A teaser before Metroid Dread but still a promising indie: Cathedral
While I'm waiting for my salary to be paid to buy Metroid Dread I needed to review my catalog of Indies and complete some to satisfy my craving for 2D platformer action, and I have found the surprise of Cathedral, an Indie that pays homage to those 8-bit games of yesteryear that remind us of consoles like the iconic Nintendo NES and combines it with an interesting gameplay, I was investigating and it seems that it is the first development work of its creators, Decemberborn that tries to provide an experience as close to those consoles of the 80's giving a touch of modernity to its mechanics but always remaining as a tribute, it is not one of those games that express too much nor guide us during each step but I think that is appreciated when we are thrown into the unknown.
Cathedral would be a modern approach to that classic approach of games like The Legend Of Zelda and Megaman, having several mechanics and concepts of these approaches with a fantasy aesthetic in which we embody a knight who wakes up without memories and has to get out of a dungeon full of monsters, of course nothing original but meets assimilate to the productions of those consoles, very often we find references to titles like Mario Bros or Castlevania, actually each level has everywhere something that puts it in the right time, I could not say if it is its aesthetics or its mix of references or mechanics but it wraps and works excellently especially when we play it, the controls are well designed to not be clumsy but not too simple for us to handle after a few minutes, it is a challenge as are the scenarios and enemies that appear out of nowhere attacking and with a couple of attacks you are already dead, Cathedral knows how to challenge us while leaving us wanting much more of their world, something difficult to achieve with a game inspired by the 8-bit passages of the video game.
And is that not only we will have the platforms and enemies to defeat but also Cathedral integrates a system of improvements to our characters as well as an inventory full of objects that we can use in battle, makes a very interesting use of the secrets in each world, giving us an improvement every time we discover a certain amount of secrets in the scenarios, which can be explored in different ways in addition to the fact that we will have to go through them more than once in search of improvements or new paths in the purest Metroid style, also to help us is Soul, a kind of extension of the hero that helps us discover new places thanks to his short stature.
The pixel art of this adventure is quite solid, coinciding with several references takes advantage of the scenery and animations to highlight the character of retro-modern game and guide you through some interesting ways as they do this style of games where the pixel is more than present, perhaps what is most lacking is a little more personality and an identity on the part of the game that part of many typical narrative clichés of video games of the time but also end up being vague and not give much depth.
However, I think Cathedral is a short game by definition, it is simple, offers a broader vision of all that culture that was lived by the 8-bit games and presents some fun mechanics, without many complications but surely will give more of a challenge especially for players who are not accustomed to this type of controls.
