REVIEW : Röki (XBOX Series X)
Röki is a really lovely and entertaining adventure game. It’s the latest in a long line of independent titles I hadn’t heard much about that ended up completely winning me over. It’s a (mostly) fantastic experience all around, from the plot to the scenery and mechanics.
We follow Tove and Lars, a little girl and her even younger brother, as they become entangled in an old fable brought to life. When one of the four Guardians of the Land falls in love with a human and births a kid, the others toss her out and she and her monster offspring Röki are banished to a secret world. Enraged and deceived, she sets out to find a means to transform her son into a human so that he might live freely. This comprises kidnapping and sacrificing children so that she can harness their essence to benefit her own son. Our heroes are next in line, and when Lars is kidnapped by Röki, Tove sets out to save him and assist the Guardians in restoring peace and harmony. The narrative is delivered purely in words and includes enough twists and turns to be quite heartbreaking at points. I was completely immersed in all of the characters’ reasons and sentiments by the time I got to the end, and without giving anything away, I believe it will be a story I remember for a long time.
Röki is one of those games that we want to take to our friends’ houses and push into their palms while telling them about. It’s a beautiful, soulful game, as if it were made during the golden age of video games. To create his gaming masterpiece, Jim Henson relocated to Scandinavia with a design team. Start queuing now if you have even a vague interest in narrative-driven games and visual adventures on the Microsoft Store.We mostly play as Tove, and we go across various major locales in pursuit of her sibling. The game is divided into three chapters, the second of which spans the largest area of the three. We must solve item-based puzzles in order to progress further into the forest, which is divided into around a dozen sections. This problem system was the most surprising to me.
While we can manage Tove in the same way we do in any other 3D adventure, item usage is more of a point-and-click affair. There’s a lot of dragging and dropping objects to see whether they can be utilised at other places, or combining menu items to make new ones. I’m not typically a fan of these types of puzzles, but there’s something about the way Röki does it that simply works.Despite the magical background, the problems are logically solved for the most part. My new mortar and pestle can grind down some strange-looking, oily seeds, allowing me to oil up some rusted gears, for example, or a register of names.
I was only perplexed a few times, but the game does an excellent job of pointing out regions and objects of interest. We can also use the left stick to highlight objects we can interact with at any moment, as well as click on our inventory to get a general idea of what the item may be used for or with. Despite all of this assistance, the game isn’t easy to go through; solving problems requires some effort, and I ended up loving the execution – with one exception. It’s a minor marvel that this is a Scottish studio’s first game. It’s astounding enough that this is their debut game, but it’s even more impressive that it seems so authentically immersed in Scandinavian iconography and legend. When we insert the stick, the things flash, but some of them are quite little on the screen. This was a problem for me, especially on a little 1080p TV with my Series S. One late puzzle had me scanning the pretty convoluted third chapter region over and again because I was definitely missing something, which turned out to be in the precise place the puzzle was in after all, but the little object was too effectively camouflaged on the screen for me to miss it for far too long.
Thankfully, this was one of just a few instances like this, but it was still aggravating because I was eager to continue reading and see more of the tale. This third level also introduces a new mechanism, which I thought was a lovely addition, but it ended up stretching the game’s playtime out a little more than it needed to, essentially requiring us to walk through this labyrinthine region twice. While the chapter was shorter than the second in terms of total length, it was a clear pace killer before the last minutes. Your family is hanging by a thread, and that thread is torn as the titular Röki, a massive Last Guardian-like creature, drives its fist into it.You flee, but the beast tracks you down and drags Lucas into a woodland portal. Tove, on the other hand, isn’t about to give up so quickly, and she sticks close behind. This is all preamble, as the main thrust of the adventure begins in Röki’s world. It’s also when Röki reaches its pinnacle. When a new area opens up to you and you discover its inhabitants and creatures, it’s never greater.
There are several reasons why Röki’s universe is so successful. It’s undeniably lovely, with clean graphics created with a restricted colour palette and simple forms. Röki, the beast, is little more than a black shape with white eyes and teeth, yet it exudes power and terror. The Nokken is a terrifying marine creature with tentacles growing up to a large, open-mouthed head that looks like the most dangerous toilet brush you’ve ever seen. My understanding of Nordic legend ends with Hilda, but I admire the countless depictions I’ve seen over the years.Röki is all about this, and you’ll be interacting with a lot of trolls, strange beasts, and guardians that tower over small Tove. After all, it wouldn’t be a romanticised journey about loss without such difficulty. Tove’s main concern is the loss of her mother. It’s all about losing Tove’s loving wife for Tove’s father. The game depicts these topics through the narrative of a woodland guardian who was excommunicated by her siblings after having a human kid.
When I consider how the story beats were employed in conjunction with the mythology it is based on, I believe this is a story that could be recounted by almost anything and everyone. No, it wasn’t the plot beats that kept me reading, but rather the pacing. Röki is the first game I’ve played in a long time that didn’t seem like it stayed too long. Characters were introduced with their purpose and bowed out as appropriate, which was a pleasant surprise in an era of thick tales. Having said that, I walked away from Röki having thoroughly enjoyed myself. The individuals we encounter along the road are all intriguing and distinct. The feeling of location and aesthetics are also outstanding, with some stunning graphics and ambient music and effects to match them. Although the storey is conveyed through text, Tove and the rest of the actors make varied grunts and mumbles when their text boxes appear, which helps to sell the emotion in the writing. All of this adds up to a game that was both heartbreaking and engrossing to play. Röki tries its hardest to be an adventure game that anybody can play. It’s a safe bet, and it’s one that I like.
REVIEW : Toy Soldiers: HD (PC)
