Golden Axe: Beast Rider

"Neither a hit nor miss"

Golden Axe: Beat Rider

There's no question Sega is host to some of the most beloved franchises in gaming history that are unfortunately no longer with us. The wings of “Panzer Dragoon” no longer soar to the sky, the bloodied fist of “Street of Rage” swing no more and “ToeJam & Earl” left earth when cartridges still ruled the world. Yet developer Secret Level has unearthed one of the oldest Sega classics, “Golden Axe”. As with most revived franchises there's always a danger of betraying the fans of the original as most typically do (NiGHTs 2 anyone?). And how does “Beast Rider” fare? Not much better.

You play “Tyris”, the female warrior from the original, who's Dragon Lord captured by Death Adder, villages massacred and well…you know the rest, revenge. The story is about as non-existent as can be. You're never really given any motivation or reasoning behind anything that occurs and whatever presents itself is instantly forgettable. Let's move on.

Despite carrying the name “Golden Axe”, don't be fooled, outside of the characters this game plays nothing like the original. It shares far more in common with games like “God of War” and more notably “Heavenly Sword”. You'll navigate Tyris through various environments slaying hordes of enemies along the way. The combat is passable, even though Tyris doesn't have a very diverse arsenal of moves at her disposal, what's there is good enough. She can piece together strong and light attacks and correct timing will even imbue her weapon with fire, adding extra damage. She can also parry and evade attacks and this is undoubtedly the worst aspect of “Golden Axe”. When an enemy attacks it will emit an orange or blue color. Orange attacks must be evaded and blue, parried; pressing the wrong button will result in you taking a hit or punishing combo from bigger enemies. The system works just fine when facing a single opponent but you will constantly be surrounded by enemies from all sides. The problem here is that Tyris will evade an attack of an orange enemy only to be struck from behind by an enemy using a blue attack. It is impossible to effectively parry and evade attacks coming from you at all sides at the same time. What's worse, outside of the parry/evade, she has absolutely no way to defend herself unless the enemy is using a parry/evade move. It's even worse when enemies are using ranged attacks outside of your field of vision forcing you to take cheap hit after hit while you're busy trying to focus on the color of the enemies attacks in front of you.

After a few hours when the cheap hits really start piling up, you will begin to curse every large confrontation you engage in and start to wonder exactly what in the world the developers were thinking not giving you a simple “block” command. The frustrations don't stop there however. The levels offer no checkpoints and the only way to continue is to collect hidden statues scarcely placed throughout each act. If you run out of these items however, you're toast, you're done, you have to go all the way back to the beginning. When you begin to face opponents on bridges and have Tyris evade an attack only to roll her stupid self off the edge causing an instant death, you'll begin to question why you're even bothering.

So what does “Golden Axe” get right? The beast, a large portion of the game will have Tyris riding upon several types of beast and clawing through enemies while mounted is really fun. Each beast also has various abilities at your disposal. One can cloak itself enabling you to pounce upon unsuspecting enemies, another can go into a rage mode and tear apart opposing beast in a single bloody move. Controlling these behemoths can be a little difficult when facing a single opponent but mastering each ones strength really can make you tear through waves of enemies with ease. There is also a beast you acquire near the end that literally makes you invincible and is a riot to use.

Unfortunately the games story mode ends before you know it. It's possible to complete it in one sitting and there's sadly little incentive to go back. On a positive note each act rewards you with points that can unlock new spells and weapons to use. There's also a painfully short and lackluster arena mode where you'll square off against 10 waves of increasingly challenging enemies, but outside of earning you more points, there's really no reason to do this as it only makes the parry/evade problems all the more noticeable. The most disheartening aspect of “Golden Axe: Beast Rider” is that there's really no fan service in this game, most notable is the lack of co-op. People who hold fond memories of the classic original's hack and slash co-op so long ago will be very disappointed in this omission. Even having the ability to unlock “Golden Axe” 1 & 2 would've been a great gift for elder fans like myself, but sadly, there's none of that either.

Graphically “Beast Rider” looks pretty good. Some of the levels like the wasteland sport some impressive scenery and lighting effects. Tyris and the beast are also nicely detailed and animate well. Some of the enemies however, look pretty terrible and a few environments have a lot of texture pop-in and clipping issues. The CGI scenes look nice and sharp but in-game cut scenes are disgustingly PS2 quality. The sound design rings of mediocrity across the board from the effects to the voices. The music is average at best but nothing memorable.

For reviving such a classic like “Golden Axe”; a game that many veteran gamers are familiar with, you'd thing developer Secret Level would've tried hard to appease those gamers with a glorious throwback to the original. Sadly, “Beast Rider” isn't it. While they slaying enemies with beast is certainly entertaining it's hardly enough to warrant a $60 price tag. “Golden Axe: Beast Rider” isn't a bad game, but it doesn't feel like it belongs on this generation of platforms. With so many killer titles to be released in the coming weeks like “Fallout 3”, “Gears or War 2” and “Left 4 Dead”, “Beast Rider” only proves to be a weekend rental at best.

Graphics- 7.0
Gameplay- 6.0
Sound- 6.5
Overall- 6.5

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 10/17/08

Game Release: Golden Axe: Beast Rider (US, 10/14/08)