Eternity: The Last Unicorn

Review

When the elves first discovered the world of Alfheim, many, many moons ago, a glorious and heavenly power was bestowed upon them. The creator and guardian of nature, The Holy Goddess Marea, gave them four sacred unicorns. These legendary ancient beings brought balance and purity to the elves, turning them into immortals. With each new generation of elves this incredible power was passed on, each new life was born immortal.

Then one night the unicorns simply disappeared, witchcraft was thought to be the cause. For the first time since the elves had arrived in Alfhein, they feared for their immortality. The powers which gave them this great gift was no longer there, the unicorns were gone. Perhaps by a twist of fate, one unicorn was found by the fairies; he had been cursed and had a broken horn. Fearful of the curse, the elves handed him over to a young elf who, according to ancient scrolls, was the only one who could restore the power of the last unicorn. This is where your adventure begins as you search to restore the unicorn’s power and the elves’ immortality.

You play as Aurehen, the elf who’s been given the task of taking care of the last unicorn, Grani. The game starts with you in Makala’s Temple, and as you make your way through the corridors you find Grani beside an image of the goddess Malaka. The temple was built by King Oslav V in the age of the gods, as a promise to the goddess if she would help him avenge the loss of his army against the giants of Jotunheim. While here, the goddess speaks to you about why you are here, and of your purity and true love for the unicorn within your care. She gives you the “path of light” and tells you to use it to push away the black shadows which curse the lands, so that the Elder Oracle will awaken and help restore balance to the realm. You leave the temple and set off, heading along the path which takes you to the fallen woods of Vanaheim.

As you travel, you’ll come across some corpses with a purple glow about them. Using the light flask that you received from the goddess, you purge the darkness from this lost soul. You’ll come across various creatures and monsters as you travel, which you’ll have to defeat. Some of them can be a bit tricky to fight, especially with the camera angle in the game.

I found it best to keep your character closest to you, rather than your character being behind a monster. In some places there isn’t much space to manoeuvre and I found myself getting stuck on something which I couldn’t see to get out of, so died. Some places you’ll have multiple monsters attacking you, so it’s not always easy to move about keeping in front of your enemies. It can be quite frustrating at times, as you defeat one set only to have another one or two sets of monsters start attacking you immediately.

To help you there are four quick slots for items which you can activate quickly, rather than going in and out of your inventory in the middle of battle. The four slots can hold weapons (two slots), health and runes; it’ll be down to you which ones you set up. Do you put in something to give you some health or do you use something which cures poison? Which rune will you use for the bonus while in fighting?

When you defeat a monster, they may drop some items; these can be collected and can be used for crafting (once you find where to craft). Although you’re able to craft, sometimes crafting will fail so it’s hit or miss on whether you get what you want on some items.

Each time you cross paths with new monsters or characters there is some information about them. This can be found by hitting the escape, here you’ll find Character Info and Journal. Character Info will give you some basic information on your character, such as Hit Points, Experience etc. In the journal, there’s Characters, Monsters, Map and Tutorial. Any time you come across a new monster or character it will display “new” at the side to let you know there’s some new information for you to check. The information on the monsters lets you know what items they can possibly drop when defeated while also giving some information on their backgrounds. Any new character you come across will have details on their history. The map shows your current position and the places you’ve been to or can visit, which are highlighted, while those you haven’t visited aren’t.

Scattered around places, you’ll find red and green crystal shards. Collecting the red shards will allow you to buy items and upgrade your weapons later, collecting the green shards will recover a small amount of health.

In the settings you’ll find Audio, Master, Music, Effects and Interface volume sliders. In the video settings there’s Screen Resolution, Full Screen and V-Sync check boxes, Graphic Quality, Anti-aliasing, Effects Quality, Shadow Quality and Texture Quality low to ultra-settings along with View Distance. Also, there’s a choice of five different Languages, English, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Dutch and French.

I found the controls a little bit cumbersome, and with not being able to remap, the keys didn’t help me much (I prefer to use arrow keys), but maybe this can be something which the developers will implement in the future. However, I did like the story, the information on the characters etc and some of the artwork, which accompanied it was very good. The graphics were nothing special for nowadays, but weren’t too bad, although I’d suggest running the game on high or ultra settings for the best experience.

Review written by Piston Smashed™ for Zeepond.com!