garshasp |

Publisher: Dead Mage Studio

Developer: Dead Mage Studio

Release Date: 5/9/2011

Available Exclusively On

I couldn’t even begin to tell you what the story of Garshasp is about. With a weird name like that, you would think the story would be crazy. It’s crazy in a way that you can’t even follow it, and the game isn’t even long enough to flesh out a good story. All I know is that a guy with a weird name killed the brother of Garshasp, and you’re trying to kill him. The narrator pops in sometimes, but he sounds boring, and you can just forget the story.

With a God of War-like clone like Garshasp, you would think puzzles and combat were top-tier. They actually aren’t very good at all. The combat is challenging and requires strategy, but the controls are unresponsive and the moves lack any impact. You have light and heavy attacks, and you can combo them, but there isn’t any form of magic or long-distance combat. The enemies are pretty dumb and either wail on you or just stand there and pause before hitting you. There are quick-time events like in God of War, but the camera just zooms out a bit and the actions repeat for a lot of the enemies.

When it comes to puzzles and platforming, there really aren’t any puzzles. Platforming is challenging, especially with these wall-sliding segments that make you slide around parts of the wall that can hurt you. They get tough, mainly because they go on forever. There’s a lot of switch pulling and turnstile pushing, and there are even health and experience orbs that you pull apart to acquire God of War style. You can upgrade your weapon, but not like you think. You just gain experience, and you automatically unlock new moves. There are only two weapons in the game, but the Dragon Mace isn’t gained until the last 30 minutes of the game (yeah, what’s the point?). The game has a nice ending boss fight, but overall, you can beat the whole game in less than 3 hours. Wait, what?!! 3 hours?! Yes, it’s like a sample of a game, but if you can get it on a super cheap Steam sale, it’s worth maybe $3–5.

Overall, Garshasp has a lot of bugs, like when climbing ledges, he will just shimmy around unless you hit the up button (or analog sticks have more problems). He’ll hang on to objects that require checkpoint restarts, lots of collision detection problems, and other minor quips that add up to make the game even less fun. Why should you even bother? It’s decent, the art style is nice to look at, and the monsters are pretty awesome, but the graphics overall look pretty bad and kind of like plastic (remember Conan?). If you can find this at a super cheap price, go ahead if you are an action-adventure lover; otherwise, pass.