Poor old Microsoft. While Sony are busy shouting from the rooftops about how well their PS4 has sold (10 million worldwide, 1 million in Blighty alone), the Xbox One hasn't been doing quite so well. While there's likely a myriad of reasons for the PS4 outperforming the Xbox One at retail, it's the lack of variety on both formats that's been most surprising, with a bevy of racers and shooters making up the offerings, and little else beyond. But on the Gamescom show floor, in amongst the Halos, Forzas and Titanfalls, tucked away in a quiet corner shone a cute little platformer called Ori and the Blind Forest - a game which is as far away from a military shooter as it's possible to get, and one which has the potential to turn the console's fortunes around. At least in our eyes...
The star of the show is here little Ori, a white guardian spirit who looks like a cross between Disney's Stitch and the Pokemon Vaporeon. Raised in the sprawling forests by his strange masked bear-like adoptive mother, Ori's world gets turned upside down when his Mom gets taken by an evil entity, Kuro, leaving the childlike Ori all on his lonesome. Some of you may remember the heartbreaking scene at the end of the E3 trailer, where little Ori tries in vain to nudge her awake, in a scene reminiscent of THAT bit from The Lion King. Left to explore the forest on his own, Ori soon discovers the whole forest is in trouble, and with the help of a friendly tree spirit called Sein, he sets off to save the day.
Happy families.
Our demo dropped us off right at the start of the game, with Ori still shaken from his foster parent's "death" (we've used quotes as we're hoping she's just otherwise incapacitated rather than deceased...), and with few true powers of his own. To begin with, all the little ethereal foxy thing can do is run and jump, letting you explore the dark, shadowy forest at your leisure (and, in our case, stumble into more than a few spike pits) - but not everything is accessible all at once. It doesn't take long for you to spot ledges just out of reach, or tunnels that are blocked by one obstacle or another, with just a glimmer of light teasing whatever lies beyond. As a 'Metroidvania' style game, where your character gradually learns new moves as the story progresses, there'll be plenty of reason to go back down the beaten path in Ori, and see where your new moves can take you, as you unlock the rest of the forest's secrets.
The first thing you notice about Ori (besides the cuteness, obviously) is how lightning quick he is. He can speed along at a rate of knots, and can leap a fair distance too - which is just as well really, as with just two tricks up his furry sleeves, and nothing in the way of attacks, the forest is a pretty dangerous place to be. Before too long, we happen across a shrine of sorts, where a mysterious light is quietly flickering. It turns out this light is Sein, the last light of the spirit tree, who explains how he was ripped from the branches by a malevolent force and abandoned. He tells Ori how the forest is now in ruins, and that those who survived have simply vanished, leaving much more ferocious creatures in their wake. And like all good plant-like platformer bad guys, some of them can shoot fireballs...
Our meeting with Sein does more than just set the scene though - he also brings with him our first attack. Constantly floating just ahead of little Ori, like a companion fairy, the little glowing orb can be used to slice through bad guys with ease, locking on to nearby deadly balls of goo, angry plant monsters and other such hostile fauna. One of the problems we sometimes find with games of this ilk (like Rayman Legends), with their detailed, artsy backgrounds, is that it can sometimes be a little difficult to pick out the enemies from the scenery when you're mid-fight. Thankfully, Ori and the Blind Forest handily highlights all the enemies by placing a subtle glowing effect around each of them, making them much easier to pick out amongst the grass and the shadows.
Prettiful.
As our little Ori bounds through the woods, he picks up dozens of little balls of light, which add together to help fill up a bar at the bottom of the screen. When this fills, you earn an ability point to spend on various upgrades, such as improved attacks, the ability to automatically pick up dropped orbs from defeated enemies, or, most usefully, the chance to re-use 'soul links' to save your game. These soul links - essentially a save point - are another interesting aspect of Ori and the Blind Forest, as you can only use them once you've collected a certain amount of Spirit Energy, which you'll only occasionally get for defeating enemies. Don't worry though - being a bit overconfident and choosing not to set a waypoint won't hinder you too much. If you die, you'll simply be reset a bit further back. No biggie.
Of course, Ori and the Blind Forest wouldn't be a platformer if it didn't have plenty of perilous leaps to make, and it certainly has those in spades, right down to perilously small perches surrounded by deadly projectiles, saws and other such deadly traps. There's also no shortage of puzzles to solve along the way, whether it's working out which of Ori's arsenal of powers is best to get past a certain blockage, overcoming a rudimentary block-pushing puzzle, or redirecting projectiles to blow up a locked door.
One of Ori's cooler abilities - and one you'll want to unlock as soon as you can - is called the 'bash' ability, a mid-air dash-like move, which temporarily freezes the on-screen action and makes an arrow appear, letting you send Ori flying through the air, smashing straight through whatever enemies, objects or projectiles are in his path. It's not just a combat move though - it can also be used to help redirect projectiles in puzzle sections, or simply get from A to B more quickly, by adding some extra oomph to the little spirit's jump.
Ori can catapult himself at walls and run up them.
Ori and the Blind Forest will be bringing some much-needed variety to the Xbox One line up later this year, hitting the PC at around the same time, before leaping onto the Xbox 360 in early 2015. Weighing in at around eight to ten hours long, it may not be the longest platformer in existence - something we hope is reflected in the price. There's no word yet as to whether this will be a full retail game or a digital download, but if it's a retail release, we'll be keeping our fingers crossed it won't be too much above the budget £15-20 range, similar to Ubisoft's artsy platform/role playing game, Child of Light.
