If someone asked you what games are hidden gems on the PS3 and Xbox 360, chances are that El Shaddai Ascension of the Metatron would come up a fair amount of the time. Originally released back in 2011, it’s sat dormant on those consoles until now, with a full on rerelease on Steam.
El Shaddai is a hack and slash adventure game, set in a mythical world heavily influenced by Christian mythology. You play as Enoch, a scribe sent from heaven to defeat seven fallen angels, whom have taken up residence on Earth. It features a lot of random religious references and spiritual lingo, but really all of that is designed to set up the story rather than provide any kind of deep lore.
Shaddai features influences from other games in the genre such as Devil May Cry, and it has a fairly simplistic battle system that gets more complex as the game goes on. You are able to attack, jump, dodge and steal weapons, and then by using a combination of strong attacks, special attacks and guard-breakers, it’s possible to string together combos that are more satisfying and provide a deeper level of engagement than it may first appear. I generally find the combat in this game fun, but the caveat to that is that it takes quite a while before all the different elements finally come together, a good two or so hours into the game. Up until that point, the combat does often feel repetitive, so its worth sticking with it. I wouldn’t say this game is quite at the level something like Bayonetta 2 or Devil May Cry 5 is, but those games are much more recent so it’s not really fair to compare.
The game does feature other elements than pure action, with a lot of platforming sections and of course some very light puzzle elements too. It doesn’t feature the most groundbreaking gameplay you’ll ever find, but it’s still quite fun for what it is.
Where this game truly shines, is its art design. Every level is completely different, featuring fantastical designs that look like they are straight out of a painting. They constantly change how the game looks, and it really keeps things fresh and interesting to look at. There are some levels that feel as if they go on for a little long, but the game remedies this by making the level afterwards completely different. I really like it, and I think it holds up well. Sure, in 2021 there are much more games with great art design, especially by indie studios, than there was back in 2011, but I think what they did with this game really does still look great, and it’s probably the best part about the experience.
On the technical side, there are some problems with this port to the PC. Firstly, the good parts. It runs at a solid 60 fps, and you can run at several resolutions. Since it was released in 2011, the GPU demands are not steep, and it will run well on most systems I imagine.
Now for the not so great parts. The first is not such a big deal, but the cutscenes look much lower quality than the in-game graphics. I assume this is due to how the files have been ported over, but it can be a little jarring to go between them, especially as this game has quite a lot of cutscenes. The second part is a little more annoying. The game features very strange graphics settings, which I’m sure people familiar with game development might understand, but to the average gamer they don’t mean anything. Render Target Format, Depth Stencil Buffer, Vertex processing, it doesn’t mean a lot to me.
I just left them at default, but I’ve no idea if that was the right or wrong option and it’s something I think they really need to sort out, because it will marr an otherwise fun game. The multisampling option in particular doesn’t seem to work, when I select anything other than the default option various graphical effects seem to just disappear, and I get invisible objects. It’s very odd, and not optimal because the game could use some anti-aliasing.
Finally, let’s touch on the price. According to the information I was provided with this review code, the game will release for £16.19 for the first two weeks, then go up to £19.99. There is also a deluxe pack featuring the game, artbook and soundtrack for £20.44 for the first two weeks, before going up to £40.97. Personally, I think these prices are too high. This is a re-release of a game from 2011, and whilst it is considered a hidden gem and fairly liked by those who know it, it wasn’t a huge game and there’s not going to be too many people familiar with it. When you look at games that are in a similar vein, i.e. Japanese games from that era that have been re-released on Steam, such as Bayonetta and Vanquish, they are both sitting at £14.99. My opinion would be the game needs to come down to £14.99 to be in parity with those games, so we’ll see.
Overall, I do think El Shaddai holds up well and is still worth a play. The art direction is just so cool, and It’s just great to see something so different, I really like it. The action and gameplay holds up okay, so my recommendation would be that if you like this sort of game and have never played this one before, give it a purchase, if not, perhaps wait until it comes down in price before giving it ago.
