I waited a bit to write this review, mainly because I wanted to give 'Folkore', a new role playing game for the PS3, a chance to go
bad. It hasn't happened yet. In fact, I'm in love with this game. Yes, I'm weird.
Numerous reviews have
panned 'Folkore' for being repetitive, confusing, and for making players read text as opposed to listen to voice overs. Reviewers complained about weird characters who say bizarre things and they howled about uneven play -- so much to the point that I was ready to hate this game.
Give me a moment to vent.
Since when is a deep story a bad thing? Did we forget the hours we spent reading lines of text in
'Zelda' and '
Final Fantasy'? And when did "weird" become such a bad word? Did we forget the goofy characters from
'Dragon Quest'? Have cinematic, realistic war games turned us into a bunch of mindless action seekers? Can game makers no longer tell a story without voice overs and fast-panning 3-D scenes? Have we become that shallow as gamers?
I feel better. Nothing wrong with mindless action, by the way. I love a good run and gun as much as the next guy.
Maybe I'm weird (my friends would confirm this), but I found in 'Folklore' a beautiful soundtrack, an intelligent story, characters I actually care about, a witty sense of humor, and a creative surrealism. Playing 'Folklore', for me, was akin to reading a good novel. When I put my controller down, I found myself thinking about its worlds, characters, and developing story.
Imagine a mix of old-school seek-and-find adventure with third-person action and you have an idea of what 'Folklore' is all about. The pacing goes from dialog and mystery in the town of Doolin to control controller whipping action in fantasy-laden dungeons. While this may come off as uneven to some, I found it a nice change of pace. Playing this 'Folklore' felt as if I was playing two games in one.
'Folklore' has you play through a deep paranormal mystery, broken up into chapters, as two characters. One, a young woman seeking personal answers in her life, plays like a rogue. The other, a jaded journalist, is your classic fight brawler. You can choose to play each character's story from beginning to end, but I chose to do a chapter as one character followed by the other in order to keep recent events fresh in my mind. This may come off as repetitive to some, but to me, it was a fascinating exercise in alternative perspectives as the characters' stories developed and intertwined.
Control is unique here, as well. As you finish off enemies, you capture their "Ids" by yanking the SIXAXIS motion controller -- like hooking a fish. It's a satisfying end to fights, and a welcome use of the PS3's motion controls after some failed attempts in '
Lair'. As you capture Ids, you also gain their fighting techniques for use later on. By the end of the game, you are managing dozens of Ids that do unique things to different enemies. This nets out in a fun spin on the traditional role playing game party system.
In the end, I loved 'Folklore'. But then again, I was a bit of a strange child. I didn't like '
Rambo' -- I would have rather watched
'The Goonies'. If you're all about shoot 'em ups and constant action, you may want to move on. If you're turned off by surrealism and fantasy, move on. Then again, if you're looking for something different, spooky, and novelesque, 'Folklore' is for you. Join me at the geek table while the other kids play '
Halo'.
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Online worlds are already plenty dangerous enough for impressionable kids. Now, according to USA Today, online gaming is being pegged as the next possible source of harm for young kids, with sexual predators using voice and text chat in online gaming services like Microsoft's Xbox Live and Sony's PlayStation Network as venues to meet kids. 
Saying this makes us feel a bit old but: What the hell is wrong with kids these days? It used to be that youthful acts of rebellion involved a piercing or running off for a day -- not hiring a hit man to murder your parents. 
