Equinox

"Odd, very odd and, well, odd...and did I say odd?"

One day a friend of mine, I don’t know exactly how, managed to get this game, so I borrowed it from him because it looked like an rpg, and while it has some similarities with the genre, this is basically one of those bloody hard puzzles that are completely impossible to beat without a guide. This game is also the called Solstice 2 because it looks like this is the sequel to a Nes game called obviously Solstice (which by the way is something a bit odd because equinoxes and solstices are completely different things), I don’t know anything about it so that’s all I can say.

As I said before at the beginning the game looks like an rpg, feels like an rpg, but it is not one of them. You begin in a weird overworld for no reason, and there are weird enemies who take to fight in a special battle arena where you can move and attack them freely. Up to this point it is impossible not to think this is an rpg, but then, once you enter somewhere in the map, you will find yourself in a beautiful ¾ view and now everything consist in going trough dungeons solving bloody hard puzzles (aligning stones, pressing switches, sometimes fighting and things like that) and avoiding or killing strange enemies to obtain some kind or orbs for an unknown reason.

Graphically this game is very good, most games with a ¾ view always look good, and this one is no exception, everything is very big, detailed and very colourful, specially during the overworld battles, where the enemies are splendid, huge and very cool.

The music in the other hand is remarkable for its absence, there is hardly any music or even sound in those dungeons, aside from the stupid cry our silent hero does when he gets hurt.

This game is very weird, I found it to be quite interesting at the beginning, but only at the beginning, because it gets really boring after a few hours because it’s too hard and it gives the impression that you are not going anywhere, there are a lot of places to go but all of them have incredibly hard puzzles without the slightest clue about what the hell to do next.

I also found it to be a very disconcerting experience, because as I have said before one million times everything is very odd, you are never told who you are, what to do, where to go, or why the hell you are wondering in such a weird place, you will feel very lonely while playing this game, even if you are playing with friends, or at least that was what happened to me.

Equinox is too hard and needs some heavy improvements, but it is, somehow, very intriguing at the same time, that is what keeps me from giving it the lower rating it deserves, it is one of those games with some kind of hidden charm that you just can’t hate at all, I hate that, but it’s true.

”My lack of vocabulary and grammatical errors (if there’s any) are because I’m not from an English speaking country, sorry about that.”

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 01/11/04