Tehra: Dark Warrior

PlayStation 3 (StormBASIC Games 2010)

The big G-S-G-S-G

General opinion: OK to kill a couple hours
Story: Didn't really excite me
Graphics: As you'd expect
Sound: Surprisingly epic
Gameplay: OK

Total:

The Review

Tehra: Dark Warrior is a 'PlayStation Minis' title, a pretty simple hack and slash game available in the PSN store for a fairly reasonable price.

Tehra is a half human, half demon warrior created to uphold a peace treaty between humans and demons. After a long period of peace she is resurrected to deal with a new demon attack before the situation escalates into a full war. In a nutshell: you get to fight your way into the rebellious demon lord's realm and stop him. Although I usually give some points for having at least some attempt at a story, this one really didn't impress me. It really wouldn't have taken much effort to come up with even one surprising plot twist... Naturally the ending also paves way for a sequel.

The graphical appearance is pretty plain, as can probably be expected from a Minis title. (They're made to work on the PSP too, so even the resolution is pretty poor.) Luckily I've always been more interested in gameplay than appearance. The music was a minor surprise, though. Sure, it's clichéd, and the loops are pretty short, but it's suitably epic and well produced.

And as for the gameplay, well, it's pretty standard hack and slash fare. There's hardly a great deal of depth, but for the scope of the game it's not that bad, really. The controls function pretty well. You can choose which spells to buy, boost your power by turning into your demon form, etc. While much of the stages are rather repetitive, there's a few that required a couple attempts and a bit of forward planning. The challenge level on the 'easy' setting seemed pretty well suited for me, required several retries on some of the stages, but not enough to frustrate me too much.

As can be expected, the game's pretty short. I played through it in one evening (maybe around three hours of play). There's some additional 'challenges', but that sort of thing's not really my cup of tea.

All in all, Tehra: Dark Warrior is an OK bit of entertainment for a rainy day, and I do mean a rainy day, 'cause I don't really see this game having much longevity. There are obviously games in the genre with much more depth to them, but hey, you get what you pay for...

Ben B. Bainton, 12 April 2011