Publisher: TransGaming Inc.
Price: $19.99/£13.99
Genre: Action Adventure
Fullscreen Support |
Mouse Support |
File Size |
Launch Date |
Required Specifications |
Yes |
Mouse Recommended |
1.71 GB——- |
19th June 2012 |
OS: Mac OS X 10.6.8 Snow Leopard® or higher
|
Rating
Pros: Surprising breadth, vibrant and varied environments, frantic combat, occasionally creative platforming, perfect for children.
Cons: Probably too childish for older gamers, puzzles and platforming is very forgiving, character models are disappointing.
Review
Brave strikes the perfect balance between being accessible enough for children, as well as not being too dumbed down for older players. Whilst the narrative might patronise the more adult players and only touches the complex matters dealt with in the movie, the gameplay is suitable for all, with some challenging combat sequences and a large upgrade tree.
Brave is set in the same world as the new Pixar film, however only really features Merida (the film’s heroine) in their true form. This is because her mother and three brothers have been turned into bears by an evil ancient spell (which is duplicated from events in the film). Merida must cleanse the world of this curse before her family will be freed, and this is what you spend all of the game doing.
The graphics aren’t of the highest standard, in particular the character models. But the wide variety in environmental design is impressive, from cavernous underground chambers to lively forest environments, each level is vibrant and packed full of detail.
The combat in Brave is easily its strongest feature. Whilst you do have your sword at your side, it is the bow that really comes into its element here. There are 4 different bow types; Fire, Ice, Wind and Earth. There are the same 4 factions of enemy types as well, with each enemy element having a weakness against a certain arrow type (fire animals are vulnerable to ice arrows and so on). You can upgrade your bow, as well as other aspects of your character to make you more effective on the battlefield, such as the ability to charge arrows. A charged fire arrow will explode on impact whereas the earth arrow will spawn a bunch of volatile minions that will run around the battlefield taking out opponents. Combat gets very frantic when many types of enemies are introduced into one encounter, requiring you to quickly switch between arrow types to take out powerful foes.
But bows aren’t only used in combat. They can also be used to activate environmental features to spawn new platforms and shoot targets.
Brave has many gameplay aspects to keep gameplay varied. Sometimes, when the fight is too great for poor old Merida to handle, you take the role of her mum-turned-bear who leaps out and starts laying into the enemy horde. Gates have to be unlocked by playing a little puzzle mini-game featuring Merida’s bear brothers who work together to activate buttons and levers. The combat certainly has some challenge, but the puzzles show the game’s targe§t demographic to be more towards the child than the teenager end of the growing-up spectrum.
Brave probably won’t thoroughly satisfy the older gamer with its very subdued and childish style. But it’s certainly not a game to dismiss as another by-product of a feature film aimed to gain publicity and cash in. Brave is an impressive third-person action adventure game that is surprisingly deep and incorporates a lot of gameplay elements to keep the gamer engaged. Certainly a worthy purchase.
