Elohim Eternal II: Son of Man Review
The Filler Testament
There are multiple ways for indie RPGs to stand out, and one of these is to push its storytelling to the forefront. Big ideas can work well for individual titles, but presenting the middle act of a multiple-part story while maintaining a strong level of urgency is always challenging. This is the issue plaguing George Alexandros' Elohim Eternal II: Son of Man . Its new setting doesn’t tie in easily with the original title, and the game spends its time setting things up for a future that doesn’t arrive yet. The experience feels like a side quest, which adds pressure to a passable combat system and mundane visual and audio presentation that can't pick up the slack.
Set on the world of Kenoma, Elohim Eternal II: Son of Man explores a cyberpunk dystopian story that is heavily inspired by the events of the New Testament of the Christian Bible. This is a departure from the events of predecessor Elohim Eternal: The Babel Code , which took place on Kenoma's twin world Idin and followed an ancient Egyptian theme. What ties the two together is the fear of an all powerful race called the Demiurge. On Kenoma, they are a boogieman that no one has seen but everyone has been afraid of for many years, while on Idin they were known as Kosmokraters and used centuries of manipulation and war to gather resources and power for themselves. Each game has its own story, with some elements that tie the two together, but full connection is only set to be explored in future titles. There is an extensive prologue that details the world of Idin and how its ancient Egyptian world progresses through the story of Joshwa. However, this ends up doing Elohim Eternal II: Son of Man a disservice by providing interesting characters, plot points, and twists that cannot be replicated or built upon here, while this sequel follows closely to its inspiration and provides few nuances of its own.
[caption id="attachment_176388" align="aligncenter" width="640"] The world map is definitely one area where the game's influences are worn on its sleeve.[/caption]
The world of Kenoma is reeling from a societal upheaval known as the Time of Tribulation. During this time, a sect of Shemerian zealots used guerrilla warfare to claim some power from the Pleromans, who have long subjugated the Shemerians. This ended poorly for the Shemerians, with many of them killed as the Pleromans razed their city of Bethlehem for their defiance. Under the yoke of Pleroman leaders Caiaphas, Herod, Pilate, and Nicodemus, the Shemerian people have been living in fear for over a decade. Not helping their situation is that Shemerians who lose control of their emotions can transform into monsters called Archons. Fear of this is used by the Pleroman elites to rally their citizens into the ostracizing of the Shemerians.
Players follow the headstrong youth Judas, a helpless dreamer who believes joining the zealots is the way to quickly topple the Pleroman government. After overcoming many frustrations -- witnessing the death of his childhood friend Lena’s parents, losing his mother Mary, and his father Joseph's subservience to the Pleromans -- it is easy to see Judas as a willing anarchist. Judas is protective of his younger brother Jessua, until he comes of age in the slums of Nazareth, the only remaining Shemerian city. He continues to lash out more at the Pleromans, much to the chagrin of Jessua who wants to keep things peaceful, while keeping in touch with their friend Lena. When the trio sees citizens abducted including an acquaintance of theirs, they can’t stay idle anymore. While trying to rescue the abducted citizens Jessua almost dies, with the experience awakening mysterious powers within him. These powers see him being heralded as a Messiah, leading the budding rebellion to soon gain traction.
There are some positives to be found in the setting and with some of the technological terminology. The cyberpunk dystopian landscape helps to distinguish the game from its roots in a Biblical story, while the presence of mecha known as Azars, as well as the populace able to transform into monstrous Archon is interesting. To a native Kenoman all of this is routine, but to players there is little in the way of explanation or backstory that allows these interesting additions to be anything else more than set dressing for an ultimately routine story. The characters of Elohim Eternal II: Son of Man feel as though they are on a conveyor belt, leading through the straightforward and familiar path laid out before them. The necessary embellishments to make its story fully work are not presented here.
[caption id="attachment_176390" align="aligncenter" width="640"] No promises Simon, these Azar are made for fighting.[/caption]
While there is a lot of focus on the story, combat is basic. The system in place serves its purpose, but is ultimately an afterthought. This is because there's an option to swap to "story mode" anytime, from the start of the game or using the eponymous item at any point to permanently make combat non-existent for the rest of the playthrough. There aren’t many encounters; only one in each room, within dungeons that are very short in length. Exploration is simple, with side paths that just contain loot and an encounter, giving players very little to be concerned about.
Despite how optional it can be, combat is pretty enjoyable, and hits a certain sense of nostalgia with the screen showing the filling up of action bars and draining enemy health bars. Each battle gives the player a new enemy to face off against and a new set of weaknesses to uncover, with enemies sporting intriguing designs. Hitting a weakness adds a secondary attack that can do extra damage depending on how well players can time a button press. Enemies can be a challenge if players haven't searched for equipment upgrades, but in addition to using a scanner item, players can use a scan spell to immediately learn the enemies' weaknesses. There are mechas fights with the Azars, including an optional arena, but these are more straightforward than regular combat with minimal equipment to swap between and no level up system for the Azars.
All wounds and spent aether points are healed automatically after every win. When enemies see a player, they move so fast that it is nearly impossible to avoid them, though it's worth engaging in all the encounters just to see the enemy designs. Each character's equipped melee weapon, two ranged weapons, and heavy weapon provide one skill each, meaning that all party members other than Jessua -- who has two additional Messiah abilities -- will only have four skills to use for their combat action, alongside consumable items and guarding. Even with its simple menu, the UI still becomes cluttered with player menus sometimes overlapping with the enemy weaknesses displayed on screen, as well areas that use background particle effects can also tank the frame rate to make the timed hits impossible.
[caption id="attachment_176391" align="aligncenter" width="640"] While routine, combat is enjoyable.[/caption]
The music in Elohim Eternal II: Son of Man features a small selection of tracks that are used for each situation, such as during combat, boss fights, or exploring the desert. The boss theme stands out as a lot of fun, combining ethereal synth sounds with piano in a way that hypes the player up. In contrast, the desert theme is just the sound of wooshing air that alternates between loud and louder as if flicking a vacuum on and off that easily grates on the nerves. Visual presentation is also a mixed bag; the enemy designs have a lot of detail, and the party’s portraits feature a pastel shading that makes them stand out. Dungeons and backgrounds though come from a cut and paste boxy square shape with only cookie cutter representations of the occasional obstacle to mix things up.
Elohim Eternal II: Son of Man has some good elements, but it is constantly at odds with itself. The combat tries to make the most of what it has and can be climactic, but is entirely optional. The story is too often telegraphed and cookie cutter, with any interesting uses of its setting and building connections to the first game coming far too late to be of any worth. Elohim Eternal II: Son of Man is unfortunately left bereft of any engaging sparks, and while perhaps future titles will provide some payoff, it is stuck in a dull routine that it never quite escapes.
The post Elohim Eternal II: Son of Man Review appeared first on RPGamer .
Popular Content
Explore Topic
