The Revenants: Corridor of Souls - Review

Revenants Lead

Windows Phone seven launched with 30 or and so Xbox Live titles. With then many games coming out at once, a few were bound to be overlooked. One such title is The Revenants: Corridor of Souls from Chaotic Moon Studios. It'south a simple title with a couple of unique gameplay mechanics and a creepy theme.

Revenant isn't a common word these days, then you could be forgiven for not knowing its meaning. A revenant is someone who returns from the expressionless (like a ghost or a zombie). In Corridor of Souls, the titular revenants consist of the spirits of creepy, awesome animals similar spiders, scorpions, and frogs.

To find out more about the Corridor of Souls, head by the jump.

Lots of corridors

Revenants centipede

Each level in The Revenants contains a serial of rooms, viewed from an overhead perspective. Random assortments of ghostly enemies spawn in each room. Once the player frees them all of their souls, the game automatically proceeds to the next room. So information technology goes – room to room, stage to stage, until the player runs out of lives. The Revenants doesn't actually have an ending; like classic arcade games, it'due south all virtually getting as far as yous tin with every bit many points equally possible.

Ghostbusting

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Combat works like the classic arcade game Qix, except the thespian isn't anchored to the room'southward walls. The player controls a nameless ball of white light (a newly-formed spirit, co-ordinate to Xbox.com). If an enemy touches the brawl, you die. Tapping anywhere on the screen moves the ball, while dragging your finger forms a purple trail behind it. Cross the trail earlier information technology disappears (i.eastward. draw a circle) to create a vortex. Vortexes suck in and destroy enemies for several seconds, releasing their souls as royal orb pickups. Each soul adds to a bonus meter that awards extra lives when filled, so it's important to grab souls before they vanish.

Chasing high scores

A score-based game needs a satisfying scoring system, and that's where Corridor of Souls excels. The more enemies caught in a vortex, the more than points the player earns. It'southward all about netting as many simultaneous enemies as possible. Vortexes can be made effectually each other (a circumvolve within a circle), merely they tin can't intersect. Thus players must make up one's mind whether a few large circles or several small circles better suit the state of affairs; you lot don't want to exist stuck unable to catch an attacking enemy because there's no room for another vortex.

Enemy behavior

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Each kind of enemy in The Revenants acts differently. Frogs don't move much, but they stick out their tongues at the player. Centipedes offset out modest and become more difficult to take hold of as their bodies elongate. Scarab beetles and mice immediately hunt the role player, while some enemies are oblivious to your location. They generally overwhelm with numbers rather than cunning – on the college difficulties, information technology gets hard to find a articulate path to draw a vortex without running into a bad guy.

Graphics and audio

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The Revenants won't win awards for its visuals, but they go the task done. Rooms accept piddling details like blood stains on the floor, discarded shackles, and blithe torches. Each type of enemy gives off a different colored light. Vortexes create an impressive warping effect on the groundwork. The game has only i tune, but it'south suitably creepy and tense.

Achievements

Corridor of Souls' Achievements mostly involve accomplishing artistic things with vortexes. Omnivore requires yous to capture 5 or more unlike enemy types in one vortex, while yous get Synchronicity for capturing iii or more enemies in each of three simultaneous vortexes. Each of the game's 3 difficulty levels likewise has its ain Achievement for scoring a sure number of points – these proved frustrating to go after. Easy was no problem, but most people probably won't survive long enough in Normal or Difficult for those levels' Achievements.

Ghost troubles

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The Revenants isn't the most complicated game out in that location. Once the developers had an engine, some enemies, and room graphics, that was pretty much it. The Xbox.com product page claims:

The game follows a newly formed spirit as it finds clues, solves puzzles, learns spells, and captures other ghosts. The goal is to absorb their powers and transform your character from a weak, insignificant spirit to a powerful Revenant ghost-god.

That sounds cool, but none of it (except capturing ghosts) is in the game! Puzzles, any kind of story, and a feeling of progress would have improved the feel greatly.

The Revenants is quite a challenge – sometimes a chip too difficult for gaming on the get. The player must fully concentrate at all times. Lose focus for a split 2d and the swarms of ghosts are guaranteed to take you lot down. On the harder difficulties, information technology'south not uncommon to be completely swarmed past enemies with no articulate path of escape.

Other times I died because my finger obscured some tiny enemy as I tried to describe a vortex. The game offers the option to movement with or without your finger on the ball of light, but moving with my finger somewhere else on the screen didn't feel right.

Overall Impressions

The Revenants: Corridor of Souls harkens back to a unlike time, when save points and endings weren't expected from video games. Notwithstanding, chasing after loftier scores and staying alive for equally long equally possible tin can be a fun challenge. If that sounds like your matter, definitely give it a try. The cadre game play hither is quite solid, but I establish myself wishing for a bit more meat to the game.

The Revenants: Corridor of Souls costs $2.99. Yous can grab information technology or the demo here (Zune link) on the Market.

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