To me, Brian Jacques’ Redwall sequence is mentally pigeonholed alongside Watership Down, Animals of Farthing Wooden and Secret of Nimh. These are animal-led properties from the ‘80s and ‘90s that I discovered to be splendidly made, beautiful and evocative, however they had been liable to show round and emotionally intestine punch me. Simply as I’d get cosy, a useless hedgehog, rabbit or mouse would seem in my lap. They had been all emotional minefields.
So, we went into The Misplaced Legends of Redwall: The Scout Anthology with mouse-like trepidation. Our whiskers twitched and we may really feel the itching of outdated wounds.
Because it occurs, we needn’t have apprehensive – no less than, not about that. The Misplaced Legends of Redwall: The Scout Anthology isn’t notably taken with tugging on the heartstrings. That is extra a take of mousey derring-do. However there was a minefield of a distinct kind: as a result of The Misplaced Legends of Redwall: The Scout Anthology wobbles wildly between being perfunctory and chuck-the-pad infuriating.
The Misplaced Legends of Redwall: The Scout Anthology was initially launched as a sequence of three Telltale-like episodes, that are gathered collectively to type this launch. The check is whether or not you may make it by the primary of those episodes. The entire recreation’s frustrations are concentrated on this chapter (Soma Video games do no less than some course-correction in episodes two and three), so it turns into each a demo of every part that’s incorrect with the sport, and a gauntlet that you need to move by to get to the marginally higher stuff.
The primary episode strains up the issues neatly so that you can sniff by, one after the other. To begin with, you’ll be able to inform that The Misplaced Legends of Redwall: The Scout Anthology relies on a sequence of books, as a result of it typically feels such as you’re studying all of them. There’s a lot of textual content right here, whether or not in cutscene, journal or dialogue format, and whilst you can skip them, you’re nonetheless doing an terrible lot of skipping.
The standard of the writing isn’t unhealthy, it’s only a tad humdrum. The assorted animals you chat to all fear about survival, one another and their very own psychological states, which is considerable as some rats have invaded and everyone seems to be combating merely to outlive. However the dialogue meanders, the journals are absolute bibles that solely Jacques lovers will lap up (did we actually want some cooking recipes in there?), and the cutscenes are inclined to linger about twice so long as they need to. A framing system of a mouse being advised the story towards a backdrop of a theatrical efficiency finally ends up feeling pointless, and solely serves to pad.
And why is every part so brown? The world of Redwall feels prefer it’s been carved out of an outdated oak tree, which is efficient at first however doesn’t half turn into fatiguing by the tip. We half-wanted the blood to movement, simply so we may get some color into the setting.
Nevertheless it’s not the wordiness that galls with The Misplaced Legends of Redwall: The Scout Anthology. It’s the best way it feels on the sticks. Controlling Liam or Sophia, the sport’s two Lilygrove Scouts, doesn’t really feel satisfying in any respect.
The Misplaced Legends of Redwall: The Scout Anthology is a third-person journey, so there’s a deal of motion and traversal, as you bounce, seize and slide by the degrees like Lara Croft at 1:24 scale. However the motion is sluggish, the leaping has a slippery slide to it, and maneuvers like climbing are extremely stiff, shifting you solely in cardinal instructions. The blocking within the ranges, too, retains getting in the best way, as invisible obstacles are simply as potent an enemy because the rats. The sport retains gesturing large to its world, saying “go, discover!”, however then confines you to very particular locations.
The world isn’t notably readable, both. Ledges would possibly look grabbable after they aren’t. Ladders may be climbable or ornament. Holes for burrowing are so extremely small and, sure, brown, making them troublesome to identify. Different mounds of earth appear to be they might be diggable, however aren’t. You possibly can drop down from some areas with out a difficulty, whereas others kill you outright.
This lack of legibility is none extra deadly than within the recreation’s puzzles. Sometimes, The Misplaced Legends of Redwall: The Scout Anthology desires you to push blocks round and resolve environmental dilemmas, however the constituent components of the puzzle are arduous to differentiate from background stuff. A gap within the backside of a wall turns into very important, if you’ve handed holes prefer it loads of instances earlier than. On a few events – one close to the beginning, one close to the tip – we needed to resort to walkthroughs after giving up.
However the place The Misplaced Legends of Redwall: The Scout Anthology will get most of its gameplay from is stealth. Stealth in half-baked video games provides me the willies: it has to be completed effectively, as stealth is a one-hit kill that undoes your entire good work. In the event you really feel cheated, it may well hearth a poison-dart into your enjoyment. And in The Misplaced Legends of Redwall: The Scout Anthology, it’s poor.
The one notable thought in The Misplaced Legends of Redwall: The Scout Anthology is a scent system: a model of Batman Arkham Metropolis’s Detective Mode the place you’ll be able to apply a layer onto the sport world and see smells. It’s fab, and works effectively in every single place besides stealth. As a result of now you may have a scent-trail following behind you, and you need to get that by a stealth maze, and never simply your mouse. It’s like being Hitman, however you’ve unwittingly acquired a roll of bathroom paper caught to your foot. Enemies can discover you OR your lengthy, dangling scent, so that you’re desperately making an attempt to maintain inventory of what they will see AND sniff. It’s a ballache, and ballaches are hardly ever enjoyable.
The Misplaced Legends of Redwall: The Scout Anthology appears to acknowledge this in episodes 2 and three, and turns stealth right into a puzzle somewhat than a sophisticated, systemic strategy like Hitman. It does wonders, but it surely’s nonetheless not excellent: enemies swing pendulum-like between being dumb or psychic, and it by no means fairly feels proper that ringing bells will distract a rat endlessly. It turns into much less more likely to trigger a rage-quit, but it surely’s hardly nice.
The final nail in The Misplaced Legends of Redwall: The Scout Anthology’s coffin is a few wacky, misplaced sequences that don’t a lot lack refinement, as really feel like they emerged from the mines that morning. Chase sequences attempt to emulate Crash Bandicoot, however virtually nothing about them works. Each the primary character and the enemy dance round like drunkards, and we ended up hammering buttons within the hope that it could all finish.
Every little thing about The Misplaced Legends of Redwall: The Scout Anthology screams ‘this was rushed’. Maybe the episodic launch construction was in charge, tying Soma Video games to dates that they couldn’t hit.
As a result of whereas The Misplaced Legends of Redwall: The Scout Anthology is earnest, and Redwall followers will lap up the additions to the lore, it’s additionally ragged. Stealth, platforming and puzzles are all tried, and never one feels something lower than patchy. It finally ends up as filled with holes as Swiss cheese.
