In Decay of Logos, developer Amplify Creations has sought to create an immersive action/adventure third-person RPG with what they describe as a heavy influence of European folklore and by J. R. R. Tolkien’s high fantasy. To do this, they further explain that gameplay focuses mainly on player-centric exploration with minimal handholding, challenging combat, and resource management. While the setting is often stunning in visual terms, several technical issues, poor AI of friend and foe alike, and repetitive rather than innovative combat brings down the enjoyment of this game.

The story revolves around a girl and an Elk who fatefully meet following the destruction of her village. Beaten, but unaware of who is behind this brutal attack, the girl will not rest until she has her revenge. From the beginning of the game, the player is placed into a world that is filled with mystery. Subtle hints as to what has occurred in this place are sprinkled throughout the game, and there are no heavy exposition dumps, which is fantastic. The background and settings of the outdoor world are often beautiful when they load properly. More on that later on.

Uninspired Frustrations

From the first encounter with an opponent, it becomes clear that the game will punish you severely for not taking combat seriously. The first enemy faced outside of the starting area can best be described as an angry, burrowing onion with an angry mouth full of teeth. Although appearing cartoonish, this onion will kill you with only a few hits.

Unfortunately, combat is where some technical issues of inconsistent framerate can be problematic. As the game demands split-second timing and strategic positioning to defeat enemies, it must also provide the stability to ensure that a player can do this reliably. Instead, there are too often visual problems that make this precision impossible, resulting in death that can only be described as frustrating when it was caused by a sudden stutter in visuals.

With that in mind, this reviewer noticed something that should be taken anecdotally, but that should be investigated further. The longer the game was played in a single sitting on the Nintendo Switch, either in docked or undocked mode, the more often framerate issues arose, as did glitches in the game and rendering issues. Exiting the game completely and beginning again seemed to help significantly for a short while, though again, this was not always consistent, nor could I replicate the improvements in any pattern. Sometimes there were issues, and other times there were not.

Now, assuming that there are no framerate issues at all, there is still a fundamental problem with combat, in that the AI is not great and the actions of an opponent are repetitive and predictable. Combine these with large health pools that grow as one moves onto later areas, and battles quickly feel dull.

This is a shame because in some places the environment looks great, but rather than be able to enjoy any of the beauty, a player is forced manage and avoid pulling more than two or three opponents at a time. On top of that, each area seems to have many of a single type of opponent, which means that there is something to learn and adapt to at first, often by a trail, error, and death, but then nothing innovated for the rest of the enemies in the area. Again, combat begins to feel more like a chore than a challenge.

Later on in the game, there are a number of optional bosses that can be challenged. Unfortunately, these opponents do not have any more sophisticated attack mechanics than normal opponents, and the addition of their massive hitboxes actually makes fighting no real challenge at all.

Worse, as seen below, sometimes it feels like the AI is delayed in their response to your presence. Parrying an attack is simple when the opponent is consistent, but in the case below, the delay is significant and breaks the flow of combat. This opponent sometimes attacks in a fluid manner, and other times seems to fall asleep in mid-combat.

Finally, as a side note, there is a magic system in the game, but it feels like an underdeveloped side project. With proper combat mechanics, spells are almost entirely unnecessary, which is a shame because the spells that are available feel as though they could have been more central to the combat system.

Our (Un)Trusty Sidekick Elk

This reviewer fell in love with the idea of a mystical Elk who joins us at the beginning of the game. This was mainly driven entirely by nostalgia for the Talbuk mounts that one could obtain in Nagrand in the Burning Crusade expansion of World of Warcraft. Unfortunately, while the elk is supposed to be a useful companion in our journey, it is often more of a hindrance than a help.

The problem lies in an underdeveloped AI that could do with better pathing scripts so as not to veer off to places that seem ridiculous. At first, the game makes us feel as though we will be experiencing something special alongside our Elk companion, but this is never fleshed out in a meaningful manner. More than anything, the Elk is quickly resented for being in the way, or as one more thing to worry about when we must work with it.

In its current state, Decay of Logos feels like a frustrating and missed opportunity. When the settings render properly, the environments can look stunning and the story is enjoyable to piece together through the subtle use of hints. However, due to the tiresome and repetitive feel of combat, and the technical issues of framerate drops, rendering problems, and occasional crashes, the game is frustrating at the best, and unplayable at the worst.

Although the game does a great job in creating an enjoyable atmosphere with hints as to what occurred in this world, the technical issues persist to break through any real enjoyment of the game. With that in mind, there is always the possibility of a patch to fix these kinds of issues. However, this is being terribly optimistic to assume that the core issues would also be addressed with the technical ones. A patch was released for the PC, PS4, and Xbox One version of the game, but now almost two months after the initial review of this game, there is still no news for the Nintendo Switch.

A Switch review code for Decay of Logos was provided to TheGamer for this review. Decay of Logos is available for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC.

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