What is it about trolls and elves that they never seem to get along? Throw in a legacy of being able to harness the powers of the elements and being able to shape-shift, and you’ve got a gunpowder keg that’s all set to go off. Surprise, that’s exactly what happens in Kameo: Elements of Power.
Kameo is from the elvan royal family and she, despite not being the oldest female, inherits the gift of the elements of power. Her sister, Kalus, is understandably none too pleased with this development. However, a little more unexpected, Kalus chooses to release the great troll leader Thorn (who has been imprisoned for years) and helps him to kidnap the royal family and scatter the elements of power! Of course, it’s up to you as Kameo to recover these elements of power and use them to rescue your family and save the world from the evil Trolls.
These elements of power, when recovered, allow Kameo to morph into different warriors, each with its own specific talents and abilities. There’s a fire breathing dragon, a large squid-like creature that sprays water, a frozen creature that rolls around on a snowball and even a pair of plant creatures that can punch and eat enemies who happen to get in your way. In fact, there are ten warriors in all and each of them has their own unique features that are required at different points of the game. One warrior, Major Ruin, is an armadillo-like critter that can roll into a ball and up and over ramps. Big Chilla can throw large ice spears at distant targets and climb certain walls. Thermite can fire little bombs out of a molten vat he carries with him.
In fact, there is probably too many of these creatures. Each is mapped to either the X, Y or B buttons on the controller, which means you can only have three on your quick-select at a time. By holding down any one of these buttons for a few seconds, a wheel pops up allowing you to map a different creature to the button and change into it. This is convenient, but definitely takes too much time when you’re in the heat of battle and need that one specific creature ASAP. You do have the option of configuring the creatures within the game’s menu system, but this a little more complicated then it needs to be in order to quickly change your setup. The two bumpers are not used on the controller, and it would’ve been nice if they could’ve been mapped to another pair of creatures for faster access.
Since each creature has specific talents, you must recover them in order to proceed to the next area. The game is divided into many different zones and dungeons, and they are usually obstructed by some sort of device requiring a certain creature’s talents to bypass. This helps to make the game feel much less linear then it actually is since you can explore these areas at will, you just can’t progress past them until the designers deem it appropriate.
Since this is a “next-generation” title, you’re probably interested in hearing about the graphics. The game definitely looks pretty. Originally planned for the N64 way back when, Kameo has had many delays and many re-toolings over the years, and thankfully this has not hurt the visual look of the game. Using the power of the Xbox 360, Rare has managed some impressive combat scenes featuring well over 100 elves and trolls all battling it out in real time. It almost looks like something straight out of the Lord of the Rings films—it’s on that scale, and is very impressive to see and to charge through the middle of. The models are all very well done, but they still do not seem to have what I would call a “next-gen” look to them. The entire game is definitely a step up graphically from most other titles out there, but it still doesn’t quite have that “wow” factor to it.
The voice acting, although not used extensively, is all very well done. The characters all have a certain eccentricity, which helps to add to the fantasy setting of the game. All the warriors have their own unique sounds to accompany their unique look and abilities and, again, they do the job they’re supposed to, which is to immerse you into the game and make the suspension of disbelief that much easier.
As the lone platform game in the Xbox 360’s launch, Kameo takes the mantel of top-platformer by default. However, this crown will be difficult to wrench away from this fun and engaging title. Combining a straightforward, easy to follow story with fun and varied gameplay makes this one of the best titles available for Microsoft’s newly launched console. Who wouldn’t enjoy beating up trolls!
I've been playing games ever since I was a wee lad. My favorite games as a child were the classic Pitfall and a game called SNAFU, which was a sort of puzzle game along the lines of Tron Light Cycles. I've had most of the major console systems since the early days and have a wide range of tastes of games and I'm always eager to give a new one a try.
