Review | Oracle Trials

Today we will be reviewing an upcoming game called Oracle Trials, developed and published by Termeno, s.r.o. Oracle trials is an action 2d-platformer with a very cartoony vibe to it. The central theme revolves around the Oracle, which was robbed of its treasures and power by Evil Phalanx warriors. But did we like it?

We played Oracle Trials for 3 hours on PC.

What we liked!

• Platforming: After getting used to the incredible superman jump you have, it is quite fun to jump around. There are just the everyday jump challenges, but there are also jump pads and many levers changing the map. Almost forget the mandatory moving logs you have to stand on to move across pits. But I’m afraid the negatives of this game really outweigh the positives.

Somewhere between

• Nothing: There is nothing that deserves to be here in my opinion.

What we disliked

• Combat: The combat annoyed me in this game. You swing your little sword when you click, but it hits way further than you see. This is quite important because if you wait for when you think it will hit, you will die. Most monsters are too quick for you to start your swing that late. And when monsters or soldiers hit you, they push you back really far. Why? Why not just give some invulnerable buff or something instead of throwing me across the map? More about this in the next collum.
• Push back: As stated above, you get knocked back when hit. And not a little bit either. I died more by this than by anything else in the game. And that isn’t a good thing, in my opinion. I would recommend to half push back or give me a grace period after getting hit where I can’t be damaged. This push back is obnoxious as hell.
• Instant death traps: There are many instant death pits/traps in the game: either spikey balls, poison pits, or just spikey bushes. The spikey balls also appear moving. There is one level where I died a lot to a spikey ball that was only supposed to be under the roof but also one-shot me when I went above it. Even though I couldn’t even see it. The combination of push back into an instant death trap is just upsetting. This is how I died a lot, by mobs pushing me in a pit. Oh, and there are no checkpoints, so when you get pushed to death… gotta start from the beginning of the level.
• Animations: On Steam, this game prides itself on its animations. I don’t understand why. As stated above, your sword is too little in animation for the damaged area it has. When you attack monsters like bats or dogs and kill them, they fall but keep moving. While they are moving, they are still targetable, and you will still see the animation of them being attacked when you click even though they are supposed to be dead.
• No voice over and terrible font: I might have been spoiled in games lately, but all my games had voice-over for the story. In Oracle Trials, you need to read it yourself. And even that is hard with the horrible font they have. Like seriously, it took me ages to read the first few, and then I just quit reading. And I normally wouldn’t mind reading a story.

CONCLUSION

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