Myths and Monsters
I don’t think I have ever started a review off like this, but Aluna: Sentinel of the Shards isn’t a very good game. However, its story which is stepped in Incan lore and mythology is so unique and interesting it made the journey through all of the dated visuals and UI, the bugs and crashes bearable. To my knowledge there isn’t a lot of entertainment media out there that focuses on the Incas and being the ancient mythology junkie that I am it was extremely rewarding learning about these cultures ‘Gods and Monsters’.
MSRP: $19.99
Platforms: Xbox (reviewed), PlayStation, Switch, PC
Price I’d Pay: Bargain Bin
Aluna is the daughter of Pachamama, aka “Earth Mother”, and she is the equivalent of Zeus in Greek Mythology. Pachamama sends her half-human daughter on a quest that will spawn the mighty Incan empire to search out shards, which contain Pachamama’s power. While not very unique in the overall setup, Aluna:SotS is unique in its visual settings. While the typical top-down dungeon crawlers are dark and…dungeon-y? Aluna manages to be extremely bright and vibrant, moving through the levels it was a nice change of pace to see green grass everywhere instead of dying crops and damp caves. Sadly, the graphical fidelity looks like it was designed more for PS2 era than modern day systems, which is extremely disappointing.
The game itself feels dated, its as if the player were playing Diablo 3 on an Xbox or PS2. Items in the environment such as flowers and bushes are little more than ‘colored blocks’ that are coming off of green lines. Monsters, especially bosses deserved better; especially considering this is the first time we are really seeing some these mythological beasts. But if the graphics weren’t enough the UI is also dated, in fact the gameplay UI looks almost exactly like Diablo 3’s back on Xbox.
If players manage to get past the graphics and get to the gameplay you won’t find anything better, regrettably. The combat is just bad, the targeting system is a joke with melee range weapons. For whatever reason the game will auto lock an enemy that is outside your weapons radius, while there are multiple enemies WITHIN that radius that are all attacking the player. Companion AI is sketchy at best, with allies refusing to help in combat, or better yet they will just run in a tight circle away from all the action. While typically I like to be the ‘tank-type’ in these games, I found myself being more of a ‘hunter’ using ranged weapons just because I could actually target and hit my enemies.
I wanted Aluna: Sentinel of the Shards to be great, as I said I absolutely love the lore and mythology presented here. The cutscenes are also worth noting as they employ a graphic novel – panel approach which as everyone knows I’m a sucker for comic – well anything. Everything else about this game though, from the graphics to the voice acting just feels very uninspired and lazy. It’s really a shame because the content is so interesting, the Incans deserve more time in the spotlight and despite this misstep, I hope they get it.
Review copy of game provided by publisher.