Preview: Sorcery (PS3)

Many people might remember Sony’s E3 conference in 2010. If you’re a core gamer, nothing about Sony’s marketing of the PlayStation Move (PSMove) was particularly fascinating. Until they showcased Sorcery. Developed in-house at Sony, it finally offered what looked like a non-casual use of the PSMove for a game made specifically for the device.

It would still be a stretch to purchase the PSMove controllers simply for one game, that’s true for any hardware. So it still will be, no matter how good Sorcery may turn out to be, hard to recommend.

It didn’t help though, when after that E3 conference, news and information about Sorcery seemed to vanish. It was only until earlier this year that we got a glimpse again at Sorcery, and we even got a release date. Official reasoning for the delay was that the studio behind developing the game wanted to make the game appeal even more to hardcore gamers. That…that sounds like a great reason. So on we go with this preview:

Setting:

Looking at Sorcery footage invokes a cartoon like atmosphere not unlike Fable or perhaps even Kingdom Hearts. You play as the apprentice sorcerer known as Finn. After some mishaps near the beginning, you will start adventuring into the Faerie Kingdoms in a quest of good vs evil. You’ll quickly meet a companion cat known as Erline too.

From various footage, it looks like Sorcery will have a number of locales, from forests to run down castles. Hopefully the promise of even more environments will ring true in the end-product.

Gameplay:

As mentioned earlier, this is a PSMove game. You’ll also need the navigation stick to help maneuver around Sorcery’s world. This allows you to have good control over your character, whilst at the same time allow you to wield the PSMove as your magic wand. It will still probably sound daft to some, but the PSMove’s motion control should be good enough to cope with the simple yet effective gestures to use magic.

Arcane bolt is the primary ability, cheap to use and easy to cast, but not strong. Controlling the PSMove not only allows you to choose your target, but you can also curve the bolts to allow you to hit enemies hiding behind cover (similar to Mass Effects Incinerate). You’ll also learn other elemental spells, like fire, ice , wind and earth. Best of all, you can combine abilities, fire being very flexible so that you can produce flaming bolts or flaming whirlwinds.

The PSMove also functions to help you solve puzzles in the game. Different gestures allow you to repair bridges or simply to open treasure chests. You’ll also come across potions, where mixing different ingredients will grant you different abilities, or duds, so it’ll be fun experimenting. One rumour tells of a potion that will allow Finn to morph into an animal (appropriate to the surrounding environment), giving the player such abilities as flight or being really small.

 Graphics/Audio:

There isn’t much to say about either of these issues. We’ll leave that for a review of the game. Suffice to say though, Sorcery does look and sound pretty decent. Graphics are using some form of the Unreal Engine, so at least that gives you an inkling (or you could, you know, look up youtube videos ) of what to expect.

Final Thoughts:

Honestly, Sorcery may have come out too late to save the PSMove. It looks a decent game, with decent controls, but it may not be enough alone. As for the game itself, the biggest worry I have will be the length of the game. No official length has been given, but if the game lasts just 10 hours, it would be massively hard to recommend, even if it was really good. Good replayability could be a saving grace, and with various difficulty levels, it may well cater to replays. The other saving grace is it’s price, search well and you could find the game much cheaper than normal games at regular retail price (in the UK at least). Here’s hoping this can turn into a sleeper hit this May.

Sorcery is slated for release on the 22nd of May in North America and the 25th of May in Europe only on the PS3.