In our difficult time, with the dominance through realistic and dark games, survival simulators, and annual one-time rides about the military action in the future sometimes I want to plunge into the arms of a beautiful tale. Without cabbage realism and other attributes of modern development. Therefore, if your gaming soul craves something good and bright, today’s story is for you. Pour yourself a ginger tea, sit back comfortably, we will begin. So, in a faraway Kingdom…
There was a Rare company that in the 90s gave us so many wonderful projects, like the cult series Battletoads, Donkey Kong Country, Killer Instinct, Perfect Dark, game Snake Rattle ‘n’ Roll, a three-dimensional platformer Banjo-Kazooie and GoldenEye 007, even for a long time became the “gold standard” of first-person shooters. Unexpectedly bumped into an independent English Studio monster overseas. Microsoft ische, and bought Rare, along with all its intellectual property. Soon the fairy tale, and even more affected by the pernicious influence of Microsoft, which forced the artists to draw avatars for Xbox Live and make extremely controversial game Viva Piñata.
But Rare did not give up and continued to work hard, when suddenly a dark cloud more than ever! Wanted a foreign publisher to produce a remake of the Killer Inctinct, but not simple, and shareware. Also to re-release old games in Xbox Live Arcade was conceived instead on a sequel or new series to work. Opposed key employees of Rare and then left from under the wing of Microsoft on Kickstarter, so that the bottom of the barrel to scrape, barns place, but to gather up funds for my new game called Yooka-Laylee.
Okay, put aside the allegorical manner. In General, we have three-dimensional platformer, the answer is not the last people in the gaming industry. Yooka-Laylee is a successor of traditions founded in the already mentioned above the game Banjo-Kazooie. Even the names of these two projects constructed in a similar way. We have to play for the inseparable Duo of heroes: lizard-chameleon Yooka and bat Laylee. Laylee always sits on top of his friend and the game progresses as Yooka, gains new abilities, allowing you to reach previously inaccessible locations.
By the way, about the locations: the game has 5 different from each other’s worlds. From snow-covered ice peaks to barren deserts and Islands, floating in the air. In addition, there is in the game’s main “hub” from where we find ourselves in other worlds. At any moment we are free to return to the Central world and to revisit already explored places that are revealed gradually in the course of the story. The story here, as befits a fairy tale, plain and simple, but very cute. Local evil genius Capital B, along with his assistant Dr. Quack decided to grab all the books in the world to find THE LEDGER. Naturally, stole the book and the duet of our heroes, that is the starting point of history.
On books here tied everything apart from the 5 realms represent the books that our friends move, so more collectible items for the collection are pages of THE same books and writing pens. The first is needed in order to unlock new worlds or expanding the old one. The second is required to purchase new abilities from the local snake merchant. No need to worry. Forced to engage in gathering you will not make one. All the necessary extracted through the story, but fans of the “collect them all” will be satisfied: in addition to the aforementioned items, in each world, hidden bonuses, giving the increase in health and stamina (which is needed to perform certain actions), as well as unique items like “molecules of the world” (looking, however, as usual increased molecule) or Ghost-writers, each of which is required to catch a specific way, for which, of course, you should have a reward.
As for the worlds, then, besides the external differences, they are all built in a similar way: it’s a pretty spacious location with lots of detours and hidden places. In a world you no longer have to jump, to run, swim and even fly. In General, with a variety of platform gameplay, the game is no problem. Each world is inhabited by various characters, are willing to give you jobs, and this is probably the best in the game. There is a mad scientist, fascinated by modification of bodies, which for a small fee in the form of “molecules of the world” at a time modifies the main characters, which opens their new abilities. For example, in the first world, you can become a flower, thereby unlocking additional chain of quests, and in the world of snow is a genius will make you a plow truck. There is also the skeleton is a researcher in the hat of Indiana Jones, always getting into scrapes, and trolley Kartos on pensions (a clear reference to old Kratos from the upcoming new part of God of War). But my personal favorite low poly dinosaur Rextro, concurrently is the owner of the arcade straight out of the 90s. Besides the fact that it is associated with a series of great jobs on his machines you can play the arcade version of “mikromashinok,” variations on the theme of Space Invaders and some other games. They are available as during the storyline of the adventure, and from the main menu.
All of a sudden perfectly in the game and with humor. For example, during jump training Layee says, “in General, I don’t know why I’m explaining this to you is also written on page 1 of the manual”. A met Rextro, they will hold such a dialogue, perfectly mocking the fashion nostalgia for the old games:
— Why are you single?
— I’m waiting for friends. They promised they will come soon and we will start to play old games.
— When promised?
— In 1997.
Not far behind, and bosses. For example, one of the first calls himself “Rambo: ancient great stone man” and is a stone gate. Rampo dislikes of installers of plastic Windows, their plastic “spoil the whole look.”
As for gameplay, it is very standard for games of this genre. Just run through the levels, collect the pages with feathers, look for the secrets of da fight against enemies. And if in the game the artificial intelligence is behaving according to the script laid down that the rank and file enemies to fully justify the word “artificial”, but have nothing to do with intelligence. Local monsters annoy rather than delight during battles. They can only with wild Orom to run/fly/sail to you and do not have, so to speak, the “recipe”. Almost all of them can be defeated by pressing the same button, which is a shame, because the characters have so many abilities that are not used for the fights. In battles with the bosses in this respect, criticism is almost there. Each battle is unique and requires not only to demonstrate playing skills, but also stretch the gray matter to understand how the boss to defeat.
After this witty monologue would be a battle with the boss in quiz format, when he will test you on your care and ask about gaming moments that you have experienced. Great find!
I think that, looking at the screenshots, you have been able to assess the local picture. Yes, the graphics of the stars from the sky is not enough, but the game looks neat and very beautiful due to proper art design, which resembles a good cartoon. Believe me, the game looks much better dynamics than in statics. Picture juicy and bright, but not demanding on hardware, so even owners of quite weak by today’s standards a PC (judging by the reviews tested the game) will be able to enjoy the project. I personally went for the PS4 version, and any problems with her in graphic terms were not observed.
And now a couple of spoons of tar. A huge disappointment is a gaming camera that behaves very unfriendly. Sometimes she turns around incredibly slowly, and sometimes Vice versa, very quickly. Often the situation when if you ran or flew to the right, when you change the angle that your right may be left, and you will begin to move in the opposite direction. That is to say, children’s error, which can be forgiving to newbies, but not masters of Rare.
Mixed left sound. The sounds of the environment, the game world and the music is just great, setting the right mood and convey the spirit of where we are. But the voice acting… would be Better if it was not at all. Listen to it — refined torture for the ears. It’s hard to explain, but I’ll try. Each character speaks with a 1-2 set of sounds, accompanied by subtitles translated from “sloppy” to “human”. Each character has these unique sounds. Let’s say it sounds “quack-kVA”. And these “quack-croak” characters recite 5-6 sentences. Try to read a couple of paragraphs in that style. The first suggestions can, and will hear funny, but the more — the more it will start to annoy you. The worst thing is that 50% of the dialogues squander impossible. I really hope that the man (man?) who invented this system, all those around him once throughout the whole day to chat on this stupid language.
Pros:
- Varied gameplay with lots of possibilities.
- Dissimilar to other worlds.
- Great atmosphere and adventure.
- Fun for the whole family.
- Wonderful sense of humor.
- Interesting boss battles.
- Accurately spelled out the characters.
- Music.
Cons:
- Ridiculous AI ordinary enemies.
- Strange camera.
- The worst voice acting in my memory.
Despite a number of controversial issues, I do not share the opinion of their Western colleagues, who criticized the game. Yooka-Laylee was a very complex game with many opportunities in which you can stay long, returning to already completed worlds and again and again discovering something new. It’s good and bright tale that in our world of gray is not enough. If you love a good adventure, platformers and works for the whole family, then run to buy more Yooka-Laylee. These games need to support the ruble, so they finally disappeared. The good game is cheap and penny work out all that invested in it. The game deserves 8.5 out of 10. At the very least.
Review game Yooka-Laylee: entertainment for everyone
Vladimir Kuznetsov