Oceanhorn [iOS]

Oceanhorn was developed by Cornfox & Bros who are a Finnish game developer. This game has received rave reviews and at the time of writing it sits on a Metacritic score of 92. Basically saying it is one of the greatest games of all time. Is it that great? The simple answer is no, a lot of flaws have been overlooked in it's achievement of that score but it is still a good game, let me explain.

You play a boy on a Zelda Winder Waker-esque quest to save the world. You travel from island to island in your boat, which triggers a shoot 'em up mini game. This is probably the easiest part of the game as everything in your path has a giant hit-box, it makes for a good way to stock up on money and items. Most of your adventuring will take place on these islands in their dungeons. You have your typical sword and shield, plus you find other classic Zelda items along the way such as the bow, bombs and even heart containers. Plus you push boxes around to solve puzzles. It sounds pretty good really. Take a classic game and bring it to iOS, well...

Unfortunately Oceanhorn suffers from a lot of flaws, these range from bugs, to aspects of the game that weren't playtested enough. I'll give you a few examples. Unlike in a Zelda game, it's not obvious when you have finished with a dungeon. There is rarely any plot development at the end of a dungeon, rather you get an item that can help you in the next area and you awkwardly move on thinking, "Did I miss something?"At one stage, you have to climb along the gate you want to open in order to solve the puzzle. Why not just jump down off the gate? It's moments like these that break any suspension of disbelief you may have with the game and bring you back to awkward reality. You can pass through some solid objects, the game chugs at points on my iPhone 5, the enemy A.I. ranges from dumb to far too accurate and devastating. All of these things make the game frustrating at times. At lot of them are little but when taken together lead to distraction from the game experience. The worst offence is when you die to a boss. Now you'll want to go back and fight them again, of course but there probably won't be enough pots to smash around you to get back all your health and arrows to fight them again. This means you'll have to back track, which just takes time without adding anything to the gameplay.

But Oceanhorn does have a lot of enjoyable moments too. Adventuring is fun, I always want to see what is next and what new item I will put out of a chest. Levelling up is a pretty cool feature and something that Zelda certainly lacks. The boosts you get from each level are small but they do add up and it is something to look forward to. The graphics and audio are superb. The way the ocean realistically waxes and wanes, whilst the sun shines brightly off it, looks stunning. It makes me want to go swimming. The music was done by two Japanese composers Kenji Ito and Nobuo Uematsu who are probably most famous for working with Square, on titles like Final Fantasy and Secret of Mana. The music does a great job of driving the story and applying the overall mood for the scene. I do also enjoy that the game is challenging because it really does give you a solid sense of achievement when you accomplish something. The problem is that often the challenge isn't due to clever game design but rather awkward controls, poor game design or bugs.

Oceanhorn is a big adventure for an iOS game and it took me a bit over the claimed 10 hours to complete. There is definitely a good game here but it is not for everyone. If you are looking for a challenging, beautiful, yet ultimately flawed Action RPG, this is worth picking up 7.9/10.