Coridden REVIEW
The isometric ARPG Diablo released by Blizzard gave birth to a whole subgenre of role-playing games – Diabloids. With a recognizable style and gameplay base, which is approximately the same for most projects released over the past couple of decades. We choose a hero and go to destroy hordes of enemies, receiving precious experience for this and valuable items that drop with a certain degree of probability.
Of course, playing the same game in different wrappers would be boring. That’s why Diabloid developers try to provide them with their own unique features. For example, in Coridden, a project by the Swedish studio Aftnareld, the main theme was the transformation of the hero. The character can switch between animal and human forms, which is the basis for many gameplay mechanics.
Before we move on to discussing the gameplay, it’s worth saying a few words about the script. The plot places us in a very strange world where humanity is forced to survive on a distant planet surrounded by lizard-like creatures. And we take on the role of unremarkable inhabitants of this universe – four offspring of a large family. They all have different characters, which affects not only their dialogue lines, but also the available additional tasks.
The local lore is pretty simple. We are briefly told about some event that forced humanity to look for a new home, and a sealed secret city. And then – they just stop doing various household chores in order to repair some gloves that the hero ended up wearing and that cannot be removed.
The overall low-budget nature of Coridden is also evident in the surrounding world. And it’s not even about the graphics, which are pretty good, but about how this planet looks. It equally features architectural structures from ancient India and the Arab world, electronic futuristic devices, and alien life forms, most of which resemble dinosaurs and lizards. And the player will probably have questions – why, in fact, do we sail on wooden boats and stab enemies with spears when we have teleportation devices, genetic engineering, and other wonders of modern science.
But it should be said right away that in the RPG game Coridder, it is the action component that comes first. The game is much better with it than with the plot. The gameplay formula has moved away from the primitive clicking of enemies with the left mouse button in favor of a more flexible combat system. The character can jump, overcoming obstacles, dodge attacks with feints, and also use a diverse arsenal of weapons and abilities. Shoot opponents with fire, poison, shock, or simply chop/shoot. The style of play, depending on the chosen class, can vary greatly.
The character’s ability to transform into the bosses he killed adds variety to the game. The Lizard is essentially a second character with his own unique abilities and development branches. Not only is he deadly in combat, but he also moves much faster, jumps much further, and allows him to destroy objects that a human would be unable to destroy. You could even say that Coridden has some Metroidvania elements. Until the character gets a certain form or skill, he will not be able to break down the door to a particular location, swim in a turbulent stream of water, or burn branches blocking the way. No puzzles – simple and clear solutions, for which the game immediately gives hints.
A quality Action/RPG is impossible without gradual character development. Moreover, “pumping” should be done in such a way that the player feels the strengthening of his hero – even if, in parallel with the progression of the plot, increasingly difficult opponents appear on his path. And the developers of Coridden coped well with this task, organizing a branched development tree not only for the hero himself, but also for the entire list of his animal forms.
Multiplayer is one of the distinctive features of the game. At least because in the era of constant online connection and the “game as a service” format, we are offered an alternative in the form of a cooperative of up to four people on one screen. And if you can’t get together with friends on the PC, that’s okay too – the online multiplayer option is also provided. You can enter other people’s worlds at any time, connecting to hosts who have created an open game, or create a public game yourself.
As noted earlier, the graphics in the game are not bad, but they are not the best either – remember, this is a budget project on the popular Unity engine with all the consequences. Some locations and objects look cheap and poor, while others, on the contrary, please the eye with colorful colors and effects. Beautiful jungles and beautiful water should definitely be considered as pluses. But the local cities and interiors of buildings look as if we are in Sims 4. Coridden really lacks small details that could enliven the surrounding world.
Coridden may seem like a very contradictory game, where some components are done at a decent level, while others are clearly not up to par. For example, everything related to leveling up and creating builds for characters makes you read descriptions of abilities and choose a strategy on the battlefield with interest. The battles themselves with switching between forms are also generally interesting, but have their own small drawbacks. But the universe and story did not work out very well – there are few enemies and they look too similar to each other, the environment does not create the impression of a coherent world, and the local history is absolutely not imprinted in the head. Even the names of the characters are not memorable, not to mention minor plot twists.
If you enjoy finding rare colorful gear, grinding levels and distributing points, this game will satisfy your desires in full. But it falls a little short of being a serious project that you can dedicate hundreds of hours of your free time to.
