The Relic: First Guardian is a new action, RPG coming to both PC and PlayStation 5. Right now, I am checking out the PS5 version, and honestly I don’t know what to expect. The game will be available for £44.99 on PS5 just in case you wanna pick it up.
I think this game will test you, mentally.
Gameplay
The Relic: First Guardian starts rather quickly with any real build up. Our character is awakened by what seems like a priestess, who advise us to meet her at a camp later. Along the travels the game does put an odd amount of notes for you to read, and I mean a lot. Initially you would expect a little more into the world of The Relic, but no a fair amount just seem nonsensical. Weapons-wise we begin with a sword and shield but can find more when reaching the more open-wold area. In my time with the game I found a handful, but opted to use the battle staff. Each weapon does have a skill tree for you to unlock battle arts, but these will require Rune Energy. I only seemed to find the Rune Energy from stone arches that are glowing blue.
A lot of the time you will be exploring and doing the side-quests, which in The Relic, are called Events. You may come across them, or talk to the odd NPC, but I found the events boring and meaningless, making me just ignore reading them. Obviously there are bosses for you to fight and these are rather challenging with some being utterly unfair with how under prepared you will be most of the time. With me exploring an underground area just to be in a small room with a boss who has AoE attacks. Or another boss in a forest whose scream will shatter blocks easily leaving you stunned.
Little more info on combat
When it comes to the combat, you can expect a more Souls-like experience. But in The Relic, stamina is a lot more unforgiving. If you managed to lose your stamina then enemies will put you in a down state. If you do get downed it does take critical amounts of time before you get up. There is no levelling in this game and as mentioned above you will be under prepared a lot. If you become poisoned then don’t expect to always have a vial on hand, and you quickly meet some other bosses who have new statues effect too early. Like Crotus, who afflicted my character with bleed. And these effects aren’t slow they rinse the players’ health quickly, with fire not being able to be put out at all.
Graphics & Audio
I’m not too picky when it comes to graphics and audio, but The Relic: First Guardian loses whatever gleam it has to its terrible frame rates. It was constant frame issues for the entirety of my play through, there wasn’t a single moment where the game wasn’t stuttering. It particularly worsened during boss fights, exasperating the problems with input and gameplay. I’ve never experienced frames issues so severe that it ruined the combat entirely. Besides the lighting and particle effects, I have no idea just what could make the game chug so bad.
The voice acting was glaringly abysmal too. Some voice lines sounded fine, but most of them sounded god awful. It was like they were reading from a script with no concept of punctuation; they just read the lines with no particular structure, like the trope of a terrible stage actor in a movie. There were also odd audio issues, like cries, laughter or screams repeating in quick succession, making it sound like it was broken or stuck on a loop.
Longevity
I stopped my play through about 8 hours in. Within this time I beat 8 bosses, and found a little bit of gear. Most of the time I was battling poor frames, or dying to silly things. The Relic: First Guardian does have a lot to dive into if you do manage to push through, with a whole menu showing you the exact amounts.
Final Thoughts
After trying to give The Relic a fair shot I just could not continue. The bosses are unbalanced, and combat is just too janky to really enjoy it. Statues effect are very punishing with some of the first few bosses you will encounter. I’m not sure why the game decided to riddle the world with notes, and make them right next to each other at that. With me even counting 11 notes exactly one after another, that just led to a boss fight. An empty, lifeless world with side-quest that end up feeling like just filler. But honestly from the 8 hours I spent with The Relic, the whole time has felt like useless padding.
A very large amount of my frustration comes from just how bad the hit boxes are. Tie that with the severe dropping in frame rate over nothing going on in the world. And even worse when you actually fight one enemy let alone a group or boss.
Everything is just a chore, and I just couldn’t push through. I really don’t have any praise for The Relic: First Guardian. It’s definitely the Thumb Culture Bronze Award.
Disclaimer: A code was received in order to write this review.
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