As aweswome as advertised?
The team behind Sword and Sworcery consists of Toronto-based singer-songwriter Jim Guthrie, pixel artist Superbrothers, and Capy Games, the team behind Might and Magic: Clash of Heroes. Together, the three artists have created one of the most compelling audio-visual experiences of the year - as a game, however, it leaves a little to be desired.
There's no question about it: Sword and Sworcery is a masterwork of artistic vision. Superbrothers' meticulous pixel-art stylings creates a lush world that, underneath its retro exterior, feels truly alive. Everything is painstakingly handcrafted, and none of the elements are cut-and-paste. The end result is something that feels almost like a gorgeous interactive painting, a living world that slips into your pocket.
Much of the environment is interactive, and poking around will often reveal a fun animation and sound effect on what would appear to be a static piece of the set. The world also changes according to the moon cycle - at one point in the game, you'll have to wait until certain points in the cycle to advance, and the temptation is there to change the clock to the day you need. But not doing so creates a different experience altogether - look out the window, notice the moon, think "I wonder what's happening in Sword and Sworcery today?"
And the music! It's not your average game that credits its composer right on the title screen, but Sword and Sworcery does not have your average soundtrack. Standing alone, the thing is already in a different league from most other game soundtracks. At their heart, they're largely chiptunes, but the instrumentation adds gorgeous strings and guitars to create something far more than what could be achieved by fiddling with an old Commodore 64. Like the graphics, it all feels lush, vibrant, alive. Four Tet fans, take note; some tracks use similar ideas as There Is Love in You standouts "Circling" and "Sing," and that alone makes the game worth a look-see.
And the music and graphics just come together in-game, with the soundtrack cutting in and out with eerily perfect timing, with each track and location sustaining exactly the emotion it should, with every moment of beauty leaving you with an awed, wordless feeling of "how can they possibly top this," until in the very next screen, they do.
And if we could judge a game solely on these aspects I would have no qualms about slapping a ten on this sucker, mandating you all to buy it, and calling it a night.
But sadly, I can't.
You see, the "game" surrounding this experience is so bare-bones, so hardly there, that it becomes painfully apparent it was only conceived afterwards as a vessel to carry the player through this incredible world. Much of it takes place like an old-school point-and-click adventure game but stripped down as far as it can get - there is no inventory, and the puzzles usually consist of running around to find little fairies called "Sylvian Sprites" which can be flushed out of hiding using the Song of Sworcery, which lets you further interact with the environment. The solutions don't always make sense and can often be solved by tapping randomly on the screen, which is no fun.
Combat is the other part, and it takes the form of a simple, Punch-Out!!-like rhythm game. Enemies have simple attack patterns that must be dodged and counter-attacked in the right fashion in order to advance. Sadly there are only three enemies you encounter throughout the entire game, and their attack patterns never change, making the whole thing start to feel like a drag.
Sword and Sworcery honestly might have been better off without any of this; I would be more than happy if they gave us the world to play around in and called it a day. But these gripes are worth trying to see through, because despite them, S&S is the most beautiful, compelling experience on the App Store. Don't play to win, just sit back and drink the whole thing in.