Kameo Elements of Power

Lastly, the good wizard Ortho in the Wotnot book is an excellent resource for completing tasks. As you play, the game will give you some time to figure out how to beat a puzzle or pass an area or beat a boss character (really cool) but if you take to long, or simply cannot do what needs to be done, you can access the Wotnot and Ortho will give you a good clue on what to do. If you still can’t figure it out, he’ll just outright tell you what you need to do to beat the problem.

OK, one more thing. The boss battles in this game are really impressive to see and play. The bad guys can be massive and there is some thought that is required to beat them. More often then not, you need to figure out which three elementals you need to have at the ready to beat them. Massive living trees, huge aquatic creatures and even the HUGE Thorn are all quite the challenge. They look cool and they fight clever. Good boss battles can really make a game and these surely help what is already a strong title. But to reiterate, Kameo has everything we want in our adventure games. With it’s grand overall mission of saving the kingdom broken down by continually rescuing the elementals that in turn allow us to move the game forward. It makes for the kind of play that begs us to keep playing rather then turning off and going to bed. Plus those occasional action sequences that the player must complete in order to help turn the tide of war only add to the game’s depth and versatility. I smell a franchise title here and I suspect that Kameo 2 is already in the early stages of development.

So let’s break it down by the numbers… cause we’re all about the numbers.

REPORT CARD : Kameo – Elements of Power

category	rating	comments
Originality	4	We’ve seen the whole elemental thing done before, but rarely this well and ten, count em, TEN! Characters to find and master.
Longevity	4	Yeah, I’d say you could beat this bad boy in 8-10 hours, but you can miss a lot of things. Taking some time to look around and find those hidden items and you could probably get 12 hours out of the game.
Innovation	5	It’s kick butt, the physics of the game, the character design, the whole look. It’s the cat’s meow.
Graphics	5	I spoke about the lack of slowdown even when an army is battling in front of you. The clean lines of the objects, the shading and various effects all look fabulous.
Sound	4.5	Whoo Hooo! Plug it in and watch it burn baby. Strong surround sounds, quality voice work and some actual bonafide hero music, Kameo sounds like a game should.
Fun Factor	5	I play this with my son because it’s the kind of adventure that I believe is OK for the younger kids. I liken it to a Disney adventure movie and Harry Potter adventure.