El Shaddai Review

El Shaddai: Ascension of Metatron review

God’s defender in blue jeans

The fallen angels have corrupted the Earth and God wants to flood the place to clean it up a little. Enoch is given a chance to save the us by recovering thefallen angels which takes a bunch of fighting, lots of running, and a good amount of jumping. And Lucifel (your probably boy)friend follows you around on his cell phone talking casually to God to let him know how you’re doing.

It all pretty gay, when fighting you win when you strip the guy naked, the colors are fabulous and outrageous, and it’s got buttloads of style. It’s like a fag’s favorite home catalog, industrial, we have that, airy and pastel, right here, sir. Every level has it’s own look and feel (no really feel- it’s visually tactile). Static pictures don’t do it justice; most of the levels have a feeling of flow, a soft focus, a sense of lightness as they carefully waver and shift. It’s beautiful. The characters are pretty, Lucifel wears tight black jeans and a form fitting button down shirt buttoned in the middle revealing his chest and midriff, Enoch has blond bouncy hair and a strange configuration of armor that seems completely impractical, but well put together. The fallen angels look like they came from a Klaus Nomi fashion show. Enemies are tribal looking and interesting.

Gameplay is simple- it’s a basic platformer/adventure scheme. The camera doesn’t move and that can be pretty frustrating at times, precision is key. If you fail you are returned not far from where you fell, but it can still be frustrating. There are two attack buttons and different timing creates different combos. There are three weapons that play very differently. A complexity underlies the controls if a gamer wants to find it, but it’s a great for casual gamers.

The story is what you would expect from a Japanese RPG- pretty nonsensical pretending if it talks a bunch it has real meaning. The game is an experience and it is completely beautiful. It plays easily and is original in its mythology (Christian but not Bible-throwing) as well as its mesmerizing art style. Gay subtext is no hard to imagine throughout the game. Demos are available on Xbox Live and the Playstation Network, and If you’ve got 60 bucks to spare, check it out, or wait six months for it to drop in price, but it is well worth a look, and a lascivious look at that.