Faery – Legends of Avalon

As a young girl I loved to collect books and figures of fairies, unicorns and the occasional dragon. So when I was offered the opportunity to review Faery – Legends of Avalon, I jumped at the chance. After all, I was a strong believer as a child, so a game devoted to mystical creatures was right up my street. Developed by Spiders, the same company that brought us Sherlock Holmes Versus Jack the Ripper and the future Gray Matter, Faery seemed to appear out of nowhere, but was unveiled in June this year and released onto XBox Arcade last week. The idea is charming and unique; Spider seems to have a talent for creating games from great literature pieces and fairy tales.

The story centers around the Faery world, your home, being lost forever. There was a time, many moons ago when Man and mystical creatures lived alongside each other. Now Man has slowly forgotten the faeries and chosen science over magic. Think Peter Dickson’s “Flight of Dragons” and you’re pretty close. So in order to stop the kingdom from dying, your ruler, Oberon awakens you from your slumber and asks you to go in search of companions to help you restore magic and life back into your world. Pretty straight-forward!

The graphics are realistic and very well crafted, however too much detail can be a bad thing. Yggdrasil is one of the first worlds you encounter in the game and has to be the most frustrating level I’ve experienced in an RPG in a long time. It’s set in a giant tree, but the detail on this tree is a lot. Locating creatures in the branches is such a trial, you can only spot them by a glowing light which is difficult amongst the detailed leaves. You do have a map to make your life a little easier, but a fast travel map would have saved time and temper.

You start your story by choosing to be an elf or fairy and customising your character, something I adore in RPGs. To me it makes the game more personal than an already created character. Like in all RPGs you need to interact with folk and the dialogue wheel reminded me of Mass Effect straight away. Options are displayed in blue for a positive response and red for a negative one. Characters will love you or dislike you depending on your decisions. You also receive gifts from your companions if you perform an action they agree with. And also, like Bioware games, you can romance party members! Controls are simple; you direct your faery with the left thumb stick and fly them in that direction with the right thumb stick. Pretty straight forward and basic.

I think that Faery – Legends of Avalon would appeal to those new to RPGs and XBox Arcade. I see it as more of a feminine RPG, but I don’t see why guys can give it a try. I’ve just never met a man who believed in faeries or unicorns growing up like most young girls do! Let’s face it; the only unicorn most guys know about is Rainbow Unicorn Attack!


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2 responses to “Faery – Legends of Avalon”

  1. Ninja avatar
    Ninja

    It does sound vaguely interesting, in a mythological mash-up stylee, and perhaps a sign of a potentially… inventive studio. It has made me wonder who dictates the price of XBLA games though, from your summary comment 🙂 But that’s another issue!

  2. Optimus Pints avatar
    Optimus Pints

    Tinkerbell is going to be one of the most common names i can foresee..if your down this saturday at shauns loz i wouldn’t mind looking at it, was gonna be a suprise buy for jo, but it’s a toss up between this and waiting for xmen arcade. nice review though 😀

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