Trulon: The Shadow Engine Review

Overview

Developed by: Kyy Games

Published by: Headup Games

Release date: 24/02/2017

Reviewed on Xbox One; Also available on PlayStation 4 and PC. 

Buy it here

I usually love RPGS, I love the freedom of them; the freedom to look how you like, dress how you like, and fight how you like. Mix that with card game aspects and to my knowledge, you should have a pretty darn good game. Does Trulon: The Shadow Engine live up to my expectations? Let’s find out.

 

Story

You take the role of Gladia, a Monster Hunter from Tripudia on a quest to stop a mysterious and deadly disease from wiping out the entire Kingdom. Sadly, that’s as detailed as the story goes, which is a shame because this story very quickly gets forgotten when you start your adventure across Tripudia. With no cut scenes and purely text-based story, Trulon very quickly became dull.

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Gameplay

With very little story to focus on I hoped that Trulon would make up for this with some incredible gameplay mechanics. Sadly, it didn’t. There seemed to be no real purpose to the game, I was just wondering around from place to place occasionally unlocking a chest or encountering some enemies to battle. This is where the card game mechanics come into play. Combat is completely turn based but instead of choosing the common ‘attack’, ‘defend’ or ‘magic’ you get to choose a tactics card. Dolefully these cards a pretty basic. Usually choosing between ‘attack a single enemy’ or ‘defend 100% for two turns’. When you complete a battle you earn some EXP for your characters and usually an item of some sort, whether that be a new tactic card, or a new piece of equipment. However, I didn’t feel any sense of accomplishment from this. With any other RPG game when you level up you will have ability points to spend (to reward you for levelling up) this was completely missing from this game so levelling up felt pretty pointless to me. You do encounter some companions along your travels which mixes up things a little as you have characters that act as a specific classes. Ferra is the first friend you meet and he specialises in Magic which is super helpful as he can heal you.

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Graphics and Sound

Trulon is a very colourful game which ends up being incredibly soothing, strangely. The design of the areas you enter are pretty basic, along with the rest of the game, but it delivers it nicely. The character design could be a little better, they aren’t very detailed and the World Map lacks any detail at all. It’s just filled with grass and pathways to the next area you are to venture into.

The calming music is something I really enjoyed with my time playing this game, it’s relaxing when you’re wondering around a peaceful town and intensifies during battle. The music and art of this game was one of the few things I really enjoyed.

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Summary

This was a really difficult game to review for me, I like to see the best in everything; unfortunately it’s not always possible. I feel like I expected too much from Trulon: The Shadow Engine. An RPG/card game is right up my street but I was left feeling like I wasn’t playing a game on my Xbox One, but more of a mobile game, or a free download of some sort. The idea of this game works a lot better than the reality of it, unfortunately I can’t recommend this game to you. You may enjoy it for the first 30 minutes but after that it becomes clear that you aren’t going to get anything more out of this game. Maybe I’m being too harsh, maybe you won’t see any of the faults I saw but I think it may be best to wait for a sale on this one.

 

 

Verdict

 

 

 

 

 

Trulon: The Shadow Engine

Trulon: The Shadow Engine
41.666666666667

Gameplay

4/10

    Sound

    5/10

      Graphics

      5/10

        Cool

        • Very Colourful
        • Calming Soundtrack

        Not Cool

        • Little to no depth
        • Short story
        • Story and combat aspects are quite basic
        • Doesn't feel like a console game
        • A little buggy

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