In the run up to Christmas the Playstation 3 catalogue is now starting to grow and thankfully a lot of the games being released are of high quality, take Folklore for instance, this is a game which has had a quieter release than most, while other games such as Warhawk and Resistance have been taking the Playstation 3 limelight, this game has sneaked out without too much fuss being made over it, however don’t be fooled by this because Folklore is probably one of the best and most original games to be released on the console so far.  

The story behind Folklore sees two strangers being drawn to the mysterious town of Doolin, where it is said that the living can speak to the dead. The strangers soon learn that the town serves as a gateway to other realms which is full of creatures such as fairies, spirits, and monsters. In order to solve the mystery of the town, the pair must journey through these worlds and discover their secrets.

The game centres around two main characters, the first one is Ellen who is a young lady that lost her mother in mysterious circumstances when she was young, at the beginning of the game she receives a letter signed by her mother and this motivates her to go to the village of Doolin in a quest to find her. Keats, the games other character is an editor for an occult magazine called Unknown Realms, his path to the village is slightly different as he receives a panicked call from a woman speaking of strange goings on in Doolin village who pleads for help before being cut off, this phone call gives Keats a gut instinct that he also must go to the village.

One of the interesting points about the game is that you must complete each characters story in order to complete the game, at the beginning of each level you are given the choice of which character you would like to use, so when playing it is probably best to alternate between each of them, well unless you have a better way of doing it.

Doolin is the centerpiece of the whole story and acts as a gateway to the realms of the Netherworld, it is from here that you will visit these realms, although you can only spend a limited time in them before you return to Doolin to piece together your days investigation. Doolin is a very small place and so it won’t take you very long to explore it also has very interesting inhabitants which you will get to know throughout the game.

The main point of interest at the beginning of the game is the village pub, it is from here that you will get the information you need to open the gate to the realms of the Netherworld. Once you manage to enter the realms things really start to get interesting, you work your way through the Netherworld fighting all kinds of wild creatures and bosses (know as Folk) and collecting their ID’s (souls), this in turn enables you to gain Folk powers.

Collecting the folks ID’s is probably the best use of the Sixaxis controller yet, there are many different ways of doing this but perhaps the best example is that of the Bargest which is one of the first folk you will meet, to collect their ID’s you have to defeat them in battle which will then cause their ID’s to glow above their body, it is at this point that you push the R1 button and jerk the controller back towards you, this results in the character collecting the Folk ID. Some of the Folk you collect also have the ability to become more powerful, this is done by meeting certain requirements, such as killing a certain amount of creatures or by gathering certain items. The Folk powers can also be combined when attacking which makes for some interesting results.

The controls in general are very straight forward, the left analogue stick is used to control your movement and the face buttons for your Folk powers, interestingly you can use the face buttons to map any of your acquired powers, to do this you just press L2 to access a menu with the entire list of your powers, once you find the ability that you want then you just press your chosen button to assign it, you can then use these Folk powers to defeat the various Folks that you come across when traveling through the Netherworlds Realms although certain Folk powers work better on some Folks than they do on others.

Perhaps the games biggest downfall is its repetitiveness, you will have to complete each realm with both characters, although since both characters feel different to use and have their different reasons for being there it is tolerable.

Graphically Folklore is a very beautiful cinematic game, the atmosphere that the developers have created is spot on with good variation in the environments you will visit. The CGI cutscenes are also very well designed and add to the general feel of the game. The whole atmosphere in Folklore is very eerie and is helped by the spooky music the plays throughout, so overall the presentation cannot be faulted.

Sony have a habit of publishing games for their consoles which offer something different and in Folklore they have done it again, this game offers the best use of the Sixaxis yet along with a strong story and a whole lot of gameplay, if you haven’t considered buying this game yet then I urge you to at least rent it and see for yourself why I rate this so highly.