular is a very nice embellishment that adds to the intensity of that encounter (it's in a boss level).

The music and sound effects aren't anything great. They're okay. The music does a fine job of setting the mood, and the sound effects are alright. A couple of them can get rather irritating at times, like the buzzing of a serpent fly as it relentlessly pursues you. The dialogue between Pryzm and Karrok as they traverse the realms becomes redundant after a while. They could have used more variety of lines. The voice acting is great, though. One nice little detail: The sound of Pryzm's hooves on the ground changes when she steps from earthen ground onto a wooden walkway or metal surface.

The story fizzles out about half way through the game. The reason for the plague is revealed rather early on, and after that there seems nothing more for the story to say. It's not a great story by any means; just enough for us to have a reason to be touring the realms and fighting the plague. I'd say this game's main attraction is the graphics and level designs.

At the beginning of each level, you see a video scene where the camera pans over the area you're about to enter. I found this to be a nice feature. It's done in such a way that it doesn't give away any big secrets. You still have to look around to find the various plague flowers. And the camera work during the game is excellent for the most part. There are only a couple of places where the camera work is sort of disorienting. It's difficult to see something directly above you without using the ''look around'' controls to do so, and the battles are so fast-paced that you don't really have time to pause and use the ''look around'' controls. Also, a couple times when you enter a tunnel, you'll see yourself prancing off into the distance, and then the camera zooms in and catches up with you.

All said and done, Pryzm: The Dark Unicorn is a surprisingly good game that offers a lot in the visual department while coming up a little short in others. The vividly rendered fantasy realms here are worth prancing through. My verdict: thumbs way up. An absorbing game that looks great.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 02/23/05