Don't be heartless buy this game (Akuji The Heartless (PS))

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Product:	Akuji The Heartless (PS)
Date:	18/06/01 (22 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: good graphics, great level design

Disadvantages: long

This game makes a good argument for setting some kind of rating system for game length. Granted, there are a lot of problems here, things like choppy animations and skimpy inter-level story fillers, but the prime sin committed by the makers of Akuji is that of putting a standard price label on what turns out to be an insultingly short and easy game. I’ve seen playable demos that gave you more game time than this! I’m not saying that every game has to give 25+ hours of play, though I don’t think this is too much to get for the money these people are asking here--but if you’re going to make it short, you had better make sure those few hours and areas are at the very least engaging. My personal vote for a short game that still is worth its sticker price would have to be Medieval. Though there were really only about a dozen areas to explore, Sir Dan’s world had so much depth in its characters, script, and overall design that, by comparison, it puts Akuji the Heartless to shame.

The basic storyline is actually kind of cool, though I’m sure it bears little resemblance to any voodoo in this world. As Akuji, the favorite son of an empire-building voodoo priest, you had it all. Your deep, Richard Roundtree baritone voice and cool dreadlocks had won you the love of a shapely Nubian princess named Kesho, and you were looking forward to a rocking good honeymoon that evening when your jealous brother Orad decided to rip your heart out of your chest and cast your spirit into Hell. Talk about a change of plans! Fortunately, your outrage at this shabby treatment (and your deep desire to be...umm...reunited with the sinuous Kesho, I’m sure) is strong. In fact, your anger at this injustice is strong enough that you agree to fulfill the demands of the voodoo spirit of death, Baron Samedi, in order that he might transport you back to the land of the living in time to spare Kesho the same chest-reducing operation which you suf
fered.

As it turns out, all the Baron wants you to do is clean out the rotten souls of your rotten ancestors from his otherwise pristine little corner of Hell. Fortunately, this blanket condemnation of your family tree doesn’t really get your enraged soul down for too long, and you’re off to scour the underworld for the souls of your great great granddad's second cousin and similar worthies. Along the way, your ancestry will be further denigrated by Baron Samedi as he sends you around various levels of Hell to play custodial engineer to the underworld, and, you will also, inexplicably, be urged along by the spirit of the still-living Kesho, who just happens to be wearing some wispy, sacrifice-on-the-altar nighty which shows off her vicious polygonal curves to good effect.

The same graphics engine that the folks at Crystal Dynamics developed for Gex: Enter the Gecko is used here to produce a much darker world. In terms of graphical presentation, this isn’t a bad game at all, though I’d say overall it lacks the realistic, gritty quality of the Tomb Raider series. This assessment may be due to the incredibly spare animations used for Akuji’s basic movements. C’mon, people, a few more frames would have done worlds of good for the floaty, bamfy-quality of the heartless dude’s motion. I’d say that Gex’s character animation flows much more smoothly than that of Akuji. Though the background textures and lighting effects are high quality, they only serve to highlight the shoddy, cartoon-like movements of our cardiovascularly challenged hero. This of course just doesn’t work in what is supposed to be a dark, epic alternative to the kiddie-game explosion of late.

Sound and music are pretty good, though there’s absolutely no attempt to synchronize the facial movements with the dialogue. There’s a steady, jungle-beat oriented soundtrack which keeps you moving right along the
hopelessly easy levels, and some nice groans and screams from the other denizens of Hell. For good or bad, Roundtree still knows how to deliver a line in such a way that it falls flatter than a puppy trapped beneath the wheels of a semi, and he manages to betray almost no emotion whatsoever. This may just be due to his surplus of cool, of course. Sound effects for the weapons and monsters are pretty well synchronized. The between-level animated sequences are reminiscent of Turok in their skimpiness, though the Baron does look cool in his top hat, and communicates a good amount of disdain for you and your ilk, even while admiring your cuisinart-like warpath through his realm.

I won’t go into details of why the gameplay blows here. I’ll just list the faults in order of importance and leave it at that.


No strafe button.
Maddening push-this-button-to-open-that-gate scenarios.
Simple (read stupid) enemy AI, even on the few boss characters.
Far too many magical spells and other power-ups lying around which make it just too easy to blast through the depressingly easy levels.
No walk button (so why bother making it analog compatible?)
Making jumps is way too easy, even when jumping on rails and such.
Though his blades are cool weaponry, you almost inevitably have to fall back on Akuji’s spells to clear an area before you enter. If you want some challenge, try doing it all just mano a mano, it might give you an additional two or three hours’ worth of play.

Yes, yet again, a 3D adventure falls prey to the same old blunders that we’ve all grown to hate. I would have suggested that the designers take this game to a more comedic level, perhaps even pursuing the blaxploitation side of it for some laughs (though in a sensitive, PC manner, of course...sigh). As it stands, Akuji tries to be dark and epic, and just looks like an overly bloody kiddie-cartoon. What’s worse is that it pl
ays like a kids' game as well, so Crystal should count its lucky stars it managed to get a Teen rating here. Oh, and just in case you’re wondering, the Soul Reaver demo is the same, skimpy one-level thing that they packaged along with Unholy War all those months ago. All this suspense is just killing me!

Summary: