After a mediocre first episode, the PS3 exclusive adventure series Topatoi returns for it’s second episode: Topatoi: Pillars of the Skies. Can the latest episode capitalize on the promise the first episode showed, but also address some of the numerous hindrances it had?
It is important to note that to play Pillars of the Skies, You must also have the first Topatoi epiode. On the UK Playstation Store, each episode Is £4.79, or the double pack is £7.99.
Pillar of the Skies begins where the first episode ended. The evil character Blackwing has captured your girlfriend and transported her to another world, taking her to the top of the Pillar Skies. Again, you take control of the hero Raph and his ‘hovercraft’ known as GEMMA.
Those who have played the first episode will immediately be at home with the controls, where GEMMA is controlled through the analogue sticks and pressing X to jump and double-trapping X to double-jump, allowing you to reach higher places. You can increase or decrease the amount of spin that GEMMA has by using R2/L2 respectively.
The level design hasn’t been drastically improved from last time. The path you must take is often unclear due to seemingly hard puzzles. If you fall off the edge of the map, you must restart from a checkpoint and this can often be a fair while back, wasting your time trying to get to the puzzle again, only to fall off after failing to solve the puzzle and having to replay the whole process. You must collect blue orb-type objects throughout levels to keep GEMMA’s fuel supply healthy. A countdown timer on the screen shows how much fuel you have remaining, and this timer rapidly decreases, putting you under pressure to solve puzzles. This added time pressure is unnecessary, the weak controls and poor level design making it frustrating to play.
The enemy A.I is not so impressive too, as in episode 1, and the combat is still very basic and poorly implemented. Defeating an enemy is incredibly simple, increase your spin using the R2 button and knock him off the map or simply move out of the way and see your foe foolishly fly himself off the map. This pattern continues for all of the episode, leading you to feel underwhelmed at that easy and unchallenging combat and enemies.
The Pillar of the Skies episode brings 7 new chapters to Raph’s adventure, providing roughly 5 hours of gameplay. 10 new levels are also added to the arcade mode, and the co-op mode from episode 1 is also included though, and still as bare bones as it originally was.. The co-op is only split-screen however which means you must own 2 Sixaxis controllers and have a friend round your house to play. It surprises me greatly that they have failed to implement online play too, something the game would have benefited from.
Pillar of the Skies brings along 11 new Trophies for you to unlock, something that Trophies fans may enjoy.
Overall, Pillar of the Skies isn’t a real improvement over the first episode. Fans of that game will enjoy this one, but to those who either did not enjoy it, or chose to skip it, I’d advise you to do the same here. Or, at least, try the first episode before purchasing this.
[Rating:2.5/5]
