Lost City of Malathedra Game Review by B. Rock
Game Rating= 3.5/5 Balls
Download Free Game Trial
Buy The Game Now $19.99
The Lost City of Malathedra is a promising puzzle adventure game. The story is interesting and the puzzles are stimulating enough, but it falls short in some area like animation and sound effects.
Lost City is certainly worth a test run, but it doesn’t reach the status of “must buy.”
Download Free Game Trial
Buy The Game Now $19.99
* Music (5/5) *
The most impressive part of Lost City of Malathedra, by far, is the score. The score draws the player in, and it creates a sense of tension throughout the game. It sets an epic tone without being too melodramatic. Music is an often overlooked portion of game development, but EDI clearly put in some extra effort.
* Sound Effects (2/5) *
Despite the quality of the score, I was thoroughly unimpressed by the sound effects. The general effects are fine, but the lack of voiceovers really left me disappointed. From the first moments of the prologue, dialogue flashes across the screen and there is absolutely no voice over or sound effect. The dialogue seems fairly scripted and pointed, so it’s beyond me why they didn’t take the time to record a few voice actors.
Download Free Game Trial
Buy The Game Now $19.99
* Graphics (3/5) *
The graphics are done well enough, but they bring back memories of 1990′s games like King’s Quest and Ultima 6. The game sports a classic isometric “3d” view with 2-dimensional cartoonish drawings. This gives the game quite a dated look and feel to it.
The scenery and background looks good enough, if low budget. What really drags down the game experience is the quality of the character images and animations. Some more time spent on the characters could have compensated for an otherwise dated and unimpressive visual experience.
* Gameplay and Interaction (4/5) *
The interface is pretty simple. Click on the map to move. Click and hold to interact with an object. Right click to view your inventory.
There was no need for a tutorial. I figured out the interface with a minute or two of trial and error. Major kudos for simplicity here.
This simplicity really puts the focus on the crux of the game – the puzzles. The action is driven by completing puzzles, which seem to be of a moderate difficulty. I had to stop and think a few times, but I never ran up against something so hard I wanted to throw my mouse against the wall.
Download Free Game Trial
Buy The Game Now $19.99
My one gripe is that the characters walk so slowly. The puzzles involve a lot of movement, and you slowly plod along from one side of the screen to the other. The pace could be picked up a lot if your character ran across the room.
* Overall (3.5/5) *
Interms of functionality, the game seems pretty solid. It is what it sets out to be – a puzzle driven adventure game. If you like that sort of thing, then you’ll probably enjoy the Lost City of Malathedra.
Due to the lack of voiceovers and the dated graphics, I wouldn’t label this a “must buy.” It’s certainly lacking a bit in the user-experience department. However, it’s certainly good enough to soak up a few weekends of game time. If your “to play” list is looking slim, give this a try.
