Game Reviews

Godfire: Rise of Prometheus

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Godfire: Rise of Prometheus

Godfire: Rise of Prometheus is a clumsy brute. It lacks the finesse of the finest hack 'n' slashers, relying instead on the weight of its blows to entice you in.

It works reasonably well. Dunderheaded star Prometheus isn't a balletic figure, but there's a gory thwack to each of his sword swings that makes you want to mash the on-screen buttons some more.

It's certainly not subtle, and there's a lack of freedom to experiment in the simple controls that means you're never really doing anything other than hammering out the same combos then dodging out of the way.

Bloated boss fights round off a package that's so desperate to be mentioned in the same breath as God of War that it never manages to say or do anything particularly new.

Tale as old as time

You play as Prometheus, a muscular Spartan sort who gets involved in a hefty chunk of bibbly plot. Get the Godfire from the sun god, find out who the crazy masked lady is, smash the cockles out of anything that looks at you funny. That sort of thing.

You wander through tightly linear areas, stomping on vases to get the coins within, opening chests when you spot them, and thinking that the whole thing looks quite a lot like Dante's Inferno.

When Prometheus draws his twin swords, it's time to do some violence. While you're exploring, you're free to walk anywhere. But when the fights start, your movement stick becomes a dodge command.

Poke it in the direction you want to roll and most of the time Prometheus will do a little tipple-tale in that direction, avoiding enemy sword swipes as he does.

You've also got a light attack, a heavy attack, and a block button. You won't use block much except in boss fights (when certain attacks can't be dodged).

By tapping away at strings of light and heavy attacks, you create combos. There's no finesse to these, but it's nice to see them when they land and turn goat-headed abominations into squelchy splurges of blood.

Bloody goats

There's some light puzzling to do here and there, but none of it should pose any problems to anyone who can turn an iPhone on.

Mainly, you're just taking on packs of different minions. Some have shields, some have swords, some are quick, some are slow. There's never that much change to the rhythm of play, though. Tap out a combo, roll away, repeat.

Occasionally, you'll be able to perform a gory finishing move, but they're rarely that spectacular. Pretty often, any minions left will be hacking at your spine as you jam a sword into the top of one of their friend's heads.

And then there are the boss fights. These are treacle-sludgy battles of attrition that see you dodging through repetitive attack patterns and waiting until the boss gets tired to strike.

They'd have felt out of date ten years ago, but now they feel positively offensive.

By the saga

Godfire: Rise of Prometheus goes through the third-person action game playbook. There are quick time events; hidden chests; new unlockable armour; new equipable weapons; and a growly protagonist with a shaved head and all the personality of a lump of feta.

But it's going through the playbook on your iPhone or iPad, and so the dev deserves some credit for trying to squish a console experience onto devices on which it was never likely to fit.

It's far from perfect, but it's stubborn in its adherence to a template. And it does have its moments. When the brawling system clicks and you're wailing on Hades-bound fiends, it does make you feel like a titan.

If you were already excited about Godfire: Rise of Prometheus, then it's unlikely you're going to be upset by the stompy, shouty final product.

But if you were looking forward to an action game that was actually designed around the limitations of your phone or tablet, you're probably going to be disappointed.

Godfire: Rise of Prometheus

A big silly blockbuster of a game that wants desperately to be on something other than a touchscreen device. Godfire: Rise of Prometheus has a meaty bounce to it, but its lack of subtlety will likely be too much for some to take
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Harry Slater
Harry Slater
Harry used to be really good at Snake on the Nokia 5110. Apparently though, digital snake wrangling isn't a proper job, so now he writes words about games instead.