1998 was a terribly beneficial year for video games. Resident Evil 2, Spyro The Dragon, Crash Bandicoot Warped: so many cult titles released on PSOne that have been treated to absolutely exemplary remakes and remasters from Capcom and Activision. This era was also an opportunity for MediEvil to mark the community with a red hot iron: developed by SCE Cambridge Studio (later renamed Guerilla Cambridge before its closure in 2017), this morbid journey led by the zany Sir Daniel Fortesque had denoted by its delicious atmosphere and its pronounced adventurous side. More than twenty years later, its complete overhaul was entrusted to Other Ocean Interactive by Sony, the relatively unknown American studio behind Rick & Morty Virtual Rick-Ality and ports here and there. The opportunity for these little guys to prove themselves in a far from obvious renovation task.
CRYPT ACCOUNTS
In MediEvil - which is, let's remember, a PlayStation 4 exclusive - we still play good old Sir Daniel Fortesque, hero of the Land of Gallimere and died in battle during his epic fight against Zarok. The latter is a (doubtful) wizard with nasty necromantic tendencies, fortunately stopped in time in his quest for domination. But now, the guy is back and intends to resume his quest exactly where it left off. To do this, he joins forces with many evil forces and resurrects all the dead in the region, including, without doing it on purpose, our dear hero who has meanwhile become skeletal. Like many good-natured games of its time, the scenario of MediEvil is not its spearhead, rather a simple pretext to live many adventures and stop the big bad.
Nothing has changed. However, and curiously, this seems to present, in the long term, a certain problem…
The narration is therefore particularly succinct: we will meet some characters through lively rather humorous dialogues and, above all, will cross the multiple Halloween zones of Gallowmere by hitting everything that moves and solving puzzles. The structure has not changed one iota with a sectorization by levels that we choose on a mini-map: the level design is still just as linear, relying on particularly narrow corridors, elements to be found in rooms (sometimes hidden) and which require to be used in specific places. It's effective, rather damn on that side everything that made the charm of adventure games of the 90s is present. Nothing has changed. And, yet and curiously, this seems to present, in the long term, a certain problem…
LACK OF CALCIUM
Because, we can tell ourselves in advance, MediEvil strangely does not shine like the competing remasters of the orange marsupial and his dragon friend. As stated above, the irreproachable fidelity of the original title somewhat serves this frankly expected reissue: first of all, from a gameplay point of view where the game has aged drastically and suffers from harmful inaccuracies. Combat and character handling itself suffer from a lack of skill, collision problems and obvious animations: platforming and exploration also suffer with an often questioned fluidity. It must be said that unlike Spyro or Crash Bandicoot, MediEvil was a game with a much more modern game design and, therefore, subject to aging less well, especially three generations of consoles later.
But if you want to be picky, even on the technical level, MediEvil is not really at the top.
What's more, Other Ocean Interactive didn't take the time – maybe it was voluntary, we don't know – to adapt its game a minimum to current standards, for example with a checkpoint or instant save system. At each game over (and this often happens, the requirement of the time not having been settled either), we must therefore start the entire level again... It would not have been boring if the gameplay had known more optimizations, like this insolent and unpleasant camera which complicates many phases of the game and which immediately looks like one of its big black spots. Even the TPS view, added for the occasion and precisely supposed to remedy the problem, is far from being ergonomic.
OS-PÉRATION COMMAND-OS
However, MediEvil is not fundamentally bad: the zombie atmosphere always bears fruit and the musical themes, directly inspired by the melodies of 1998 but rewritten for the occasion, ensure a successful OST. Similarly, the developers lingered to create all the elements of the decor that did not exist at the time, the fault due to the low viewing distance and the 4:3 authorized by the PSOne. It is undeniable, the multiple varied levels – cemetery, village, fields, castle, enchanted forest or other level underground – have received a significant and remarkable facelift.
Of course, the aim is above all nostalgic and all those who put their hands on the title of Guerilla Cambridge twenty years earlier should plunge back into the 90's as planned. But if you want to be picky, even on the technical level, MediEvil is not really on top with 3D models, animations and various effects that are a bit disappointing. Above all, the 30FPS display is far from constant – understand by this that there is more than one severe slowdown, even on PS4 Pro! – does not plead in its favor. The result is a short game, six hours if you're doing well, certainly cult but hurt by the pangs of time in its design and which would have deserved, in essence, a much more pronounced modernization.
