Golden Axe: Beast Rider

"Reviewed by a true Hack and Slash lover. Haters begone."

Well I have been playing many hours on it now, and have been very pleasantly surprised considering the (predictable and bandwagon inspiring) bad press from the usual suspect style line up of sites.

First up, if you are not a fan of this genre in the first place, you are going to find nothing in this game for you. Nothing. May as well forget about it now. Golden Axe will not be the game to make you fall in love with hack and slash gaming. See ya!

Right, for those of you who are left, let us take it a piece at a time, like all reviewers would have you believe is the only way to analyse a game.

Well first up to hit you would be the presentation. No real frills, not a ton of options before you start, just your basics and essentials to begin with. Acceptable, not outstanding by any means.

So, you start a new adventure, being your only option after the intro cut scene. Very short training area next, where you experience review points two and three in the generic review fashion - graphics and gameplay.

Graphics at first you think are maybe a little washed out, maybe a tiny bit bland, not much of what you were expecting on this gen of consoles. However, later on you will rethink. Not much later, either.

The initial gameplay it throws at you is simple enough. Weak attacks, strong attacks. Then evade and parry depending on color coded attack of the enemy. Strong moaning point from many is that when you encounter a few enemies, evade and parry is too hard. Too hard? Um, ok... you can evade or counter out of almost any move you were in. Getting knocked down is a bit difficult to get out of if surrounded, and maybe a roll feature would have been nice, but on the whole you having good reactions and not mindlessly bashing will keep you fully in control of the fight.

Countering after the evade or parry is simple enough. Precise timing on attacks and counters can turn them in to brutal versions, heaping flames or special attacks upon your foe. Awkward at first, easy in time.

You get spells soon after - a nice fireball and fire-blast radius effect, doing exactly what you would expect. Later on they get powered on to new levels, with bigger blasts and effects, more death dealing, more mana draining. Predictable yet still awesome.

You also acquire the Golden Axe in a broken form early on to use to throw around to solve some puzzles.

The lack of a lock on could be an issue for people pampered with them, but really is not necessary with the way the combat has been set up. If you leave your back exposed you can not always counter with an evade or parry, but that is your own fault as far as I can see - face your damn enemies.

Puzzle elements are pretty simple, with early events being light torches with a fire spell, or destroy enemy summoning devices. The enemy summoners explain at least how your fodder leap out of midair, and to be honest this is nowhere near as annoying as people make out, and fits the fantasy theme.

Beasts are a big thing seeing as they became the tag line for the title. Five in total, one of which is an epic secret thing you probably knew about before the developers. They are called clunky by many, and I can see why - they actually move and turn like big lumbering beasts instead of turning upon a hairpin, and performing triple ninja flips like many seemed to expect.

They all have different abilities, basically in two categories - smash enemies or solve mini puzzle. No real brain matter required, but that is kind of the point of these games. Use and abuse beasts when you find them - if you don't, the enemy will. The health bar going down by using their moves is a bit odd, but if you have a modicum of skill they last out the encounter they were for with no issues, and you can replen their health same as yours. All in all I think they work well without being over used or over relied on to carry the fighting.

Back to the graphics before I forget. They are better than I expected from the complaining upon the interwebs. Areas are very stylish looking, with very nice draw distances, an almost constant 60fps, and good variety between the levels. Some screen tearing, and that does get annoying on occasion. Animations is good and solid, but not great. Missing some real flair to it.

Yes, gnomes are back, plus their original theme. Hard to catch until you figure how to predict their movements and dash attack them, and handy as ever with health and potions. Gold ones add tribute (treasure) and Red poison you! They crop up at certain areas as opposed to in between level naps like the old days.

Ok, I am already writing far more than I intended, so suffice to say the main game was great fun, varied enemies and level looks, though the actual level progression is linear and has no exploration as such. Not that you need it for this genre, but people want the moon on a stick with everything it seems! Lot more levels and lasts a lot longer than usual for this type of game as well.

What about extras and replay? Well, you have Challenge mode - replay level segments in any costume or weapon so far acquired to improve your rank and tribute. Rank is based on damage taken, limbs removed, time taken, stuff like that. As far as I can tell, rank only unlock achievements and satisfaction.

Tribute is where the replay is - you need a ton of this treasure to unlock the weapons you can use - costumes are gotten from playing the story. The amounts needed look scary high until you get properly accomplished and can take on the Brutal difficulty for a big multiplier.

Trial mode is a series of 6 arenas, facing vast waves of enemies in evil combinations designed to earn you vast amounts of tribute at the cost of your sanity later on. Great fun for the hardcore battler, yet some of the fights really did make me want to cry.

No co-op. Sucks. Don't think it would have worked well though on this particular game. If they do a sequel with it, it needs to actually have some features designed that co-op would work with.

Difficult? Not like people make out. I have been playing games longer than the majority of gamers have even been alive. This game is indeed tough, and occasionally you can get frustrated. If you die and have run out of dragon totems (continues) it is back to the start of the section. I usually take a break at that point and come back later.

If you are into this kind of game, and are not looking for the most perfect and polished game of all time, this is a real gem. Considering travesties from this developer, this you would not think is one of theirs. However if you are looking at this game as a stop gap to bigger release, save your money. You wont like it much, and I don't want to read your troll topics.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 10/17/08

Game Release: Golden Axe: Beast Rider (EU, 10/17/08)