Game:

Evoland (2013)

Duration: 29:36

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Get Evoland here: https://www.humblebundle.com/store/p/evoland_storefront

You play out the evolution of the Adventure/RPG genre, from the earliest black and white side scrollers to modern day fully 3D. This begins very much like DLC Quest, where you start out with only the ability to move to the right, however instead of needing to collect coins to buy "DLC", you open chests to collect the treasure which unlocks new abilities. The early stages progress quickly from side from sidescroller to being able to move in 4 directions on a top-down 3/4 plane of view, like within the first few seconds. As you move along you quickly gain other features like sound effects (yes, the game is silent at first), a music score, a sword, and enemies to fight, progression to 16 colors, then 256 colors, a storyline, and on and on.

Part of me kind of wishes the developer had spent more time on this, and made these unlocks part of a quest, instead of hunting down not at all hidden chests. I think it would've been clever to start on a 2D plane, only being able to move right, you walk forward and grab your sword, fight some enemies and get into a cave for a boss fight. The reward then is the 2D plane stretches to fill the screen in a 3/4 top-down view giving you movement in 4 directions, you then move up or down to exit the other side of the cave bringing you to the overworld presented one screen at a time (like old-school Zelda), you make your way to the first dungeon and defeating the boss unlocks smooth scrolling, the next spreads 16 colors over the world, the next dungeon is 256 colors, and so on.

I get that the time it would take to progress in this way would be extended greatly, and it might turn off the casual and younger gamers who generally want more instant gratification or pretty visuals. But damn... I'd love it if the developer could find it in their heart(s) to go back and work on an expansion/definitive edition/whatever, where you can play out a true adventure mode, evolving the world with each victory. I would absolutely pay for that.

But to sum up the current release, it's still a very fun and unique game that does teach a little bit of adventure/RPG history with each unlock (there was no option to set the resolution, so it was playing at 1920x1200 while I was recording at 1920x1080, so most of the unlocks text was cut off, but each one would offer a little snippet of information like the Save Point one said something about it being one of the most significant additions to adventure/RPGs allowing you to save somewhere, rather than always starting back at the beginning or having to remember passcodes.) It's well worth a look and another I plan to finish playing through.

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