Gameplay

In terms of gameplay Evoland draws inspiration from titles like Legend of Zelda, Final Fantasy and Diablo and even though this sounds that you are going to play a set of mini games the truth is that the games flaw perfectly, giving you more the impression of a single focused game.

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Gameplay-wise Evoland is a relaxed experience the unfolds its evolution theme quite well and manages to keep the players interest though out the game. There will be areas where you’ll experience a Final Fantasy-style, turn-based fighting system with random encounters and other areas will let you experience a hack-and-slash, Diablo-esque area full of money and loot drops. That won’t cause any problem in adjusting your mentality if you are familiar with the classics that inspired Evoland, and even if you didn’t have the chance to play these games in the past don’t get disappointed as the control scheme is quite simple.

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There are six buttons that you will have to use during the Evoland experience. The arrow keys oR the WASD keys, the tab key that opens your inventory and the action button that can be any key from Enter, Space, or the E key.

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Like in the Classic version, everything in Evoland is based around unlocking chests that give access to some new feature, generally gameplay- or technology-related. These unlocks include features like a sword or the ability to save your progress — moments or mechanics that came into the genre as it advanced — as well as technological aspects like graphic upgrades and higher quality music.

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There will be times however that some incomplete mechanics will frustrate you as you will have to repeat some parts, especially in the dungeon areas of the game. This sounds a bit of a let down but thankfully it isn’t. The in-game jokes found on Evoland, from describing achievements, the objects you pick, to the in-game dialogues, make up for most of the small technical glitches found on Evoland and are the game’s biggest selling point. Lines like “Undeads will now take sunburns as normal people do” will definitely leave a smile on your face.

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Evoland is on the short side, and will take you about 2 hours to complete and will unfold about 80% of the gameplay. The rest 20%, just like a JRPG that respects itself, consists of hidden areas and secret objects, and the ability to revisit Evoland’s early 8 bit stages with updated graphics, that will encourage you for at least one more playthrough.

Conclusion

It is always very nice to see a game that begun as an entry for Ludum dare, a competition that we at Gameconnect are always very happy to cover, become a fully fledged effort. It feels like witnessing a child birth and watching an infant quickly becoming a proper human.

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Gamers, especially old school, will love the concept rather than any specific part of the game, and will fee quite emotional during Evoland’s quest, which is here to remind you of the reasons you are still attracted to videogames. The time spent Evoland may not last for over 2-3 hours, but are definitely enjoyable as it is obvious that the people at Shiro Games showed the ultimate respect to the game’s that influenced the creation of Evoland.

Evoland is available for purchase on Steam, gog.com and the Shiro Games website for both PC and Mac, for €9.99 / £6.99.

Gameconnect Rating: 6.9