Developer: Blackpowder Games
Publisher: Blackpowder Games
Platform: PC
Betrayer – Review
A game titled Betrayer succeeds in making me curious. About what kind of betrayal are we talking here? Blackpowder Games tries to bring us a compelling story situated in times long forgotten with some original ideas. Find out here if this game is something you might want to get your hands on.
Story
It’s the 17th century. A time when the Conquistadores from Spain were busy making colonies all around the globe. England has given you the task to help a colony in need at the coast of Virginia but once arrived, you notice immediately something’s up. The land is abandoned except for inhuman looking Conquistadores who’ll attack you on sight. Strange things are going on here and it doesn’t get much better when you start to see ghosts or when you meet a lady covered in flashy red clothes. She doesn’t seem to see the same things you do (particularly the ghost part) and she seems a little off in general. Now the question is, what the hell happened here?
As you traverse through the landscape, you’ll meet people and ghosts alike who’ll explain a bit of their background and their past life. Like this, different personal stories will be uncovered as one person will be looking for a dead relative and another one left pieces of journal lying around. It’s interesting to get to know what happened to all these folks so story wise, this game is filled with content.
Graphics
Some interesting choices have been made here. Contrary to most modern games, Betrayer wants the player to experience the game in a color palette of black and white with important objects colored in bright red. Although it looks original and special at first, the lack of color is something you’ll either love or hate and I must say, I soon switched the saturation to a more cheerful looking setting. The environments filled with green just make walking around and exploring a lot more satisfying but in the end, it’s simply a matter of taste.
As you’ll read in the next parts of this review, there are two different dimensions to play in. In the ghost world, everything is a lot darker and the game starts to look more like a hardcore horror game. It’s laudable to see such creativity and for those (like me) who still prefer some color in the “normal” world, increasing the saturation takes care of that problem in no time.
Sound
Betrayer does a great job in keeping you on your toes with creepy screams coming from the Spaniards and the sound of the wind blowing through trees and bushes. It makes the world feel a bit more alive but unfortunately it doesn’t suffice to make you “believe” in what you’re playing (if that makes any sense). There’s just nothing to hear besides the things I’ve previously mentioned. No birds, crickets, water streams in the distant and so on. Demonic intruders or not, some signs of life would’ve done much to makes Betrayer believable.
The transition between the “real” world and the ghostly one happens with an enormous change of atmosphere, sound wise as well. Ringing the town bells (which will bring out the ghost plane) switches the background music from nonexistent to an icy, ominous noise. You can even hear the bell ringing as if it’ll continue making sound unless you turn the world back as it’s suppose to be.
Gameplay
Betrayer can be divided up in two main features: exploring and fighting. Exploring the land will lead you to new quests and places of importance. As the environment looks great (a bit empty perhaps), it’s sure pleasant enough to roam around a bit in search of hidden chests and other treasures. It shouldn’t take too long before you bump into a monstrous creature dressed as a true Spaniard and this, of course, is where the fighting part commences.
At the very beginning of the game, a bow will be made available to you and pop up text explains how you best approach an opponent. Sneaking is preferable over charging in Rambo-style as your character can’t take a lot of hits before falling to his grave. Besides that, the helmets worn by the Spaniards can often deflect your arrows and in general, they prove to be a tough lot. Luckily you can change the difficulty settings to make things easier if you prefer to enjoy the story without too much hassle.
As already mentioned before, the world in which the story of Betrayer takes place can be changed in an alternative dimension by ringing particular bells. Doing so will color the world grey and bring forth a thick fog. Instead of the usual Conquistadores, you’ll now have to take it up against skeletons. They like to shoot projectiles in your direction but other than that, it doesn’t really feel much different from fighting the usual creeps.
Although this is a game that’s all about exploring, it often wasn’t clear at all what Betrayer expected of me. There are no quest markers or any other aiding tools except for your journals where clues and notes are written down of your encounters. Sometimes a little guidance would’ve been more than welcome as it’s not very enjoyable to have to look for a walkthrough every few minutes. It soon started to feel like a chore to help the spirits with their problems as they’re mostly assignments in the manner of: look for something and bring it back. Both the exploring and the fighting part of the game suffer from repetitiveness which isn’t a good incentive to keep you going.
Conclusion
Betrayer could’ve been so much more if a little more attention would’ve been brought to certain aspects of the game. A better system to keep track of your quests or a world with a little more life in it are examples of what could’ve made this game a better one. It’s worth checking it out if you’re a person with quite some patience and if you like experiencing something new.
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