Aluna: Sentinel of the Shards (X1) Review
Release Date: November 30, 2021
Publisher/Developer: Digiart Interactive, N-Fusion Interactive
Platform: Xbox One (reviewed), Series X|S, PlayStation 4/5, PC, Switch
Price: $19.99
Aluna: Sentinel of the Shards is a refreshing superhero story, based in 1500s Colombia, where the titular character was taken from her home and raised as royalty in Spain, to come back and find she is the daughter of the earth goddess Pachamama. These unique story bits blend into a beautifully unique story that honors all of its roots, teaching cultural history whilst telling an exciting story. The video game Aluna: Sentinel of the Shards respects the comic’s heritage just as much, offering a Diablo-esque experience along with an engaging story.
Aluna as a game has several strengths. Level design is beautiful, with bright colors you don’t usually see in this kind of game. Characters and animations are well done, and there is robust voice acting throughout. While it is a single player experience, support characters occasionally show up and fight alongside. Through the game, players will get a variety of weapons allowing them to choose their fighting style, guns, bows and arrows, swords, magic and the like. I also enjoyed the comic-book style cutscenes interwoven into the story, ripped out of the comic pages and animated (similar to my favorites from Twisted Metal 2).
There are a few holes in general gameplay that poke through. While I do like the variety of weapons, there seem to be an awful lot of them, which became overwhelming and led me to just rely on a couple of weapons until they became too weak. There’s an upgrade forge, but also as I said it just seemed to lead to me to “poking and trying” until it works.
I also fell into a discovery: The enemy AI has some very strict routines. Finding enemies on the field, they stand in a formation. When you get in range, they rush to attack you. Many are physical attackers, but the ranged enemies follow as well. Problem is, they all have a limited range they chase you. Plan it right, and this means if you are ever overwhelmed, just run till they hit their range, stand two feet out, and throw ranged stuff at them. Being attacked or not, they eventually give up and retreat to their starting point, oblivious to any attacks you do while they are walking back. Unless you are trapped in an arena, battle strategy can turn into a war of attrition.
When you play logically and by traditional gaming rules, though, Aluna does offer a fair playing field. Aluna has a constantly replenishing health potion that restores about 60 percent of your health after a mild cooldown. Support characters are very helpful (and invincible to boot, both a good and a bad thing as they will wail on the enemies “waiting at the edge” as well). Enemies show their sides logically, as wild animals will attack human characters (though they team up to attack you once you throw the first blow). Aluna offers a smartly-crafted difficulty curve and exciting gameplay, it’s just a shame that an exploit falls so naturally and is easily manipulated.
It was truly a pleasure to review Aluna: Sentinel of the Shards. In today’s world of cookie-cutter plots, it was great to see a different take on fantasy and superhero genres. I’d love to see an AI tweak that made the enemies not so exploitable, but overall appreciate Aluna’s unique take on the Diablo genre.
Pros:
-Beautiful and well-crafted unique world
-Wonderful presentation in cutscenes and voice acting
-Gameplay offers a variety of ways to craft your character expereience
Cons:
-Enemies fall into a couple of simple categories
-AI is exploitable
Special thanks to Digiart Interactive/N-Fusion Interactive for providing a code for review!