When I first heard that MediEvil was getting the HD remake treatment, I felt an unexpected tinge of excitement. As a child, I had chosen the PlayStation over the N64, since Nintendo had opted to not include a game with the console, and at least Sony had the courtesy to throw in a demo disc. Despite playing just about every game I could get my grubby fingers on, I never got to experience MediEvil when it originally released, and now I could fill in this particular hole in my video game knowledge.
MediEvil's "Short-Lived Demo" is an incredibly apt title as I was able to complete it in under 25 minutes, and it could probably be beaten even faster if you don't meander as much as I did. In that sense, it truly felt like something that could have been on my original Playstation's demo disc, although that may be true for other reasons as well.
Dan's Back, Baby
MediEvil starts with an introductory scrawl that details the sad life of its protagonist, Dan Fortesque. In the legend, he was the hero that led the charge against the evil sorcerer Zarok and saved the kingdom from destruction. In reality, he gets killed by an arrow to the eye just as the battle begins, so he's kind of a schmuck. Zarok has now returned after 100 years of absence, and he begins to brainwash citizens and raise an army of the dead to do his bidding. He obviously didn't test this magic out beforehand, because his spell also brings Dan back to life, who now has a second chance to prove that he can be just as big of a hero as the stories about him say.
Right off the bat, I can tell that this game is going to be released at the perfect time, as it's full of Halloween spirit. We got spooky zombies, skeletons, pumpkins, gargoyles, graveyards, walking disembodied hands, and that's just what's in this demo. Nothing is actually scary though, as this is all very cartoonish, like something out of a Disney Channel Halloween special. It's a vast graphical upgrade over the original Playstation version, although I wouldn't say it's quite on the level of recent remasters like the Spyro Reignited Trilogy. Some of the animations looked a tad stiff, and the character designs didn't stand out all the much.
Not Sure About Those Dark Souls Comparisons
What matters is the gameplay, and the jury is still out on whether or not it's going to deliver. It's an action game, but the combat doesn't feel very complex. In this demo, you're given a sword, a copper shield, and some throwing daggers. You can swap between the sword and daggers, and if you hold the circle button, you can do a charge-up attack. You also have a shield to block incoming attacks, although I honestly didn't see the need to use it as you can just walk up to any enemy, smash the attack button and usually come out unscathed. The difficulty was incredibly low, and even when I was overwhelmed by enemies, hacking and slashing my way through the horde never felt like much of a challenge. The camera doesn't seem like it'll be a problem yet, but there were a few times where it swung into a fixed position that were a little jarring.
There are a few game design choices here that aren't as fine-tuned as they could be. There's Fountains Of Rejuvenation which refill the health bar, but they do so slowly instead of instantly, so you have to just stand there to replenish life. Pressing L2 shifts to an alternate camera orientation called the Dan Cam, which puts the camera behind Dan so that he's on the left of the screen, kind of like the view in the most recent God Of War. This is likely more useful when aiming the daggers, but since my sword was powerful enough to fell any zombie that came close to me, I didn't bother with throwing many projectiles. Thus it seems like the left trigger is just devoted to switching the camera to a view that might not even be necessary most of the time.
There are also aspects of MediEvil that may be leftovers from the PS1 era. Dan is very allergic to slightly deep bodies of water, meaning if he steps off a bridge, he's likely walking into an instant watery grave. There's an overworld map, which you see once you leave the opening tutorial area. However, this level isn't very big, and if most of the locations are equal in size, that map might be popping up a little too often. I'm also slightly concerned that this may turn out to be a bit of a back-tracking collect-a-thon. Certain runes need to be found to open up areas within the level, and I foresee a lot of wandering around and searching for items to progress.
Finger-Bones Crossed For The Full Game
I have to assume that a lot of things will be better utilized in the full release, as this "Short-Lived Demo" is too remarkably short to get much of a taste for MediEvil. It ends just before you're seemingly off to fight a boss, and you could probably run through the whole thing three times in under an hour. You'd think Sony would give out something a little more substantial to build up some hype because based on this tiny slice of content, the game seems rather simplistic and a little anachronistic. A lot of what's on offer here is too easy, and a lack of challenge could translate into a lack of interest or fun.
MediEvil releases on October 25th, so we only have a few weeks until we experience the entirety of Dan's quest. For people who grew up playing this, nostalgia will probably help override any shortcomings the game launches with. For everyone else who's experiencing it for the first time, let's just hope the full adventure has more meat on its bones than this skeletal demo has to offer.