- Zack Goutzoulas
For Evelyn II: Shards of Creation is part immersive-sim, part action role-playing game. As thief turned warrior Zhen-Rei, you must sneak and fight across the world to take down a coven of witches, gaining new abilities and improving your skills on the way. The short preview I played took me through the prologue and first two chapters of what promises to be a seven chapter adventure.
I was immediately enraptured with Shards of Creation’s impressive visual style. The world is beautifully rendered, with PlayStation One-inspired environments that blend excellently with the pixelated character sprites. There’s a healthy amount of variety in the areas you explore and the environmental storytelling works well. I was particularly fond of the gothic Maxwell Keep, a trap-filled castle hiding a demonic labyrinth below. There’s a strong sense of presence to the locations, with small details that make them feel properly lived-in rather than simple set-dressing for the game.
While I loved the aesthetics of the world, it’s hard to comment on the actual substance of Shards of Creation’s story in its current state. With only a handful of chapters available, there’s still clearly plenty of developments waiting to happen. What I have experienced so far has been enjoyable, if a little generic. The story is largely presented through dialogue boxes that are pleasantly voice-acted. There were a few odd line reads that sounded a tad unnatural, but most of it is perfectly solid. I’m excited to see the rest of the tale unfold, especially with the promise that previous choices will impact the direction of the plot.
Even in its current state, the story does provide ample opportunity for gameplay variety. From stealthily creeping through an occupied town to escaping a demonic warrior, you’re almost constantly being given new tasks and puzzles to solve. Movement is fast and fluid, giving you a real sense of agility that compliments your background as a thief. Sneaking around was tense and exciting, as was the thrill of finding a new place to hide upon being spotted. I would’ve appreciated more clarity on enemy vision, however, as the sprite-based art-style made it difficult to tell which direction they were actually facing at times. But when testing environmental awareness and puzzle-solving skills, Shards of Creation is at its best.
Combat, meanwhile, is far less interesting, which is unfortunate as a number of areas do require you to fight enemies directly. Attacks are quick and nicely animated, but lack impact – fighting with your blade turns into just rapidly clicking. The lacklustre combat is slightly alleviated by magical spells that add a touch of variety, allowing you to stun or incinerate enemies, but their sheer power makes combat even simpler. The Forcestone instantly kills most targets while the Mindstone stuns enemies indefinitely. While I enjoyed the tension of stealth, that tension was completely lost unless I deliberately avoided using spells. Why sneak around slowly when sprinting through an area and instantly incapacitating everyone is both faster and easier? Using spells does require limited mana, but potions to refill it are plentiful and I rarely found myself running low.
There’s also an experience system that, like the combat, feels underdeveloped. As you level up, you gain points to increase both your attributes and your skills. I rarely noticed much difference in how Zhen-Rei played and, being honest, didn’t even realise I had levelled up at points. I would reach a skill-check that was too high, such as a chest I couldn’t steal from or a dialogue option I couldn’t pass, open the menu and see plenty of unused points I could spend immediately to meet the requirement. I never really felt like I was actually getting stronger, more like I was just ticking boxes off a list. This is a system I would love to see re-worked to be more meaningful, but at the moment it feels so superfluous it could be cut entirely.
Overall, I’m impressed with what Shards of Creation is offering: a classic fantasy tale wrapped in an immersive sim with a truly stunning aesthetic. I do hope over the course of the early access release the combat and stealth can be refined, as the systems currently show promise but lack substance. I am also slightly concerned about the scope of the game. There are a lot of things going on – stealth, magic, melee combat, experience points, dialogue trees, even a crafting system – and I hope TaleHammer are able to balance them all, or at least know when to scale back. I’m very excited to see what the future of this game looks like in the coming chapters.