The opening level, exploring the Enchanted Kingdom, going to the Badlands and being greeted with an ongoing war, visiting the first two towns and solving sidequests using your wits and powers, their corresponding action stages... I think the first two thirds of the game are great stuff and showcase Rare's strengths as game developers. They were aiming to deliver an 3D action-adventure platformer effectively blending something more akin to 3D Zelda with a Rare flair, and you can definitely see that with the transformation gimmicks, and some of the puzzles being effectively an optional collect-a-thon, but they also wanted to throw in some combat mechanics that make the player find synergies between transformations and adapt to each scenario or horde, and it's honestly pretty good and can lead to some cathartic moments when you're going full on DMC in this mf.
However upon entering the third town (which is a pain in the ass to navigate) and discovering that its Elementals are two of the most circumstantial of the game, plus the game kinda just running out of ideas for interesting layouts, make the last third a bit of a letdown. Not helping the situation is the fact that Thermite, the last Elemental, is so OP that in the final stretch I rarely used any other Elementals unless necessary. Feeling so powerful makes for a cathartic climax, yes, but I prefered when the game wanted me to be creative or kept me switching between transformations, which was the bread and butter of what made the first two thirds so fun.
The game almost manages to end in a good note with some spectacular setpieces in the last level, but it gave us the most uninspired boss fight of the entire game as the final encounter. Man, that was a letdown.
The first two thirds I would rate as a perfectly good 7, but the last third just loses focus on what are the game's strengths and so it ends up being a very close call between a 6 or a 7. There's a lot of potential here for a sequel, and Rare seemed to think alike, but alas Kameo 2 didn't take off as a reality. In the meantime, despite some mixed feelings and a lot of room for improvement, I did appreciate Kameo a lot, and thinking that it was supposed to be originally a GameCube title makes some of the things it pulls off even more impressive.
However upon entering the third town (which is a pain in the ass to navigate) and discovering that its Elementals are two of the most circumstantial of the game, plus the game kinda just running out of ideas for interesting layouts, make the last third a bit of a letdown. Not helping the situation is the fact that Thermite, the last Elemental, is so OP that in the final stretch I rarely used any other Elementals unless necessary. Feeling so powerful makes for a cathartic climax, yes, but I prefered when the game wanted me to be creative or kept me switching between transformations, which was the bread and butter of what made the first two thirds so fun.
The game almost manages to end in a good note with some spectacular setpieces in the last level, but it gave us the most uninspired boss fight of the entire game as the final encounter. Man, that was a letdown.
The first two thirds I would rate as a perfectly good 7, but the last third just loses focus on what are the game's strengths and so it ends up being a very close call between a 6 or a 7. There's a lot of potential here for a sequel, and Rare seemed to think alike, but alas Kameo 2 didn't take off as a reality. In the meantime, despite some mixed feelings and a lot of room for improvement, I did appreciate Kameo a lot, and thinking that it was supposed to be originally a GameCube title makes some of the things it pulls off even more impressive.
Snigglegros
1 year ago