Games as art? Yeah - why not? Pictures are art. Well, art is art. Confused? Yeah - me too now. Moving on; music is art. Moving pictures are art. So, why shouldn't a combination of them all be art. To an extent, that's true. So, okay, right. Where was I going with that?
Oh-yeah. I remember: Sanvein. A game, supprise-supprise, for the Playstation.
It's a sort of a 3D shooter. Well, for all intent and purpose it could have been and actually is 2D, just the graphics are 3D with an isometric view. Each level is broken into rooms. You clear rooms by shooting everything in them, and then every so often there is a boss. Got it? You won't have because it's more complex than that.
Okay - try to keep up. Essentially, the game is a balancing act. The clock counts down. When it hits zero - it is game over. It counts down even when you are selecting a room to fight in. You have to trade-off how quickly you can clear a room against how much time you have left, plus the number of linked rooms determines the power of your weapons. Which obviously effects how quickly you can clear a room. See what it does? Clever eh? Kind of. You also have to take into consideration that if you get shot, you lose great-big blocks of time.
The game construct is pretty clever, and I like it. It's not the standard SHMUP, it's something a bit different, and for that reason, amongst others, I like it.
It's let down though. Let down, in my opinion, by sloppy implementation of the battles and also the on screen action can be a bit busy too. Add to that the controls feel a bit woolly. All-in-all, you as the player don't always feel in control of the craft. Also, the question of 'does it really matter if I am in control of the craft?' hangs over the player.
It just needed tightening up a bit. It's not bad. It's just not great.
...but it is alluring.
For starters it couldn't be more Japanese if it came with free Sushi, bowed every-time you put the disc in the PS1, and slept on it's very own futon. So, in a way, the game is kind of beautiful, well to me at least. It looks like a Japanese SHMUP makers vision of the future. A vision of games from the past. If that makes sense. I obviously appreciate it doesn't.
From the thumping techno sound track, to the "You have the privilege to continue this battle..." title screen motto, to the NASA-Huston style sound samples, to the glitzy over the top graphics, the look and feel of Savien hit a nerve with me. It's very attractive. I like it.
Playing it, is, if I'm honest, can be something of a chore. The game doesn't feel like it's kicking in until you are nearly dead. So each game starts of way too easy for too long, then gets way too difficult too quickly. Which is a recipe for frustration.
That said, I could watch and listen to it all day. Including the obligatory pre-rendered introduction.
This game is far from rare, but it's under-valued. It is, I hope you appreciate from what I said, not a bad game. It's pretty good. It's simply not great but for the £2.50 from eBay it's going to cost you, it's worth it for the spectacle alone. Honestly.
3DOKid.
