Who- Climax and Microsoft Game Studios
What- Poorly conceived, yet very pretty action-RPG.
When- Summer 2004
Where- Xbox, PC (Although I’ve never seen the elusive PC version in person)
Huh? - Just because Maxim magazine says it’s good, doesn’t mean it actually is.

Sudeki is a Microsoft published action RPG created by Climax. Climax has been around since 1988, and have made many other games including: Lizzie McGuire 3, Ghost Rider and the port of Viva Pinata for the PC. It seems as they’ve been snapped up by Buena Vista (Disney) in 2006. Personally, I was very excited for Sudeki, as the beautiful & exciting cutscenes drew me in.. An action game with that cast and those beautiful visuals?! “Sign me up!” I thought… Then I picked up a copy and well…

This game is centered around a crew of four characters who are instantly switchable to suit your style of combat. Tal is the warrior who’s not overly bright who has a thing for wielding huge swords in battle. Alish is the princess of Illumina, she wants to explore the world outside the palace, and she defends herself with magical spells conjured through a staff. Buki is an Anthropomorph, meaning she’s an animal person, in this case a “catwoman.” Buki fights using different sets of claw-like bladed weapons. My favorite of this motley crew is Elco, the intelligent family man who has a cybernetic arm, crystal-fueled jetpack and uses a variety of firearms. There’s a leveling system that allows you to choose abilities and upgrade them, and many weapons to purchase from a duck-man named Kameo. Weird. The good land of light, Illumina, is being invaded by the dark detizens of Akloria and the game takes you to many exotic locals along the way. As for how entertaining the game is, erm. Eh . Ugh.

This might be a one-time review in this style although it is very suiting for a game like Sudeki…

The Good: Let me get one thing perfectly clear- Sudeki is a very pretty game that takes full advantage of the Xbox’s power. The art department at Climax who toiled away making the bright cities, intricate beasts, and expressive characters should be commended. I’d like to give a special shout-out to the artists responsible for the animal people, especially the vulture man. Effects such as fireballs tossed by your heroes, blood splatter, and light shimmering from a stained glass window are all crafted to help immerse you into the game as to make you want to try to want to care to maybe finish the game. You know it’s not going to be pretty from this point if the only thing I can say that’s nice regarding Sudeki is that “It’s pretty”, right?

The Bad: Lordy, where to begin?! The story turns into crap as soon as the team assembles, turning what was an interesting quest to have your crew bond into a go from point A to B over a grossly dark area with a tiny and unreadable map and kill some monsters under a thinly veiled plot to do it over again. The last three quarters of the game are painful to finish because of this rubbish. Combat quickly becomes a chore, as baddies have WAY too many hit points, and the AI is completely dumb-tarded. Instead of picking a favorite, Elco, and kicking some insane machine or giant crab’s ass, you have to constantly switch between characters to babysit them so they do not let themselves get butchered. The enemy AI is WAY smarter than your three partners, and you will suffer by trying to hand out health potions to the weary twits who decided blocking attacks is for squares, killing some of the many (well designed) freaks who are out for your blood, and trying not to die yourself. Trying to evenly level up characters is pointless, as it’s very hard to predict what super moves the AI teammates will use an when, and all of the weapons for all characters are the same level of near-useless. No matter how many times I shoot or slash some hydra or something, it always feels like I’m trying to dig up a mountain with a toothpick. Tension is high in combat because it‘s so flawed, and losing is very annoying when you’re fighting like a pro but your team is all dead because they couldn’t fight their way out of a wet paper bag. Between fights, there’s some (very) mild puzzle solving that involves specific characters. Example? You reach a dead end. It has the texture of vines on it. Buki climbs the wall and taps a switch at the top. You regroup and continue. Yay. The controls are slow and sluggish to the point where I gave up on seriously using melee fighting Buki and Tal (As both tended to get smacked about mid-combo), and relied solely on the first-person-shooter stylings of Elc o and Alish (while strafing, shooting and running backwards). It should be noted that the darker environments such as Devil’s Belch Canyon are DARK and you risk getting lost. Sudeki is pretty bipolar about it’s blood factor as well. Some biological enemies collapse bloodlessly, while others explode in a rather disgusting gory eruption. Just strikes me odd how much blood would gush from some of these 100+ creatures rather than others, given the almost cutesy visual style of the rest of the game. Having the story peter out so quickly and having the action in the action RPG stink so badly hurts this game in the worst way possible.

The Man, This Game Sure Is Crap: When the highest rating review for a game comes from an American softcore porn magazine*, a rental might be the best option if you’re still interested. Sudeki is a lengthy story and action filled game that is a feast for the eyes. Too bad it’s a clunky, boring tale full of unneeded/useless options, stupidly designed play mechanics, dumber AI “helpers” and worse. It’s bad enough to the point where if you can prove to me you had the patience to play though Sudeki, I will declare you have the patience of a saint/rock/rock-saint hybrid. Want an Xbox action-RPG? Try Fable. It doesn’t suck eggs.

Sudeki earns my scorn with a lowly and pitiful 1.

+ The lighting, characters, and a few of the environments are pretty. Buuuuuut:
- Crappy story, awkward controls, most environments don’t look too hot, dumb as a crayon-eating gibbon AI, too much unneeded gore, not enough fun to see though to the end.

But Don’t Say I Didn’t Warn Ya…

-BLUD & GORE. Completely over-the-top for an action RPG. Example? The first boss, the Siege Ogre, explodes in a gore-cloud when you defeat him. Thing is, you beat him with a sword…HUH??? The BLUD level is way past the level of acceptable for what you’re doing in the game.
-Violence. Yep, you shoot guns, slash with bladed weapons, toss harmful magical spells, and baddies slam, slash and return the favor. Pretty standard fare for an action RPG.
-D6monic Th6m6s. There are quite a few references to un-Godly themes, including pagan gods and a rather demonic scene including creepy decapitated undead chanting animal heads… Nasty.

* Maxim’s “Five out of Five Stars” is on the cover of the box… I wouldn’t think they’d use mine for the cover, eh? What game were they playing? Odd, and it just keeps getting odder.