The Waste Land

"The Waste Land" is a retro 2D metroidvania-like Platformer. Metroidvania games primarily have a Console Past. There Are Platforming, abundant Opponents, finding Things and Improvements that allow you to go down Paths that initially seemed out of reach. As a result, there is Usually plenty of (wanted) Backtracking in the Genre. Allegedly, the Story and setting is based on T.S. Eliot's 1922 Poem "The Desert Land." This complex Conglomerate of Text Fragments and Allusions, in which Eliot realized numerous intertextual References that refer to Wagner or Shakespeare, for example, is one of the most complex Long Poems of all Time, gladly compared to James Joyce " Ulysses. "" What this Play is supposed to have to do with this literary Torch remains the Mystery of the Maker. The References remain superficial, irrelevant and endeavoured. The Gameplay itself is one thing above all else: Extremely repetetive. We jump right and left and hit with our Sword or Bow and Arrow on intelligence-liberated, mostly animalistic Enemies. Those like to leave some Food that replenishes our Life bar. And time and time again we have to pick up Hearts or Improvements like a Double Jump. Boss Opponents are Also to be defeated. Although there are many different Places, creatively designed Locations; Stupid only that some people are not really interested. And that's because the Gameplay can't convince. I have set several times, with some distance, to play that Game. After a Quarter of An Hour at the Latest, I was fundamentally bored each time. The Controllability of our Figure is rudimentary and rather sluggish. Annoying also that the Opponents do not let themselves be met if they are still hanging in the last gear leg animation. The constant Sword Layer against stupid Opponents is also damn quickly boring. The Graphics are pixelated, sometimes even really successful retro. The Constantly looping Music is unnoticeably exhausting. Sure, the Beep sounds also existed at the time, but at that time there were also composers (like Rob Hubbard) who were able to create grandiose Pieces from the limited Possibilities and not, as here, an Attack on any melodic taste. "The Waste Land" is an ambitious retro project. Unfortunately, it mainly unites what was annoying, exhausting and boring about the old Console Titles without creating its own new, contemporary interpretation of the Genre. Rating: 5/10 Atmosphere 4/10 Story 6/10 Graphic Simples 10 Sound 5/10 Game Mechanics 4/10 Balancing 5/10 Game Pass Conclusion: The Wasted Land. 5/10 Overall Rating