Son of Nor by Stillalive Studios is yet another Kickstarter-funded game in this new age of indie game development. Raising $151,000 of the $150,00 needed through its Kickstarter campaign, Son of Nor was released on March 31, 2015. This Kickstarter Age of Video Games has brought to the light some great games that just couldn’t be made available through standard means. It has also brought us some truly horrible games that either should not have been made or were so badly-managed that the game was a complete mess upon release. The vast majority of Kickstarter games fall squarely between the two, a great idea that could have used a little more funding or time to really polish it up. The Son of Nor is firmly in that vast majority, a great idea that just needed a little more polish.
Story
The Son of Nor takes places in the world of Noshrac, where a war between Humans and the lizard-like Sarahul had left humanity all but extinct. The story begins 400 years later, after the Great War, in the refuge called The Edge. The Edge represents the last bastion of safety for the Human race. You play as a Son of Nor, a Human blessed with the abilities of telekinesis and element control by the Goddess of the Night, Nor. Your refuge is quickly discovered by a scouting patrol of Sarahul and, fearing for the safety of The Edge, you are tasked with ambushing this patrol before they find you. This also sets you upon your quest to save the Human race from all threats by developing your telekinesis and element powers. You will discover new temples along the way that will extend your powers over Earth to include the other elements, like Wind and Fire.
The concept and story of Son of Nor is very interesting and is fleshed out quite well, with just a few nagging complaints on my part. There are enough side quests laying around to bring life to the world of Noshrac and flesh out the characters that you run into. The story itself is interesting and has intrigue and betrayal at the beginning of the story, to set you off on your big quest. I feel that the story needed some more time in certain sections to flesh out properly, instead of heading to a cut scene with text exposition. Another issue I had with the story was that your character is another of the “strong, silent” types. You quietly agree to everything that is said to and asked of you, with no sense of your own desires or interests in the events around you. I would have loved it if the main character had more interaction in dialogue to help flesh out the character. Overall, though, the story is interesting enough to keep you going to the end.
Game Play
The Son of Nor has a lot going for it in the game play features. Let’s start out by what devices are supported by this game. You can play the game via keyboard and mouse or game pad, I strongly recommend the game pad. Son of Nor also supports Tobii Eye Tracking, Oculus Rift, and emotive EPOC devices. Since I own none of these devices, I cannot say how well the game supports them nor how it effects the game play of Son of Nor. Just know you can use these devices with this game
Controls feel pretty good for the most part, except for some of the platforming sections and some of the telekinesis bits. Platforming, in some sections, had too much gliding for me. Your character would land on a certain section, and if you didn’t hit that section just right then you would slide right off of the pillar you were aiming for. There was a platforming section in the first temple that had my death count in the double digits, mostly due to this problem. Since these sections were few and far between, it’s not a complete deal breaker with the game but it is trying. Also I was finding that even though the environment said I could interact telekinetically with a rock, that said rock had other ideas. During combat, this was a huge issue and led to a few more deaths that I didn’t want to occur.
Now that we have the bad out of the way, let’s talk about the good. You have a good amount of control over the world that you live in. Many puzzles will have you interacting with the environment to find ways around obstacles. You also have a little more creativity allotted to you during combat. I was able to create giant holes in the sand to stop my enemies from charging me, while I looked for huge rocks to hit them with. This is a technique I strongly suggest learning quickly, due to the fact that the Sarahul are much more harder to hit while in your face then they are running towards you.
Son of Nor also supports co-op game play. You can have a friend join you on your quest to save Humanity and help you along your path. What is great about this, is that the game also supports spell fusion. You and your co-op friend can combine spells for new effects and devastating results. Even if you are not playing the co-op campaign, you will have to learn how to combine spells to find certain objects or weaknesses in the bosses. Hitting some sand with fire will produce glass, or terraforming the landscape around you to make the environment more suitable for you and not your enemies are strategies that you need to learn to complete Son of Nor.
While I found the story interesting and gripping, the game play is by far the strongest part of the Son of Nor, even with some control issues in place. Stillalive Studios did a great job in making the environment part of the game and allowing you to truly interact with your surroundings to give you the advantage during combat. This does mean that the developers did hid the collectibles and secret areas in some interesting places, so you will need to learn to use your abilities to their fullest extent if you hope to find everything there is. Minor frustrating control issues aside, the Son of Nor delivers on some really fun game play.
Aesthetics
Son of Nor looks good, both aesthetically and visually. Aesthetically, the design brings the world of Noshrac to life. The characters and architecture all look like they truly belong to this world of sand and rock. You have some choice in aesthetics for your main character, including gender, outfit, and colors worn. The graphics of Son of Nor look good, even on my aging machine. The animations of the characters and some objects, though, feel a little less fluid then I would have preferred. Sometimes, objects just seem to move on their own, and the motions of the Humans and Sarahul just feels like there is some missing animations.
Sound design and voice acting are really well done for this game. The music brings the desert world alive and gives you some nice background sound to listen to. Voice acting is done well enough, without being over the top or having everyone sound bored. I do wish that your character had a voice and a personality. I feel that having a character that speaks for themselves and has opinions and motivations would really complete the story of the Son of Nor, instead we have someone who feels like they are just going along with what everyone else is saying.
Final Thoughts
Son of Nor falls solidly in that Kickstarter category of “great idea but really needed some more money to polish the final product”. The story line, game play, and aesthetics all have great things about them, but also have those little areas that need improvement. The story is the epic story line of saving Humanity from an aggressive race, but falls short in main character development. Game play is really innovative, gives the play a vast amount of options during combat and is outright fun, but there are some control issues. Aesthetics look good and the design is solid, but it feels like the animations could have used a little more polish and the main character needed a voice. Overall, the Son of Nor is a good game to check out and play, if you have the ability to forgive a slight lack of polish. Son of Nor is available now through Steam.
[easyreview title=”Son of Nor Review Score” cat1title=”Overall Score (out of 5)” cat1detail=”” cat1rating=”3″ ]
