In “Sword and Sworcery EP,” @@http://www.swordandsworcery.com/@@players control the Scythian, a warrior on a quest to destroy the ominous Megatome. On a surface level, the story sounds like nearly every other adventure game ever made, but digging deeper reveals that “S:S&S EP” @@http://www.giantbomb.com/the-scythian/94-17135/all-images/52-492601/the_scythian/51-1785254/@@is a different animal. “S:S&S EP” is a decidedly post-modern riff on the heroic adventure, freely referencing Carl Jung and Robert E. Howard@@http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/jung.html@@ as soon as it does “Legend of Zelda.”
The Scythian’s adventure takes her to the countryside surrounding the Caucasus Mountains@@http://novaonline.nvcc.edu/eli/evans/HIS241/Notes/Geography/Caucasus.html@@, where she must destroy the Megatome atop the mountain Mingi Taw@@http://www.facebook.com/pages/Superbrothers-Sword-Sworcery-EP/101131856638360@@. Along the way, she meets a girl named Girl, the woodcutter named Logfella and his dog (named Dogfella).@@http://elder-geek.com/2012/04/superbrothers-sword-and-sworcery-ep-video-review/@@ Across the game’s four sessions, the player summons spirits, traverses the dreamworld and learns the might of “Sworcery.”
“S:S&S EP” isn’t a serious, academic deconstruction at all, and you’ll probably have that figured out long before you run into the dancing bear. It’s a loving homage to adventure games past told with plenty of style, wit and strangeness to go around. The majority of the narrative is told through text snippets whose tone and voice resemble Ryan North — clipped, glib and often hilarious.@@http://www.amazon.com/Ryan-North/e/B004SAN7VM@@
The soundtrack, composed by Toronto singer-songwriter Jim Guthrie@@http://www.nowtoronto.com/daily/music/story.cfm?content=179980@@, is absolutely integral to the experience of the game. It does as much to dictate the flow of the game as any of its visual elements and is bursting with snippets of melody that are guaranteed to lodge themselves inside your brain and plenty of atmosphere. If you aren’t playing with headphones on you are missing out.
Designed by Superbrothers (a Canadian game design duo)@@http://m.theglobeandmail.com/news/technology/video-games/controller-freak/superbrothers-deus-ex-win-big-at-canadian-videogame-awards/article2410340/?service=mobile@@, with development help by Capybara Games@@http://www.capybaragames.com/@@, “S:S&S EP” utilizes the touch controls to allow the player to interact with its world. Players solve puzzles and engage in combat through simple touch commands (mouse clicks in the case of the PC version) and most of the tension of the game comes through timing-based challenges.
Toward the end of the game, when these challenges become more demanding, the mouse emulation of the touch controls proves to be imprecise. Several times during my game I clicked on the sword icon and my Scythian didn’t react, staring dumbly at her oncoming doom.@@maybe you suck at the game!@@
Even when the game receives input properly, the mechanics are often unsatisfying. When you remove the tactile nature of touch controls and replace the inputs with mouse clicks, you lose a lot of the charm of the original product.
When “Sword and Sworcery EP” is firing on all cylinders, which it often is, the experience is quite unlike any other. The dips are temporary, but when they do occur they are noticeable. If you can help it I’d recommend picking up “S:S&S EP” on iOS, but if all you have is a PC, you owe it to yourself to check this game out.
Though originally released for the iPad and iPhone in 2011, “S:S&S EP” was recently ported to Windows (the version I played). It’s available on Steam for $7.99 and comes with a free copy of the soundtrack.@@http://gamethingdaily.com/2012/04/17/superbrothers-sword-sworcery-ep-and-lp-hit-steam-today/@@
Grade: B+