Blades Of Time

A game developed by Gaijin Entertaniment and published by Konami is finally out for PS3, Xbox360, MS Windows and Mac OS X, and it goes something like this: 

Kratos and Ayumi from X-Blades had rough sexual intercourse and a child was born. This girl has grown to take all the fighting attributes from Kratos and resembles him so well in combat that you will sometimes wonder are you playing some God Of War expansion with an attractive girl as a major protagonist. Yeah, Ayumi inherited some, how should I say, great physical attributes from her deceased anime mother. 

Okay, I'll cut the crap now. The following is Wikipedia's content cause I think they pretty nailed it short but in the head:...''Ayumi, gunsword-wielding treasure hunter finds herself stuck on a mysterious and dangerous island. While rich with bounty, the island is also caught in the throes of Chaos magic. Ayumi soon discovers that it is also the home of thousands of long-held secrets, including special powers and abilities that she can gain for herself. Using everything she can, she must find a way to defeat armies of menacing villains and a multitude of treacherous traps in order to break free of the possessed island’s grasp.''
Pretty interesting and mysterious and by no means cliche plot, huh? 

So ''Bureizu Obu Taimu'' (Japanese) is action/adventure hack and slash game that should be somewhat of a successor to a very good X-Blades, and they even returned Ayumi in much hotter and much realistic style. Graphics look really nice and the large areas and opponents really add the spice to the visual aspect, but what bothers me in the game is the voice acting! I mean, what Gaijin Entertainment thought when they were hiring an actor. For a girl that is poised to talk to herself most of the game, the voice acting should've been the most integral segment. But instead we got an annoying voice, without any real added emotion. At least they should've cut most of the text and let the story unfolds itself, or hire someone exceptional to narrate the game, like it was with the case of Alan Wake or so... Kratos barely said a single word and the game still kicked ass. 

But on the other hand, the actual gameplay is nice. Still, it reminds me so much of all the similar games such as already mentioned God of War, that I never had a feeling that I play something original and innovative.
Running through the ancient constructions in the middle of a tropical island gave me that Indiana Jones feeling, but if only Harrison Ford was a 2-sword wielding uber-hot blondie. As I already said, areas are amazingly large and visually great. Details are great - from moss between two blocks of stone, to lava waterfalls and snake-like bridges. Monsters that Ayumi faces are decent looking, but what is even greater looking is the manner in which the lead actress cuts them! Combat is one thing you won't get bored of. At least I haven't. Another interesting thing is ''Time Rewind'', which reminded me a bit of a Prince Of Percia: Blades Of Time. Oh no, wait, that was Sands Of Time, and this is... Now I'm confused. That interesting innovation lets you clone Ayumi to replicate actions present Ayumi made. Yeah, I know what you're thinking. I'm thinking of that too...

So, overall, I'd give the game 6.5/10. I'd give it 5.5 or 6.0 but the additional points go to the design of the main protagonist that made me play the game a couple of hours more. For $38, you can buy yourself God Of War collection, Prince Of Percia collection, or you can get Dark Souls and experience intense and hard action. But, if you are a fan of action, hacking and slashing spiders, stone guardians and stuff throughout Aztec-esque environment with a half-naked porno diva, then, why not? 

System Requirements

Operating system: Windows XP, Windows 7, Windows Vista

Processor: Intel Pentium 4 2.6GHz or AMD 3500+

Memory: 2 Gb

Hard disk space: 3 Gb

Video: Ati Radeon x1300 / nVidia GeForce 7300 GS, 256mb

Sound: Direct X-compatible sound cardDirectX®: 9.0c