I haven't reviewed a new game in a long time.
I feel like I've been working non-stop since the start of the year, lots of goals to achieve and little time to rest, let alone review any good games from my library, but I have to try man.
And I really like the concept of Ori, plus I've been wanting to buy it at a discounted price for a while, it's been hanging around the bookstore for a couple of years but I think it's time to bring this one home.
I wasn't expecting such a heartbreaking game from the start, when I experience these types of games I usually find that the plot is an ornament that rarely accompanies us on the adventure, but here I think they take it a step further and the whole opening sequence had me tearing up a little in a matter of a couple of minutes.
Can I say that the first few minutes to introduce Ori and Naru are some of the best?
It has a Disney feel to it for sure but equally this sequence which takes something like 5 minutes but it shows me how into this game the creatives are, beautiful visuals from start to finish playing with the colours to symbolise the state of the forest.
And they introduce the central problem quite well, something is happening in the forest that is dying out, the big tree seems to have a problem and it's up to Ori, an extension of the tree that lost a day in a storm, to find the solution, although the forest is no longer the paradise it used to be and is now infested with strange creatures that will block our way.
The essence of this game is Metroidvania, a genre popularized by two old acquaintances of mine, of course Metroid and Castlevania but this genre consists of large scenarios where exploration takes a fundamental role as well as retracing our steps to find other routes, or improving our powers to pass obstacles we couldn't pass before.
That happened to me with this first half hour in this game, at the beginning there is a very heavy focus on the story and setting the whole story behind, after a while we grab the controls of Ori after being revived by the big tree and now we can go free around, the controls are pretty good and precise, it takes a while to get used to jumping in this game but once we learn it becomes very fun to calculate distances and move Ori jumping across the platforms.
We are taught from the start to explore more than necessary, be curious when an enemy presents itself as in these instances we don't have any powers to throw or any attacks, so we are forced to improvise and when an enemy comes out look for creative ways to escape or defeat it.
The objectives are pretty well defined, the gameplay is classic but rewarding in many of the cases, being a game where you are going to run into sealed paths most of the time, understanding and overcoming these obstacles gives you a very good feeling, and that's only achieved with the classic jump and attack mechanics a bit further into the game,
Ori is not a complicated experience at first glance, it knows how to guide us through its mechanics and at the beginning it makes things quite easy although it doesn't say a word to us if not to explain separate mechanics like the light points or the objects we can grab to recover some life, most of the time we will be with a silence from the protagonists and a soundtrack that evokes the mystery of the blind forest.
It is very interesting how without a word the main characters can make us feel so many emotions, the initial sequence, several of the moments that we have later in the game, make us notice very well how the developers know how to tell and carry a story even when you only have the actions of the characters to tell it besides the excellent graphic design and music that the game has in all sections.
I've had a great time these first hours, it's not a title that surprises you too much, there are some ingenious solutions that change a little the dynamics with respect to other games of the same style but I think I'll keep how beautiful everything is, it knows how to show off graphically and how to tell a story that leaves you on the verge of tears and helps you to associate better with this new world.
I haven't played the whole game yet to give it a more extensive review, especially the story, but it's a very good start to a routine I had abandoned, being able to play some new titles will always fill my heart and I hope you can give me your feedback with some good games to acquire.
All yours, @slashint - Gamer, Video Game Analyst.
