76
TESTED GAMESt may seem like one of
Microsoft’s more modest
offerings – but once this
2.5D action-platformer has you in
its grasp, prepare to be spellbound
by its amazing production values,
visuals and soundtrack.
Last time out in 2015’s Ori and
the Blind Forest, our orphaned
guardian spirit had to get through
spooky woodland to break its
curse. Fortunately he had another
spirit attacking on his behalf like a
sentry drone; this time he’s armed
with an enchanted lightsaber
while exploring an expanding,
interconnected world.
With a focus on melee combat,
your arsenal steadily builds up
as you unlock more new abilities,
some of which help you solve
puzzles, Zelda-style. But this game
does retain the original title’s boss
chases (some of them are so huge
you can’t face them head-on). It’s
just a pity these are dulled by their
frustrating instant-death design,
so it’s all about trial and error.
Top tip: If you run into the creature
selling maps, we highly recommend
buying one. There’s a wide worldout there to explore, often
gorgeous but easy to get lost
in... and you’ll contend with some
oppressively dark places too.
These environments are also
teeming with life, and thankfully
not always hostile. One area is
a welcoming home away from
home, where the residents will
offer upgrades and quests that
you can do to help fix the place
up nicely over time.
Taking further advantage of Ori’s
skills, you can also unlock special
combat and racing trials complete
with online leaderboards, which
can be accessed outside of the
main game – a bonus that brings
some extra longevity.
Sadly, we did experience some
glitches: frame freezes when
flipping to and from the map
screen, icons not appearing where
they should have, and progress
being ignored in some situations.
Moon Studios says most issues
will be optimised as a day-one
patch, but there’s no guarantee
that this will resolve all problems
on both Xbox One X and One S.
Alan WenSTUFF SAYS A breathtakingly beautiful sequel despite some technical gremlins ++++,
Ori and the
Will of the Wisps
Spirited away to a bigger and better sequel, Ori’s new adventure
will pluck at your heart-strings and test your gaming mettleI
Even more
sadly, it has
nothing to do
with Hardball
presenter
Ore Oduba.Sadly, this
game has
nothing to do
with the old
BBC cartoon
Willo the Wisp.XB1, PC / stuff.tv/Wisps