Written by Thomas G.J Sharpe
Wise-crackin’ angels vaguely playing out a mangle of
lesser-known Judeo-Christian texts? Sursum corda! You got it! And somehow,
wherever I looked for information on El Shaddai, it was sprinkled in the risky
words “cult classic”. Sadly, I simply do not see it.
This is pitched as a third-person action game (feat. Mild
platforming) with some other bold claims than it’s cultish-classicism; “deeply
artistic”, “outstanding aesthetics” and “exceptional setting”. Shaddai is proud
of its design, and in a way, it probably still stands out after 10 years. It is
“unique”, but I find it hard to apply “artistic” in the way I feel that the
marketing wants me to feel about it. Stylistic might be better; it is an
interesting blend of crisp, heavenly brightness with piercing colours that
provide a jarring, otherworldliness, or even between-worldliness to it. In this
way, Shaddai puts a lot of burden on the visual adornments to hook us in.
But it falls apart as soon as you squint past the divine
rendering and play the game after a run of bargain-basement story-telling
cinematics (these pop up constantly throughout the game, never once being
interesting, tense, moving, funny or any such thing). You play as Enoch (quick
search… ancestor of Noah… wrote a bunch of guff about demons and monsters to
make ancient people (and the modern day credulous) terrified of everything) who
is writing a bunch of stuff out in a bunch of books and is led by Lucifer (who
has a cell-phone which he uses to smart-talk Yahweh on) to defeat seven fallen
angels who have confused reality on Earth. Or something.
And I mean, or something. Because, despite the
interest I personally have in the development of superstitious cults, like
Christianity, this is not a compelling interpretation. Primarily, as the player
never once cares about the fate of Enoch himself. He is devoid of sympathy and
interest, there is no character arc to speak of. His struggles against
amusingly designed enemies and bosses with his divine weapon-stick (looks like that
awful company Tesla designed a Bat’Leth) are without risk. Not just in a
narrative, conceptual sense either. The combat is, at best, functional. There
is little to no development beyond a couple of mild combos. If you consider
that Bayonetta was released two years prior to this, it really shows its
weaknesses.
On the more positive side, yes, this is an interestingly
designed game, and the mixture of 2D platforming into the 3rd person
action is a nice idea. It never quite translates, however, going no deeper than
mild changes of perspective and settings, thinking aesthetic abstraction is
enough to win the day. It simply is not enough for me. For a game to not excite
me that has as it’s primary game loop as hack-n-slash action, is shocking.
Again, I just do not see the appeal. Neither fantastic enough, thrilling enough
to inspire anything in me more than a resounding, Godly, meh.
Overall 5/10
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