It’s not often that a game comes along which both excites and intrigues in equal measure. Although, on paper, El Shaddai looks to be a fancy platform/combat game the reality is so much more.

You play Ennoch, who, during a particularly wrathful part of God’s plan, was allowed to stay in Heaven. With things getting back to normal on Earth, the almighties plans are scuppered when a bunch of fallen angels descend to Earth. Your mission, should you wish to accept it, is to descend to the tower which the angels have built on Earth, kick a lot of butt and get them back into Heaven before tea time.

This involves working your way up the tower generally beating the bejesus out of the angels followers. To do this you have the option of three weapons, bare hands only guarantees an early defeat. You have access to the arch, the gale, and the veil, although you can only carry one of these at a time. Changing weapons is not such a problem as you can also swap by stealing your opponent’s weapon, which instantly also makes them defenceless dog meat.

The arch looks suspiciously like an upgraded bat’leth from Star Trek, and is likewise good for some one-on-one close and personal combat. The gale is a ranged weapon, consisting of a number of missile type objects; lastly the veil is another close pummel weapon consisting of a shield which splits into hard hitting gloves. What is surprising about the game is that, given the number of weapons and the fact there is a lot of combat involved, all necessary movements have been reduced to just three buttons, for jump, attack and shield.

Each environment that you traverse belongs to a particular angel, and the stylistically impressive graphics reflect that angel's tastes, allowing for you to travel within differing environment. As you travel, you fight. The only real problem I had with this is sometimes working out if I had won a particular boss/angel fight, or even what the winning conditions might be. I’m guessing that as the game did not stop that somehow I was holding my own against the big bad beasties.

The combination of simple interface, impressive music and graphics makes El Shaddai an absolute joy to play.

9

Charles Packer