The Guise PS5 Game Review
Summary: A well presented game that despite its charm presents a decent challenge
3.3
I hate to say it, but normally a new game from Ratalaika Games is pretty much shovel ware. By that I mean a game that is filled with achievements for you to get quickly and easily in order to boost your Xbox gamer score or your PlayStation trophy score . They’re cheap without a lot of substance and something that is generally sneered at.
I’m sure that’s not the case it across the entire board, but for the most part, it has been my experience. In fact, sometime ago, I was reviewing one of the games in order to prove just how quickly you can get trophies, playing one of them, including platinum‘s. I literally finished it 100% in about 10 minutes.
I must confess I’m pretty stoked that, with this latest release from the publisher called The Guise, it seems to buck the trend that has previously been the case with these titles. What we have presented with is a Metroidvania style game about a boy who is trapped into the body of a monster who needs to make his way through a very dark almost monochromatic world. The style is similar to that of a cell shaded game and is presented as a side scrolling platform action game with very good level flow.
The game does prove itself to be a little bit of a challenge, with very little in the way of instruction, when it comes to fighting monsters, which the world is heavily populated with. Dialogue is dealt to you via speech boxes, but otherwise the audio is an absolute treat. The story itself is decent; you play the role of a boy called Ogden who is dared to put on a creepy mask and when he does, he is transformed into a monster. Stuck in that form, he goes off on a mission to try to undo it all. For a game where combat is key, the title is responsive and the character is easy to control especially at key moments involving hitting and jumping which are essential for your survival.
The combat within the game is fairly simple, however, I will tell you right now this – your left trigger is a Dodge and it is possibly the biggest mistake in the entire game that you are never told about that button. I discovered it by mistake and all of a sudden everything that was going wrong was corrected. There are certain patterns to every monsters attack that you will need to learn in order to get through the game and it does feel quite fun and rewarding to achieve this.
Don’t be fooled by the simplistic look of some of your enemies; they are quite dangerous and can attack unexpectedly. As you kill them, they drop green orbs, and upon getting 10 orbs, you can heal yourself for 1.5 HP. Another creepy little fact in this game is the currency is monster eyes, this is a ghoulish feature that I really enjoyed, and is the way that you will pay for upgrades to Ogden. You will need to do this in order to beat some of the more challenging bosses and to equip different amulets to take advantage of their powers this is all done via the eye currency.
Level design is beautiful and well thought out. The game plays super well and should prove to be a challenge for most people. It’s not the longest game, however, it would be one of the best that Ratalaika has put out for a very long time. I do strongly urge you to play it; I think it represents really good, and more importantly, fun value for money. This is a well thought out title and deserves a good looking at.
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