Sentinel Returns - Gameplay (PS1)
114This is some gameplay from one of the strangest games I've ever played, Sentinel Returns.
Sentinel Returns is a game that you either understand or you don't. It's a sort of real-time first-person puzzle game that has one objective: Take down the titular Sentinel, a massive stone guard tower that has the ability to suck energy out of the player and his or her items.
The gameplay revolves around destroying these all-seeing Orwellian nightmares. The player uses stone platforms and a sort of teleporter to move around the environment, climbing up cliffs and sucking in the energy of purple trees that look like spikes along the way before destroying the Sentinel by teleporting to or higher than its level an absorbing its energy and then hyperspacing off of its platform. The player cannot walk or run, but he or she can look around and stack platforms and put a teleporter on top to move around the environment.
Sentinel Returns is dependent on energy, a game mechanic that forces the player to think about where to place objects. Every time an object is placed, it uses energy, a finite resource. The energy can be regained by absorbing those objects and sucking energy out of trees in the landscape. If the Sentinel's cone of vision falls upon the player or his or her objects, it will begin to absorb energy. If the player's energy reaches zero, the game ends.
It's truly a strange game. It's also the most terrifying E-rated game I've ever played, in no small part due to John Carpenter's excellent compositions. Yes, the developers really got John Carpenter to compose the music for this game.
The game isn't without it flaws, though. First of all, despite coming out in 1998, it doesn't support dual-analog of any kind, forcing the player to move the cursor with the PlayStation's D-Pad. Sentinel Returns also claims to have over six-hundred levels, which is great, but the levels are so similar that you'll probably lose interest long before you reach the last level.
If you ever see this game for sale, buy it. I won't guarantee that you'll like it, but it's very inexpensive these days and highly atmospheric.
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