Shattered - Tale of the Forgotten King - Review @ RPGFan

RPGFan has reviewed the the action RPG Shattered – Tale of the Forgotten King:

Shattered – Tale of the Forgotten King

The release of Demon’s Souls in 2009 has become a very clear dividing line in video game history. Its success spawned a new genre that has sparked the imaginations of many a developer, including the folks behind Shattered – Tale of the Forgotten King. Successfully Kickstarted in December 2016, this game came out of Early Access on Steam in February 2021 — a testament to developer Redlock Studio‘s dedication to finishing the journey. I’ve got very limited experience with the genre, but something about this game made me feel like it might be a good time to change that.

In Shattered – Tale of the Forgotten King, you play as a nameless “Wanderer,” traveling a world that has been torn apart during an effort to overthrow a God-king…or something. There’s very little story to be had during most of the game, and what you get is intentionally mysterious. Unfortunately, the story comes so infrequently and in such small bites that the mystery never gets much resolution unless you keep notes for yourself outside of the game or have a much better memory for unconnected names and details than I do.

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The one upside of exploring this world over and over is that it is gorgeous. There is a large overworld connecting a handful of equally large “dungeons,” all of which are very different from each other, and most of which include at least one spot where you can just stop and look down over an amazing landscape. Enemies are frequent in the dungeons, but the overworld is mostly devoid of opponents, save points, or information about what you should be doing. You simply slog through the directionless landscape, hoping to find a path to something that looks like somewhere you should be going.

The overworld is also a very quiet place, only punctuated by the sounds of your occasional combat, but the dungeons all have good music that fits the locations well. Although there may not be a lot of different pieces on the soundtrack, I’d still happily listen to it despite my frustrations with the gameplay.

I really wanted to like Shattered – Tale of the Forgotten King, and there are definitely aspects of this game that are praiseworthy, but it wore me down through the constant repetition of fighting the same enemies with the same tactics and the frequent feeling of not knowing where exactly I was or where I was supposed to go. I’m sure there’s more to discover than I did by the time I found my way to a bad ending and the closing credits, but I don’t think I’ll be able to bring myself to dive back in and uncover it.

Score: 65/100