A game with a fairly unique atmosphere. Mostly, it's fairly quirky with a dash of humor but surprisingly, it can get pretty freaky or scary at times. On a whole, MediEvil is an action hack n slash with a touch of platforming and simple puzzle solving. There are a heap of weapons that the character, Sir Daniel Fortesque, end up obtaining, which lends a great variety in the gameplay (even though you'll end up using a few of those for most of the game). In each level, there is a focus on exploration. This is the fun part as you scour through the levels for any hidden areas and items, the addition of a collectible chalice which can be obtained by defeating most of the monsters in each level, extends the game time (in a good way). If you're playing blind, then you'll be replaying levels again and again as you attempt to get all these items, which, in a way, can be annoying since the game doesn't provide any hints or tips about where to find these items (especially if the one you're missing is stopping you from progressing through the game). It's a Playstation One game, so the graphics aren't spectacular but it gets by and it's good for it's time. Some of the details in the levels can be impressive but mostly, it can get depressing when you see the darkness at the edge of the screens.
Sure, those darkness may be fine due to the game's dark nature but you can't escape the fact that the boundaries of each levels are so obvious. The pre-rendered cutscenes are awesome though. Each character's dialogue is quite funny (although voice acting isn't exactly the best) as they usually pay out Fortesque. That's about all the positives... There are some flaws in the design of the game that prevents it from being a stellar game and will occasionally annoy the hell out of you. First off, the camera is awkward. You rotate the camera using buttons, NOT the analogue stick. It wouldn't be so much of a problem if the camera itself was good but sometimes, especially during platforming elements where you have to jump from platform to platform, it will be your enemy. It'll be hard to gauge the distance and angle and you'll miss and fall toy our death. Movement can also be clunky no matter whether you're using the D-pad or analogue stick. Fighting isn't as smooth as you'd want, Fortesque isn't exactly the most graceful when using his weapons. A strafe function would be awesome (but sadly, back in the days where 3D was just blossoming, this wasn't possible) as aiming can be awkward and it's hard to not get hit by the enemies.
The problems you get when you add all these control issues together will definitely ruin moments of the game where you die... and it's not your fault. What makes it worse is that once you die in a level, you're sent to your last save... meaning you'll have to redo the level the whole way, sucks even more if you died at the boss at the end of the level, it feels so tedious. Some of the level design seemed like they deliberately want you to die and get you frustrated as you try it again... and again... and again (the Ghost Ship level comes into mind). To be honest, most of the game is easy but it's just one or two levels that gets on your nerves. The music used is great and I love it, it suits the game so well and builds up the atmosphere. Puzzles are usually simple but you'll be backtracking around the level to solve some of them as you try to figure out how to proceed. The story is also surprisingly quite engrossing. While simple, the characters are so charming that you want to keep going through the game to see what else comes up. The final bosses were disappointing. They were similar to each other and they weren't that interesting. The ending that you get though was great, and made the effort to get there worth it. We get to see Fortesque finally becoming the hero that he was supposed to be. It's a solid game but one that'll get annoying at times due to the awkward controls.
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