Soul of Guardian Review

When Metal Gear Solid 4 came out exclusively for the PlayStation 3, it was one of the first games that people said was like playing a movie. They didn’t mean it as a compliment and it’s been being used as a “clever” remark on message boards ever since. If a game lacks any overtly exciting gameplay and is interrupted frequently by long cut scenes, it could be said that game is like playing a movie.

I think it’s fair to say that the people who play Final Fantasy XIII and Metal Gear Solid 4 and get offended by the plot-heavy style and then complain about any lack of gameplay have never played Soul of Guardian. If they had, I suspect, they would be a lot quieter in their complaints when they see Soul of Guardian gameplay.

Soul of Guardian is a browser-based MMORPG, free-to-play and if you’ve ever heard the phrase “if it’s free, you can’t complain,” the developers have managed to create a game in direct contradiction to that. There’s nothing especially wrong with it, nothing that works so badly that you’ll get frustrated, angry or even disappointed that you’re not getting what you expected, but there’s nothing especially right about it either. Soul of Guardian is perhaps one of the biggest “meh-“ games you’ll ever play, a game fired in the pit of mediocrity and sold in the supermarket of soulless brand names, a combination that can only lead to the phrase “Yeah, it’s ok. I’ll probably play something else though.”

Getting Started

With male and female variations on four different types of warrior, there’s hardly a rich choice of characters to choose from. As is pretty standard for this sort of game, the women are stunning, not only for their beautiful faces but for the amount of skin they’re willing to expose on a battlefield. The men are muscular and hairy and why not? It’ll take you all of a few seconds to work out who you want to be and you’ll be left with bitter memories of something like Star Trek. While I wasn’t expecting character customization on that level, there really wasn’t enough here to make choosing a character any more than picking an option on a screen.

Graphics

Graphics are decent, better than I expected but not as high a quality as perhaps is available in other browser-based MMOs. Everything seems quite static, with monsters disappearing only for a second once defeated and popping back up in exactly the same place. They might dance on the spot, perhaps they’ll even move occasionally from side to side, but you’re not going to come across anything that’s going to be too much of a threat from a distance. Almost every character you come across will be a big-boobed babe or a muscled, masculine hero. Monsters also seem to be variations on a theme and you won’t often see anything stray too far from that theme.

Sound & Music

The music that plays constantly is nice; gentle enough not to be annoying but not exactly something you’d choose to listen to casually. There aren’t any sound effects save for birdsong in the music track, so you won’t be able to turn it off separately. With that said, it’s on quite a rapid loop, the piece of music is perhaps only a minute or so long and, even with long silences between plays, you’ll still hear the same minutes worth of music far too many times, so be prepared to turn it off and choose something else.

No plot, no effort

The game begins, and that’s about all I can say about it. I’d love to speak to you about the plot, about why you’re going to be performing menial tasks for complete strangers, but in reality I’m not sure there is a reason. Someone says you look brave, are impressed by your general manner, and flattery turns you into a slave for every NPC in the world. Story moments are incredibly badly written, spelling mistakes are constant, and any interest you might have in the world around you disappears if you dare to start reading what is actually going on. You’ll soon find yourself giving the same answers (“You’re welcome (quest complete)”) over and over again and, before long, you’ll just start clicking your way through – it’s easier that way.

And this is where my first paragraph comes into play: you don’t actually do anything in Soul of Guardian. Of course, you could if you wanted to, but the whole thing is designed around the auto-navigation and auto-battling system. You ignore what’s being said to you and your character either starts walking towards the goal himself or you click a highlighted button and send him on his way. You then check back 2-3 minutes later and learn that everything has been done for you. I usually quite like a good auto-navigation system, but Soul of Guardian takes it one step forward, it quite literally plays the game for you.

Apparently that’s not a bad thing for everybody. There’s enough people playing that you never feel alone, something that many MMOs suffer from in the early parts of the adventure. There’s a chat box to take advantage of if you need help or just fancy a talk with fellow players and coming across real, living groups of people performing a little light exploration or battling monsters is always nice. Perhaps the reason the social features are so popular is because you don’t actually have to put any concentration into the game itself, although maybe, just maybe, these people enjoy watching a small animated avatar walk from one place to a complete other place without any incident or entertainment. If that’s the case, I suppose I can’t knock them for it.

Conclusion…

If you’re tired of the average MMO, in which you do things and fight monsters, look no further than Soul of Guardian – you won’t need to actually play a game ever again. Simply check back to skip dialogue and the world is your static, auto-oyster. It’s just a shame that there’s next to no reason to actually play the game yourself and, outside of minding your character isn’t dead (although he’d probably revive automatically if he WAS killed) you needn’t really worry too much about the game at all. For the less confident amongst you, maybe that sounds like something of a gift – it isn’t.

But I find myself having to reiterate that Soul of Guardian isn’t in itself a terrible game. Everything works, things look good (or at least some definition of good) and there’s a definite effort been put into certain segments. It just seems like other segments have suffered as a result. For every mention of easy-to-learn gameplay, you have to mention the lack of actually doing anything. For passable graphics, you have to mention a certain lack of character. This is a beginner MMO, for people who don’t like playing MMOs and, unfortunately, they’ll come away convinced that this is the best the genre has to offer. If anything, Soul of Guardian is a symbol of how average some MMOs can be – the very definition of one of our biggest problems since the release of World of Warcraft.

Perhaps the best game if you are looking for...

Don’t be too put off. Soul of Guardian is perhaps the easiest game I’ve ever played and, at least in the early stages of the game, it works a little bit like a stress relief ball. I wonder if there is need for a Soul of Guardian guide. Moving through with hardly any interaction is frustrating, but it’s nice to be able to see things moving forward (as well as winning in-game achievements, something the game is full of) without too much effort. Would I sit down and choose to play? No. But for someone with less time and an absolute need to win, this could be the perfect niche title to fill your time. Just don’t expect too much.

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