The prolific field of one particular genre called Steampunk is able to give an excellent harvest in the form of fabulous stories. These can be used in different ways including cinema and fiction. But our area of interest deals with games. We are not going to describe the tons of the steampunk-based games that have already been made. We need to survey just one of them named Namariel Legends: Iron Lord. This game is an offspring of the noted Shaman Games. It seems this team does their best to achieve a good pace of work. Well, it is time to rate their newcomer... Read more
The very first cutscene in the game contains the background story of Namariel. The kingdom of Namariel was a safe and prosperous place. No one believed the well-known foreteller who provided the population of the realm with a terrific prediction about an imminent invasion of the cruel army. Unfortunately, a prophet was right. One day a welfare of the Namariel was ruined by despotic ruler named himself Iron Lord. With the help of his inferiors – human commanders and an army of robots, he assaulted the realm and occupied it within a few hours. Merciless troops spread death and panic among the Namariel’s dwellers. The King was dethroned and Iron Lord took control over the kingdom. The destiny of both royal family and inhabitants of the realm remained obscure. However, there was the one who could recapture Namariel and root it out from the iron clutches. This role is offered to the gamer. The identity of this chosen one is a secret. So, we will keep it to avoid the spoilers. Your path will be dangerous, but thrilling at the same time. In some respects, it depends on the selected difficulty mode. “Regular” and “Expert” are able to be taken. The gameplay starts as a standard Puzzle Adventure game. Slowly, it becomes clear that Hidden Object scenes are not included in this game. To be honest, we greatly appreciate this nice twist. The game is focused on completing the various quests by means of the different interactive items. The ones you cannot reach will be gotten by your mechanic fellow-traveler Jim. He is created and given by your uncle. In addition to adventures, a great number of puzzles must be solved. As we all know tastes differ. However, developers has tried to run the hare and hunt with hounds. Riddles and mini-games are incredibly variegated. But all of them have one thing in common: simplicity. Do not prepare for a good challenge. Maybe just a couple of them are really hard to solve. There is no map in the game. Two other things are added instead of an interactive chart: a directional hint and a special button that allows quick returning to the previous location. A funny-looking notebook collects the useful information unearthed by you. Apart from that, Namariel Legends prepares additional challenge in the form of achievements. Altogether there are twelve of them. Do your best to earn them all.
The game cannot be steampunk-based without decent graphics. But the described one absolutely satisfies this requirement. Graphic presentation surpass our expectations! Both the cutscenes and in-game locations and models are animated and depicted beautifully and in accordance with the Steampunk criteria. The voiceovers are also good, but characters’ mouth animation fails to pace with them. The sound effects and a background music are quite annoying. It is a pity.
In spite of a few shortcomings of an audio presentation, the new release from Shaman Games is worth playing. Such features as good plotline, quest orientation and absence of the prolonged hidden object scenes get well-deserved appreciation. Try it without hesitation.
13, June 2013 DoubleGames
