"...Maken
X is such a slow, tedious experience that it will put many to
sleep..."
While FPSs are
good fun, some games have tried to take that perspective and transform
it into a hack and slash game. What has almost always been left out in
these ventures is the fun. While first person shooters have fast action,
a huge arsenal of weapons, and a myriad of multi-player modes, sword swinging
affairs in the first-person have
traditionally been slow, uneventful experiences that are more of a chore
than a game. Maken X is by no means an exception to this, while it has
some very nice visuals, the game doesn’t escape the weak points of its
brethren in the genre. Helping to finish tanking the experience, Maken X
has one of the worst story lines to come along in years.
It’s
pretty much expected that the Dreamcast will pump out some very good
graphics. Maken X fills the bill nicely, with detailed environments,
spiffy lighting-effects, and well-designed anime-like characters. It’s
a shame that the actual game plays out so poorly, as the visuals are
very nice and may be over looked because of the weak gaming experience.
The gameplay is where
Maken X just falls apart. It is tortuously slow, as the enemies run
relatively predictable patterns, the combat is slow, and the sword
hacking is tedious. Players can possess the bodies of certain fallen
enemies, and characters that they meet throughout the game. While
refreshing things briefly by introducing new weapons into combat, the
new character gets boring quickly. Helping to round out the weak
gameplay is an equally weak story. It is such a generic, good versus
evil, "do the right thing" styled plot. Polishing off this
terrible story is that the devil is the main villain.
But helping to
drag the game right into the depths of terrible gaming is the atrocious
voice acting. The voice work here is a good example of why so many
gamers clamor for subtitles. So they have to read a bit, no big deal,
but it sure beats dealing with bad voice acting. Even worse is that the
samples of the
dialogue
have way too much reverb, and it sounds like
everyone is talking in the bathroom. The sound effects and music are
also uneventful, making the use of ones stereo a must, just to get some
good tunes into the room.
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Maken
X is such a slow, tedious experience that it will put many to sleep. The
funny thing is that if it was a third person, over-the-shoulder
perspective, things were sped up a little, and the game was setup as a
more straightforward action title, it would probably have been pretty
good, but as it stands it’s a disappointing experience.