Alundra

"Great Action Adventure Addition to Your Playstation Collection."

For those of you who enjoy a good storyline , challenging gameplay, and action-adventure in a platform/RPG type of game, then Alundra is for you. Like Square Soft's "Xenogears", Alundra tackles a pretty heavy topic, religion and the masses, but does so in a strong storyline that (I felt) definitely translates better than the overly wordy and cerebral one Xenogears was attempting to convey. Like Xenogears, again the "God" of the people proves to be the true evil, and as well the Priests/Clergy again do the bidding. ( you'll be keeping both eyes on the Priest next mass to see if he's hiding something! ) As for the gameplay, that is Top-Notch, with challenging puzzles ( and some even quite frustrating ! ), clever level design and lay-out, and not your usual push-overs for enemies. The only drawbacks to the game which affected it NOT getting a higher score are ; (1) some of the puzzles as mentioned above are just plain Frustrating, especially when due to the main character's overhead view. and.... (2) The bosses all seemed to fall into too recognizable a pattern of attack, and even though multiple hits were required, once you discovered this pattern they were much easier to defeat. But these two MINOR failings should in no way detract from what is a VERY SOLID action/adventure title which ranks among the best in last year's games offered in this genre.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 11/01/99, Updated 11/01/99