Ember Review: Well Lit and Burning Bright

<p><em>Ember<&sol;em> was such a nostalgic trip for me but can definitely be enjoyed by almost anyone&comma; regardless of nostalgia&period; <em>Ember<&sol;em> hearkens back to games such as <em>Baldur&&num;8217&semi;s Gate <&sol;em>and <em>Planescape Torment<&sol;em> &&num;8211&semi; and I couldn&&num;8217&semi;t be more thrilled&period; I&&num;8217&semi;d like to comfort those who may not have played these games at release&semi; this game is great whether it&&num;8217&semi;s your first classic style RPG or your twentieth adventure&period; It may be simpler than more recent RPGs but it&&num;8217&semi;s just as magical and well worth your time for plenty of reasons&period; This may not be a game that breaks new ground but it&&num;8217&semi;s certainly respectful and fun going down the worn path it&&num;8217&semi;ll take you down &&num;8211&semi; if you&&num;8217&semi;re ready for the journey ahead&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>If you&&num;8217&semi;re looking for something new then this needs to be said&colon; You will not find many new things here&period; However you will find a beautiful love letter to <em>Baldur&&num;8217&semi;s Gate<&sol;em> and games from that age that will pull you in with great design and an interesting world&period; Games have proven time and time again that new isn&&num;8217&semi;t always the answer to the question of &&num;8220&semi;What makes a game great&quest;&&num;8221&semi; I had no idea how badly I missed playing a well designed classic RPG&period; In fact&comma; once I sink my teeth into a couple dozen more hours of <em>Ember<&sol;em>&comma; I&&num;8217&semi;m absolutely going to revisit <em>Planescape Torment<&sol;em> and <em>Champions of Norrath<&sol;em>&period; These are some awesome games that thrive off old school mechanics&period; <em>Ember<&sol;em> is proof that not only do these mechanics work and hold up well but that there&&num;8217&semi;s also still demand out there for these kinds of games&period; Now let&&num;8217&semi;s discuss what makes it such a great game before I realize I don&&num;8217&semi;t have a PS2 to replay <em>Champions of Norrath<&sol;em> &&num;8230&semi; Crap&comma; too late &&num;8230&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;113735" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-113735" style&equals;"width&colon; 1280px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"size-full wp-image-113735" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;09&sol;30204126&sol;20160928160838&lowbar;1&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Ember&comma; N-Fusion Interactive" width&equals;"1280" height&equals;"768" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-113735" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">Ember&comma; N-Fusion Interactive<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p><em>Ember<&sol;em> may rely on older tropes and tricks but it pulls it off so well&period; This game won&&num;8217&semi;t feel worn out but rather like a good pair of shoes already broken in and ready for the road ahead&period; I couldn&&num;8217&semi;t help but think of <em>The Hobbit<&sol;em> once the story got going&period; That warm bliss-filled feeling of just running off on an adventure&period; <em>Ember<&sol;em> will have you fighting enemies and leveling up as you traverse across different dungeons and lands while learning new abilities and collecting new gear as you conquer your enemies&period; It feels epic and awesome despite its drawn back scale&period; After my first two hours into the game I was just zoned out and the keyboard and mouse just felt like extensions of myself&period; <em>Ember <&sol;em>is proof that immersion has absolutely nothing to do with graphics&period; All you need is a kickass story&comma; a meaningful journey&comma; and fun characters&period; Slashing through skeletons and looting gold never hurt anybody either&excl; Well &&num;8230&semi; except skeletons &&num;8230&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The mechanics and overall feel of the game are also tightly designed&period; Think <em>Super Meat Boy<&sol;em> and how it was able to tighten <em>everything<&sol;em> within the platformer genre and just perfect it&period; That&&num;8217&semi;s what <em>Ember <&sol;em>does to the CRPG genre and I&&num;8217&semi;m thrilled to see a comeback done this well&period; N-Fusion Interactive has shown near mastery of the genre and I sincerely hope we see a follow up to <em>Ember<&sol;em>&excl; The world is interesting and the developer seems to have a full understanding of how to make something great from this older yet still exciting era in the RPG genre&&num;8217&semi;s history&period; This world is worth exploring and it never feels empty&period; This is definitely one of those games where if you&&num;8217&semi;re willing to let go then you can get lost for hours on end&period; This world is immersive in spite of the assumed simplicity at first glance&period; It also looks beautiful with its handcrafted environments that you can immediately tell the developer put a lot of thought into&period; Everything just feels so deliberately designed and confidently laid out&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;113736" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-113736" style&equals;"width&colon; 1366px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"size-full wp-image-113736" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;09&sol;30204512&sol;20160928170006&lowbar;1&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Ember&comma; N-Fusion Interactive" width&equals;"1366" height&equals;"768" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-113736" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">Ember&comma; N-Fusion Interactive<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>The music is great too and I found myself humming along often&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s very atmospheric and really helped pull me further into the world&period; I find myself playing the soundtracks from the <em>Lord of the Rings<&sol;em> trilogy whenever I&&num;8217&semi;m not too fond of a fantasy RPG&&num;8217&semi;s music and I can honestly say that I was never even tempted to do so with <em>Ember<&sol;em>&period; Sound effects were satisfying and helped add more magic to the mix&period; The dialogue will likely be hit or miss&semi; it all depends on if you&&num;8217&semi;re wanting something from the CRPG era or something more serious&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s cheeky and cheesy in a good way&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s got some good humor and doesn&&num;8217&semi;t take itself too seriously but gamers more interested in modern voice acting will probably either dislike or feel indifferent towards it&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The controls are great and you can of course customize a few shortcuts for frequently used items to save you some time&period; I found myself pausing it and dishing out commands for the more intense battles but it&&num;8217&semi;s welcome nonetheless&period; There&&num;8217&semi;s no controller support to be found here but in all honesty this is something that wouldn&&num;8217&semi;t translate well to controller&period; Even if it&&num;8217&semi;s your preferred control method just trust me &&num;8211&semi; the controls will flow from your hand with a keyboard and mouse&period; I tested it on my laptop&&num;8217&semi;s touchpad and it was comfortable enough but if you&&num;8217&semi;ll be playing in a more restrictive environment then I would absolutely recommend the iOS version&period; I&&num;8217&semi;m planning on picking it up on iOS when I get an iPhone in a few months because I know this will translate well to a touch screen format and be great fun on the go&excl;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;113739" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-113739" style&equals;"width&colon; 1366px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"size-full wp-image-113739" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;09&sol;30204640&sol;20160929160839&lowbar;1&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Ember&comma; N-Fusion Interactive" width&equals;"1366" height&equals;"768" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-113739" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">Ember&comma; N-Fusion Interactive<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>I didn&&num;8217&semi;t have any major complaints with <em>Ember<&sol;em>&period; There were times I wish the game went a bit faster&period; Backtracking was sometimes a pain but it barely broke my suspension of disbelief&period; Before I knew it I was back to forgetting I was even playing a game&period; All in all this is a great game and I can&&num;8217&semi;t recommend it enough to fans of the CRPG genre&period; I think it&&num;8217&semi;s worth looking into even if the genre isn&&num;8217&semi;t usually your cup of tea&period; There&&num;8217&semi;s a lot of fun to be had here whether your first RPG was <em>Baldur&&num;8217&semi;s Gate<&sol;em> or even <em>Skyrim<&sol;em>&period; Just expect it to be a little slower in terms of pacing and a bit drawn back in scale and you&&num;8217&semi;re bound to have a great time&period; I never let price impact my overall opinion of a game because I think the game should be judged solely on what it sets out to do and how well it succeeds&comma; but I would like to mention that <em>Ember <&sol;em>is only ten dollars&period; That&&num;8217&semi;s not a lot of money for a thirty hour plus fantasy RPG filled with fun and replay value&period; Consider adding <em>Ember<&sol;em> to your Steam library or your iOS home screen today&excl;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<hr &sol;>&NewLine;<p><em><strong>I had a lot of fun with<&sol;strong><&sol;em> <strong>Ember<&sol;strong><em><strong> and I know it&&num;8217&semi;s going to be a game that I&&num;8217&semi;ll replay for not only months to come but also for years to come&excl; I&&num;8217&semi;d love to hear from anyone who decides to join me <&sol;strong><&sol;em><em><strong>and take on the role of the Lightbringer&period; <&sol;strong><&sol;em><strong>Feel free to reach me on Twitter &commat;mrjoshnichols and let me know what you think of this gem from an earlier era&excl; This is definitely a game I&&num;8217&semi;ll be talking about for quite some time so expect to see me posting about my own journey in the world of <em>Ember<&sol;em>&excl;<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;