Ling: A Road Alone (PS4) Review
Release Date: October 2, 2019 (PS4), Steam on September 17
Publisher/Developer: Winking Entertainment/Chautaqua Software
Platform: PS4 (reviewed)
Price: $7.99 ($7.19 until October 17) on PS4, $9.99 on Steam
Ling: A Road Alone is a top-down single player hack-and slash game that tells of a man on a journey to find out about himself as he defeats the denizens of the world. It starts with a great premise and beautiful atmosphere, but in execution falls somewhere hard to determine between a Dark Souls-like challenge and general poor design choices. “Git Gud” gamers are going to have a heyday with Ling and likely have plenty of livestreams to show perfect runs, but your average gamer will likely hit a very specific wall that will make it hard to progress.
At the start of the game, you learn that Ling has two basic attacks: a huge sword that is slow and cumbersome but will only do significant damage after a successful parry with a punch attack. There’s also a dash to get out of the way of attacks you don’t see yourself parrying successfully. This should feel like a dance of sorts, with gamers being able to predict attacks coming their way. Unfortunately, I feel that enemy attacks are fast whilst your fist counter feels like it varies in reaction time, like there are a couple slightly different attack animations, and I often would not be precisely aimed in on my enemy resulting in a missed swing and the enemy’s connecting. This usually results in a loss in life for me and a boost to the enemy’s life bar as well. Controls feel loose and failure is harshly punished.
Getting that huge, meaty sword to connect is very satisfying, especially after stunning an enemy. In the first few levels, this works. Enemies telegraph attacks, and they are spaced enough for you to practice. I got to a point, however, that would be considered a boss, and was pressed to drop the difficulty down. The thug (that went on to be a general enemy) was too fast with his fist and would heal with every attack he landed on me. As the game went on I began to learn the nuances and was able to successfully parry (in easy mode) quite regularly, up until the third or fourth level.
At this point, Ling begins throwing enemies at you more like a bullet-hell shooter. Problem is, you have no ranged attacks and rely on a quick face punch to begin doing significant damage. You come across enemies with ranged attacks that are adept at shooting bullets that stun you and can dodge backwards quickly, whilst they will hound you consistently when trying to run away. Meanwhile, the battles start taking place in minefields rife with huge explosions that block your view. The first couple bosses can be telegraphed with patience and finding patterns, but the third (found at 0:51 in the trailer below) shoots mounds of projectiles at you and transforms halfway through in a way I can’t figure out a new pattern for. Dying there results in you being pulled back several battlefields and grinding through gets tedious to end up dying in the same place.
Presentation is a mixed bag. The graphics themselves are utterly gorgeous: as Ling moves forward through the dreary landscape the camera occasionally pans out to a majestic vista. However, Ling will move behind objects and be portrayed in a negative “shadow” that might get confusing in big battles, and it suffers slowdown in later levels when several enemies are on screen at once whilst several mines are exploding simultaneously. Menus are difficult too: pausing results in (usually) white menu options on a white sky background with the selected item slightly brighter white. Every time I hit the menu I would have to double-check what I was selecting. The level select menu is devoid of any text, only having a few pictures to choose between. The phrasing in the game feels broken, and I felt I had to decipher the broken English when I came across it.
Ling: A Road Alone is a game that will require your full focus and skill to succeed. The parry attack that the whole combat mechanic is based around feels loose, which is sad thanks to the extreme unforgiveness that the game rains down on you for failure. Gamers loving difficulty will enjoy their time with it, and the low price of entry will make it easy to pick up for a quick challenge. Your average casual player (and a good deal of people simply wanting to see regular progression) are bound to hit a really hard wall that requires a complete retooling of how you play the game. Ling: A Road Alone is a beautiful looking game with interesting enemies based on traditional lore. Defeating enemies with successful parries is deeply satisfying, but getting the parry to reliably work is a lesson in tedium.
Pros:
-It does feel very good when it works: Parries are fun and appear to be very damaging
-Some very unique and interesting boss battles
-Graphics and beautiful vistas abound
Cons:
-The key parrying system is highly difficult to reliably engage
-Three levels in the game begins throwing ranged enemies at you with no reliable way to attack them
-Some of the base presentation (menus, etc) need some more polish (or at least contrasting backgrounds)
Special thanks to Winking Entertainment/Chautaqua Software for providing a code for review. Follow Winking Entertainment here on Facebook, who say they’ll gladly offer any support or answer any questions you may have.