Kameo

Kameo: Elements of Power

I bought this game for £9 at the weekend. Bargain i thought. It was the first game released on the Xbox 360 after all.

Yeah i know, I'm slightly late in picking this one up.

I lthoroughly enjoyed Banjo Kazooie, Grabbed by the Ghoulies and even Viva Pinata, they were all made by Rare as is this title. Their reputation made it easy for me to finally give this one a try.

Its an enjoyable experience it plays well and is graphically diverse and colourful, I've not seen a better use in bump mapping.However I felt Kameo herself looked quite bland in comparison to the many other characters dotted about the world, they spent a lot time modelling the elemental characters and non playable characters so i was disappointed with kameo's overall appearance.

I have to admit i preferred the concept back in 2002, it came across as more of an RPG, how you nurture your elemental warriors would depend on the powerful beast they'd grow into.

This game, simply put, is an extremely linear adventure game and quite a short one at that. The main variables come from upgrading your 10 elemental warriors by finding up to 100 rare fruit strategically hidden throughout the game, this causes you to prioritise slightly.
Regardless of this, simple really does sum this game up. There is no reply value. And the geography of the world is unclear.

The user isnt able to save the game so returning to the game the following day results in your progress being saved but you often find kameo has spawned in a different area. I also have issues with the map, it can only be seen in certain zones and in the areas featuring them the white dots signalling places of interest don't make it clear as to whether you can travel through them or not. Not to mention the location that they represent.

The achievements are rather disapointing, they are only rewarded for linear progression through the games main quest line. Why not reward gamers for collecting all 100 elemental fruit or all 12 elixers or all hidden elemental warrior skins.

I do enjoy however the influx of warrior skins, each warrior has a skin stashed somewhere in the world, they are simply colour variants, however a free download of fan based concepts adds a wonderful new meaning to all 10 characters.

My main gripes with this game is that its far to simple, whilst there is plenty of free roaming to do your decisions have no effect on the world and how it sees you. you can go into peoples houses, destroy things and steal from chests yet there is no consequences for your actions. The content you destroy simply re-spawns. Hence the rewards inside the chests are meaning less. Runes(the games form of currency) are easy to get hold of because of this re-spawn feature. Even so there is nothing worth purchasing that will profoundly improve your progression through the game.

Finally, i would've liked to see more parameters for clearing a level, it plays similar to banjo kazooie so its a shame there are no alternative incentives to beat the game such as collecting 100 "things" or rescuing 7 of "those"

Its an enjoyable experience just extremely short and quite linear, there isn't a whole lot to do outside the main quest line that's worth your while. The game looks gorgeous however the world just isnt diverse enough.